Squeetus summer book club: The Goose Girl, chapter 5
The beginning of part 2! My style of writing often requires a slow build-up. Readers who don't click with this style might have bailed out by now. But the hope is they made it to this point and now are invested enough in Ani's situation that they won't want to stop reading till they find out what happens to her.
As she flees from a massacre in the forest.
On a stolen horse.
Three months travel from home.
With dangerous mercenaries hunting her down.
Go, Ani, go!
Ani lost in the woods
Again, I love journeys. And primal, desperate circumstances. No food or water, alone, lost. I find these kinds of stories compelling. I could have written about this for a whole book. Island of the Blue Dolphins is a great example of that. Wonderful book.
"short-voweled, guttural accent"
A commentor asked about the accents. They're not based on actual accents, just ones in my imagination. In general, though, Bayern is based on Germany (the Grimm Brothers birthplace and one of my ancestral points of origin) so the names and sounds of language are similar.
"thousands of tiny black dots"
When I was growing up, we had a gas leak in our basement. I felt a little ill, so stayed on the couch, breathing in all that tainted air. When I stood to go upstairs, I didn't know I was going to faint. I just saw thousands of tiny black dots fill my eyes.
"No more crying. It's all wetness and no comfort at all."
This is Gilsa's advice to Ani. I'm actually conscious of repeating the same things in more than one book. I don't want to insist on only one way of doing things. So I gave Doter completely different advice to give to Miri in Princess Academy, something like "Go on and cry. Sadness can't stick inside you when it's wet with tears." The advice they each gave suits their individual personalities. I thing sometimes Gilsa is probably right, and sometimes Doter is.
pg 98-99
The conversation between Ani and Gilsa, another example of two ideas that are both good. I'm interested in that sort of thing--not black and white, not good and evil necessarily, but two different ways of thinking about the same thing, and both might be true in their way, in their circumstance. Looking back or looking forward, remember yet finding your own way.
Annie asks, "I really wish that Ani had been able to run back to Falada because I love their relationship. I felt frustrated with Ani, wishing she'd run back to him right away or never left his side. What do you feel as the writer? Are you ever frustrated with your characters?" Yes! Often! I make mistakes every day and get frustrated with myself. My characters aren't allowed to be more perfect than I am, no way no how. They have to be just as flawed and frustrating and interesting and human as any of us, or they don't exist.
Fleur asks, "do you plan your whole story out first thing, or do solutions/ideas come randomly to you at certain times?" Both!
"also, how do you keep yourself focused on your current project when ideas that you want to explore pop into your head all the time?" I stick to my main project, and each writing day I have a specific word count or page count goal for that project (or else I'd never finish anything). But whenever I get another idea, I jot it down. I don't depend on my memory for anything anymore.
If I missed your question, feel free to ask again.