Fairytales heroines nab our attention because they are either princesses, become princesses or encounter the supernatural. Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, The Snow Queen. Even the heroine in Rumpelstiltskin marries the King who locked her in a room, demanding she turn straw into gold. (What’s up with that, by the way? Marrying the greedy guy put you in a tower?) But fairytale heroines are often tools in a morality story. A symbol. A two-dimensional character that shuffles the plot along to teach a valued lesson. For a novel, we need a heroine readers can relate to, who looks someone like them even if they are a princess, or meet a prince, or who’s superpower is strictly her beauty. From the web site Den of Geeks: “We don’t care who they are, […]
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Learning from Fairytales: Story World Building Part II
Fairytales can’t exist without story world. Where would we be without Cinderella’s magic garden with the fairy godmother? Or Snow White’s dash through the evil forest to meet up with seven spunky dwarfs? How about Beast’s castle? The enchanted place where Belle found herself detained? The last time on the fairytale blog, I talked about the elements of story world being visual, emotional and symbolic. Today we’ll look at mystical and societal. Mystical Below is an excerpt from the book I just finished about a long lost princess returning to her great grandmother’s country. She looks out the palace window to see a glow in the forest. “You don’t see a white light? Kind of sparkly? In the woods?” Franz stared ahead, his hand wrapped around the thick curtain cord. […]
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