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. […]
Read the RestTag Archives | fiction
Learning from Fairytales: Story World Building
When I started the Royal Wedding Series, I knew I had to create a country or countries “worlds” in which my royal families lived. I’m a realistic kind of writer. I like real cities and real places. I once called the Starbucks in downtown Chattanooga to get a description. I called the University of Northern Iowa to see if scholarshipped athletes had to live in the dorms. All the sake of authenticity. Yet, I’ve created fictional towns three times in the course of seventeen novels. Reasons can vary for making up cities, or countries. Or entire universes. Genre is a key reason to invent other places. Fantasy, Sci-Fi and fairytales, books with supernatural elements, demand world building. Tolkien created a middle of the earth! So what can we not do […]
Read the RestFeature Fiction Friday Presents: Rachel Hauck
Howdy Folks! With this year’s Frasier contest right around the corner, let’s acknowledge someone who has made it possible. Introducing Rachel Hauck and her new book Once Upon a Prince. Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your story? Once Upon a Prince, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by bestselling author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale. Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess—just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn’t going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life. The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simon’s Island is the queen of […]
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The Fairytale Code: Write a great story using Fairytale Elements
One of the things we love to do at My Book Therapy is “break it down.” Just what does it take to write a great story? Fairytales capture our imagination in many ways. The art of creating worlds full of the supernatural, good verses evil and true love have been around since… well, The Garden. The elements of traditional fairytales are often found in fantasy and modern day science fiction. And of course, love stories. This week and next, I want to break down the technical fundamentals of a fairytale. You’ll see we use them in our “non fairytale” stories as well. Story world. All stories must have some story world, but those with a fairytale element, must have a rich, dynamic story world. The characters’ world must go beyond […]
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