Squeetus summer book club: The Goose Girl, chapter 9

verb power

Writing is all about the verbs. Those action words are the key to strong storytelling. If I find just the right verb, I don't need as many adjectives or adverbs. For me good writing is finding that balance of great verbs and invisible verbs (was, said, had, etc.).

pg 139, candlelight

Writing that, I knew whose candlelight Ani was seeing in a palace window, though she didn't, so the narrator couldn't say. I always know more than the narrator can say.

last paragraph on 139

This is a very telly paragraph. Show don't tell is an excellent rule. But occasionally I break it, like I did here, because showing would take too much time and the story needs to move forward.

pg 141, "None of their horses was white."

Recently online someone claimed this sentence is grammatically incorrect. But "was" refers to "none" and more importantly to Falada, who is singular. The copy editor approved it, and I agree. You don't want a sentence to clash against a reader's sensibility and slow them down, puzzling over it, but in this case I don't mind because as the reader works over it, she/he slows down to remember Falada. Ideally anyway.

horses

I did way more research on horses than I could ever use. Initially I thought a ton of this book would involve Falada's birth and early years, training, etc. But that's the nature of research. I have to learn a lot so I can pick from it what I need. Sadly I've forgotten most of what I used to know, but reading this chapter reminded me of those videos, books, and interviews I did.

"to get inside the wind and see what it saw"

There have been lots of mentions of wind so far. Just thought I'd mention that.

Geric's name

In the first draft, his placeholder name was Wilder. I renamed him with the rest of the Bayern characters, but I always liked his name. In the first draft of Forest Born I named a character Wilder who I later cut. And now at last, in Dangerous, one of the main characters is Wilder. He goes by his last name. His full name is Jonathan Ingalls Wilder. (his mother was a Little House fan) Incidentally, I say Geric with a hard "G" and my editor says it with a soft "G." As with all my character names, I don't mind which way you say it.

Liana asks, "What drew you to Enna? What made you like her enough to give her a book of her own - what was your inspiration for her?" Ani needed a friend, and Enna was born from that need. I do love her. I wrote about how she got her own book here.