I'm currently writing a twisted crossover version of the fairytales 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'Snow White' with my own tweaks. The story is placed into a medieval setting. Also, Christianity is unknown to the people of this story, they have their own religion which is a kind of a mish-mash of Norse Paganism and a few other religions. The characters are: Robin aka Red, a cynical and skeptical young woman with blazing red hair, pale skin and gold-gray eyes. Her hobbies include hunting and picking flowers. Myrtle, a startlingly beautiful young lady, a born optimist and naive to a fault, but not stupid. Has really bad luck. Hrothvitnir, Vanagandr, Freki or Valdyr, an anthropomorphic wolf and nightmare-creature with many names. Selfish and sadistic, not able to see humans on the same level as himself, but in the same way we see dogs or hen - or the way we once saw dark skinned people (except we never ate them) - Valdyr is a nightmare from Robin's past. Whenever Vanagandr happens to stop thinking so much about himself, he can be fun and caring. Sadly this doesn't happen too often. In the beginning of the story I will introduce Myrtle, running again, escaping from some unnamed fear. We will get to know that this has happened before. Myrtle meets Freki, who, surprisingly, leads Myrtle to a little house in the middle of a forest but refuses to come there. Myrtle, however, goes to the house and finds out that a young woman lives there - Red. From there on the story will unravel, revealing the girl's pasts full of death and abuse. We will get to know that Red is unable to die, as a result of an encounter between her and Valdyr, where she killed Valdyr and Valdyr injured her deadly. More or less luckily a fragment of Valdyr's being was fused into Red's body, but because Red is no nightmare-creature, she cannot come back the way Valdyr can - so the nightmare-being fragment just keeps her body alive, makes it fix itself whenever injured, thus making her unable to die - or get old, either. She does age, but differently from other humans. Red wants to be able to die when her time comes, not to be forced to live forever. However, the only way to remove the fragment of Valdyr is to kill Valdyr, and nightmare-creatures are extremely hard to kill permanently. They always come back, they are new, but they never change. And the nightmare-creatures can only die if they change. Anyhow, all this is just a sub-plot. I need something that makes them go around the land, a mission of sorts. Something that makes the three of them get involved with each other, care for each other, however hard it might be. But I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Does it take place in a modern or medieval setting? Perhaps Red needs to get rid of the fragment, or purify it in some way, and the two girls wander around to find the means for that? Can Myrtle be in debt to Red in some way, for example for having her life saved? Can Myrtle also be connected to the fragment in some way? Does the fragment carry some disadvantages to it?
Whoops. Forgot to mention that. It's a medieval setting. *goes to add a bit of info to the first message* --> Well, I've already figured out how Red will get rid of the fragment... It's as simple as our selfish Freki has to do something totally selfless - thus change. Red will probably save Myrtle's life many times during the story, because Myrtle has her husband and mother after her... Not that I could think of any. Yes, it causes Red go to the nightmare realm any time she falls asleep, and thus she really gets no rest, as she generally sees nightmares all the time.
That sounds like a cool story. A few general tips: 1. Don't make the nightmare creature (can't spell the name for my life lol) merely "wolf-like." Sure he can have wolf traits of course, but if it's just a stock character evil wolf, it won't be scary. Really amp up the description of him -- make him grotesque, hideous, a monster, unique. 2. Don't make too many parallels between the original fairy tale and your story. If there's too many parallels, it will be too easy for readers to predict what's gonig to happen. 3. What's at stake? In other words, once she kills this creature, she'll be able to die when it's her time. But what happens if she fails? Living forever is, in my opinion, not enough of a stake...yes, it's what she's afraid of, but there has to be more to it...maybe something horrific happens if she ages too much, like she'd turn into a monster herself.
I'm glad that you like the idea! Oh, my intention is not to make Freki evil. It isn't evil, it's an animal, but it's got human-like traits. Well, in general the only thing that parallels the original story is the character's histories, and those have my own tweaks too. Actually, that's what she fears, turning into a monster. Humans are not meant to live forever. Besides, there is a long period of time Red feels like she has no reason to live, and would rather die.
Sounds interesting, I always love dark twists on fairy tales, just a suggestion, Im guessing there's a twisted seduction that gets myrtle into the house, could the main plot be myrtle helping red to escape, therefore red now owes mrytle, and they are both on the run from freki, until they both find the courage needed to face him and his pack. Due to the part of him in red he can always find them. Just an idea excuse any errors I'm on iPhone and it's hard to type.
I think the mission needs to be Myrtles. I'd make Red older than Myrtle but appearing to be in the same age range. That way though she's gone past the immediate I want to die now stage she's also given up hope of dying and becoming anything but a monster. Something in Myrtles past or even in Myrtle is making her run and run far. There could be a person, some sage that can help Myrtle and they need to locate that person. Red goes with her because she can see something in Myrtle that is her in the past maybe? Meanwhile Valdyr is hunting red. I agree he has to be able to sense her but in most cases it's more like a small tug in a direction. As he gets closer of course it can be sensed more. Great idea though. I love Fairytales, twisted, original, disney or otherwise so I'd definitely be interested in reading this.
Ohh, Freki's just being kind to Myrtle and showing her a place where she may sleep the night. And Red lives in the house. Red has never had any trouble in facing her fears, she already killed Valdyr once and would have no problem in doing it again, actually, it's Myrtle who tries to prevent Red from killing Valdyr when they meet again! But thanks for throwing up suggestions! The mission really should be Myrtles. Red already has her own problems, whereas Myrtle just keeps on running from all the troubles in her past, because she doesn't want to face them, for that could only end with blood. Then again, that's what Myrtle has always been doing, why should she change? She might change for Red, though. You apparently have a good picture of what I thought about Red. She's a bit older than Myrtle, I thought that at first they had the age difference of one year, but if Myrtle didn't age when she was "dead", she would be even younger if she was "dead" long enough. Also, Red really has gone over that will to die, nothing really matters to her, at least not herself. Then again, Red cannot see herself in Myrtle, because they are so different, Whereas Myrtle is always running, Red has always met the troubles halfway or gone and surprised them by attacking them first. Also, there is nothing so horrible in Myrtle's past that she could'n run from it forever. It's just her jealous mother who wants her dead and her husband (a necrophiliac and pedophile king) who wants her back. I would run too, unless I wanted to be like Red and lift up an axe. Valdyr, on the other hand, has no reason to hunt Red; whenever nightmare-creatures come back, they have no memory of what happened before their death, partly exactly because that would end up with all of them hunting their killers, and besides, they would go insane if they remembered everything from their previous lives. I think that Valdyr will just end up hooking up with these two, partially because neither of the girls are afraid of it and it finds it interesting as most people fear it, partially because Myrtle's just so darn pretty, partially because of the essence shard in Robin, there are several reasons. Sorry for being unclear in the first message. Now, I got an idea: Myrtle hears that her husband is going to take a new wife, because Myrtle has left him (he has given up on finding her). Myrtle hears this girl is about the same age as her, possibly even younger, and she wants to save the poor girl. When Red hears what Myrtle's husband is like, she wants to help Myrtle, and Valdyr ends up coming with them because it has been hanging around them for a while already, but when it refuses to come with them as their "mission" might be dangerous, Red "tells" it that it'll either come or cry and come. It might be useful, she says. So they leave Red's house and head for the castle where Myrtle has lived some of the most miserable years of her life. Then Red starts to wonder if the whole thing is just a trap to get Myrtle back... What do you think?
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has all been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read What is Plot Creation and Development?
You don't need to be so abrupt. It feels like you'd just have slapped me on my face, figuratively speaking. I did put my words badly though. What I wanted to ask was if anyone had any ideas on how to make the plot possibly better, because I have the feeling there is something missing. If the plot sounds like a ripoff of something, I want to know how to make it sound more original. If it sounds great, that will encourage me to get it done! (Although I really do prefer critique.)
Fair enough, but the post is a template because it comes up so often. The point is, stop worrying about how the storyline (as opposed to plot - see the link) sounds when pitched. You can fine tune the storyline and trhe plot network as you write and develop the story. It doesn't have to sound earthshaking in summary. What matters is the characterization and the quality of the writing, Don't believe it? Take three favorite books or movies and summarize the storylines in a couple paragraphs each. Read them aloud. You'll probably find they don't sound all that special.
