The Odds

Interview with theravensdiadem (IiP Victor)

Hi there, everybody! It's Nox Lingualaca here, with the latest scoop on our latest victor! A few days after her stunning success in Imagination is Power, I caught up with fresh new voice Courtney to get her lowdown on competing, writing and reading...

Courtney, hello! Let's not waste any time and get straight down to business: how does it feel to have won, and on your first competition too?

I'm ecstatic to have won, albeit a little bit in shock! This was obviously the first Games that I have ever entered, so I wasn't expecting myself to do quite so well on my first attempt - especially when I initially ranked at number 14. Every time the tasks would come up I would just sit and read through everyone else's entries and think of all the wonderful things they had come up with, so early on in the Games. I didn't have high expectations of myself compared to the other incredibly talented writers. It goes without saying that I'm extremely proud of myself, too, because I've come a long way over the course of the competition and I've achieved something that I once thought would be impossible. 

And you should be proud of yourself; we're all very proud of you too and it definitely sounds as though your friends are as well. And, of course, a huge part of your success was down to the frankly adorable Hadrian Severin. Where did your inspiration for him come from?

In terms of his name, this is going to sound a bit strange, seeing as it all began as a joke between me and my friends. We were sat in the cafeteria at sixth form in one of our free lessons and it was the night after the initial rankings had been posted. If you didn't know, my original character was very different to Hadrian. She was an obsessive perfectionist from Silver who wanted nothing less than success. However, I was assigned a boy from Graphene and at the time, I didn't know how much I would come to love him - he didn't even have a name yet! So I was talking to my friends and trying to brainstorm ideas for this character and I had them all on Google trying to find some cool architectural terms that could pass for names. Then, out of nowhere, I happened to remember the wall exceptionally close to where I live; Hadrian's Wall. (I was painfully unaware that it's kind of a big deal - I just thought the only reason everyone in my town knew it was because we lived near it.) As for his sister, Arbeia (Ar-bay-ah), she's named after our local Roman fort! Anyway, in terms of his personality, I'd say that's where a little piece of me comes into it in the sense that everything I say seems to sound better in my head. I can never quite phrase things aloud in the way I'd like them to be heard, though I think Hadrian outgrew this particular characteristic in the end.

That's part of the reason we liked him so much, because we could see him growing up over each task. It's little details like that which make characters seem vibrant and real... But which of the tasks was your favourite to write?

It's hard to pick a favourite, but I think that I enjoyed Into The Fire the most. I remember that this particular week was extremely hectic for me, so I'd delayed writing it for a little bit. Anyway, I made myself sit down one night with the aim of writing just an introduction and I ended up having the whole thing finished by the next night. This task was especially great for me because of the fact that Hadrian just started to write himself and it made him a lot more endearing to me. Everything just came naturally for that task and I had a chance to explore Hadrian's character even more in a completely different setting, which was refreshing. 

A little birdie told me that Into The Fire was the task that the Gamemakers enjoyed planning the most as well! So, you're probably one of the biggest success stories in recent AG history; some people have had to compete three or four times before clinching that first victory! Do you have any advice for potential competitors?