Storyform for a Sleeping Beauty Retelling

writing
#1

Hello everyone ! I’m a French writer (sorry if I make any mistake by the way), fairly new to Dramatica (been learning the theory since July) and I’m working on my novel for NaNoWriMo. It’s mostly an original story but I wanted to link it to the Sleeping Beauty tale, as some sort of retelling - not really similar to the original tale, but I still want it to feel familiar enough.

I’m stuggling to find a storyform for this project so I wanted some opinions. Before diving into the “original” parts of my story I wanted to find one that could turn the original tale into a story (by twisting it a little bit of course), and then play with the storytelling. So I tried to write a little synopsis of the tale to narrow down my choices, at least for the Domains of the throughlines.

« A princess has been cursed at birth by a bitter fairy. The whole kingdom tries to prevent the curse from happening – but they fail. On her 16th birthday, the princess pricks her finger and she falls into a death-like sleep for a century, alongside the rest of the kingdom. It is only when a prince fights his way to the castle and kisses her that she wakes up, and the spell is broken. »

– The princess (MC) is in a problematic situation as the cursed one, the prince (IC) in a fixed mindset as he won’t back down from saving her, all the characters (OS) are trying to find a way to not let the curse happen, and the love story between the prince and the princess (RS) would be in problematic activities.

OS Psychology / RS Activities / MC Situation / IC Fixed Attitude. Fairly classical.

– The whole kingdom (OS) can’t help but be afraid of curse as the years pass by and be irrational about it, the princess and the prince (RS) are linked / meant to be because of who they are on the outside (true love’s kiss and all that), the princess (MC) gets involved into problematic activities which leads to the curse striking her, and the prince (IC) must mature and figure out how to break the curse by himself.

OS Fixed Attitude / RS Situation / MC Activities / IC Psychology

Of course they aren’t exactly like the original tale but I wanted to see which one would be the most interesting to write about in your opinion. And of course, those are just drafts and are prone to change, but I want to see if these two ideas could work. Or maybe you would have other ideas for a retelling ?

Thank you a lot for reading !

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#2

Love the idea of using the structure of a classic tale to tell an original, yet familiar, story.

My first thought at reading your illustrations above is that they mostly all feel like part of the same throughline. You mention the princess being in a Situation because of the curse and the prince not backing down from saving her from the curse and everyone doing something about the curse. Maybe it’s just because of the short descriptions given, but that all feels like a “they”/OS perspective on one issue. Remember, the original tale IS a tale and not a Grand Argument Story. if you’re going to stretch the tale into a story, you’ll need to add more information that wasn’t in the original tale.

Is there a way to make things more personal for the princess? Maybe her personal Situation isn’t just about the curse, but more about her general Situation of being a princess. She probably wouldn’t have been cursed if she wasn’t a princess. And as a princess, everyone is looking at her already. But as a cursed princess, they all look at her different.

Does the princess know the prince is coming to save her? How does his attitude (and not just his actions) have an affect on her? Is he the only one who is not afraid of the witch (or fairy or whatever)? I realize his attitude is meant to have an affect on the princess’ Situation by ending it with a kiss when he battles through the obstacles, but does it affect how the princess views or solves problems personally?

That said, I think you can make it work to have all four throughlines be so closely related to the curse as long as you keep in mind the proper perspectives for each throughline.

Also keep in mind that those are just my thoughts and I am no expert.

#3

Welcome to the forum.

When do you see the story happening? Before she falls asleep? Before, during and after? I don’t know the story very well, but I think the prince is 100 years younger than the princess in the original tale (because she slept for that long).

It seems like you are making them the same age, and somehow the prince escapes the curse. That seems very reasonable.

The thing with a tale is that it can be bent into any storyform, so have fun. But @Gregolas is right – you probably have to add a lot to make a tale into a Grand Argument Story.

Here is a (not very well thought out) idea, and I’ll highlight things I’m adding to the story:

The Princess gets cursed, so she tries to accomplish everything she can in life before her 16th birthday. (Do-er, Situation)
The Prince, who has been promised her hand, is too hard-headed to appreciate that this makes her awesome – he wants someone docile. (Fixed Attitude)
He goes off to find someone “better”. He proves himself in battle and wins the hand of a kind, but docile princess, and they marry. But, he then learns that the Original Princess has been struck by the curse and falls asleep, and the entire kingdom is hidden – and he realizes what he has lost. It goes straight to his soul, and crushes him. He becomes a depressed man. His wife stays with him, and they have children.
Now, it is two generations later. He has a grandson, who does not like him and is not impressed by him – he only knows this depressed man. But the wife/grandmother tells the grandchild the story of how they met – he was brave and killed a dragon – but also reveals (for the first time) that she knows why he is depressed: he was defeated by an even bigger dragon: pride. He was not strong enough to have a strong woman by his side.
The grandson decides that he must find the princess, so he goes on a quest to find her – he does, and he wakes her up with a kiss and lifts the curse!
I think I may have accidentally made the prince the MC – not my intention, but maybe this could be done either way.

Anyway, see how much got added?

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#4

I find something interesting about the second setup you offer. I don’t know how you’d write it, but making the source of the OS problem be everyone’s fear of what will happen during the curse as opposed to the curse itself seems an interesting choice.

Again, it may not be how you intend to do it, but focusing on the fear of it makes the curse seem to me more of an absolute, something that can’t be escaped, like they’ve all accepted that they will fall asleep for one hundred years, or be without the leadership of the princess or whatever… I guess I’m seeing it as they’re not trying to change the Situation or prevent the curse since the problem is their fear. I’d like to see how that plays out.

#5

Thanks a lot for your answers ! I’m developing another project for NaNoWriMo actually but I still want to work on this one later on, so your opinion is really appreciated.

Yes I was thinking the second set was the most interesting too, especially with the insight you’ve furnished on their fear being the main problem. That’s kinda how I saw it but I wasn’t too sure on how to put it into words haha.