{"id":1259,"date":"2018-05-11T17:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2018-05-08T19:08:56","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T18:08:56","slug":"guest-post-the-top-5-challenges-of-retelling-snow-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/11\/guest-post-the-top-5-challenges-of-retelling-snow-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: The Top 5 Challenges of Retelling Snow White"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, everyone! This is my first time guest-blogging on JL, so let me introduce myself. I\u2019m Tahlia Merrill Kirk, creator and editor of Timeless Tales Magazine<\/a>. Our magazine\u2019s mission is to breathe new life into the classics by publishing stories and poems that reinvent fairy tales and myths.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Our current theme is Snow White<\/i>, which means I\u2019ve been spending hours upon hours reading submissions about pale skin and ruby lips. Seriously, I\u2019m starting to hum the Into the Woods<\/i> song as, \u201cThe skin as white as milk, the lips as red as blood, the hair as black as crows\u201d (listen here<\/a>) . To turn my insanity into something productive, let\u2019s talk about certain pitfalls to avoid when retelling Snow White<\/i>. Here are the biggest challenges that this fairy tale presents to writers:<\/p>\n

1. Getting Beyond the Disney Version.<\/b><\/h4>\n

We all grew up with Disney pumped through our veins, so it\u2019s naturally the first image that comes to mind when thinking about this fairy tale. Even if you\u2019ve only watched the movie once, like me, you still have the songs and iconic scenes imprinted on your brain.<\/p>\n

If you read Allie\u2019s blog post<\/a> about the differences between the original fairy tales and the Disney movies, you\u2019ll have a pretty good idea about why this is a problem. For example, you do NOT need to name your dwarves Sleepy, Grumpy, Happy, Doc, etc. If you\u2019d only seen the Disney movie, you might fall into thinking these names are permanent parts of their characters, but in fact, there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t name your dwarves Granite, Stone, Silver, etc. Remember, the whole point of a retelling is to challenge assumptions; do some research and see where it takes you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2. So Many Characters to Juggle.<\/b><\/h4>\n

With seven dwarves, an original queen, the new queen\/stepmother, a king, a huntsman, a prince, and, oh, yeah–SNOW WHITE–you have a potential of thirteen characters…fourteen if you want to give the magic mirror a personality! That is far too many to fully develop in a novel, let alone a short story.<\/p>\n

Every writer is going to have a different approach to getting around this hurdle. The obvious answer is that you won\u2019t feature every character, but the specifics are up to you. Are you going to start the story in the middle and focus on Snow\u2019s relationship with her dwarven roomies? That\u2019s still 8 characters, so maybe you\u2019ll want to send half the dwarves to the Bahamas for a vacation so you don\u2019t get bogged down. The possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n

3. The Romance With a Prince Who Arrives at the End.<\/b><\/h4>\n

Okay, so this is assuming that you include the prince in the story (totally optional) and <\/i>that you want him to have a romantic relationship with Snow White (also totally optional). The problem is, if you follow the original plot, he doesn\u2019t show up until the end of the story, making it hard to build any sort of relationship. This is why so many retellings have the huntsman as the love interest, since he shows up much earlier in the story and has a meaningful interaction with Snow. Your story might make the prince a childhood friend or a penpal. Or maybe you\u2019ll start the story with Snow\u2019s awakening and follow them as they navigate through the ups and downs of their new relationship. Just remember, it\u2019s important to get around the ickiness of the prince falling in love with a girl he believes is a corpse!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4. Writing a Story About Beauty Without Buying Into the Obsession.<\/b><\/h4>\n

Oh, man, where do I even start? This is a tough one to explain, but there\u2019s a fine line between writing a story where the characters<\/i> are obsessed with physical appearances and a story where you<\/i> are feeding into this destructive view. \u201cBut\u2014\u201d you may say, \u201cClearly, this is a fairy tale about the dangers of vanity! The stepmother is the one obsessed with beauty and she\u2019s portrayed as evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, but does the fairy tale ever give value to any of Snow White\u2019s other attributes? Sure, there are her skills in cooking and cleaning, but those are quickly tossed aside once her prince comes along. Oh, and if you think that Snow has kindness going for her, I\u2019ll remind you that the original Snow gets her revenge through torturous punishment of her stepmother.<\/p>\n

So when you\u2019re writing your version, consider how much importance you put on Snow\u2019s appearance (or the dwarves\u2019 appearance for that matter, since they are perpetually defined by their height). I\u2019ve read multiple submissions that get to Snow\u2019s funeral and it seemed touching how all the dwarves are crying their eyes out until I realized that the author had given Snow\u2019s character ZERO lines of dialogue and ZERO meaningful actions. Make sure your characters aren\u2019t just attractive props in your story.<\/p>\n

If you want a great example of a retelling that consciously targets our culture\u2019s definitions of beauty, I recommend Gail Carson Levine\u2019s Fairest<\/i>. Her protagonist has all the traditional features, but they actually don\u2019t make her drop-dead gorgeous:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/i>I was an unsightly child. My skin was the weak blue-white of skimmed milk, which wouldn’t have been so bad if my hair had been blond and my lips pale pink. But my lips were as red as a dragon’s tongue and my hair as black as an old frying pan.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s okay to be average looking! And Spoiler Alert: She still finds love!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5. Glorifying Whiteness.<\/b><\/h4>\n

Along with the potential for objectifying your protagonist, you might want to tread carefully when praising her white skin. Just because her name is Snow White doesn\u2019t mean she must be default Caucasian. Now, I\u2019m not saying you need to make your Snow White Hispanic or African American (although, you should definitely consider the possibility!), but do be aware that there\u2019s a whole lot of symbolic meaning around the color white that becomes problematic when applied to a person\u2019s skin tone. Your story\u2019s plot might hinge on Snow being beautiful, but I\u2019ll bet it doesn\u2019t hinge on how<\/i> she\u2019s beautiful and will work equally well if she\u2019s olive-skinned versus pale.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, these points give you some food for thought (they\u2019re not poisoned, I promise!). If you want to read our completed collection of totally rockin\u2019 Snow White<\/i> retellings, sign up for our newsletter via our website to be notified when it goes live this summer. This will actually be Timeless Tales\u2019s 5th Anniversary Issue, so it will be chock full of extra-special goodies. While you wait, might I suggest reading one of our previous issues? We\u2019ve covered everything from Arthurian legends to The 12 Dancing Princesses<\/i>.<\/p>\n

All right, now I have to get back to sending out rejection and acceptance letters. Thanks to Hanna and Heather for inviting me to your little corner of the internet!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello, everyone! This is my first time guest-blogging on JL, so let me introduce myself. I\u2019m Tahlia Merrill Kirk, creator and editor of Timeless Tales Magazine. Our magazine\u2019s mission is to breathe new life into the classics by publishing stories and poems that reinvent fairy tales and myths.   Our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Guest Post: The Top 5 Challenges of Retelling Snow White","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nGuest Post: The Top 5 Challenges of Retelling Snow White - Just-Us League<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/11\/guest-post-the-top-5-challenges-of-retelling-snow-white\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Post: The Top 5 Challenges of Retelling Snow White - Just-Us League\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hello, everyone! 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She enjoys writing stories inspired by fairy tales, legends, and history. 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It's Allie, the resident JL Disney expert. I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times, probably due to the fact that my dad worked for Disney in the R&D department when I was in high school, and my husband works in the Ride Engineering department now. Oh, and my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SnowWhite.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SnowWhite.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SnowWhite.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SnowWhite.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SnowWhite.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/05\/legend-lore-blog-tour-b-c-marine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":3},"title":"Of Legend and Lore Blog Tour with B.C. Marine","author":"Elise Ed","date":"February 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Just-Us League are proud to announce their next anthology: Of Legend and Lore! New life is given to eleven old stories in this second collection of irresistible fairy tale retellings. Royalty faces magical challenges: a prince uses his powers on a rescue mission and reveals a terrible secret about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/roses-1566792_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/roses-1566792_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/roses-1566792_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1170,"url":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/01\/spring-book-sale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":4},"title":"Spring Book Sale!","author":"Elise Ed","date":"April 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Pick up any of these great reads for only 99c from 1st - 7th April 2018! \u00a0 From the Stories of Old - a JL Anthology Vol. 1 A Collection of Fairy Tale Retellings In this international collection, new life is given to fairy tales, both classic and obscure. Mythical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/28947727_552906765089647_3995586634449545128_o-1024x603.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/28947727_552906765089647_3995586634449545128_o-1024x603.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/28947727_552906765089647_3995586634449545128_o-1024x603.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/28947727_552906765089647_3995586634449545128_o-1024x603.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1052,"url":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/26\/release-day-legend-lore\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":5},"title":"Release Day: Of Legend and Lore!","author":"Heather Hayden","date":"February 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Release day is finally here! Happy National Tell a Fairy Tale Day! This a wonderful day to celebrate our favorite fairy tales and retellings. Not only is Of Legend and Lore releasing today, but we have a special offer for From the Stories of Old--keep scrolling to learn more! Of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Of-Legend-and-Lore-800x1250.jpg?fit=768%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Of-Legend-and-Lore-800x1250.jpg?fit=768%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Of-Legend-and-Lore-800x1250.jpg?fit=768%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jlwriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Of-Legend-and-Lore-800x1250.jpg?fit=768%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jlwriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}