With the first draft of The Many Antlered Crown completed and off to beta-readers, I’ve had a curious lack of work. After writing The Wind from Faerie, I proceeded fairly quickly to the sequel. Having finished that sequel, I’ve now taken nearly a month’s respite from serious writing and my fingers are starting to get twitchy. I’d really rather not get into the final book of the series until I’ve done a bit more editing on the second, but I’ve been needing to write something. I finally decided to try my hand at an idea I’ve been toying with for a few months now: a collection of fairytales. The fairytales contained in my books were a blast to write, and I was feeling rather inspired by Lord Dunsany’s work. Surely it would not be so hard to write a few tales?
It has been far more difficult than I could have imagined. After much thought, I’ve managed to produce two pages, or about 800 words. When I’m writing a book, 800 words is the bare minimum I allow my self to write in a day. I’ve been dabbling in this fairytale business for several weeks now, and there’s no sign of reasonable progress. My wife and I are driving to the Oregon coast soon, and I’m hoping the long car ride and ocean views will help cure my curious silence. I’m sure the removal of my diversions can only help.
Why should writing fairytales be so difficult? After all, they tend to be rather simple stories. They are usually short, with little time for character development, and they use classic folklore elements with which we are all familiar. I think it’s exactly those things that make fairytales seem simple that makes them difficult to write. A short story has to make its point quickly, and the characters must be painted with a few, masterful strokes. We must quickly understand which characters are good and which are bad. We also have to understand how the supernatural elements will fit together. We must be able to differentiate the helpful creatures from the harmful, know the weakness of the monster, and understand how the hero’s plan will work. I think a good fairytale also has an otherworldly quality which is hard to fake.
In addition to all the little elements of a fairytale, which are so important, there’s the matter of the plot. There is an enormous variation in the plots of fairytales; some follow the hero’s journey archetype, while others are utterly unique. Sometimes they teach a moral, other times they are only fun adventures. Despite the broad variation, all fairytales share a few essential qualities. In fairytales, the mundane world we are accustomed to comes face to face with the supernatural. Many times the characters of fairytales don’t seem surprised or concerned when they encounter the supernatural. Taking advice from a talking stag or driving away the meddlesome wee folk seems natural. Everyone listening to a fairytale already knows that magic exists, and that our world is populated by strange and mysterious creatures. Even if it is shocking to happen upon a mermaid, no one ever believed that mermaids were imaginary, neither the characters or the readers. Fairytales come from a time when anything was not only possible, but likely to happen sooner or later. I might not know anyone who’s stumbled into the Faerie realm, but it stands to reason that someone would because its a real place that one could stumble into. I think the frank acknowledgment of the magical is one of the most delightful aspects of fairytales.
Contrary to the oft repeated phrase, fairytales don’t always have a happy ending. What they do always have is a struggle between good and evil. There are very few antiheroes or morally gray decisions; fairytales are usually rather straightforward. That is not to say that the struggles in fairytales are less realistic or inconsequential. On the contrary, the stakes are often very high and very human. Life, love, and wealth may be won or lost in a moment. Thankfully, the heroes are often much more than doughty; they are clever, wise, and chaste. Fairytales celebrate virtue and the good it brings those who bear it.
There are so many elements which come together to make a fairytale powerful and memorable. They are an art form, distinct from all others. I’ll certainly not master the technique in a few weeks, and perhaps not in a lifetime, but I’ll keep tinkering with these magical little stories. I know whatever I do, I’ve got to write more than two pages.
The Sensiahd word of the day is “awilliar”, meaning “pleasing”. Example sentence: Es marec maidre siahd awilliar. I want to be able to speak pleasingly.