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Story Plan/Elements to Include - Coggle Diagram
Story Plan/Elements to Include
Elements of Andersen's work
Character
Bildungsroman structure
Navigating the jump between childhood and adulthood?
A passive character? Or does this need to be changed?
A young, innocent character
Stylised prose
Purple prose?
Overly ornate descriptions
Word choice could help to cement magical elements
Setting
A vaguely magic setting in a undefined historical period
Remember that setting is as important as character in establishing magical elements
Themes/messages
Exploration of death and the afterlife
Condemning curiosity/questioning the natural order
Piety as the best trait to emulate
Adaptations for a modern audience
Character
Give them a name
Follow them more closely through changing the narrative voice to third-person limited, and could have the events of the story taking place in a shorter time frame (a day or several hours) to ensure a sense of closeness to the main character
Prose
Less ornate
Needs to be less repetitive/descriptions need to be more original
Lend equal weight to action and description within the balance of the story
Obviously need to adapt spelling conventions
More active verbs
Past tense or present tense? Present tense is more immediate, but past tense is more common.
Third-person limited is most common, but could omniscient or first-person be more effective? All are used by Andersen.
Setting
Probably need to stick quite closely to Andersen's ideas of setting as his worlds are almost as prominent in establishing his style as his characters are
Wouldn't meet my project aims if I change too much
Themes/messages
Message might need to reflect modern concerns (ecological disaster, injustice within society, war, etc)
But death and the afterlife are still relevant
Elements of the wider fairy tale genre
Does my story need an antagonist/a villain? Brothers Grimm stories always do, but Andersen doesn't prioritise this element. But does a modern audience resonate more with Grimm fairy tales?
Idea of a child navigating an adult world from 'Goblin Market'? Take the form of Andersen's tales and adapt the content to modern concerns.
Keep the brutality, like Angela Carter does? Or tone it down like Disney does? Both have been successful in appealing to a modern audience
Original elements
Character
Keep the character of Sofie from my previous draft
Make them active in their own downfall, to make the line between cause and effect more obvious
Setting
Andersen's most effective settings are the ice-kingdom-place from 'The Snow Queen' and the underwater palace from 'A Little Mermaid'
Being barren but also mystical lends them interest
They give a sense of realism, and the contrast between the underwater palace and the human world demonstrates a desire for escapism
So a snowy wasteland, a desert, or under the sea?
Prose
Adapt the style from the last draft
Use heavier description
Be confident with using dialogue
Themes/messages
Exploring death and the afterlife is common in Andersen's work, usually done in a comforting way
But can't make it too Christian? A modern audience will be less likely to be Christian than Andersen's audience
Need to create a new idea of the afterlife and death?
Already tried exploring ecological messages and social class, which wasn't very effective