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Introducing Grell the Goblin
Grell went through a
pretty dramatic change between the first draft and
the last. Here's her first appearance in the
original draft of Goblin Hero...
Grell pulled out her sword and
held it horizontally between them. Grell was one of
the few goblins who understood the idea that
technique was more important than the weapon. She
had taken a rapier and removed the crossguard and
basket. This left a long, naked blade with a simple
wooden handle. She poked the tip through the hook
of Braf's weapon, snapped her blade against the
handle, and pulled back.
The hook-tooth spun around her
blade several times, and she caught it in her other
hand. She raised an eyebrow at Jig.
Grell resembled her weapon:
tall, slender, and quick. She wore a black leather
vest and trousers ending at the knees.
About halfway through the book, I
realized that Grell was, in a word, boring. So I made a few minor changes.
A change in the footsteps behind him made Jig whirl. He tried
to draw his sword, but his hands were wet from his last fall in the snow, and
his grip slipped. "What happened to you?"
Grell spread her fingers and examined her hand. The last time
Jig looked, Grell had been a lean, muscular warrior, with reflexes like a whip.
Now it appeared her body had aged at least a century, and since most goblins
didn't live past the age of thirty, that was saying a great deal.
Her back was hunched, and she had traded her sword for a set of
rough-carved canes. Her skin and muscles sagged like her body had grown too
large for her bones. Her face resembled a bruised, rotted fruit.
"Don't ask me," she said. One whiff of her breath made the
rotten fruit comparison much more apt. "Looks like the author decided my
character wasn't providing enough tension or amusement, and he's too much of a
lazy jerk to go back and rewrite my scenes."
She fingered the broken tip of her yellow fang. The other was
missing completely.
"Right," said Jig. He glanced upward and whispered, "Just don't
do that to me, okay?"
© 2006 by Jim C. Hines
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