 Drama: March 03, 2021 Issue [#10623] |
This week: Fiction Based on Myths and Ancient Tales Edited by: Joy  
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“Every ancient tale has truth at its heart," I said. "That's what I've always believed, anyway. But after years and years of retelling, the shape of those old stories changes. What may once have been simple and easily recognized becomes strange, wondrous and magical. Those are only the trappings of the story. The truth lies beneath those fantastic garments.”
Juliet Marillier, Tower of Thorns
“Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
“Chiron looked surprised. “I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles.”
Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”
L. M. Montgomery
“When we lose our myths, we lose our place in the universe.”
Madeleine L'Engle
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about writing fiction based on the myth, legend, folklore, or fairy-tale stories.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Remember all those fun times we had while reading the myths, fairy-tales, legends, and folklore stories when we were children? Since there is nothing new under the sun, those stories are still alive and thriving, and they keep on inspiring intelligent writers like you.
Sometimes, inspired writers re-tell those old myths and stories, polishing them with a modern veneer by adding new characters or settings and twisting and turning their storylines. Next thing you know a brand-new story is born with a strong base plot and interesting characters. The good thing about writing from myth, legend, or fairy tales is that you can change what you like or you can do a straight retelling, and your story will still present itself as a fresh one.
One recent novel, The Winter Sister by Megan Collins, is such a story in which the author based her story on the myth of Persephone. In Megan Collins’s story Sylvie moves home to be with her ailing mother in a care center. Sylvie is haunted by her sister Persephone’s unsolved murder and she thinks Persephone’s boyfriend had something to do with her death. Then in the care center where her mother is, she discovers her sister’s boyfriend among the workers there. Consequently, the thrilling secrets are revealed slowly as all relationships are explored through the storyline.
A different story based on myth is House of Names by Colm Toibin, in which the author retold the story of Clytemnestra. It is a dramatic family saga of power-struggle, heartaches, and yearning. In this retelling of the old Greek mythical story, Agamemnon tricks his wife Clytemnestra and daughter Iphigenia by telling them to come the war front because he wants Iphigenia marry one of his soldiers. Yet, Iphigenia is killed as a sacrifice to the Gods and Clytemnestra sets out to get her revenge.
Donald Barthelme’s Snow White is yet another example of what an author can come up with while playing with a fairy tale. In this story, the seven dwarves are men who wash buildings and make Chinese baby food. They live with Snow White who is a vocabulary fan. Although the book uses--in a truly postmodern sense--the language, psychology, and literary form to the degree of sacrificing theme, characters, and plot, its result is original.
The way I see it, a myth, fairy-tale, or legend-based story may add to the drama you can create if you wish to entertain your readers or explore different ideas and attitudes by re-writing the original story or adapting it to your own thinking and insight. For that, you may opt to retell the story without changing much or you may take a part or parts of it and build your fiction on that.
Whatever your method may be, here are some questions on choosing the kind of myth, legend, or fairy tale for your story:
1. What does this myth, legend, or fairy tale explain? Is it why an event occurred, why people act in certain way, or why things are the way they are, such as why the moon comes at night and the sun goes down?
2. Does the story include a lesson? A moral? Is the lesson or the moral tweakable?
3. Is there a hero or a loser, and if there is, will you be able to switch their roles for an important twist?
4. If you altered the storyline, will your fiction hold water?
5. Can the myth, legend, or fairy tale only accept heroes and fantastical characters? Can you easily replace the legendary characters with the real-life ones, instead?
Then, once you have chosen a myth, legend, or fairy tale, let’s examine how you will go about the writing of it. A few suggestions may be:
 Who are you writing for? If for children, beware of the old Greek myths as their content may not be appropriate for some age groups.
Some of the myths, legends, or fairy tales have varied versions. Are you willing to do research on them to arrive at a more favorable story?
Will you use a single story or a collection of myths? And which specific elements of those are you going to use?
Is the conflict in the original myth, legend, or fairy tale profound and believable enough to apply to a present-day story?
Some of the myths, legends, or fairy tales have holes in them. Is filling those holes easy enough or are they too challenging to handle successfully?
Are you going to rename the characters or use the original names? Either way, a good advice is to make the characters more realistic by adding flaws to a too-good-hero and giving a better or different conduct or reason to a villain.
Where can you place your story? Is the setting in connection with or in contradiction of the original setting in that myth, legend, or fairy tale?
Bringing the old myth, legend, folklore, or fairy tales can add magic to your craft and can connect the readers to the fundamental truths of all ages. I wish you the best with your venture when and if you choose to enhance such magic. I am quite sure the result will be worth your efforts.
Until next time! 
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This Issue's Tip: Emotional self-talk ideas:
Characters may talk to pets; write in a journal or sing what they wish to say; tell another person, a friend, a therapist, or a priest; or they talk to God or the divine in whom they believe.
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Feedback for "Gender Roles in Dramatic Fiction"
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Jon Little (they/them) 
Thank you for addressing such an important issue. The fluidity of gender definition and identification in today's society creates a void that writers must actively engage. Questioning my own gender stereotypes has raised my awareness, not only of the concerns of those who are personally and intimately challenging binary gender stereotypes, but also of the challenges we all go through, as human beings, defining our own societal roles and relationships.
Good job!
Good point, and thanks for the feedback. Stereotyping gender roles is as if sticking a branch in a beehive. Then, with the historical fiction, that branch meant altering the accustomed roles.
Today's fiction, however, can take more chances as the way we look at gender roles has been modernized somewhat, for the better or the worse, I cannot say.
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Quick-Quill 
I think This Issue's Tip: explained it all in a nutshell. A character Has to Change or affect change in a story, or why bother to read the story?
Thanks for the input. I agree without change, a story would sound dry, even after the change, the earlier status quo takes over in some way.
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Elisa: Snowman Stik 
"During the last half of the twentieth century, the study of gender roles dominated the higher learning institutions."
I'd say dominated may be a rather strong word here. During my college days as an English major the exploration of gender roles was but one part of my studies. Other topics were discussed, ranging from horticulture trends (in establishing setting and historical context) to the relative newness of telling "original stories". Similar topic diversity appeared in my world cinema class as well.
Yes, they do. Especially the writers of historical fiction have to be vigilant on gender roles, for women, men, or the other. Thanks for the feedback.
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Odessa Molinari 
There is nothing that defines the gender role more than when your character becomes pregnant. Although I can remember the image of a pregnant Arnold Schwartzeneger filling my screen, we are far from making this a possibility in the real world.
What defines the expectant person most is others' reaction to them. Protective, often smothering, putting barriers in the way of them progressing as they would wish.
Thanks for the input. I would like to think there is more to gender bias, understanding, or appreciation, rather than the physical attributes, pregnancy being one of them. Others' reactions do count, plus the way the characters see or appreciate themselves.
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