Once Upon A Time: the Dark Fairy Tales Challenge

[ShelbyDawn57]

Happy endings for everyone - it's a fairy tale, after all.

Except the owl. I forgot about the damn owl.

Who...

 

[StillStunned]

Who...

The owl!

I wonder whether I can squeeze in a line like "Owls are wise birds, but they don't know everything. They know what, and how, and why, but they're forever asking who."

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

The owl!

I wonder whether I can squeeze in a line like "Owls are wise birds, but they don't know everything. They know what, and how, and why, but they're forever asking who."

Whoooo...

 

[StillStunned]

Whoooo...

I played around with the "who" joke. It might seem out of place for the story's tone, but I think it fits in quite well with the hag's rhyming. A bit of tone foreshadowing.

 

[crookedletter]

Happy endings for everyone - it's a fairy tale, after all.

Except for those who have it comin.

 

[dirk2024]

Submitted.

Now I wait.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I played around with the "who" joke. It might seem out of place for the story's tone, but I think it fits in quite well with the hag's rhyming. A bit of tone foreshadowing.

The darkest fairy tale if the Ocarina of Time owl comes over. That devil does who....

 

[TiberiusPrime]

Submitted.

Now I wait.

Now you post every 5 minutes complaining that Laurel is taking too long.

 

[Dean_Harper]

My story is up. Hooray!

Vesper
"A man who preys on women is preyed upon in turn."

It landed in Erotic Horror, right where I wanted it. Which is good, because the Reluctant/Noncon crowd would probably hate my depiction of a Noncon male protagonist and the ending he gets.

This story might not have the whimsy found in other fairy tales, but it is a story about a bad man encountering the supernatural and getting his comeuppance, which I think is a very Fairy Tale quality.

 

[BryanRichardson]

This story might not have the whimsy found in other fairy tales, but it is a story about a bad man encountering the supernatural and getting his comeuppance, which I think is a very Fairy Tale quality.

My story doesn’t have any whimsy either.

I put it in Fantasy because the creature was a DND monster I remembered from my youth. The only comment I’ve gotten was from someone who mentioned checking to see if it was Erotic Horror…

 

[dirk2024]

My submission for the Dark Fairy challenge is The Witches of Eldritch Hollow

Its my first time in Erotic Horror. I hope you like it.

 

[Yogma]

My story doesn’t have any whimsy either.

I think that "whimsinesss" in fairy tales might be a fairly modern thing. If you look at some of the original European fairy tales, especially those by the Brothers Grimm, they are pretty damn dark. For instance, at the end of the original Snow White, the evil stepmother is forced to wear red hot iron shoes and dances until she dies, and in Cinderella the evil step sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and fit the glass slipper and as punishment have their eyes pecked out by a bird.

All of a sudden, my dark fair tail (the one I'm currently writing), doesn't seem quite so dark.

 

[StillStunned]

I think a lot of the perceived whimsy with fairy tales comes from the way they're traditionally told. There are lots of repeated phrases, and often if they're read aloud it's in an almost sing-song voice.

These are of course hallmarks of oral storytelling, and they serve the same purpose: to teach children values and life lessons through stories, and to do that you have to make them easy to remember.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I think that "whimsinesss" in fairy tales might be a fairly modern thing. If you look at some of the original European fairy tales, especially those by the Brothers Grimm, they are pretty damn dark. For instance, at the end of the original Snow White, the evil stepmother is forced to wear red hot iron shoes and dances until she dies, and in Cinderella the evil step sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and fit the glass slipper and as punishment have their eyes pecked out by a bird.

All of a sudden, my dark fair tail (the one I'm currently writing), doesn't seem quite so dark.

Yeah origins are dark, to prepare for the hard life ahead. At that time, they would experience blood. They would experience death. They would experience loss and disease and the bad hand life frequently dealt.

Need more than just those suggested? Red riding hood was devoured as well as the grandma, and that was it. Snow White didn't wake up from the kiss. She was abused and did not wake up from it. The stories contained violence, incest, cannibalism and death. The morals of the story were harsh and mostly told to behave and beware.

The brothers Grimm that first wrote down the classic tales did their names justice. Only after criticism they made it more 'child friendly'. The censorship hard at work, making things fit the views of that age.

 

[Jorunn]

Many Norwegian fairy tales (older, but collected in the mid 1800s) seem intended to keep children away from going into the woods alone, or too close to the water. A few even seem targeted to potentially straying husbands!

 

[EmilyMiller]

I think a lot of the perceived whimsy with fairy tales comes from the way they're traditionally told. There are lots of repeated phrases, and often if they're read aloud it's in an almost sing-song voice.

These are of course hallmarks of oral storytelling, and they serve the same purpose: to teach children values and life lessons through stories, and to do that you have to make them easy to remember.

You read and commented (thank you ) on mine. It’s very fairytale-themed, but I was worried that I’d strayed too far from your initial intent (we discussed my general idea months ago). I use the description, “modern fairytale.” Just wondered what your opinion was.

 

[StillStunned]

You read and commented (thank you ) on mine. It’s very fairytale-themed, but I was worried that I’d strayed too far from your initial intent (we discussed my general idea months ago). I use the description, “modern fairytale.” Just wondered what your opinion was.

I think there's a bit more leeway with modern fairy tales. If I'd written my Black Boots story (and Hag-Ridden, which is just about ready to submit) in a conventional style, they'd probably read as normal fantasy stories with rather flat characters.

A modern fairy tale that clearly references commonly known tales, or that includes fairy tale themes and archetypes, will be more recognisable as such and so won't need to follow the same style.

In the end, though, I think that what determines whether a story is a fairy tale or not is the writer's intention, and the readers' interpretation.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I think there's a bit more leeway with modern fairy tales.

I agree - if I’d written more of a period piece, my word and dialog choices would have been very different.

 

[StillStunned]

I've just submitted "Hag-Ridden: A Fairy Tale". I've chosen Group Sex, mostly to avoid the dead category that's SF&F.

 

[BryanRichardson]

I've just submitted "Hag-Ridden: A Fairy Tale". I've chosen Group Sex, mostly to avoid the dead category that's SF&F.

Why do you say it is dead? There have been 7-10 stories a day posted lately.

Having said that https://literotica.com/s/the-shepherd has only had 1.4k “reads” since 9/2. Do you say it’s dead because there aren’t a lot of readers?

 

[StillStunned]

Why do you say it is dead? There have been 7-10 stories a day posted lately.

Having said that https://literotica.com/s/the-shepherd has only had 1.4k “reads” since 9/2. Do you say it’s dead because there aren’t a lot of readers?

Dead in terms of readers and their appreciation. Most days, the New Stories list is dominated by chaptered series, often numbered "Vol. XI, Chapter 19". Those seem to grab thousands of views and hundreds of votes, and everyone else is left to fight over the scraps.

My own most recent SF&F is stuck on about 1.5k views and 34 votes after a little under a fortnight.

 

[dirk2024]

Dead in terms of readers and their appreciation. Most days, the New Stories list is dominated by chaptered series, often numbered "Vol. XI, Chapter 19". Those seem to grab thousands of views and hundreds of votes, and everyone else is left to fight over the scraps.

My own most recent SF&F is stuck on about 1.5k views and 34 votes after a little under a fortnight.

 

[SmilingLez]

I think that "whimsinesss" in fairy tales might be a fairly modern thing. If you look at some of the original European fairy tales, especially those by the Brothers Grimm, they are pretty damn dark. For instance, at the end of the original Snow White, the evil stepmother is forced to wear red hot iron shoes and dances until she dies, and in Cinderella the evil step sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and fit the glass slipper and as punishment have their eyes pecked out by a bird.

All of a sudden, my dark fair tail (the one I'm currently writing), doesn't seem quite so dark.

I went quite dark with my prose - The Lucky Plate Club. IMHO, fluffy prose would have been a cop out because "real life" is not happily ever after.

 

[StillStunned]

View attachment 2562688

They're disappointing, at the very least. I don't write for the views - if I did I'd be writing up a few T/I ideas from my WIP folder - but I do feel that my stories deserve better than they get in SF&F at the moment.

 

[dirk2024]

They're disappointing, at the very least. I don't write for the views - if I did I'd be writing up a few T/I ideas from my WIP folder - but I do feel that my stories deserve better than they get in SF&F at the moment.

You have a tag that may be "problematic". "nobody is going to read this to the end."

Oh, and the "non-erotic" tag might shoo a few readers away.