(This is my subconscious's idea of what a Neil Gaiman Doctor Who story would look like. In my imagination, it took the onset of a war to get him to say he'd written one. I rather doubt such a story would happen, but it's the start of a good story hook anyway.)
An author is signing his new book, when a little man who looks a bit like Albert Einstein but not really says, in a voice that isn't like Einstein's at all, "could you write 'half-witted'? You invented it, after all. Very clever." The author looks at him, confused.
"Oh, is it something you'd heard before?"
"Uh, yes... quite common where I come from."
"Oh, well, it was news to me."
So the author goes back to his flat, pulls out his big dictionary, looks up 'half-witted' and there it is. Not there.
Someone is removing words.
(Dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum...)
An author is signing his new book, when a little man who looks a bit like Albert Einstein but not really says, in a voice that isn't like Einstein's at all, "could you write 'half-witted'? You invented it, after all. Very clever." The author looks at him, confused.
"Oh, is it something you'd heard before?"
"Uh, yes... quite common where I come from."
"Oh, well, it was news to me."
So the author goes back to his flat, pulls out his big dictionary, looks up 'half-witted' and there it is. Not there.
Someone is removing words.
(Dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum...)