Ok guys, we have hit 300 likes and as promised I wanted to
let you know a bit of the background behind my story Judas and how I came to
put fingers to keyboard and get this bad boy on the road (metaphorically
speaking haha!)
Ok, so the embryonic idea for Judas started many, many years
ago. I was watching a movie about a very
famous Vampire and within the context of the movie it was suggested that the Vampire
in question was Judas Iscariot who had been punished for the betrayal of Christ
and had been formed into the twisted creature of the plot. Whilst the movie was mediocre in enjoyment, I
actually found that notion of Judas walking the earth for two thousand years
(give or take) absolutely fascinating.
Having mused over the idea for a while (thinking it was
actually the coolest thing the movie had thrown up) I eventually shelved it and
put it to the back of my mind so to speak.
At this point I should tell you that prior to writing my first paragraph
of the story I had, very kindly, been given a book to fire up a little
inspiration in my belly by close friend Carl Whiteley (Carls role in the story’s
birth will be more apparent later in this mini epic of a blog……ok it’s not epic
but you get the idea haha!) which was the book ‘On Writing’ by the legend himself,
Mr Stephen King. Something inside the
early pages of that book really sprang out at me and made me realise that a lot
of writers begin their work because of (how Mr King had put it) an ‘infusion’
of ideas. What he basically meant was a
lot of writers have an idea, an embryo in their mind and it takes a second
idea, a catalyst so to speak to explode these two ideas together and give them
life and a reason to begin writing. Well
as mentioned, my first inspiration came from the movie and the notion that
Judas was punished and walked the earth etc etc etc. My second idea embryo came from a piece of
music.
Around eight months ago I became hooked on a band called
Within Temptation, more so hooked on them by one particular song, the song in
question…’What Have You Done’ also featuring the vocal talents of Mr Keith
Caputo. The context of the songs ACTUAL
lyrics is not the basis for my infusion of ideas. The song is actually about one or both of the
singers (protagonists) engaging in an affair and the subsequent fallout (hence the
‘What have you done’ part). For me, like
many people who listen to a song where the songs meaning to them personally can
be completely alien to what it is actually about, a secondary understanding was
garnered from those lyrics and immediately I began thinking of my Judas idea
and of him walking the earth, not as a Vampire, oh no, but as a tortured man,
punished for all eternity for what he had done to Jesus Christ. The song itself is so epic, so huge, so movie
metal-like, that I began forming a movie-type reel in my mind to this
soundtrack, a sort of movie music video if you will. The engaging and dramatic production moments
in the song started to really push my ideas together and bring a semblance of
life to my character. I had something, I
knew it, but I didn’t know what the hell to do with it.
About a year prior to that revelation of Judas’s character
being born from the infusion of the early idea and the song, I had been very
fortunate to begin work with a writer (now a very close friend) Carl Whiteley
who was the writing talent behind a Sitcom I had shot with him named Order
69. Well Carl had been getting into a
whole lot more than Sitcoms and was beginning to branch out into writing movie
scripts, so I thought ‘who better than to pitch my MOVIE idea to than Carl’. Well needless to say he looked at me as
though I was a bit mental. I had
explained the full idea behind the story (which by this time was in full swing)
and also a detailed description of plot events.
He basically brought my feet down to earth by quite rightly advising
that to pull off an idea like the one I had would require millions of whole,
yes WHOLE, English pounds and a gallon of special effects plus writing a script
for an idea as grandiose as this one would be a challenge right from the
off. BUGGER!! I thought. So I went away and licked my wounds.
A couple of months after my discussion with Carl I was
having a drink and catch up chat with my friend Ben Wild. Ben should have been my brother-in-law but we
won’t go into all that now, save to say Exit State’s debut album Death of a
Rockstar offers up a couple of songs indicating why this never happened in
quite graphic detail haha! Well I told
Ben all about the concept of the idea and Carl’s very fair, reason based
knocking back of my idea to script it out and Ben asked me if I had the skill
to write, and he meant REALLY write. “I hadn’t
thought about it” I replied but he said something that made total sense, “Well,
write the book then get someone to make a movie about it if it is actually as
good as you are telling me!” (We dream BIG in Burnley by the way hahaha!) “Right then,” I replied, “I bloody will!”….and
so the first steps were taken.
The following week I spoke to Carl who whole heartedly
agreed with Ben that getting it into book format was the best plan of action and
the beginnings of Judas, my book, got underway.
Ok guys, I’m gonna leave it there for now, and if I receive
more likes on the page, let’s say 1000, I will reveal more about the characters
and my driving edge to their relationships between each other.
Thanks for taking the time to read this little blog and I
hope it has provided a small insight into why I have undertaken the task of
writing my first and hopefully not my last novel.
Laters dudes.
Roy
