Disney have made many films based upon fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White and Robin Hood but the original stories are far darker than everyone knows from the Disney version. Walt Disney has tamed fairy tales to be all about princesses and princes, kingdoms and castles, magic and wonder. The question is why are these things so appealing to us?
We read the stories to our children because they teach value, to little girls they make them believe they can be a princess. For boys they inspire courage to be a hero. But there is always villains in the stories what happens with them? Do we as children and adults remember the villains in the stories how they came to be? Why they do what they do? Rarely do you see a child dressed up as Ursula or The Evil Queen. They dress up as prince and princesses, their favourite character from the stories... the heroes.
Are these good lessons for our children? Should they taught about the magic of fairy tale?
While I was growing up I had the full collection of the Disney films on VCR (yes I am that old!) I rewatched them over and over again. I had a big encyclopedia all on fairy tales, the stories and their characters but it wasn't until I was older did I realise that really the villains are the most important part.
There is always good and evil in the world unfortunately, that is how the world is and fairy tales are actually a good teacher of this. Every story follows the same logic you have the hero, the crisis, the villain and as always the happy ending. This is the basis of every fairy tale (as we know it) but is this how they were intended when the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Anderson penned these timeless stories?
Our children run around in their prince/princess costumes make believing that they are in the Enchanted Forest slaying those dragons but what about the villains. What are they doing in our children's minds?
Why you ask do I think that villains are the most important part? Well that's because they represent the doubt, the hurdles that we have to go over in life, the small part of the world that is evil for everyone. True Love? Well yes that does exist but no-one has a perfect relationship where there are no arguments, no doubts in the mind or problems they have to overcome. That right there is the villains in reality.
Every part of your life will have a villain of some nature, they may only be small specks in the grand scheme of your life but they are still there and they are important. To overcome a villain in the stories the heroes must use their courage, their intellect and their wits this is why they are important. Without the villain Prince Charming would have never given into his love for Snow White. Without Ursula, Ariel would have never been able to see her Prince for the first time. Without the evil stepmother Cinderella would have never learnt to be kind and good to every living creature. The villains are there to provide a challenge, to see how far you are willing to go for what you want.
For example, in a relationship, a villain may be the small doubt in the back of your mind do I want to spend the rest of my life with this person? You overcome that by thinking do I want to live the rest of my live WITHOUT this person?
The villains teach us each and every day that if you want something you have to fight for it, you have to use the gifts you have to overcome the obstacles. Some are greater than others but these can always be overcome if you truly want them to.
Now enough about villains what about why are we so interested in these stories? Easy answer because they make us feel good. Why do you think MOST (not all) movies and books have a happy endings, the writers don't want their audience to be sad the point of writing or creating something is to make people happy. So you ask why weren't the fairy tales originally written that way then? Why have we changed it? Well all the thoughts we have now are based upon the fact that we grew up thinking that Hercules was a hero of Greece and he sang and danced his way through life. If Disney or any other franchise that has used Fairy Tales stuck to what they were originally maybe we would all be thinking differently right now. That is to say not all of them are bad when they were written Snow White for instance the Grimm Brothers gave her a happy ending when they wrote her story.
So what was the point in this post? Fairy Tales are classic stories which have been told since they were written, there has been many adaptations of some of the more popular ones such as Cinderella so what makes them this popular and how can you write something that is seen as a classic?
When writing you are writing for yourself, what makes you happy, what would make you keep reading the book. When writing always think to yourself would I read this? You can't expect someone to read something if you wouldn't read it yourself. The reason I mentioned fairy tales was because they have a very good structure that is useful for any story.
You have a main character
You have their problem (be it a person, a situation)
You have their solution
You have their ending
These are very basic ideas for a book but if you think about stories you will always find these elements. Before writing you need your base to build upon for example:
Questions to ask yourself
Your main character:
- Would they be more suited male or female?
- What do they look like?
- What do they like doing as a hobby would this be shown in the story?
- What's their past and background? & How has this background affected them?
- Do they need a love interest? (is this something that would fit into your story or not)
- If yes, what kind of love interest? (you may not want it to be the focus of the book so make sure they are a secondary character)
- What kind of person are they? Are they good or bad?
- What other relationships do they have? Do they have a family? Do they have friends?
These are just a few questions to ask yourself and if it helps maybe pick a character that you already know and do this on them, it may help you to structure your ideas.
I hope you enjoyed reading please feel free to comment with anything further you would like to add.
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