We can all learn from Fairytales

Isn't this an awesome poster? I LOVE it. 

My opinion is you're never too old for a good old-fashioned fairytale. Ella watched Beauty and the Beast for the first time and as I was watching it with her, I noticed some things that interested me. The thing about children's stories and fairytales, is that they're simplified enough that it paints a perfect picture of a good storyline. The plot twists might be easy to predict and the dialogue may be cliche, but underneath all that is a solid story. 

Couple good points to notice: 

Sacrificial main character: 
In the beginning Belle gives herself up for her father and stays with the Beast while her father goes free. It makes her loveable. You look up to her and admire her for her courage.

The love interest's flaw: 

I'm struggling with this one. Every character should have some sort of flaw. Yes, even the love interest. You don't want him/her to be perfect. People are more attracted to people who aren't perfect. Ever read a book where there's a perfect character and it totally ticks you off? This movie did a cool twist with having the love interest also be a villain of sorts. 

The love interest's endearing nature: 

Look how cute he is! Is it just me, or is he better as a beast, than a prince? As flawed as the love interest might be, give him/her something to love. Because you want your reader to fall in love with them just like your main character. 

A hateable villain:

I don't think there's anyone who doesn't find Gaston's conceited nature annoying. Often it's good to give your villain a good trait too. Supposedly, he's dashingly handsome (kind of hard to tell for a cartoon,) but that fact is overruled by his total obsession with himself.

A believable love story: 

Belle begins off by hating the beast for keeping her at the castle. But as time goes on and he tries to be a gentleman, and she begins to see things in him. After him yelling at her a couple of times, and her running off and him saving her life, etc, she begins to fall in love.

The Beast knew from the beginning that she may be the one to break the curse. He's watching her and he feels something come over him and he wants to do something for her. So, he gives her his library. And eventually she teaches him thing, manners, how to read, how to feed birds without scaring them off. And he begins to fall in love.

Have you ever watched  this movie? Anything else stand out to you? 

Foreshadowing

If ever there were an amazing example of foreshadowing, Hugo would have to be number one. There are probably even instances that I didn't even notice, because I wasn't watching it fully.                      

Foreshadow| verb: to give a suggestion of (something that has not yet happened)

                : to represent, indicate or typify beforehand: prefigure 

I'll give you a couple of examples from this movie and then maybe you can see what types of foreshadowing you can put in your story.

So, here's the basic premise of Hugo. Hugo lives in a clock in a train station in London. His father has died and his drunk uncle has abandoned him after teaching him how to wind the clocks. His life's goal is to find out why his father died and he plans on doing that by fixing the automaton that his father never finished before he died. It's a writing automaton and he's convinced that the note it writes will be a message from his father.

The movie

The real life situation

Foreshadowing example #1: Hugo's father always used to take him to the movies and so, when he meets a girl who has never seen the movies, he sneaks her into a movie theater and shows her what a movie looks like. In the movie, a man is trying to climb a wall and loses his balance and grabs the nearest thing, the minute hand of a nearby clock and he dangles. Later in the movie, when Hugo is attempting to get away from someone, he inches out the window in a clock and grabs hold of the minute hand and he dangles, waiting for the danger to pass.

Foreshadowing example #2: Hugo is having a dream. He's walking next to the train tracks and on the slats he sees a key. And not just any key. It just so happens to be the key that operates the automaton that he's finally fixed. He jumps onto the tracks and is turning the key over and over and wondering what it's doing on the tracks and the tracks start shaking and the train is barreling toward him. Later, in real life, the automaton falls onto the tracks and the train is pulling in and Hugo jumps onto the tracks to retrieve it, the tracks shaking and the train barreling toward him.

Foreshadowing can enrich your novel and add depth. It's also a pleasant surprise to re-read a book and look at those little tidbits and realize, "Oh, that's what they meant."

Fear

Every character should have something they fear. Something that, no matter how brave they are, will send them running. I saw an excellent example of this in a TV show that my sisters were watching. It was a Little House on the Prairie episode called Blind Journey, and normally I don't like Little House on the Prairie, but this one expertly showed fear with a legitimate root.

Adam Something-or-Other is married to Mary Ingalls and both are blind. They teach at a school for blind children and teach them how to live life without sight. They're moving the school to a different location and they know they must cross a river in order to get there. They're camping close to the river (I think) and Mary is curled up next to Adam, and even though she's blind, she knows something's wrong. "You're shaking," she observes. He assures her that it's nothing and they go to sleep. They get to the river and the ferry doesn't arrive, so they have to ride a zipline-type thing across the river, one-by-one. Adam is the last to go over and he's curled in a ball and he won't let go of the rope that connects him to the wagon. He shouts at the man who tries to get him across, "I won't go and you can't make me!"

Later, when they've finally got him across, he's laying next to Mary again. He hasn't said anything since the incident. He's breathing heavily and shaking and Mary tells him, "We're okay. Everyone is safe and sound." He doesn't answer for a second, and finally he whispers, "I'm a coward." He tells her a story of when he was a little boy and his father took him fishing. He hopped around on the rocks, without a care in the world. Then he tripped and hit his head. When he woke up again, he was in a hospital and he couldn't see. Since then he'd always been afraid of water. "I acted like a coward, Mary," he says again, sobbing now. 

She comforts him saying, "After what you've been through, you have every right to cry."

Every character must have a fear, and, if possible, a legitimate root to that fear. We relate better to a person who doesn't have everything together and is sometimes afraid, and even more so, when we can understand their fear. Hope this got your creative juices flowing. Do you know of other stories that pull this off well?  

Empty, useless brain!

Okay, I'm not exactly blocked, but I made this today and I wanted to post it.

Fun writing exercise: (you'd think since I was a writer, I would know how to spell that, but it took me maybe five tries before I broke down and used spell-check)

Next time you're watching a movie,  either one you want to watch or don't, it doesn't matter, keep a notebook by your chair and focus specifically on the structure of the movie. Foreshadowing, plot development, character arcs, symbolism, anything and write it down.

For example, I was watching Larry Boy and the Bad Apple with Liam the other day and here are some of the things I noted:

   * Symbolism - they are celebrating the 300 year anniversary of their town. The number 3 has significance in Christian movies because of it's representation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
   * Increasing stakes - the villain (Temptation) increases the tension as the movie goes on, first entrapping the mayor, then the people's only way to the outside world, Petunia Rubarb, the news reporter, and finally, their savior, LarryBoy.

Another example, from Charlie and Lola, the episode I've Won, No I've Won, No I've won:
   * Charlie (the narrator) always gives you a short description of each character and their relationship to him or his little sister, Lola. ex. This is Soren Lorensen. He's Lola's imaginary friend and no one can see him but Lola.
   * Charlie has a huge dilemma at the end, where he has to decide whether to save Lola from the top of the enormous slide or win the race. 

One more, from Mr. Peabody and Sherman:
   * Foreshadowing - Sherman bites Penny in the beginning and Mr. Peabody reprimands him for it. Later *SPOILER* Mr. Peabody bites Mrs. Grunyun to protect Sherman. *END OF SPOILER*
   * Flaws - Sherman's main flaw is the fact that he's so naive (and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to spell that...) and impressionable. He listens to everything anyone tells him and that is much of the reason for the conflict in the story

  I've got to go, because I've got to go eat dinner, but try it! It helps improve your writing!