Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! Time for another Weekend Writing Warriors snippet. Every Sunday, I join a bunch of writers through a blog hop and post an 8-10 sentence snippet of my current project. You can click on the link to see what everyone else is up to.
Can you believe we’re already here at snippet 50? That’s about 500 sentences of content! Without further ado, here’s the next segment. Go ahead and read it, then get on with your Mother’s Day festivities.
After a bit of a lull, Sam comes forward with the first solution. Lotte is not sure if it’ll work, but anything’s worth a try, right?
“Lotte, I think I found a cure to your curse,” my brother said. As habit dictated, the whiteboard was always near and I reached for it and just scribbled a question mark. I highly doubted the library would have dirt on Chris’ trick bag.
“You know Hans Christian Andersen, right?” he asked.
Back up—our grandma is part Danish, so of course I know who he was. He’s only the most famous Dane there ever was, because he wrote fairy tales that everyone thought came from the Grimm brothers, but it’s not like I ever sat down to read any of the stories. I tilted my chin down, glaring at him as if he should’ve know the answer to that question.
“I don’t really know how I even came up with this,” Sam explained, “but I figured that if this was really done by magic, maybe there’s a fairytale that had a similar outline. I looked through the Grimm Brothers’ work, the Thousand Arabian Nights, and H.C. Andersen’s stuff. I found two versions of a fairytale that sound a lot like what happened to you.”
Trust the bookworm to know what to do, right? I’m lookin’ at you, Hermione.
I do have a question for the masses. I plan on sharing the fairytale this is based on (The Wild Swans by H.C. Andersen) but I’m not sure where. At first it was in the prologue as well as right after this snippet. Should I ditch the prologue to avoid redundancy or is there a better way to approach this? It’s mainly because I want to enforce the fact that this is a retelling, but it’s also a retelling of a not-so-familiar tale. I do like doing the hard way.
Until then, check out other snippets here. You can also learn more about the novel, Speechless, here. Don’t forget to comment below if you’ve got a snippet to share as well! Compliments and constructive insight are equally welcome.
*ahem* Tycho Brahe was a famous Dane, though I suppose Andersen’s work catches modern people’s attention more. I just didn’t want Tycho to get short shrift 🙂
Good snippet. Sam explains just enough so we know how he came up with his lead, without being too wordy.
As for including the fairytale twice, I think it could work if one telling is basically a really condensed version with just a couple of the most important points focused on. The second mention could fill it out a bit more and I think that would help avoid a feeling of repetition. But context is king. You might be able to pull it off quite nicely where other writers wouldn’t. Let us know how it goes!
This is true–there are a lot more famous Danes than my narrator gives credit! I do appreciate your insight. I wrote the prologue and earlier bits during NaNoWriMo, so I can tell there are sections that are *extra* wordy to get me through the daily word count! But you’re right about context; as long as the readers don’t forget what’s going on, then we should be good to go. *thumbs up*
I wouldn’t do a prologue. Readers often skip those. And I for sure wouldn’t include the material twice. That’s my ‘sage’ advice LOL. Enjoyed the snippet, love the concept and best wishes!
Thanks for the insight! I’m seeing this is a debate over whether a prologue is necessary/worth it or not. I appreciate the ‘sage’ advice! 🙂
I pretty much agree with Veronica’s advice about Andersen’s material. As for the snippet, I’m curious to find out how a fairytale might help get rid of her curse.
The next snippet will be my summary of the tale, so we’ll see!
I’d never heard anyone say readers often skip prologues. I never do. I consider them necessary background material. A lot of people skip quotes and such at the beginning of chapters I know. As to the fairy tale twice, I do agree with that. I think I would do what I could to avoid it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who skips them! They’re usually too abstract for me to understand, especially prologues for fantasy novels, so I can see why many skip over them. Thanks so much for weighing in on this!
I think he’s onto something there… 😉 As for the fairy tale inclusion, that’s a tricky one. I actually like writing prologues since they can be key to part of the story and are often fun introductions. However, depending on the fairy tale you choose, some readers might not catch onto it unless the connections can be seen with the main characters. We might need some kind of refresher to the tale so we know what to compare it to. Maybe refer to it once so we know the clues and will pick them up later? I can definitely see the dilemma you’re having! But you’ll figure it out! 😀
I know, right? I’m thinking that once the manuscript is done, I can afford to write a mock prologue and add the synopsis of the tale where it’s intended and let the beta readers or writing group peeps weigh in. A lot of this depends on how well I pull it off. And I’m all for writing and chucking if it doesn’t work. ;P Thanks for still offering your two cents!
I never skip reading prologues probably because I often use them. I like being able to give a smidgen of back story to bring readers up to speed without doing a huge info dump. Good luck. I like your concept and your snippet.
Thanks for your input on the debate. I usually try to read prologues because I can tell the writer included it with specific intentions. It seems like the nice thing to do, right?