The Canonical Dozen

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I’ve used this phrase so many times in the last year and a half, I’ve decided to sit down and make a real list.

The reason for doing it now is at least partly because I’m kicking around the idea of telling stories occasionally in a 4th-6th grade classroom this fall, and I decided I wanted to start with the basics.

It’s inevitable that fewer and fewer people will be hearing these old stories, even those that are referenced continually in literary allusions.   I figured I might do what I can to spread (what I consider) this basic literacy of folk and fairy tales.

For your perusing and debating pleasure (in no particular order):

The Canonical Dozen

  1. Cinderella
  2. Rumpelstiltskin
  3. Rapunzel
  4. Sleeping beauty
  5. Jack and the Beanstalk
  6. Snow White
  7. The Princess and the Pea
  8. Aladdin and his Lamp
  9. The Ugly Duckling
  10. Beauty and the Beast
  11. Hansel and Gretal
  12. Little Red Riding hood
  13. Puss in Boots

This was trickier than I thought, and I slowed to a stop after #6. (Meaning I had to get up and actually look at my shelves.)

To understand why I picked these it helps to look at this list from a literary standpoint, rather than what we’ve personally read/heard the most.

Every one of these 12 I have seen referenced or alluded to (in a way that was supposed to be metaphorical or enlightening) in an utterly unrelated setting (e.g. “breadcrumbs” in a variety of roles).

Without these stories, modern readers could actually be missing the point of anything from a textbook anecdote to an AP article in their local paper.

Perhaps for the next several weeks I will break from my initial goal of Tuesday Tales and review these basics, mentioning at that point my favorite version of each.

New Beginnings

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Well, it’s Alaska, so I guess it’s to be expected that the explosion of newness that comes with spring should be delayed…

But just today I was marveling at the number of “beginnings” that have tumbled into my life in the last… chunk of time.  Any of them could be a post of its own, but for my own record-keeping, here they are.

  • The Garden
  • Morning prayer time
  • The Deal with Jay— that he manages kids after Bedtime (letting me write regularly) and I take over in the morning (since I’m already up praying).  The neat thing in all this is how much better and later they’ve been sleeping. ;)  I trust that God has been choosing the length of my prayer-time.
  • The costumes for the coming Faire
    • This really deserves a post of its own, along with my hopeful delight at a Halloween alternative that doesn’t take place on October 31st.
  • A resurgence of interest in storytelling
    • In theory, for now, with solid opportunities for it to become reality if it proves appropriate for the coming season.
  • The beginning of the end of my novel
    • It’s at a place that seems possible now
  • Summer (outdoor) exercise again: Yay for biking!
  • My first attack of allergies (not. cool.).  All in my eyes.
    • Gives me a whole new appreciation for what my husband has gone through every spring I’ve known him.  It takes a lot of heart to function lovingly when you can’t breathe, and your eyes feel encased in fire.  Dear man, he never complains; just moves slower.
  • First non-pregnancy weight-gain in 10 years
  • First conscious choice to cut hot cocoa and eating candy with my kids
    • As a result of the previous.
  • Intriguing new study in Sunday School (women apart from the men)
  • New responsibility in Jr. Church: basically, leading it.
    • This is interesting because there are 5 2-year-olds, and I realized I have no experience doing anything with children on a 2-year-old level.  My kids all jumped pretty quickly to sitting and listening to stories and poetry (probably because that’s most of what they got), which is something you don’t do with a mass of 2s anyway.

I talked with Jay about all this at the playground, today, saying how surprised I was at the number of starts just now, and how I was thankful it came while we were going through such a peaceful time.

His observation was that it seemed a peaceful time because I’ve been (almost) carefully guarding my time with God.  And I think he’s right.

It’s a very encouraing thought.

It’s Growing.

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Well, I’m up to 8 chapters “finished” out of 16 (yes, the number of chapters has gone up, too) to 1st-draft standards.

To combat my inner editor I’ve been making notes about what I need to clean up the next time around.

For example,

Chapter 7, The Fitting:

  • Focus on narrowing POV and keeping it consistent.
  • Eliminate any simpering or mooning over each other.  Keep this as close to a “business” relationship as possible, otherwise, we can’t believe Torb’s not a jerk in Chapter 9.

He’s really not, and imagining he is doesn’t advance the story.

  • clarify queen’s attitude toward MC
  • Clarify her relationship with her son

Now for a complete change of pace I need to sit down and decide what I’m doing with a dozen 2 to 6-year-olds for an hour tomorrow.

Yin and Yang?

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I found a way to avert a tragedy in part-2 (one less person to die!), but the funny thing is that keeping him alive has made me more willing to consider killing-off somebody else I’ve been waffling on.

How awful is that!

~

My logical part tells me that I ought just to focus on the first part till that’s done, but since the story’s basically a single organism to me, I can’t really pick which part grows at any random time.

When I’m writing, sure, but brain flashes and deepening connections?  Those are less volitional at this point.

~

I’d rather not lose any characters– they are like my friends, if not my “babies”– but I’m trying to remain open and honest about what best serves the story.

No casualties in in part one, though (according to the plan as it stands).

A Real Outline

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Hoo—

13 chapters sounds like a much more manageable animal than 43 chapters, doesn’t it.

Doesn’t it?

I just finished running through my 2-part idea and broke part-one into identifiable units.

Once they’re done being written (6 of the 13 are written, 2 more roughed in) I’m going to have to re-evaluate if this will work as a self-contained story.

It does have the unfortunate feel of an ending lying in wait for a sequel, but for the length of this project I believe that was unavoidable.

I always feel better when I can estimate a path (even if I improvise before the end) so I’m not “riding blind.”

“We’ve a long road ahead of us.”

“How long?” Kate asked promptly.

One of her chief trials during the last six days had been riding blind into completely strange country.

It had not been so bad at first… while she could still recognize the names on signposts… But early that morning they had turned off the road and ridden away over a desolate moor seamed with ridges and outcroppings of rock, as if the bones of the land were forcing their way through it.

From The Perilous Gard

Subtext: We aren’t arguing about what we’re arguing about.

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Our pre-marital counselor seemed both to be pleased we were getting married and feeling somehow we needed encouragement (being two youngish college kids?).

More than once he repeated (I think) to reassure us, “Two can live more cheaply than one.”

When he first said this I tried, tentatively, to correct him; pointing out that it might be cheaper per person, but it didn’t seem logical that two could together cost less than one.

He insisted, without explaining his reasons, sparking my resistance.

I protested then that while it may be true for some, it certainly couldn’t be true for us, as I lived (cost-free) with my parents, and Jay lived with 3 roommates who split costs of rent and utilities.

He seemed not to hear my arguments, and never changed his line.

I eventually let it go because it didn’t seem important enough to keep arguing about, but I never believed him.

Learning later about subtexts— the idea that what’s being said is not what’s really being said (*sigh*)— I recognized an entirely different argument could have been taking place: one our counselor felt strongly about and never occurred to us.

He must counsel many couples who fear the money-side of marriage; people who delay getting married until they think they can better “afford” it.

I believe now that he was trying to reassure us that we could do this marriage-thing (financially speaking), and when I suggested he was wrong, he objected strongly.

Perhaps he didn’t hear me objecting to his words, but to his message.

It’s made me re-think a number of disagreements since then.

~

I’ve read writing books that say the best stories are full of this stuff.  I can imagine it adds a lot for the people who are paying attention, but just now I still think it can’t be critical to the story.

I think it takes a measure of experience in the reader before subtexts are consistantly able to be decoded, so I appreciate dialogue that’s accessible the first time through.

These are the stories (that I like best) where you understand more and deeper when you read again.

In Case Anyone was Curious

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The new opening I excerpted earlier has grown rapidly and well.

I’ve integrated two scenes so far from the first draft, changing POV on one and picking up the pace on the other.

It’s sitting just under 10,000 words right now, with roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the material being new with this revision.

Feeling very excited with the new angle.

The interesting thing to me (after beginning to toy with the idea of two books for this story) is that I may have found another blurb that lets me conceal the beauty and the beast angle in the description.

Not having to hand the reader my first major plot point makes me more comfortable with letting things lay as they fall.

~

Is anyone here familiar with the story of The Goose Girl?

Shannon Hale expanded it into a very good novel (though, keeping with the disappointing pattern of my other favorites the opening seemed too slow to be perfect).

Knowing the original story I knew the big shift happens when the maid steals the identity of the princess (sorry for those of you I killed it for).

Hale has some intriguing and well-written stuff before that big plot-point but I couldn’t properly enjoy it because I knew the event that was coming and guessed the real ingenuity would be after that.

That’s the difficulty I have with revealing in the blurb the girl gets her prince before the end of the story, because then (perhaps because this isn’t the romantic novel, Kaye?) there’s so much tension lost.

The road may wind, but it must also have been polished, because everything looks just a little too clean.

That would be my own fault, of course, but splitting the book without changing anything else lifted that feeling for me.  I’m still deciding what that means.

~

I think it’s way-cool that I get more scenes with the snake in this version, and I want the get-together question to be a little more hairy than your average RomCom.

Guessing ahead doesn’t bother me, but skipping without missing anything… That kind of defeats the point of creating the scene, right?