{"id":39669,"date":"2021-11-11T06:30:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T17:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=39669"},"modified":"2021-11-10T22:33:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T09:33:04","slug":"from-the-blog-backlist-writing-epic-heroines-the-princess-others-in-thornspell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2021\/11\/11\/from-the-blog-backlist-writing-epic-heroines-the-princess-others-in-thornspell\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Blog Backlist: Writing Epic Heroines &#8212; The Princess &#038; Others In &#8220;Thornspell&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two weeks ago I <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2021\/10\/28\/from-the-blog-backlist-writing-epic-heroines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posted from the backlist on &#8220;Writing Epic Heroines&#8221; in the WALL series<\/a>. This is the companion post, from July 30th 2015, in which I like at the princess and others in the fairytale retelling of <em>Thornspell<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Note:<\/em> I&#8217;ve bumped &#8220;About the Characters&#8221; to keep the Heroines posts sequential &#8212; but only until next week: watch for it then. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Writing Epic Heroines: The Princess &amp; Others In <em>Thornspell &#8212;<\/em>\u00a0from July 30th, 2015<\/span><\/h3>\n<div id=\"posts\">\n<div class=\"post\">\n<div class=\"post-body\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Last week I discussed\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/07\/23\/writing-epic-heroines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Writing Epic Heroines<\/a>, mainly in the context of the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.helenlowe.info\/wallofnight.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wall Of Night<\/a>\u00a0series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">But<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thornspell.info\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0<strong><em>Thornspell<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, as a fairytale retelling, presented a unique challenge in terms of writing heroines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4378\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornspell-cover-illustration-723x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornspell-cover-illustration-723x1024.jpg 723w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornspell-cover-illustration-105x150.jpg 105w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornspell-cover-illustration-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">The fairytale, you see, is Sleeping Beauty, the retelling told from the point of view of the prince who breaks the spell\u2014and I quickly realized that 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century readers were just not going to \u201cbuy\u201d the traditional ending.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">You know the one: where the prince wakes the princess with the magical kiss, they fall instantly in love and live happily ever after. (And then there is the Grimm version, but\u00a0<em>Thornspell<\/em>\u00a0is Junior fiction\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">At any rate, I realized that I was going to have to both generate other heroines within the story\u2014and also find a way to focus on the princess a lot earlier in the book. Which I did \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">The other aspect of writing heroines in\u00a0<strong><em>Thornspell<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0arose from the fact that it\u2019s a retelling from the point of view of the prince. Naturally, this means he has to be the main character. And since he is a boy growing up in the late-medieval era of this world, a number of the influential characters around him are also men, most notably his master-at-arms, the enigmatic Balisan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29930 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/dragon_thornspell.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"167\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/dragon_thornspell.jpg 167w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/dragon_thornspell-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 167px) 100vw, 167px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">The arch-nemesis of the tale is the wicked fae, who although undoubtedly epic is also a villainess, the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/02\/20\/ruffians-and-roughnecks-the-villain-or-in-this-case-villainess\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Margravine\u00a0<em>zu<\/em>\u00a0Malvolin<\/a>. So I felt it was important to have some equally strong but positive female characters into the story\u2014an impetus that dovetailed with the need to have a cast of heroines\u00a0<em>other<\/em>\u00a0than the sleeping princess.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">One obvious choice was the good fairy whose magic converted the original death spell into the one hundred years\u2019 sleep: Syrica, in this book. She was joined by Auld Hazel, the witch of the wood, and two serving girls: a mute called Rue who becomes one of the prince\u2019s more unexpected allies, and a childhood companion, Annie. And then, of course, there\u2019s the sleeping princess who has to be present, rather than absent, in the story \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-26795 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_castle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"167\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_castle.jpg 167w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_castle-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 167px) 100vw, 167px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">As I wrote\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/07\/23\/writing-epic-heroines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last week<\/a>,\u00a0<em>\u201c<\/em>listening<em>\u00a0to the story and being open to possibility are always key to developing characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>In developing\u00a0<strong><em>Thornspell<\/em><\/strong>, the process of listening involved being open to the needs of the story as it evolved, while being guided by the classic story without rigidly adhering to its form\u2013which allowed both the cast of heroines, but also other characters such as Balisan, to evolve and step forward naturally, taking their place on the page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26794 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_bird.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"167\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_bird.jpg 167w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Thornspell_bird-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 167px) 100vw, 167px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"sidebar2\">\n<div id=\"text-10\" class=\"widget sidebar-widget widget_text\">\n<div class=\"widgettitle\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two weeks ago I posted from the backlist on &#8220;Writing Epic Heroines&#8221; in the WALL series. This is the companion post, from July 30th 2015, in which I like at the princess and others in the fairytale retelling of Thornspell. Enjoy! (Note: I&#8217;ve bumped &#8220;About the Characters&#8221; to keep the Heroines posts sequential &#8212; but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,50,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-writing","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39669"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39675,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669\/revisions\/39675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}