Hello everyone,
I know it has been a while… hopefully I will be more consistent this time. Anyway, here is chapter five:
I remember enjoying writing this chapter – inventing the character Aviv. I also remember having written far more than what finally made it into the book. Or at least ‘dreamt’ about a lot more scenes. Events, which because they veered too much from the story, were left out. Even now, as I write this, I can remember a few. They are all still alive inside my mind.
As often, with my characters, parts of their chemistry come from events or fragments of my life. Naturally, these events are not decorated reports or my own personal interpretation of them but are more like seeds that once planted grow to produce a flower of its own design. This is how all my characters develop. After that, like everyone, they have their own characters, and this kind of influences the story.
For example, if George was not such a coward his fight scenes would be different, and his approach to the game too. In fact, it would be a completely different story.
Adiv is a seed planted in my childhood.
This idea of character development, as mentioned above, can be seen in the scene where George has a conversation with the voices in his head. This was a lot of fun. I enjoy writing voices. I always find this, ‘she said – he said’ additions slightly frustrating. People talk in turn, and when there are only two people – it should be obvious who comes next. This time, however, I have a crowd.
The scene was not particularly difficult to write either. That doesn’t mean it was written in one go, it just means – it took a while, but it was not as difficult as other scenes. I remember finding it easy to imagine the dilemma George might have, being naturally not brave, (like myself in this one case – as a child, all my brothers seemed fearless. My closest brother, Anthony, didn’t seem to be frightened of anything! He had a pet ferret, and I had a hamster. LOL.)
One day we were fishing in a pond for frogs and newts – when two boys came along and threw my bate box lid in the water, I didn’t know what to do. Anthony did. He went over and gave them both a good hiding. I don’t think for a moment he considered the fact that he might lose. I never understood this concept. Climbing the stairs to the second board at the swimming baths is another example, I can still remember looking down, my heart racing, imagining my imminent death. Telling it now sounds quite comical, but at the time I would have preferred to have turned around and gone back down the stairs. I didn’t. And yes, the sensation of coming up, gasping for air was amazing.
Today, I love watching other people jump off the higher boards. There is always a bright side.
It was the same with doing a back, front, side, in fact, any kind of flip into the water. Naturally, I never refused any of these challenges, LOL, But I never did any of them with real enthusiasm.
It is in this soil that George’s fear is planted.
George, however, isn’t dumb, and it is this that causes him the conflict. His overriding fears are challenged by his own intellect. This creates what I like to think of as a humorous conversation inside his mind, which all ends up with a David and Goliath scene. Such religious parallels are not added to be derogative or make fun of them, they just kind of appear. I never intentionally set out to write a scene with a biblical reference. The game is called Creation and the main protagonist is GoD, subconsciously this may well have influenced me. I also think I had a very strict catholic upbringing, adding to which I enjoy learning different religious concepts concerning God and eternity.
As always, the name Adiv is deliberate. This idea of not just making up names first began with my children’s story, Three Shoes in a Pair. I did not want to simply throw in names. Adiv is a boy’s name of Hebrew origin, meaning courteous, gentle, and polite, at least according to most of the baby-name webpages I found with Google. The fact that Adiv is a huge person, naturally there is a connection between him and Ferdinand the Bull, which then allows the short story of his vodka-drinking, brawling father to be told. In Creation, however, this gentle giant turns into a kind of philistine warrior, killing all who get in his way. A complete change of character to the real-world Adiv. I am sure this kind of thing happens. After all, as Adiv says, no one is actually being killed.
The fact that he is a good guy, wanting to make money to get out of the place where he lives and move into the city with his sister – might be a bit of a cliché, but I accept this as I hope there are still people like this in the world. People who want a better life not just for themselves but for their families.
His plan seems to be working too, it is only when he meets Jessie, who he has privately fallen in fascination/love with that things go wrong.
I don’t remember where I got the idea of filling Adiv’s mouth with gold teeth, I think it’s a mix of varying influences ranging from the film Schindler’s List to old USSR culture. Personally, I find the idea of anyone smiling at me with a mouthful of such teeth pretty scary.
And so to conclude: the fight scene with the three unnamed avatars. I remember being able to see each of them very clearly. Trying to show where they came from and how they interacted with each other. There is no break between their attack and the appearance of Adiv. This is because I wanted to keep the story moving. I remember reading The Philosopher’s Stone, (J. K. Rowling) and thinking, wow, every chapter is an adventure. Her book is a chain of pearls. And I wanted to do the same. I still do. I try to keep every chapter, a ‘stand-alone’ adventure.
Sometimes, it works.
