brainstorming the tales
Feb. 6th, 2015 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliSo off goes the hero to ask a question of a far-off marvel. Rather like going to fetch an ogre's feathers, or the devil's three golden hairs. Along the way he meets three people with questions, who ask him to ask for them, too. . . .
Which means I need questions, and answers, that fit into the story, and can stand more development.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have one already -- the Iron Hans figure wants to know how the pool that turned our hero's hair gold when he was a boy can be properly protected, and so free him from the spell that binds him to the woods.
Then, using that, I would need to tie in the other questions and answers to the story similarly. the one advantage is that I do not have to use one to dispose of the villain at the end, leaving him stuck operating a ferry, which is traditional for many versions -- but not the one I'm using. the Norwegian tales have me thinking about another, about a dry well. There's the question, but then I need an answer. . . .
Or perhaps I don't give him three questions. There are a lot of things hard to translate from fairy talse to fully worked out novels, and the fairy tales' habit of trebling things is one of them.
Which means I need questions, and answers, that fit into the story, and can stand more development.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have one already -- the Iron Hans figure wants to know how the pool that turned our hero's hair gold when he was a boy can be properly protected, and so free him from the spell that binds him to the woods.
Then, using that, I would need to tie in the other questions and answers to the story similarly. the one advantage is that I do not have to use one to dispose of the villain at the end, leaving him stuck operating a ferry, which is traditional for many versions -- but not the one I'm using. the Norwegian tales have me thinking about another, about a dry well. There's the question, but then I need an answer. . . .
Or perhaps I don't give him three questions. There are a lot of things hard to translate from fairy talse to fully worked out novels, and the fairy tales' habit of trebling things is one of them.