By Justin Zhang
In his most well-known book, Saltwater Boy, Christmas tells the tale of Matthew, a city boy who comes to a coastal rural community after suffering hardship. Settling into the tight-knit community of Crawley Point, he meets and befriends Bill, a mysterious local figure. Matthew begins to build a new life near the sea, spurred on by the memory of his late grandfather, but eventually, he has to grapple with unsettled feuds, his father’s criminal nature, and resurfacing secrets.
Christmas draws on experiences from a youth spent near the ocean in the small town of Callala on NSW’s South Coast. The beaches and bays of the Coast hold a particular significance to him and Matthew as a place where one feels truly free. Fishing and boating are not only essential industries but also a passion to which people dedicate their lives. Christmas also has a distinctive connection to the local Aboriginal people of Callala, notably the fishing community of Wreck Bay. The character Bill, who is Aboriginal, is inspired by people that the author knows in real life. Through these connections, real-life fiction becomes Christmas’ forte as he is able to introduce in intricate detail elements of his own experiences that are then incorporated into a novel already rich with themes of family, secrecy, and connection.
On top of his own inspiration, Christmas encourages students to think about how they can be influenced by the books that they have read in order to develop their own unique writing style. For him, Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea had a profound influence on his writing, particularly in relation to the setting of the coast and sea as well as the description of fishing.
Apart from absorbing and being inspired by the books around us, a powerful skill to use when writing is incorporating each of the five senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing) to effectively set a scene. In the presentation, Christmas stressed the value of ‘place’ in writing, tasking students with picturing and describing the experience of standing in a setting that is important to them, such as a tutoring centre, cadet camp location, or a room in their grandparents’ house. Students attempted to include as many of these senses as possible, resulting in a thorough and descriptive piece of writing.
Yet, as Christmas went on to say, a wonderfully described setting is no use without interesting and unique characters occupying the plot. When thinking about characters, it is important to dig past the obvious details and explore their nuances: how they speak, how they dress and even the ways in which they move.
Christmas went on to read us an excerpt from Saltwater Boy to highlight these important features;
“His nose spanned the bulk of his face and seemed to spread further when he smiled. He wore a torn blue and black flannelette shirt, rolled to above his elbows and open at his chest, revealing a thick carpet of salt and pepper hair. His knee-high jeans were stained with paint flecks. He smelt of Tobacco and prawn shells.”
Here, Christmas first introduces the character of Bill, using sensory details to create a vivid picture of his appearance and attitude.
To finish off, Christmas wanted to express how storytelling can take multiple forms. A piece of poetry, art or music can convey as much meaning as a piece of standard prose. To give a real-life example of this, Christmas took out his guitar and played ‘Next Year’, a touching song about life in his community and changing seasons.