Once Upon A Time: the Dark Fairy Tales Challenge

[TheRedLantern]

I'm actually a bit worried, because I've barely written anything for weeks and all my fairy tales are languishing like so many princes waiting to be rescued by an ogre.

You're ahead of me. I have 3 characters, one sentence of a plot, no character arcs, and 2 works in progress ahead of this, one in revision and one still being drafted. Also I have no clue how to write a fairy tale so it's basically just a fantasy story.

 

[iwatchus]

I'm actually a bit worried, because I've barely written anything for weeks and all my fairy tales are languishing like so many princes waiting to be rescued by an ogre.

They are just waiting for a kiss from the plot bunny to spout into new complete fairy tales.

 

[StillStunned]

Also I have no clue how to write a fairy tale so it's basically just a fantasy story.

Once upon a time, there lived a Plot Bunny. And that Plot Bunny had three children, called High Fantasy, Erotic Nightmare and Fairy Tale. Of those three children, High Fantasy was the eldest, with grand ideas about changing the world and using magic as a force of good. Erotic Nightmare was the middle child, dark and brooding, with fits of an almost fey wildness. The youngest was Fairy Tale, who was whimsical, and often shared the moods of both their siblings, but through it all was true to their own nature.

(Note that I'm not trying to imply that high fantasy as a genre is older than fairy tales.)

 

[TheRedLantern]

Now I need to think of how to make "sex magic" whimsical.

 

[StillStunned]

Now I need to think of how to make "sex magic" whimsical.

That's what makes writing so much fun!

 

[Husky_Embrace]

So far I have 3 characters, a shadow of a character arc, only one very sexually frustrated woman in 10888 words and at best hinted at the man seeing her masturbating and then mislabeling it.

I found a way to shoehorn some sex into the upcoming part where a bit of character development happens, but it'll be a tough beast to make it seem natural.

I'll write some soon again, hopefully. My work has stress at an all time high, so I don't feel like writing. Maybe I should and see if it A) helps my mood, B) helps my writing. Muses often are caused by high stress stuff, good or bad, are they not?

I did start another short story and got two new ideas. If only I was blessed with great writing skills and the ability to write thousands of words a day.

 

[BryanRichardson]

Snow White Drifted

That’s all I’ve got right now, a possible title.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

Snow White Drifted

That’s all I’ve got right now, a possible title.

More than some others, and a good start!

So is it about this cocaine peddler that tries to make a new life and friends as ahe drifts from fucking one guy on a mountain of cocaine to another?

 

[filthytrancendence]

I was reading Blue Mars today, and the whole series has this though-line of just random folk tales of Big Man and the Little Red People interspersed into the beginnings of the chapters sometimes. Big Man was a giant that accidentally created most of the colossal geographic features of Mars on account of being so big, and the Little Red People are tiny telepathic Martians that don't think much of humans, kinda like Borrowers, but telepathic and red. Anyway, it's a lovely touch and a neat thing to do in a scifi setting.

Got me thinking of maybe figuring out a way to put a scifi twist on this challenge.

 

[Yogma]

I must admit, even though the challenge premise is very broad, I'm finding I'm now second guessing myself as to whether my stories fit.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go slightly whimsical in the style of modern fairy tales, or go dark and grim in the style of the old European traditional fair tales. Being the masochist I am I decided to do one of each.

The problem is that my whimsical tale may be a little too whimsical to be a "dark" fair tale, whilst by contrast, my darker story is so dark in places that a couple scenes are now verging on horror.

Perhaps I should have just gone with one story that aimed for the middle ground

 

[StillStunned]

Don't worry about it. "Dark" is very much the least aspect of the challenge. I used it to imply that the stories should be mature and erotic. Whimsical is perfectly fine. Verging on horror is even finer.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I don't have the imagination for this.

Too many of them have/had kids and I don't think we can age them up. Could the old lady in the cabin 'eat' 20 year old Gretel?

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I don't have the imagination for this.

Too many of them have/had kids and I don't think we can age them up. Could the old lady in the cabin 'eat' Gretel?

You can't age up the kids. That is absolutely true. Even so we can get inspired by the stories. I think you can do it! And if not, no worries. We all have our talents.

For me I just pictured a dark forest where magical things happen. Spirits roam and there's talking animals. Thanks to some instigating event they are pushed into the forest, where strange things happen, some of them sexual.

From there it is pretty much whatever you want. A circle of mushrooms has a soft bed of moss, and either magic or the spores make them full with lust. They can only escape when they have satisfied themselves, as it loses power over them temporarily. At that moment they need to flee, or continue until their exhaustion takes them and they are food of the mushroom.

Maybe it is a talking animal that seems to want to help them, only to lead the protagonist(s) along a path of lecherous locations. One more salacious than the other.

Castles and royalty is prominently featured as well. Maybe the prince is seeking a bride to be. When je tries to abuse his power he gets punished by magic, only able to escape the fae world when he impregnates true love. It is a harrowing few days of sex, where he desperately tries to find his love without abusing his power. He finds true love in the end, as he finally finds the gentleman within him. Too late he realises that either himself or his love and future child have to stay behind, only one of them having a normal life.

I think just ramming in some magical things is a big step, where this dictates much of the story as the protagonist(s) follow the story threads.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

15074 words, first true sex act. They got lost in the Forbidden Forest, met a random person that put a lot of strain on the relationship of the protagonists, met the terrifying talking hound with a double agenda, found some strange properties of the forest, and have arrived at the 3rd act where they get more warnings, besides some good head at a watermill in the forest. Now writing the getting head part.

On that note, does anyone know a good way to separate 3 types of dialogue? I have one lined to the left, one to the middle, and one to the right. I would still like a bit more to easily identify the separate parts that intertwine. Is it possible to have a slightly different font for example? Maybe subtly a slightly lighter colour of the text?

For the future: Soon they'll move to the lake, which has horrors waiting for people who do not like submerged things. Another sexual (but no actual sex) encounter happens, after which they finally find the tower in the mist.

In the tower they'll be separated and need to battle the wizard. The woman finally finds out his weakness, draining his power with sex (yes, you become an actual wizard if you're 50 years+ a virgin). As the tower of magic collapses I might need one or two more acts before the protagonists bang each other, which leads to the finishing up of the tale as the hound brings them back to the beginning, where everything is normal. Except that only a day has passed. And nothing, absolutely nothing else has happened to them. You might think.

That's the outline and how far I've come since what, 2 months? 1,5 maybe? Time is running out... It might not be ready before the start, or end of the contest. We'll see how gar we come. The biggest project I've done so far and I made so. Many. Typos. It will really need a second pair of eyes.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

Hope it's not spam, but just remarking on my progress. 19588 words. They had their head, a bit of plot while strange fae things were happening, and moved to act 4. I skipped the interlude, as I need more inspiration for it. They are now on an endless lake. The woman is asleep as the 'mermaid,' a woman with huge floppy feet as a flipper, has come to show her interest in a boat with humans. The man is suitably interested for a lit story, which will trial his resolve as he will ease himself into the water to get to know her more intimately.

If I keep this up I can finish on time. More erotics that are following the story arc are incoming, though erotics is only part of the story and not the story.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

Word review says 63 pages, 27694 words. By far the biggest thing I have ever written. Second to last act over halfway done. Afterwards the final act, which is short. Epilogue, filling in an interlude that I had no inspiration for. Then it's finished.

Hopefully I'll have a month of checking, polishing and rewriting, maybe even under the wing of an editor daring to take something like this on.

And then wait for at least one person to read it and like it, so I'll feel validated. It is too big to just write it fir myself.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

I truly wish I had the creativity and could write a believable story for this event. I loved Pandemonium last year.

There is still time maybe I can dream up even something on the shorter side. Eager to read your stories!!

 

[EmilyMiller]

Ugh! Is it that time of year already? Need to dig out my outline from back when this was announced, and then find the time to write something .

 

[StillStunned]

It starts a month tomorrow. I'll have to make more of an effort to generate interest. And finish at least one of my own fairy tales.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Okay for reasons know only to the gods of the pen / keyboard, am about 6,000 words into a dark fairy story. I have spent two day locked in the dungeon, well not really locked but it was cooler in the downstairs den.

Of course it is a sapphic story so forgive me if it doesn’t land well but I am trying.

 

[PennyThompson]

I started a fairytale story when this was first announced, but decided to set it aside and let it ferment until closer to the challenge opening... Time to open the lid and see if it still tastes good!