Story Planning: Week 12

I've never done a story planning post before so this might be a little interesting... I have included my notes from the first story that I read with more detail. The story I chose from my section was "The Rose Tree". The story started off very subtle, then got a little interesting.

The gruesome part really disturbed me. It had a stepmother chopping off her stepdaughter's head. The stepdaughter seemed a little naive. I think in my story post I would include more dialogue and more of a reason for the stepmother to do so. I also though about having the children (since the stepmother also had a son) change identities.

Even though it would be really sad, I think the boy should dress up like the girl to make it seem like they are playing a trick on the stepmom. She was very fond of her son, so I think it would be interesting to add a part about her thinking it was the daughter instead of her own son. I think I could build some type of moral out of the story that way. The stepmother would then feel really guilty about learning the truth of what she had done to her son.

The stepmother also had them eat the daughter for dinner, so I was really disturbed by that part. I think I would get rid of that and maybe have something more evil happen to the stepmother. I do like the idea of her just regretting what she had done to her own son though.

Another idea I had to have the father more involved and go after the stepmother for doing that to a child. I know revenge isn't always the best, but if someone did that to my child I would be mortified. I also wanted to add some more dialogue and description to the story.

(The Rose Tree)

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales; Part B

(Henny Penny)

I thought the first story for Part B was very cute. I also thought it was a little confusing with all of the names that the animals were given. It made me laugh every time I had to read the names over and over again though. Things then started to take a turn for the worst when some of the animals heads got chopped off. I was not expecting that. Maybe for one of my stories I should just throw something in the readers are not expecting and make them cringe a little. I probably would not make the names so confusing though, I feel like everything got very repetitive and was getting annoyed.

The next story was quite interesting. I don't really know why, but I have not liked the names of the characters very well. I think they should have included characters with more of a background or meaning to why they named something the way they did. I felt like there wasn't entirely a moral to the story either. I don't think I would choose to write something like this.

The next story I enjoyed until the end. Reading Jonny-Cake reminded me the of the old riddle. I was hoping the story would go more in to detail from the song and it did to an extent. The story also felt slightly repetitive again which I didn't care much for. The ending was again surprising and sad. I felt bad for Jonny-Cake, but also felt like he was bragging throughout the story. I think there are a few things I could do with this story to make it interesting.


Bibliography: English Fairy Tales

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales; Part A

The first story in this section was pretty interesting. There were some parts that I thought went together and some that I didn't. At the end I was trying to figure out the moral of the story and if it even really had one. The story begins with a daughter betraying her mother and eating pies that she is not supposed to. It then transitions to her getting to marry the king. Most months with the king would be glorious, with the exception of a few bad days in between. During those bad days she struggled with what she had to do. Help came along the way and they tried to make things difficult for her by having her try to guess their name. I think if I was to change up the story, I would try to make a connection as to why this person wanted her to guess their name. Overall, it was a fairly good read.

I enjoyed The Rose Tree, the second story a little better. Although it was gruesome, there was somewhat more of a moral to the story than the first one. If I was make changes, I would maybe have the daughter and son deceive the stepmother somehow and have her end up killing her own son and then face the consequences that way. I liked the description in the story as well. I felt as if I was able to picture everything, as cruel and unusual as it was. It still creeps me out that some of the stories I have read have someone being killed and then their body eaten by those people. I am disturbed by the fact that a human would have the heart to do that. Maybe I would take that part out.

(The Rose Tree) 

The next story was kind of funny! I enjoyed how things kept adding on to the story to make things seem crazier. It would be a fun twist if I made something mess up in the chain of events happening. I feel like the lady went through so much to get a pig to do something, but overall I liked the idea. 

The last story I liked from Part A was the cat and the mouse having  conversation. I think in my writing I should include more dialogue. I like how nonchalantly the story ended with the cat eating the mouse. It would be funny to do a role reversal and have the mouse eat the cat. Not ideal, but would be very interesting. 

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales