"Epilogue"
It was time to write the "Epilogue" again. Before writing this epilogue, I specially went to read the epilogue of "We Are the Champions" again. After reading it, I felt that time passed really fast. Three years had passed in the blink of an eye. I had changed a lot from my self three years ago, so the character I wrote had also changed greatly. He had changed from an innocent hot-blooded youth to a middle-aged uncle.
My subtext was not that I had become a middle-aged uncle. In fact, I was still young. A friend who came to Chengdu said to me, "I always thought that Lin Hai Tingtao, who wrote an uncle like Tony Twain, would be a wretched uncle at least 34 years old."
I could only laugh foolishly.
Writing "The Godfather of Champions" was a very special experience for me. Perhaps it was also a kind of challenge?
It was the first time I tried to write a main character who did not match my age or experience. The age range was from 34 to 60 years old. That was the biological age. As for mental age, which was even more illusory and unreliable, it was even more difficult to say.
When writing "We Are the Champions", I used a lot of references for the creation of the characters, as well as my similarly youthful classmates when I was in school. When writing "The Godfather of Champions", I did not have such conditions.
But I did have a prototype.
Speaking of the inspiration for the creation of Tony Twain, it did not come from any manager who existed in real life. Although he looked a lot like Mourinho. But in fact, the first time this image popped up in my mind was because of a movie I had seen a long time ago.
I had also mentioned that movie many times in "We Are the Champions". It was "Sunday Again" starring Al Pacino. It was a movie about professional football in the United States. Al Pacino played the main character, Tony D 'Amato, an old and down football former champion coach who could not keep up with the times.
I had always been a fan of Al Pacino. Naturally, I was also infatuated with the image of the head coach he had created. Then I had this idea — to write a head coach like Al Pacino. He did not care about his appearance, he was full of foul language, his words were crude, he was not angry, he was dignified, his voice was hoarse, his body language was rich, he was headstrong, he would suffer setbacks, he would be teased and ridiculed, and of course, he would slap all his opponents in the end.
Just like that, Tony Twain was born. The name "Tony" was also a tribute to the character created by Al Pacino.
That's why writing Tony Twain's story is a form of enjoyment for me most of the time. I could feel my ideal manager coming to life bit by bit, becoming a living, credible, popular or unpopular figure that could not be ignored.
I love to create characters, and there is nothing more rewarding than creating a real person.
I wrote it bit by bit, perfecting it bit by bit. From the frivolous, arrogant, and despotic young man who stumbled into the world of professional football to an old man in his fifties who knew his destiny and calmed down. I wrote slowly, and my heart changed along with the process. I imagined myself to be as frivolous and impulsive as him, with crude words but not crude reasoning. I also imagined myself to be like him, who returned to peace after experiencing so many things and longed for peace.
This was also why the ending of "The Godfather of Champions" was not as emotional as "We Are the Champions". For Zhang Jun, retirement was the ending of his most dazzling moment and then abruptly returning to silence. The contrast was quite big, so it was even more touching. However, Tony was different. He was slowly withdrawing the dazzling light bit by bit, like a flower that was slowly withering. The whole process was natural and within expectations. It was as if he was walking down a flight of stairs, one step at a time. It was very natural.
This was the ending that suited Twain's character, so I handled it like this — a little plain, not gorgeous enough, but revealing a strong sense of warmth and faint sorrow of parting.
I felt that I had done it, and I loved this ending to death. Whether it was Tony slowly leaving under the farewell of tens of thousands of people, or disappearing into the late autumn rain in a car. Everything was very natural, very much in line with the artistic conception of the last volume — light clouds and breezes. No matter how glorious, how gorgeous, how dazzling, how insufferably arrogant it was, it gradually returned to being plain.
It had the feeling of "How many things have happened since ancient times, all in a joking manner."
It was different from writing the ending of the champion. Writing the ending of the champion had made me sad several times. But writing Tony's ending, I completed it with a kind of joyful mood, as if I had finally accompanied an old friend through a long journey step by step, arriving at the end, finding a place to rest, and feeling satisfied with everything that had happened during the journey.
Just like that, I finished writing "The Godfather of Champions."
Now that I looked back, I realized that my word count was actually in the top ten of Qidian's word count ranking. Even I was quite surprised. But this statistic was not accurate. I definitely did not write more than six million words in the past two years. Otherwise, I would have written an average of ten thousand words a day. But I rarely had such high times. I calculated it myself in private, and it seemed to be close to four million words.
This number was slightly more than "We Are the Champions," but the time spent was less. This meant that I was more diligent than when I wrote "We Are the Champions." This was a good thing. I'm pretty proud of this. Ever since I started uploading "The Champion Godfather" to the day it ended, other than a few days of missing updates in the middle of the month due to the 512 earthquake, I've never stopped updating. I've never even taken a day off to update. No matter what happened, even if I was out, I still managed to update every day, which was a great thing.
Of course, I also had to thank Qidian's Editor Hat, who was responsible for uploading and updating VIP chapters for me. All my VIP chapters were updated by him on my behalf. My job was just to pass the written manuscript to him. If I forgot to hand in the manuscript, he would remind me. What a good comrade! With him around, I only needed to write the manuscript in advance, and then I could go out with peace of mind. Therefore, after "The Godfather of Champions" was written, he must be one of the people that needed special thanks.
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"The Godfather of Champions" was a story that I had never encountered before. It was written about a football coach and a protagonist who did not meet the standards of the mainstream online readers. I wouldn't dare to say how good the writing was. No matter how thick-skinned I was, I wouldn't be that shameless …
But to be welcomed by so many people, I was very happy and felt a sense of accomplishment. To be able to achieve such a result on my first attempt was already very good.
In this book, I deliberately weakened the description of the game and increased the stories outside the field. Now it seems that it was correct. A competitive novel cannot only write about the game. That would be too thin.
Actually, I really like those characters with extremely strange personalities, because there are many stories around them to write about. The Tony Twain that I designed back then had more personality than what everyone saw now, and of course, he was more annoying. Later, when I was preparing to write it, I was not sure if people would like it if I wrote it this way. I was afraid that it would backfire, so I made some changes to make him not look so strange. This was the current Tony Twain, with a slightly weaker personality. Perhaps this could be considered a pity …
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In fact, I had originally prepared a lot of things to say to everyone. But when I really started writing, I found that I could not say anything. Just like what Twain said to Shania when he went to attend the fourteen-year anniversary party of Nottingham Forest's UEFA Champions League:
"Just looking at them makes me feel pretty good."
If we could face each other, I would definitely not be able to speak so eloquently. Just looking at them makes me feel pretty good. I've said everything I wanted to say in the novel. I'm not good at expressing myself verbally. Whatever I want to say, I've already told everyone through the novel. We met through the novel, and we became friends through the novel. What else do we need to say? We've been friends for a long time. It's enough to look at each other and smile.
So, it's better to thank them.
Thank you to everyone who only subscribed to the VIP chapters. Thank you to everyone who liked "The Godfather of Champions". Thank you to the friends who helped me during the writing process. Thank you to my parents who did my laundry and cooked for me. Thank you to my girlfriend. It was great to have your company in the last month of the book. Thank you to Qidian website for providing such an environment for me to write such a story. Thank you to my editor, Jing Ji, and the little captain.
Finally, I would like to thank my readers. Without your continued support, there would not be the "Listening to Songs in Lin Hai" today.
I especially like Zhou Huajian's songs. I have a song that I would like to give to my readers who have supported me. "All of you".
There's a line in the song that touched me deeply.
"Not so popular that it's shocking. Not afraid that no one will ask about it."
That's basically a true portrayal of my situation. At Qidian, I'm not one of those famous writers. I rarely get more than a thousand monthly votes. Compared to those gods who easily get tens of thousands of votes, it's insignificant. But I've never complained that the monthly votes are too little. Because I know that these are the thoughts of my readers. They really like my book, so they vote to support me. For this, I'm filled with gratitude.
I'm already very happy that I can get monthly votes every month by writing about competitive sports. You should know that competitive sports isn't a popular theme.
But I'm not afraid that no one will ask about it. Because of you. My average VIP subscription is very stable. The data doesn't fluctuate much. That's the best proof. Six million views, 1.8 million recommendations, a nearly 3: 1 ratio. For a book with a word count like mine, that's not a lot, right? "We Are the Champions" had a 3: 1 ratio, and it's still the same now. It hasn't changed. These are the reasons why I'm not afraid that no one will ask about it. And this confidence is given to me by you. So thank you again!
There's no way to repay you. I can only write more and better stories to satisfy everyone.
I've seen a lot of ups and downs,
Bid farewell to the naivety.
No regrets,
Take every applause seriously.
Not so popular that no one will ask about it.
Not afraid that no one will ask about it.
Along the way,
If it weren't for you,
I couldn't have.
…
For more than two years, I've been sitting in front of the computer writing and writing almost every day. Suddenly one day, I turned on the computer and found that there was nothing to write. I don't know if I should feel relaxed or sad? I feel a little empty and overwhelmed …
Thank you!
Thank you everyone! Thank you everyone!
Thank you with all my heart!
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[Trivia]
1. About Yang Yan.
Later on, when someone asked about this character, they said why he never appeared again. In fact, it was the result of one of my adjustments. When I first wrote such a character, I originally intended for her to have a relationship with Dunn. From the clues I revealed earlier, it could be seen that she had a good impression of Tang En before she transmigrated. But then I fell into an ethical dilemma — was it Tang En's soul or Tang En's body that she had a good impression of? If she were to have a relationship with Dunn, would she only like the body and not the soul? But if it wasn't for Dunn's body, there was really nothing to like, so she could only like the soul. If she liked the soul, then she shouldn't like Dunn, but Tang En. But I never thought of letting Tang En and Yang Yan have a passionate relationship from the beginning.
Therefore, with this contradictory idea, I could only helplessly let her slowly fade out of the story. Just take it as a beautiful encounter. In the vast sea of people, you are you, I am me. Passing by, you go east, I go west. That's it.
So, there were no more scenes for her later.
2. About Sophia.
I have to confess something — before I pushed the character Sophia in front of my readers, I never thought she would be so popular. I thought that the experience of the previous Qidian novels told me that the readers would not like a character like a prostitute to have an affair with the protagonist. So, from the beginning of the design, I had already thought of her ending — she died of illness shortly after the start of the second volume, so I previously wrote that her illness was very serious, as if she would go to paradise at any time. In the second volume, she used her death to make Wood more mature.
What I did not expect was that after I published it, everyone's acceptance of this character was very high. At that time, I told Jingji that I planned to write Sophia to death. He was very surprised and said to me, "If you want to die, then do it!" So, I was afraid, and I finally decided not to kill her …
To be honest, it takes courage to kill a popular character, because I can't guarantee how many readers will be lost after doing so. So, I kept it, kept it, kept it, until the last volume, finally …
3. About Chen Jian.
When I first wrote such a character, someone couldn't wait to go to the dragon's sky forum to make a post, mocking me for creating another China football savior. Just wait and see, in the end, Chen Jian will definitely lead the China team to win the World Cup.
But unfortunately, I let that student down, because I did not do so.
Later, there were still people who continued to speculate that I wrote Chen Jian as the hope of China football.
Actually, it was not. I just wanted to write about an ordinary person who loved football, and this person happened to be China. Because it was really not necessary to spend so much effort to write about someone who had nothing to do with me or the country you came from. So, of course, I had to write that he was China, so that there would be a sense of immersion. I wrote it with a sense of immersion, and you will also feel immersion when you read it. Until now, I still think that I wrote the chapter where Twain called Chen Jian after he recovered from his heart disease, and the comments in the book review section at that time also proved this point.
In the book "The Godfather of Champions", I had no interest in saving China football, because I had already saved it in "We Are the Champions". But our hatred for China football cannot be rudely and barbarously vented on all the Chinese who play football. There are many ordinary Chinese who love football, and they should not be made a scapegoat for China football. So, I am disgusted with all forms of scolding "rubbish" whenever I see "China" or "football". To vent one's anger, one must find the right direction, otherwise it will become an empty shot that is completely useless. Not only will it make a fool of oneself when shooting, it will also strain one's muscles and knee, which is not worth the candle.
All the insults and hatred towards Chen Jian are unreasonable, so I insisted on writing it, and in the end, I gave him a good ending.
4. About George Wood.
George and Tony's meeting could be said to be a coincidence, but it could also be said to be inevitable. There was a pair of hands in the dark that arranged everything. When Twain's wallet was stolen on the street, he would not have known that the person who stole his wallet was George Wood. George Wood would also not have thought that this theft would change his life.
Later, when he found the documents and photos in the wallet, he decided to recommend himself. Of course, he did not forget to take the small change in the wallet.
The rest of the story, the whole world knows …
5. About Nottingham Forest.
When I write football novels, I especially do not like to put the main character's activity environment in the already famous powerhouse clubs. That way, the space for me to express myself will be reduced by half, and it is very easy to offend people. So, I always write about those aristocrats who are down and out. On one hand, they are already down and will not offend anyone, and on the other hand, they have stories that are worth expressing.
So, I chose Nottingham Forest. In the beginning, she was chosen because she once had a very glorious period, but now she is down and out, it makes people feel sad. This kind of background is simply too suitable to write a novel.
Later, as my understanding of the Forest team deepened, I increasingly feel how correct and wise my choice was back then. They used to have a very unique manager, Brian Clough, who did many things that were enough to leave a name in the history of English football. With such a person, it is reasonable that a character like Twain, who does not conform to the mainstream understanding of England, would appear in the Forest team. Because there is tradition.
6. About Dunn.
Some people think that when I write about Twain and Dunn meeting, it is like a bolt from the blue that makes them lose their appetite. On the contrary, I feel that this is an arrangement that I am very proud of. I have always had a similar thought — in a transmigration novel, what would happen if the transmigrator met his other self?
So, I wrote about Dunn and arranged for him and Twain to meet. But my skills are limited, and at the same time, time is tight, and the subject matter is limited, so I did not write the feeling I wanted to express. This is a big regret. In fact, I really want to explore in depth what will happen when two people meet under such circumstances, and what changes will occur in their respective hearts. It must be very, very interesting.
Now, I can only leave this regret. Maybe I will use it in other works in the future?
7. About Shania.
Actually, in the beginning, I designed for Twain to meet a homeless orphan without parents when he went out, and then raise her at home. Their relationship changed from "father and daughter" to "husband and wife," but the way they address each other remained the same — "Dad."
But later, I felt that this was too bare, so I changed it to what it is now.
As for her name, it was indeed influenced by a female singer I like, "Shania Twain." At that time, I also designed a plot, but unfortunately, it was not used in the end:
Twain proposed to Shania. At that time, Shania was out of town, so Twain called to propose. Shania did not agree at that time, but said she would consider it for a few days. A few days later, Twain received a parcel by express delivery. Opening it, it was an album by the American country music queen, Shania Twain. There was a song on it that was marked "Any _ Man _ of _ Mine."
This was a slightly obscure hint. In fact, she had already agreed to Twain's proposal. Because the album that was sent was sung by "Shania Twain." In the future, when they got married, Shania would also be called by this name.
But later on, when the plot developed to the time of the proposal, there was no longer a need for this story. So, it could only be written in the tidbits.
Shania is a fictional character, and I mainly used these two archetypes for her. Her occupation was based on the Brazilian model, Bruna Tenorio. Her cheeky smile was based on the American movie star, Jordana Brewster, who had starred in movies such as "Special Agent Girl," "The Fast and the Furious," and "High School."
The woman on the cover was a photo of the Brazilian model, Bruna Tenorio.
8. About the ending and music.
What a coincidence. When I was writing "Ending: When I'm 60," it had been raining continuously in Chengdu for a week. The temperature plummeted, and it suddenly felt like late autumn. So, I arranged for their party to be held on a rainy afternoon in an old-fashioned bar that emitted orange lights. Thinking about it like that, I felt very warm.
Opening the document, when I was thinking about how to write this ending, I suddenly remembered a song, a song by the Beatles that a friend had recommended to me — "When I'm 64." That name was similar to Twain's age, so I decided to write this song.
A friend said that the music I used in this book was good, which made me very happy. It's always good to have other people like what you like, haha!
So, with "When I'm 64" playing over and over again, I finished writing the ending and this postscript.
I like to have music playing when I write, and it has to be suitable music to have a feeling. For example, when I write, I will choose soothing music. When I write, I need to write exciting and explosive music. The environment I live in is very noisy, and only this kind of music can make me fully immersed. So, I like music very much, and when I write, I also like to casually incorporate music into my writing. When I wrote "We're the Champions" in the past, I would only rigidly copy the lyrics. When I write this book, it feels slightly more natural.
When I wrote the first volume of "The Godfather of Champions," I wanted to write the feeling of England. I specifically went to find dozens of classic English music to listen to, especially music with a British style, so that I could have the English flavor of the first volume.
It can be said that without the 10 gigabytes of MP3 files on my computer, "The Godfather of Champions" would never have been written so smoothly.
9. About Twain's youngest daughter, Liv.
If anyone had read "Road to Glory" written by Talented Helan, they would surely know the origin of the name, right? If they have not read it, it does not matter. Go and read the outer chapter of "Road to Glory," "The Utopia of Troy," hehe.
Here, I would like to thank Talented Helan, because he has written a very good sports novel. I would like to pay my respects to him.
But unfortunately, because of my plot settings, Liv was born a few years later and did not catch the train to Troy …
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[New book]
Here are some things about the new book.
When I write this postscript, I should not have thought about what to write about in the new book. This needs to be decided after communicating with the editor, and it also depends on the quality of the outline.
So, I can't tell you what my new book will be about now, but I hope you will continue to pay attention. Once there is definite news, I will definitely publish it here in "The Godfather of Champions."
If nothing unexpected happens, we will be reunited in the new book in a month. I will be waiting for you at the starting point of my new journey.
It was like a long journey. Six years ago, we began to accompany Zhang Jun on his journey. Three years ago, that journey ended. Zhang Jun and Sophie stopped their footsteps and faded from our sight. But our journey continued. This time, Tony Twain and his buddies got on the bus to accompany us. Now that Tony and his buddies got off the bus, they had arrived at their stop.
After waving goodbye to them on the bus, we continued.
There was more and better scenery waiting for us ahead. Let's continue.
`
Listening to the Waves in the Forest
12 October 2009, Chengdu
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