marycatelli | Entries tagged with fairy tale tropes

Poking at an outline for a fairy tale story. And there are some tropes that do not translate easily into long form.

Such as shifting between generations.

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I have read a number of complaints about the Beast turning back into a man at the end of the tale.

Most of them are simply contemptuous of the way he looks. Some, indeed, have obviously entirely reversed the moral of the tale, and are more turned on by the bestial form, and completely ignore the man inside it.

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My prince and princess in a fairy tale novel were gibing at the notion of a princess who attracts birds and harmless creatures like fawns and rabbits.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1173265.html

One thing that fairy tales do not worry about is time. Since they follow a single character -- and switch when another is taken out of the plot -- and the rare exceptions often do not meet again, and seldom are depending on the exact timing, it is rarely important. If the hero's wife had to have given birth while he's gone -- well, tramping over thrice nine kingdoms does take a minute or two.
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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1046337.html

Names are even more fun in a fairy-tale novel.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1043983.html

The heroine is about to learn the kingdom was at war. Yes, even in fairy tales, there are wars.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1042251.html

One advantage that fairy-tale princesses have over princesses in other tales is that they never have to worry about what their ladies-in-waiting are doing when they are doing something.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1041685.html

Read a claim that actually Hans's twist was foreshadowed in Frozen, even though most people would not pick it up.

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Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/1007076.html

I suspect that it refers to that friend of our childhood, the prince of the old folk tale; the young man who travels for seven miles and comes to seven gates guarded by seven dragons, and passes through all sorts of perils, which are marked at once by moral heroism and mathematical symmetry. It is he who is to be exhibited in as a despot and oppressor; as a despot of elfland and an oppressor of seven-headed dragons. As he is rather a remote as well as a romantic figure, it may be a little difficult for historians to discover what were his true colours. His true colours, so far as I am concerned, are silver and gold and crimson, and all the colours of the rainbow.

G. K. Chesterton

Crossposts: https://marycatelli.livejournal.com/994145.html

Or, The Effects of Reading Fairy Tales on the Writing of Superhero Stories.

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Crossposts: http://marycatelli.livejournal.com/865159.html

I mentioned earlier that you can find such a character by being a woman who lost her husband to magic and going on a quest for him. Though it's not reliable. You might meet the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars instead.
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It's kind of annoying to find a writer who talks of the importance of doing your research and then pulls an awful research blooper.

In fairy tales, all witches are evil, and all wizards good. sigh

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juggle, juggle, juggle. . . . the fun things you find when revising.

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Once upon a time, there was a prince who saw a raven bleeding on a marble stair and wished for a bride as red as blood, as white as marble, and as black as a raven. . .
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Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp

An incredibly academic analysis of fairy tales. If you're not merely interested in fairy tales but also variants and things like that, you are very likely to like it.

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Fairy tales are often messy about the time factor.

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I mentioned that fairy tales don't stop after the wedding, didn't I? And didn't back it up?

All right, here I back it up.
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In Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie thinks she's, as the oldest child, doomed to fail the worst when she sets out to seek her fortune.

sigh

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Homer nods, and Terry Pratchett wonders why, in the fairy tale, the witch is always wicked. To which there are there are two answers.

The first is for the same reason that fairy tales always stop when the heroine's married -- They Don't.

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The prince arrives at the inn with his bride. . .

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Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

being chiefly about the written word

Entries tagged with fairy tale tropes

generations

Beauty and the transformed-back Beast

the princess with the birds and beasts

points of view

the game of names

distances

fairy tales and ladies-in-waiting

reasons of fairy tale state

true colors

The Mad Scientist's Beautiful Granddaughter

how to find a good witch in a fairy tale

witches and wizards and fairy tales

the eyes have it

red, white, and black

Morphology of the Folktale

fairy tale time

after the wedding

oldest child

the wicked witch

hands

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