Being a Jessica and an Elizabeth

“Mysterious illnesses aside, this was a disembodied world, where corporeality was hinted at solely through actions: the twins ‘sped’ in their shiny red Fiat Spider convertible; ‘dashed’ to the mall; or ‘raced’ upstairs to phone a friend. Rhetoric mattered here as much as action — the books were filled with dialogue, and talk was everywhere — gossip, confidences, promises, avowals, protests, demurrals. I never knew, before I started writing for Sweet Valley, how many synonyms there were for the verb ‘said.’ The twins by and large didn’t ‘say’ things — instead, they chuckled and giggled and whispered and murmured and sighed. They ‘gasped’ over good news or bad. They lived in a fantasy world, these girls, and as long as I was writing about them, to some extent, so did I.”
 — Ghostwriting ‘Sweet Valley High.’