I probably over simplified
things when I said the plot itself was easier for me than character
development. The people of TEN DAYS actually drove the plot, at
least to a point. After all, the book is all about what happened to them.
Changes came to the characters
as I wrote and discovered some of my own limitations. One character went from being minor to major
fairly quickly. I needed someone to carry the historical portion of the book.
There are four main
characters in TEN DAYS. They each provide a perspective - a point of
view the others don’t have. They provide information to the reader; without
having to provide long sections of rather bland but important background.
The first is Doctor Carl
Whitman. Originally, his first name was
Phil, but then I noticed that that made him Dr. Phil, as in the daytime
talk-show host. So, scrap Phil for Carl.
I also came to understand my limited knowledge of the medical field and gave
the good doctor a little less print than I originally planned.
Dr. Whitman, in TEN DAYS, is a world renowned
oncologist. He is married to a very
wealth socialite, and together they have three children.
As the war in his homeland
progresses from bad to worse, he sees the health care in the country decline as
members of the medical community flee to safer lands. Carl decides to remain as long as possible to
keep the medical services functioning.
I borrowed the basic idea
for this character from the 1978 TV mini-series, Holocaust. (I recommend
everyone view Holocaust at some point
in their lives) In that story there is a Dr. Josef Weiss who is torn between
saving his family or his fellow Jews. In
the end he is unable to save either.
In the USA, we haven’t
experienced war on our mainland soil in a very long time. It’s easy to forget that even basic medical
care can deteriorate when a city is under siege.
I also used Doctor Whitman
to explain the “Option”. It is the method
used in the book to commit suicide. The package contains two pills. One calms the nerves, while the other slowly stops
the heart. When the war began Carl isn’t in favor of the “Option”, but the
terrible track record of the Enemy causes him to change his views late in the
war.
Suicide, euthanasia, and
such topics are increasingly in the media. The purpose of adding them in TEN DAYS was not to take sides, but
present them as something someone might consider if the alternative was
terrible enough.
These were two of several
controversial topics I chose to broach. In none of those cases am I trying to provide
answer - just acknowledging that the topic is out-there being bantered about.
I am not endorsing
situational ethics, but I wonder how I would respond if faced with two really
grim realities. It is not a conflict
with my faith to try to understand why some people makes the choices they do. Nor is it a conflict to discuss that people
can and do hold to views which differ from mine.
