Follow this link The Three Big Chook Books to check out the books themselves.
Hatching ‘The Adventures of Big Chook’
Although Big
Chook is not about a chicken, the idea for him was hatched while making
scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning. I had wanted to write a short, fast
paced story for some time, but what was it going to be about?
That morning,
while breaking eggs my daughter asked me some questions about my school days,
and while I answered what I could, I remembered some of my old friends. I had
well and truly lost contact with them, but still considered them as lifelong friends.
It all began
with the thought of how we’d give each other nicknames and yet no matter how
bad they sounded, if they came from our friends, we never minded. (Well, my
group of friends didn’t seem to mind anyways.) Thus I began to formulate some cool
sounding nicknames and what the characters would look like, and what sort of
characteristics they’d have.
At this point in
time I’d given very little thought to the plot or flow of the story, as I was
placing a huge amount of importance on the reader falling in love with the
characters. I felt if the characters were strong enough, the story would come
together around them because of their personalities.
Once I had my
main protagonist (Big Chook) and his friends (Wally, Harry, Pete and Kirstin) developed,
the story did begin to come together quite nicely. The interaction between the
friends had a factual feeling and the situations they found themselves in were
funny and enjoyable. Big Chook’s lovable, easy going personality, along with
the outgoing nature of Wally’s, sees the friends' holiday adventure become very
exciting. This draws the reader further into loving the characters, as they
battle to solve the mystery they stumble across.
While their
holiday adventure arises around them, the characters themselves are able to be growing
with the story. Not only are they getting older, they are having to confront
issues that come with growing older and also problems that the closeness of
their friendship brings.
Without initially
realising it, by throwing a young, coming of age girl into the mix, I began to
encounter one of the greatest perplexities of all time. How does one separate
the line between love and friendship? Especially if one of your closest friends
is the girl you have fallen in love with and you’re mates also have feelings
for the same girl. Suddenly I found other issues arising around the different
characters and their friendship.
My next
objective, once plot was sorted, was to resolve the matter of finding a smooth
ending that would give closure. But it also had to create a pleasant step into
the next book in the series that I now found growing in my mind.
This brought me
to the next big step, which we all confront in life, the step into high school.
Now satisfied
that the emotional connection was made with the main characters. I could begin polishing
the plot and finalising the movement into book two.
Ultimately I
wanted to show that friendships grows and changes, as we do as individuals.
Friendship is a type of relationship and not all friendships are smooth or last
forever. But at the time they are of great importance and will stay with us for
as long as our memories allow.
The ending of
The Adventures of Big Chook (The Summer Hideaway) left me with a smile and wanting
to write more, as I’m sure it will leave you with the same smile and wanting to
read more.
Promote Me Please blog is associated with Affordable Manuscript Assessments
It is open to anyone with a family-friendly creative endeavour to promote. Comments are welcome. To read other interviews and essays at Promote Me Please, choose from the menu on the right of this post.
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