I've been throwing around the idea of doing a set of short stories based on a single theme, when it occurred to me that all the stories/books/movies I like seem to be based on a sort of Beauty and the Beast theme, in fact I own more than a dozen different versions of the fairy tale Beauty & the Beast itself, plus got all the different versions of the movies too. It's a safe bet to say that Beauty & the Beast is my favorite fairy tale!
Well, on a different thread here, I was commenting about Stolkholm Syndrome and I wrote this:
I was going to say Stolkholm Syndrome, but I see someone already beat me. So yea, I'll say it anyways. This is actually pretty common actually.
Think of it like Beauty and the Beast. (not the Disneyfid version, thank you) Not only did the Beast want to kill/eat her and he family, he kept her locked up as his prisoner. Eventually he started treating her nice and eventually she stopped fearing him, but she still didn't love him and when she got the chance she escaped and ran back home. But than after she got home, she was plauged with nightmares for weeks and finialy it occurred to her that she loved the Beast so she went back to his castle only to find that he had pined away without her. They started out hating each other than love each other later on.
I could easily see your girl falling for her captor.
After I posted that comment it occurred to me that, that there was the perfect plot for me! Here's the thing though, I don't want to just write yet another fairy tale version of Beauty and the Beast. I want to do something different.
I'm thinking I want to write 13 different versions of the Beauty & the Beast plot, each about 5,000 - 10,000 words, so that I end up with one book of short stories totaling 100,000 to 130,000 words.
What that means is that I need 13 different plots each one based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, but each one totally different! I'd kind of like to take the story of Beauty and the Beast and retell it from various cultures and times in history, plus in different genres (one fantasy, one science fiction, one horror, one chick-lit, etc,). Does that make sense?
-
I already thought of one: a girl and a Japanese demon, in Medieval Japan.
Than I thought maybe a flapper and a gangster from the 1920's.
Not sure yet how to get either of them to come out right yet.
Anyways I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas about how I could come up with all these plots based on one plot without them all sounding like the same story again and again. Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks!
~EK
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50,106 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 01 06
Oh, what a cool idea! I love the idea of the same basic story structure in different genres.
I think your best bet for differentiation (aside from the genre, which I think will make a big difference in and of itself) is character and setting/time. If you make your characters distinctive enough, they will control the story and make it their own, rather than just going through the motions of the archetype. And different settings can change your style, your backdrop, your assumptions - think about how different the Beauty and the Beast story is if you set it in modern times versus 200 years ago, right? Or in the United States versus, say, Iraq?
Yes, the plot is the same, but that's the only thing that's the same. And after all, what's that line about there only being, what, seven distinct ideas in the world? (It's late and I am too lazy to look up the line.) It's not plot that defines your story, it's character, setting, voice, style, all of that other great stuff.
50,222 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 01 18
Try some role-reversal, perhaps.
----------Have your guy be the "beauty" and the girl the "beast".
Maybe :P
"Don’t worry about being a writer, or being a novelist, just, ah, take a walk in your brain. Or a bike ride. In your brain. But don’t drive… that's bad for the environment."
--Hank Green
50,016 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 05 35
This is kind of stupid, but you could have a story in college. The teacher (beast) who gives his student(beauty) detention a lot.
----------Oh, and I love to read about what Ally was talking about
Never mess with a writer; we can immortalize you in ways you will find very unpleasant.--Garrison Keillor
23,415 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 06 57
The android revolution has come, and like most robots B33-st has a human pet. But gosh darn it if she isn't the most appealing little thing....
So are you working with the idea that the Beast is wicked and she reforms him, or that he is misunderstood and she comes to understand him? I suppose you can use both in varying proportions. (I'm doing a fairytale mixer starring BatB this year, and I love Robin McKinley's versions of the story)
----------Writing like a bipolar ferret on acid since 2005
2008 novel: Seafoam and Roses
106,888 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 07 16
Sounds cool!
You could do love-hate
hate-hate...sometimes when two people really can't stand each other...even if it only moves to mutual admiration...it's still a good story!
love-love...imagine writing that!
Or vary your MC's to be, shy, timid, resentful, rebellious, etc, each would lend a diff flavor plotwise. ^_^
----------___________________________________
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53,010 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 08 15
You could do one where the "beauty" and hte "beast" learn to love each other, but they don't fall "in love" with each other...
By the way: I'm doing a BatB rewrite this year too, so let's watch out for each other, ok? :=^.^=
(By the way: I meant that in a "let's help each other out" kind of way, not a "OMG! She's doing what i'm doing! Must watch out for her, and runin her" type of way, sorry if that's not clear...)
Would you like to become Nanobuddies?
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50,052 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 08 58
I would be interested in seeing what SarahJanet said, Beauty and the Beast set in Iraq. Could be difficult to write, though.
Anyway, my first thought was something like an environmental activist and maybe a logger or even a politician. Also first thought of cowboys and pretty much anyone else but that's the stuff of awful romance novels, not something you should probably do. How 'bout instead of using all humans, do Beauty and the Beast with some sort of weird animals (octopi or aardvarks?) or inanimate objects. Obviously an inanimate object one would be much shorter and probably mostly something pining for the other...how 'bout an ugly chair who really wants someone to sit in it? :D The chair waits forever for someone to buy it and then it gets bought and put in some spare room for years wishing the person would come back and love it...and then it gets pulled out for Thanksgiving and is so old that it breaks as soon as someone sits on it. I'd read it.
----------NaNo '06: A Tale of Peace and Fire (Win)
NaNo '07: The Winding Way (Win)
NaNo '08: The Importance of Asking Why (Win)
And what do I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing but lost sanity!
Totally worth it!
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 09 40
oh! all kinds of great ideas
the BatB in Iraq made me think Ancient Egypt (no idea why)
and the cowboys made me think Zorro
and for some odd reason reading about robots and than octopus and loggers made me think of doing a sci-fi version where the beast was the giant (think King Kong size) jelly fish floating through space and attacking planets, but one environmentalist character (beauty) is defending it from those who would kill it... wow, giant jellyfish! no idea where that came from!
By the way: I'm doing a BatB rewrite this year too, so let's watch out for each other, ok? :=^.^=
(By the way: I meant that in a "let's help each other out" kind of way, not a "OMG! She's doing what i'm doing! Must watch out for her, and runin her" type of way, sorry if that's not clear...)
Would you like to become Nanobuddies?
just added ya!
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3,338 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 04
This reminds me of the book The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde in which she has several different versions of Rumpelstiltskin. My favorite story was sort of a role-reversal in which the woman wanted to take over the world, if I remember correctly. Maybe reading it would help with inspiration?
61,076 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 13
I was just going to post about that! You really should check out that book, EelKat. She changed one or two pieces of the story each time: like making R. want the baby to eat it; making the miller's daughter a king-groupie; changing R. into a domovoi; having the daughter fall in love with R instead of the King. In the end, each story felt like a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, but each story was different enough to not feel repetitive. Instead of just changing setting or character traits, you might consider doing something like that. Have one version where Beauty leaves and *doesn't* come back, or have a version where Beast decides that Beauty is a spoiled brat and he'd be better off waiting for someone else's father to become indebted to him and try again with that girl. You'd still have the basic BatB plot, but with enough variation to play with and retain interest through multiple retellings.
53,010 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 39
There's also the "new girl geek tutoring punk" version of BatB...
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=^^=
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 55
I never heard of that one. I'll look it up. I love fairy tale retellings, so I should love it! Thanks!
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13,221 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 10
Wow. What a totally awesome plot idea.
Here's a retelling that I've always wanted to do: what if the beast was a dragon, and the beauty was a princess and the 'gaston' was the prince coming to rescue her and the rose was a shiny and shimmering jewel? Could be interesting...and I would LOVE to read your stories when you're done! Can we be Nanobuddies too?
----------2009: ??
2008: Lost Heir of Braelynn (lost)
2007: Emerald Moon (lost)
2005: Pen's Dreamscape (won)
2004: Other Side of the Sun (won)
2003: Light of Allayna (lost)
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 20
Here's a retelling that I've always wanted to do: what if the beast was a dragon, and the beauty was a princess and the 'gaston' was the prince coming to rescue her and the rose was a shiny and shimmering jewel? Could be interesting...and I would LOVE to read your stories when you're done! Can we be Nanobuddies too?
I like the whole knight in shining armor being the bad guy while dragon is the good guy type of idea. Plus I was just wondering how I could fit dragons in, because I was just writing up a character bio for an ice dragon, and thinking... "that is so not BatB, why did I write that?"
(PS added you to my buddy list too)
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67,493 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 52
I am writing a mixture retelling using Snow White and Rose Red and the story East of the Sun, West of the Moon (the Nordic BatB) using a cat instead of a bear/polar bear, rats for the evil gnome in SWRR, and a young faerie girl for the heroine. It follows my NaNo from last year in which I merged Thumbelina and The Frog Prince and used faeries and poison dart frogs for my protagonists. My first thought for looking into different cultures was that I was inspired/reminded about the tale by the fact that we are translating Cupid and Psyche in Latin class and this is one of the earliest, original BatB stories... as is ESWM (otherwise known as Polar Bear King for some people), if I am correct. You might look into finding out what the Greeks and Nordic and Roman folks had to say about the myth... and I know Donna Jo Napoli wrote one that followed a more Indian mythology that was quite good.
Feel free to add me, too, if you're collecting BatB retelling friends. ^^
----------~~~
Nihil est omnino beatum.
NaNoWriMo2007: Fae Croaker (Won!)
NaNoWriMo2008: Hook's Neverland
Fae ???
50,106 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 12 25
Have you read East by Edith Pattou? It is a retelling of East of the Sun West of the Moon and it is one of my favourite YA books ever. SO GOOD.
0 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 12 51
Native American folktales like The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and The Star Wife always struck me as being similar to Beauty and the Beast an Cinderella, so maybe you could look into native american marriage/romance folktales for more inspiration. In all cases the story is about a girl who has a suitor of a different, usually more magical, race. (Of course a boy could also work for a gay romance twist or role reversal.) Usually the girl doesn't fit in to her own culture for some reason. (Mulan also is nice source material here.) Often there is some kind of test or trickery within her culture which she fails at, especially compared to other girls of the same age. (Cinderalla substitutes a difference in wealth for a difference in popularity or feminine savvy, but this difference in wealth could still be interpreted as a result of Cinderella or her father's failure to impress others in their own society with their importance and admirably.) Rather similar to Mulan's testing by the matchmaker, native american tales often have tests of sewing, cooking, and other wifely skills.
So the girl fails at being good marriage material for one reason or another, either sabotage by rivals or unfair judging due to prejudice against her appearance or being temperamentally unsuited to domesticity; sometimes the girl's problem is within herself and she has to learn a lesson, but this beginning doesn't usually lead to the marriage-to-foreigner ending, it usually leads to the back-to-real-world ending. But in all cases she is shown to excel in the area of being openminded/creative. The beast, then, often has a grudge against the girl's people for the very reason that they are usually closeminded and have no understanding or sympathy for him. A variety of circumstances can then be used to trap the girl and the beast together and force them to work as a team. Once their attraction to each other is established the end of the story requires that the girl be retested, this time by the rules of the beast's people, or must rescue the beast by a magical test. Naturally she triumphs. Then the ending: wedding, the girl gets admiration, wealth, power, whatever, sometimes there's the implication that she and the beast will have great children. Sometimes the girl's previous enemies apologize, or a new alliance is created between the two peoples.
53,010 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 14 40
Ooh ! I just thought of this!
What about something with Hades and Persephone? There's the (in my opinion) ultimate BatB story...
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=^^=
36,826 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 14 19
My 2006 NaNo was a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast where the girl was a runaway who started staying in an old abandoned mansion in the woods, only to discover that it was not so abandoned, after all, the guy who lived there had just let it go into disrepair and only really stayed in one or two rooms of the place, which was massive. There was a short span of time where she thought her new hideout was actually haunted but then when he finally discovered her she decided he was real. He gave her a job as his sort of liaison to the outside world, like a grocery shopper, but since she only saw him at night and there was no electricity she still never really saw his face. There was a sort of relationship with this kid she was always running into in town as well as her growing fondness for her "beast". She eventually figured out from hearing old local legends, etc., that the "beast" was the last heir to a really large fortune who had become a recluse after getting into a horrible car accident that killed his mother and brother and left him horribly disfigured and...
Now that I'm writing this out again I can't remember why it didn't work out but when I started writing it it just didn't feel right at all. I only got about 14,000 words done that year. I could never decide how it would end except that he would get plastic surgery after they fell in love (after several years, I imagine) and enter outside society again. It was a little bit messy, but you can feel free to borrow parts or all of it as I don't ever plan to return to it.
----------________
"The race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself."
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2008 - 01 00
Feel free to add me, too, if you're collecting BatB retelling friends. ^^
just added ya!
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Help Me Rewrite Beauty & the Beast for NaNo08!
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?
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238,153 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 01 48
Since I started this thread to help myself with my plot, I hope no minds if I use it as my personal reference point as well? I'm going to add some links here, so that I'll know where to find them again once NaNoWriMo starts. Of course they are for my own personal reference use, but I figured I'd post them here on this thread, since there are so many others doing a BatB story to, and they might find these links helpful too. Okay???? Thanks!
First off, there is a second BatB thread here on NaNoWriMo, which has some good info on it, so be sure to check that one out too:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3014568
Secondly, I'm building a website where I'm going to be brainstorming about my NaNo08, and it might be useful for you guys as well, so here is the link to that (note that's it's a mess because I'm just randomly throwing stuff around as it pops into my head.... sorry):
http://www.squidoo.com/BeautyBeast
I also wrote these articles about my NaNoWriMo adventures, if anyone wants to read them:
http://www.squidoo.com/CharacterProfiles
http://www.squidoo.com/The13StepMethod
http://www.squidoo.com/CreatingFantasyRealms
http://www.squidoo.com/OnWritingFantasy
http://www.squidoo.com/Narration-for-Writers
http://www.squidoo.com/improvingyouewriting
http://www.squidoo.com/WritingCritics
Thirdly, I found these amazing sites, both built by the same person, and they gave me some great ideas for what to do with the Beast's castle:
http://www.squidoo.com/top-travel-related-sights-to-see (OMG! Check out the REAL castle made out of ice... people actually live in it!... I am sooooo using this in my story!)
http://www.squidoo.com/barcelona-travel-top-places-to-visit-and-informat... (and the pictures here gave me lots of great ideas too!)
Than I found this site about castles in France and OMG! My Beast has so got to live in something like Château d'Ussé , that place is just AMAZING!:
http://www.squidoo.com/chateaux-loire-valley-france
Plus, I'm planning to have a dragon in my BatB story (no idea yet how a dragon will fit in, but I want a dragon in it, so I'll make it fit), so I was looking up dragon sites and I found this one, which has some really great pictures of dragons on it:
http://www.squidoo.com/fantasycastlesanddragons
And of course, what's BatB without a wedding at the end? So I looked around, and I found this site about Medieval Weddings. Lots of good and useful info here:
http://www.squidoo.com/medieval-weddings
Plus I was thinking of doing some sort of a fantasy *Noah's Ark* type of thing, where the Beast has all sorts of wild animals running around his castle and I found this site, which gave me the idea to use Galapagos Giant Tortoise in my story:
http://www.squidoo.com/wild-and-wonderful-galapagos-islands
Plus I found this site, and you have got to check out the picture of Phang nga bay! OMG! I love that clicff dropping off into the ocean like that! I'm thinking I'll put Beast castle on a cliff like that, so there is no way for Beauty to escape!:
http://www.squidoo.com/phuket-travel-guide-and-information
Well, that's all I've got right now, but if/when I find more, I'll edit this post and add them here, so be sure to bookmark this thread if you are writing a BatB story, because this thread will end up with a lot of useful reference links on it between now and NaNoWriMo. These links are helping me plan my plot, so I'm hoping they help any other BatB writers out there this year. Plus if you find any other links that you think will help brainstorm for BatB stories, feel free to add them! Thanks!
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145,017 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 05 45
I too am doing a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
I used the role reversal and it has gone amazingly well.
A beautiful actress is vain, and is rude to a faerie in disguise, so the faerie curses her that everytime she is rude, a blemish on her face grows uglier. In order to lift the curse, the actress goes to a guy who's been suffering under a faerie curse too. He's kind, but his family turns into monsters at night, and this curse has been passed down through the generations. His great great great grandfather was the original Beast of legend, the whole "based on a true story, but the facts have been skewed" idea.
It also includes masquerades and fallen angels. And the FMC is going to be in "Phamtom of the Opera" another Beauty and the Beast story.
I think your idea of doing servarl short story retellings is a great idea! You'll find that once you start fleshing out the chracters, that they take on a life of their own, so each of your stories will be unique.
Also, Beauty and the Beast is classified as an enchanted husbend fairy tale, so you could go off of that basic information too.
Wow, this is becoming the Beauty and the Beast thread, I will have to watch this one! How do you subscribe to a thread?
I will have to come back and post of the songs I found that relate to B&B.
I will add everyone else who is doing as a buddy too, so I can catch up you guys at the end, and maybe we can do a B&B swap!
----------NaNo 08: Seeing Red WON!
February NaNo 08: Heaven's Gate and Hell's Masquerade WIP
Proud owner of a plot Wolverine.
53,010 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 21 45
There's a really awesome (IMHO) book called "Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City" (If I rememebr correctly), and it's retellings of different fairy tales- the last tale is BaTB, you could look at that for insperation. :3
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=^^=
68,250 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 00 29
Phantom of the Opera is my favorite B&B story. The musical version, cuz I haven't finished the book yet (I just started it)! I hate that she ends up with Raoul and not the Phantom. But yeah, that's a good one.
Also, you could add a twist something like Shrek? Or it could be something like the Canterbury Tales story about the Knight who marries a hag to save his life (can't remember why he was in danger) and she tells him he can choose whether she's a hag at night when they have their "private time" and beautiful during the day when other people will see them or vice versa. (He tells her it's her choice and then she becomes beautiful forever.aww how sweet) Also it would be neat to make it so that in order for Beast to grow kinder and more loving, Beauty would have to become more beast-like (in attitude or appearance).
----------NaNo08 - Darkside - Won
Screnzy09 - Darkside - Won
5,080 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 10 14
I'm planning to possibly do my nano based on the Cupid & Psyche myth - give it a google, it's fabulous. Even the Greeks thought it was too much of a folktale a la B&TB to be a proper myth.
----------Novel Title: The Cat's Eye Queen // Eironen Falls
Word Count:
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Cups of Tea Consumed:
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51,252 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 11 46
I've done a retelling of BaB before.
The twist I added was that the Beast LIKED being a beast. And the beauty's presence was not there by choice, but someone else believes that he must have is fairy tale ending.
You can use it, it sets up some interesting questions or spin offs at least. Maybe the beast cursed himself (accidentally or purposely?) Or put it in a modern world. Like oh hes a beast, but now he is famous because of it. And he goes on talks shows and stuff and there are all these women who want to be his "beauty" in hope of getting their own fairy tale ending.
These are just ideas, good luck!
1 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 11 50
You could always explore the other side of the moral. Beasts might have a heart of gold, but there's the reverse: a handsome man might hide a truly ugly soul. Have Beauty reject a Beast and run off with a dashing prince who's not all-that-kind and show the consequences of that action.
----------A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 11 50
I was just throwing around some ideas on paper, basically writing down various plots from movies and trying to see if I could turn any of them into a BatB twist, when I thought of another possible idea:
A PI story (like Sam Spade, Columbo, or Nancy Drew) where the detective is the main character. The father comes to him with a wild story about how his daughter was abducted by a BigFoot or Yeti or Alien or something, says he already told the police but they just though he was crazy so didn't do anything. The detective thinks the guy is crazy too, but takes the case, because the girl disappeared somehow so he intends to find out. The story would follow the PI's investigation.
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80,631 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 15 25
Don't tell the story from the point of view of the beauty or the beast. That would shake things up.
There's a story in a collection by Francesca Lia Block where, after the beast turns back into a person, the beauty is disappointed because she liked him better as this intimidating-yet-fuzzy not-quite-a-pet-but-still-not-a-person.
And I have to add my name to the (apparently) very long list of people who've done BatB retellings. Mine was last year's NaNovel, and is currently around 170k words...and still not finished!!! But it was set in pre-revolutionarly France, and the "beast" was a werewolf, a fact which he hid from the beauty until more than halfway through the story (by which time she already loved him, but you'd still be freaked out if the man you wanted to marry suddenly turned up as a ravenous monster attempting to kill you).
----------Candace Cunard // Office of Letters & Light // Editorial Intern
238,153 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2008 - 03 31
I'm still not sure what exactly I'm going to do, but it's leaning towards a high fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a Dragon Lord instead of a Beast and Beauty being a Princess (instead of Beast being a Prince). So I may be doing on long retelling instead of a set of short stories now. Not sure yet, but at least I'm getting there.
----------
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Help Me Rewrite Beauty & the Beast for NaNo08!
What Genre is My Vampire Story?
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