Well, it happened to me again this morning. You know, it's Saturday, no need to get up, a nice lie in to look forward to. But would my mind let me rest? Oh no - as is becoming increasingly irritating, it had other ideas...
Making good headway on my planned quintet of supernatural short stories based on the five senses, I only needed a story built around the sense of touch. I toyed with the idea of having an older person who is paraplegic and is visited by playful phantoms who pleasure the character by touching them. Even though the character is biologically unable to sense anything from the waist down, these little demons can pleasure by supernatural means. (I deliberately refer to these supernatural entities as 'phantoms' based on the medical condition of 'phantom pain'; for example when an amputee feels a sensation in a limb that is no longer there). In this case, the phantoms are here only to gratify and not torture the individual. It seemed like a perverse enough idea. I decided to run with it.
And then, at 7.30 this morning, after Stu had got up to go to work, that's when Gloria popped into my head. This 70 year old paraplegic, nearly blind and unable to speak wasn't going to let me rest any longer until she nailed the role of being my protagonist. I could resist no longer. With a sigh, I dragged my 43 year old body out from under the comfortable duvet and into the living room where Stu was having his breakfast.
"What are you doing up?".
I fired up the MacBook. "I've got a 70 year old woman banging on about being pleasured by phantoms. She won't go away until I've committed her. To the computer that is."
"Oh right. Well, since you're up, how about giving me a lift to work?"
Gloria would have to wait that little bit longer.
I'm finding that since I've started writing in earnest, one of the most satisfying aspects is character development. I'll spend a fair bit of time rounding these characters out - their background, upbringing, circumstances and how all of these affect their personality. That in turn provides them with motivation which helps drive the narrative, make it more believable. And so it is with Gloria - and she is proving a fun character to develop.
I set her age at 70 which means that (this being a story set in contemporary London) she was born in 1941, a baby of the blitz - in fact, I like the idea of her being born during a bombing raid, popping out in an Anderson shelter, or one of the London Underground stations adapted for such use. She turns out to be a troublesome, fiercely independent, playful and highly precocious child, running amok during the Festival of Britain flashing her privates to boys and then fully embracing sexual freedom in the 60s and 70s. Later during the recession years of the late 80s and early 90s, she uses her fading beauty to allure an older Italian businessman (who leaves his wife and family for her) and therefore secure her future.
This story is intended to be the most uplifting and humorous of the five, the others being either dark, gruesome or just sad. I like the idea that even though this woman's body is failing, her mind is still as sharp as a razor. I intend to write it first-person narrative; this to me seems the best approach of getting her character and inner thoughts across. Also, there's the aspect of receiving sexual pleasure in advanced years, something not written about enough I think (our culture being so obsessed with youth!), especially from an elderly woman's point of view. This is her remaining pleasure in life, to welcome these little phantoms whose sole purpose is to tickle her fancy, so to speak.
So Gloria got her way and is now the star of this particular story. But I like her character a lot already and can see her worming her way into future fictional enterprises too. That's ok though, she'd be most welcome; I just wouldn't count on her behaving herself.
Anyway, back to writing. And then a bit of rest. I've agreed to go out on the gay scene in Cardiff tonight, something I've not done in a long time. I may not survive. On the other hand I may get lots of inspiration for future characters. We shall see.
Hasta la vez próxima.
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