Anyone else doing a fairy tale re-telling?

Mine started out as a variation on Twelve Dancing Princess, but the more I write it, the more the fairy tale elements mutate beyond recognition. By the end of it, even I probably won't be able to tell the original inspiration.

omg I *love* The 12 Dancing Princesses, that's my favorite fairy tale! Are you actually including 12 princesses? I've read a couple re-tellings where the author only wrote in 6 or so princesses, but I guess having 12 would be really useful for getting the word count up for NaNoWriMo, huh, lol.

I am...well, sort of! It's Sleeping Beauty, focused on both the Beauty and the Prince (who for once, at least tries to be good). But it goes on so many wild unrelated tangents I'm not sure it counts as a retelling. There's stuff in there that has nothing to do at all with the original fable. Funny you should mention the Heartless Princess, though...

I'd also wanted to do a version of The Wild Swans. Another year, perhaps!

The Snow Queen is a lovely story. It's one of the ones I'd always toyed with the idea of doing.

Mine is a reworking of the Beauty and the Beast motif, with some elements of the older Cupid and Psyche version.

Interesting plot developments: Beauty is really not beautiful, nor exactly young, Beast has some other secrets, there is a love triangle, sort of, . . . it's complicated.

I'm doin a retelling of Little Red riding Hood. I've always loves the story as a kid, but I wanted to make it more...exciting?? It isn't really going to be the same story, i'm not really following the plot, and it's going to end up completely different. but it's based on Little Red:) I just love fairytales!!

Oh, hey, I recognise you, OP. ;)

This is my first NaNo, too, and as I'm a really slow writer, I dunno how it'll turn out, but I'm trying nonetheless.

I'm doing a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale 'Prince Lindworm'. I was deciding between that and 'East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon', as they're my two favourites, but I ended getting more inspired for the former. I'll save EotS, WotM for next year, I guess!

It's ending up demanding a lot more historical/linguistic research than I originally planned to put in, but, um, I'll probably put that off until finishing/rewriting time in December. xD

I'm doing a Beauty and the Beast twist, based off the original French tale, with the fairies and the magical artifacts and stuff. :3 It's following the same basic plotline (or at least it started it that way...it looks like that will be changing soon), except I'm adding new characters and fleshing out old ones (original fairytale protagonists were alwasy so flat). You can kind of still see the original tale in the prologue, which I've putup as my excerpt. But after that it has kind of lost its structure a little. >_>; I'm also providing a few more subplots and ending up kind of really...really warping it. XD Ah, well. It's a lot of fun. ^^

Third year running and still haven't won yet; still don't have the time; still doing it anyway.

I have an unrelated project that's based off of East of the Sun & West of the Moon that I'll probably be finishing up after November. :D

Having been called in here very many times over the past few months to answer for this or that misdemeanor, Oliver was well acquainted with the room's nuances and eccentricities – most of them fungal.

I love all of your ideas! And The Snow Queen has always been one of my favorites.

Mine is going to be part Selkie myth, part Tam Lin. I'm not sure how it is all going to work out yet, but I'm excited to see how well I can butcher classic fairy tales! :)

I'm basing my story off the fairy tale of Tam Lin which involves fairies, but the darker side to them. I've read a few stories based on that fairy tale such as Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones and some other books I can't remember the titles of but they were all different interpretations so I'm hoping mine will be too :)

I also love the Snow Queen!

Edit: Didn't see the post above me till after I posted this! I find it weird but cool that you're using a bit of the Tam Lin fairy tale too!

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2009: The Cold Ones

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Yay! It's always good to see some Tam Lin appreciation. I'd love to hear how your story turns out! :)

It's not exactly a retelling, but part of the inspiration for my story was 'what if you had a situation like cinderella, where the prince is going from door to door searching for the mysterious woman he's in love with, but the prince is actually a huge jerk, and cinderella doesn't want anything to do with him?'

I think starting a story with a fairy tale or folk tale inspiration and having it grow from there is a great plan of attack for nano. You get perks of the basic structure but still lots of flexibility.

GAH, everyone's stories sound so amazing, I want to read them right now!!!

@Aiffe Oh yes, that naughty Sleeping Beauty prince...! I love shocking people by telling them the original version of the tale, lol. I *wish* I could come up with a ton of totally un-related tangents for my story! I feel like a need a bunch for it to be original, haha. What is The Wild Swans about?!

@nawilla That sounds amazing, I love it when people just completely turn around the given elements of fairy tales, like how your Beauty isn't really young or particularly beautiful!

@StarsAndSheeps omg YES! I've always wanted to read an exciting Red Riding Hood re-telling, but the only one I've ever read didn't deliver on its potential, in my opinon (Scarlet Moon by Debbie Viguie)

@alicepotato omg that is SO funny that we found each other on the forums here, usually I NEVER post in forums but I was so curious about other people writing fairy tales, I couldn't resist. Will you be my writing buddy?! haha What is Prince Lindworm about?? I know I definitely think EotS, WotM would be a great NaNo project but my creative plot ideas come so sporadically that I knew I could never build the plot up enough lol. Yeah I'm on the same track as you with the historical research and everything haha I'm just like typing in all caps when I know need to fix something later and then I move on. Which is VERY difficult because thats not usually the way I do things when I write lol.

@ObsidianPyro I've never read the original Beauty and the Beast (admitting that kind of makes me feel a bit ashamed, I need to fix that asap, haha) is it close to Robin McKinley's 'Beauty'? Oh yes those darn flat fairy tale protagonists! Snow White irks me the most lol.

@Wendigo I *love* Tam Lin, have you ever read 'An Earthly Knight' by Janet McNaughton??

@frazzledazzle And another Tam Lin! haha So I must as you, too: have you ever read 'An Earthly Knight' by Janet McNaughton??

@allisnow That sound great! Prince Charmings are nice and all, but I do have a MAJOR soft spot for girls picking another guy over the prince, hehe.

Nice! I'm using the Swan-Maiden fairy tales as a basis for my NaNo.

(I'm assuming you're pulling "East of the Sun & West of the Moon" from the swan-maiden tale in which a swan-maiden leaves her human husband but tells him to look for her east of the Sun and West of the Moon.)

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else.

- Umberto Eco

It's my first NaNo as well, and i'm doing one too!
Well... sort of. Mines a modern fantasy with inspiration and references of Alice in Wonderland - not exactly a fairy tale, but close enough. I wanted to explore concepts of madness and confusion and dealing with overwhelming things. It's coming along quite well actually, which is good.

All your ideas sound so good. I can't wait to get my act together and post here some more and read what people have to say about their novel ideas!

x

I'm not prismac, so I'm assuming as well, but there is a Norwegian fairy tale called 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' which is totally unrelated to the swan maiden story. Sorry for jumping in, but it's my absolute favourite fairy tale and I often feel the need to promote it to people who've never heard of it~

@lindsay0819: I will totally be your writing buddy, even if I’m totally intimidated by how much more than me you’ve already written. xD

Prince Lindworm is, briefly, about how a queen, after not following the instructions of a witch on how to magically become pregnant, gives birth to a normal baby and a horrible dragon baby. Years later, when the dragon hears that his brother is going to be married, he demands that, as the eldest, he be married first or he’ll destroy the entire kingdom, ‘cause he’s charming like that. So he gets married twice, but each time eats his bride. Since no kings are now willing to let him marry and eat their daughters, the king’s shepherd’s daughter has to marry him. With the help of the witch from the beginning, she basically enacts the weirdest plan known to fairy tales, which involves wearing nine dresses at once, a stripping contest, whipping the dragon until he is a quivering lump of bloody meat, and giving him a milk bath. Then, he turns into a human and he and the shepherd’s daughter live happily ever after, despite him having eaten two people. It’s pretty awesome. <3

And I've been planning for East of the Sun story for, uh, seven years actually, without writing more than two random excerpts, so it probably wouldn't have been the best choice for my first NaNo, but I want to write it sometime!

Wow, there are some really awesome stories being written around here!

I didn't really plan on telling a fairy tale but when I sat down to write, it's what came out. It's sort of a reserve-Enchanted; modern girl ends up in a fairy tale land. I keep second guessing myself since I don't normally write fantasy but hopefully it turns out not completely humiliating.

Not a re-telling, but a prequel of a fairy-tale classic. Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. I've started my story 45 years before the beginning of KED. I don't know if anyone has read it, but in my story I'm going to describe the coming of the Church to the Vale of Erl, the birth of Lirazel (the eponymous Daughter), and the creation of the boundary of twilight.

So I have to be careful not to break continuity with Dunsany's novel, and to pick up on those places in his novel where the past is referred to.

I'm inspired by the crystaline beauty of his prose--even if I can't match his prose, the effort will no doubt improve my own writing skills. So far I'm up to 6,000 words. Last night I wrote a "falling in love" scene.

Alveric

("The Lake-Isle of Two Kings" and "High, Windowless Tower." Forthcoming.)

^ I have always wanted to read the The King of Elfland's Daughter, but I cannot find it anywhere! D: Much luck with your story; it sounds like it will be great fun!

According to the outline, my novel "Masters of Fable" is supposed to be nothing more than a series of retellings - or perhaps reimaginings? "heavily inspired by" kinds of things? - of all sorts of fairy tales. So far, I've counted Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Bluebeard, The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast, Tam Lin (... which would be a ballad/folk tale, rather than a fairy tale. If there's a vast difference. It's one of my favourite stories of all time), and several mythological tales: Eurydice; the descent of the goddess Inanna (a tale which has haunted me since I first read Victoria Schmidt's "45 Master Characters"); and the story of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. I think being able to finish a short story reimagining of a favorite fairy tale and move on to the next will really inspire me to finish my novel. I'm excited!

EDIT: :: waves arms :: OMG, Wendigo and frazzledazzle. More Tam Lin retellings!! Yay!

Im working on a story that involves a world of fairy tales from the Grimm books - while not modeled after any specific story but more the characters and personailites of various stories. It is a fantasy realm humans find themselves in that is where these fairy tale creatures and legends live.

Pop..six..squish..uhu..Cicero.. Lipshitz. ~Nuff Said.

I love East of the Sun and West of the Moon! It's one of my favourite fairy tales ever. (I submit proof!)

I'm not doing a retelling, exactly, but my January WriMo project involves Red Riding Hood and Baba Yaga as major characters, if that counts! :D

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Well I was inspired by The Princess Bride for mine. It doesn't follow the same story line at all but there is a bit of trickery (not intentional or realized) between the man the character loves and who she is betrothed to (both women in the story).

The original (as far as I know; I may be wrong) was by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve, published in 1740. The story is abundant with superfluous details that never made it into modern retellings, such as fairies, dream visitations, a more detailed back-story for the beast, and the “revelation” that Beauty was not a merchant’s daughter at all, but secretly the daughter of a king and a fairy, the same evil fairy who had raised the Prince as a boy while his warmongering queen of a mother was away(the king who was the prince’s dad had died a long time ago). When he got older, the fairy tried to seduce him, and when he denied her she turned him into a beast.

At first I had the intention of writing a summary of it here, but I got halfway through it and realized it was still too long. I can’t summarize it both pithily and concisely. If I knew where to find it online, I would give you a link, but I forgot where all my sources were originally. I’ll look for them again if you’re interested. ^_^

Soon after the original became popular, Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont published an edited and altered version of the story(1756, or something), which is the more familiar version to people today. She took out many lengthy details that cluttered Villeneuve’s version and made it a much more streamlined story. She removes the dream sequences, much of the description of Beast’s castle and Beauty’s life there, and the back-story of their heritages.
I’m not sure which version I like better. Villeneuve’s is certainly more detailed, but Beaumont is more direct and has less meandering of on unnecessary tangents about class distinctions, etc. Even so, I would probably like Villeneuve’s better if it weren’t for the “Oh, by the way, Beauty is a half-fairy princess” bit. That kind of disappoints me. :\

In both stories, Beauty never actually had a name...she was just "the Beauty". XD She was also a VERY Snow White-ish character, what with being perfect and all. Beautiful, but humble and sweet and hardworking and pious, etc. Bleh. Lol. My Beauty is kind of an awkward introvert (with a name!) who dislikes the idea of marriage and ends up wishing she was uglier so people would stop pestering her about it. And she is NOT a fairy princess.

My original plan for my story was that after the Beast is turned back into a handsome prince, he degenerates right back into his vain old asshole self, so Beauty gets sick of him and runs off with one of the palace servants...who she's actually loved all along but didn't realize it because the guy is mute and only spoke to her through letters, which she had assumed were from the Beast. :D
I don't know if it will stay that way, I'm already thinking of changing it, but oh well.

Third year running and still haven't won yet; still don't have the time; still doing it anyway.

Baba Yaga? :D You've officially made my day! <3

Third year running and still haven't won yet; still don't have the time; still doing it anyway.

Oh wow that's a gorgeous picture!! I'm jealous, I wish I could do faces and hands like that, haha.

omg yes I LOVE Baba Yaga, she's sooo creepy and just plain WEIRD! :D I especially how it came about that she lives in a house on chicken legs, lol.

Thanks - you're right! I did mean the actual fairytale. The one that's a bit like the Eros & Psyche myth. :D

Having been called in here very many times over the past few months to answer for this or that misdemeanor, Oliver was well acquainted with the room's nuances and eccentricities – most of them fungal.

That sounds ***SO*** amazing!!! Yeah if you just happen to stumble upon a link for it, I'd love it if you'd send it my way :D

Mmm yeah I feel you on the "Bleh!" at Snow-White-ish characters, she is my most despised fairy tale princess, haha.

Your ending sounds so cute and creative! That's what I want to do with my story, too, but I just can't figure out a way to have it make sense like you have. =/ Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something by the end of the month, hopefully... lol

Mine is a modern day re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Set in Modern day Budapest with Orpheus being a schizophrenic, and the underworld being a result of his psychosis triggered after his wife died. Although the general style is more literary fiction, there is a lot of fantasy elements thrown in. I wanted to make the underworld not so much a cliché with fire and brimstone, but more like a gritty, urban, surreal fantasy setting. Think of aesthetics like in the movie "The Cell" for example (only the aesthetics, the rest of the move was awful :P ) .

I'm remixing The little mermaid. At this point it has both some of the orginial and some of the disney movie and some random stuff I put it.

"Crazy people speak to the voices in their head - writers tell others what the voices say." - unknown

NaNoWriMo 2008: It's All About The Wordplay *EPIC VICTORY!!!*

My original idea started off as a retelling of an irish myth/fairy tale about an Atlantis-like place. However, the details are extremely hard to find and so are back stories, so I've made most of it up by myself and changed what I wish to fit the story. It's nice having people think up backstories for you though! ;)

All your ideas sound so terrific! I love the Snow Queen- I was going to do one of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, but I figured they were a bit over done. I'm looking to do another fairy tale or myth next NaNo through!

G'luck everyone with their novels!

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