Squeetus summer book club: Enna Burning, Chapter 8
The augury: The initial idea for an augury came from my study of the Roman historian Tacitus writing about the early German people. Here's his description of a war augury:
"They have also another method of observing auspices, by which they seek to learn the result of an important war. Having taken, by whatever means, a prisoner from the tribe with whom they are at war, they pit him against a picked man of their own tribe, each combatant using the weapons of their country. The victory of the one or the other is accepted as an indication of the issue."
Some notes I found in my 2nd draft outline about the augury:
Time passing. Finn. Encounter other forest workers. What pushes her into arson again?
Maybe make a couple of characters from the enemy camp. Enna sees them when they parlay with Geric. Runs into one at night when she goes about setting fire to enemy camps.
First time Enna sets fire to person, something in her breaks, something she was holding back and it gets harder.
Finn’s fight in war augury helps forest folks gain legitimacy.
Here are other notes from either an earlier or later outline, I can't actually tell:
Learns how to use it, starts to want to use it, leaves camp because the desire is consuming, gets caught by Tiran scout party and burns her way out, Sileph is there, and it feels good to her, but still she resists until augury.
After augury, occurs to her how to fight
no tension between E&I until after augury, E has to hide it from I. then guilt develops. Also, doesn’t tell her because she’s afraid I would take her to Yasid and take away her knowledge.
Finn: The sweet Forest boy. He who cried when bringing Enna the feathers of her slain chicken. I hated having to put him through this story, to make him change as he did. Authors are cruel. But the story is always more important than what's best for the characters.
"She would save Bayern": She's all in now, baby. Enna has her mission. She is going for it. And my recommendation? Do not stand in that girl's way.
Heather asks, "How do you think of your characters? Are they just descriptions and actions on a piece of paper, or like imaginary friends, or do you think of them as real people, or what?" They do feel really real in my mind, in that once I've spent many drafts with them and fully developed them, I know how they would react to most anything. I know what they would say and how they would say it. I know how they would feel about whatever changes would come, in a way that I don't always know about real people, even my own children. Once they're developed, I can't change them. Only a story can change them, the way the war and Enna's overheard talk in the market changed Finn.
Viola asks, "Is Razo's character your favorite type to write, or do you like searching out and discovering the more difficult characters?" Easier is always better! But there is definitely a satisfaction to having labored long with a story and a character and then to finally get it right. Forest Born is that way for me. I feel so happy about that book now, so proud, even though during some drafts I wanted to give up writing entirely.