Just to let you know in case you can come, I\u2019ll be signing books at the Westchester Children\u2019s Book Festival at Mohawk Day Camp in White Plains, New York, on May 5th. I\u2019ll be there from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and I’ll have time to chat. I\u2019d love to see you!<\/p>\n
On January 10, 2019, Emily F. wrote, I\u2019ve been working on a retelling of the Mulan legend. What I\u2019ve been wondering is, how far can you take a story from its origins before it stops being a retelling? For example, would you consider it to be a retelling of Mulan if it\u2019s not set in China? I was reading book reviews of another Mulan story, and the reviewers seemed generally unhappy with the fact that the author took the story out of China. And that\u2019s only one example of a way I\u2019m deviating from the original legend\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Any thoughts on what makes for a good retelling?<\/em><\/p>\n Christie V Powell wrote back, Do you feel the need to label it as a retelling? If not, you can just write the story you want to write, and if people notice the similarity, it\u2019ll be a fun bonus for them. Most retellings that I\u2019ve seen don\u2019t label themselves as such. Disney added a tiny \u201cinspired by The Snow Queen\u201d in the credits of \u201cFrozen,\u201d because the story was so different.<\/em><\/p>\n One of my favorite books when I was little (I have no idea what the title was) was a retelling of The Arabian Nights<\/em> in a Native American setting, incorporating actual or made-up Native American folk tales. This was about sixty years ago. I suspect the tales weren\u2019t true to the culture, but I don\u2019t know. I hope they weren\u2019t actually offensive. Anyway, in my ignorance, I loved it. If a thousand reviewers had been miffed about the transplant from one society to another, I wouldn\u2019t have cared. And I liked very much that I had the inside dope that this was a transformed Arabian Nights<\/em>. I enjoyed making the connection.<\/p>\n I agree with Christie V Powell that you don\u2019t have to call your creative work a retelling. And, going the other way, I think, no matter how far you stray, you can call it such if you want to. Ella Enchanted<\/em> and some of my retellings in The Princess Tales are pretty faithful to classic versions. But in other of my fairy-tale based books, like A Tale of Two Castles<\/em> and Ogre Enchanted<\/em>, the connection is pretty tenuous. I don\u2019t think I did in A Tale of Two Castles<\/em>, but in Ogre Enchanted<\/em>, I cite the source, the fairy tale, \u201cThe False Prince and the True, on the copyright page. And I do the same in all the Princess Tales. My hope is that kids who see the citation will be moved to read the originals. Then they can have two pleasurable reading experiences. They can notice the differences between the stories and ponder why I made the changes I did.<\/p>\n Is a story still \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d if the beast is a wasp, and when he\u2019s transformed he turns into a sheep with golden fleece? If we think it is\u2013if the fairy tale inspired us–and we want to claim a connection, no one has the right to say we can\u2019t.<\/p>\n Critics\u2019 opinions vary about everything. I would advise that we not dwell on negative judgments of another author\u2019s work and certainly not apply them to our own. Even this particular reviewer might have a different opinion about our story. Some critics might even like the variety that came with the change of location and whatever else.<\/p>\n Really, when we write, we have to please only ourselves. Later, after we’ve revised more than once, we may have to please an editor and then a copy editor. No one else. Critics are on their own. Even readers are.<\/p>\n But the wonderful thing is that if we please ourselves, if our story is true to our own ideas, then readers, and sometimes critics, will find the truth in it and be pleased, too.<\/p>\n Having said all this, however, I wouldn\u2019t make Mulan the title of my story. In the text, I might not even mention the name Mulan except on the copyright page or in an afterword, because the mention might send the reader out of the story.<\/p>\n As for what makes a good retelling, hmm…<\/p>\n I love it when I find a new way in my own work to look at a fairy tale and when another author shows me a new way. Donna Jo Napoli, for example, always does this. Her novel, The Magic Circle<\/em>, tells the tragic-but-triumphant story of the witch in \u201cHansel and Gretel,\u201d and her Zel<\/em>, among other things, explains the witch in \u201cRapunzel.\u201d Beast<\/em> is \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d from the beast\u2019s POV (as is my Ogre Enchanted<\/em>, sort of, but in an entirely different way). My favorite of her books that I’ve read is the lighthearted and endearing Prince of the Pond<\/em>, a retelling of \u201cThe Frog Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n I also love a straight retelling that honors the original, like Robin McKinley\u2019s Beauty<\/em>, a retelling of \u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d which set me to writing Ella Enchanted<\/em>. Beauty<\/em> tells its story in beautiful language. The atmosphere enfolds me, and she treats her characters with great sympathy. Also, another important feature in a retelling: Robin McKinley brings the world to life.<\/p>\n I appreciate when an author finds a surprising way into a story, as Susan Fletcher does in Shadow Spinner<\/em>, in which she tackles the story that frames the tales in The Arabian Nights<\/em>. I had wanted to do the same, but I got stuck. I couldn\u2019t figure out how to make the sultan sympathetic, because he kills a series of young women, but Susan Fletcher does it by stepping back\u2013her MC is a young girl with a limp, who hunts for stories when Shahrazad runs out.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m delighted when a retelling deals with the wrongness in a tale. I can\u2019t find it online, and I don\u2019t own it, but a picture book exists that reveals that the real hero of \u201cRumpelstiltskin\u201d is the eponymous dwarf. He saves the miller\u2019s daughter\u2019s life three times, and he makes sure, I think, that she discovers his name. Recognition has been a long time coming!<\/p>\n There are other fairy tales out there that need attention! Greek myths, too! Here are three prompts based on them:<\/p>\n \u2219 Explain the miller in \u201cRumpelstiltskin.\u201d Write a scene that shows why he boasts to the king that his daughter can turn straw into gold. Go on to explain why the king makes death the punishment if she fails. If you like, make him sympathetic\u2013a tall order, in my opinion. Write another scene in which the miller\u2019s daughter does more than wring her hands, in which she actually accomplishes something.<\/p>\n \u2219 Before you read Donna Jo Napoli\u2019s version, write the backstory of the witch in \u201cHansel and Gretel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2219 Retell \u201cSleeping Beauty,\u201d but put it in the modern world, no more than three miles from where you live.<\/p>\n Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just to let you know in case you can come, I\u2019ll be signing books at the Westchester Children\u2019s Book Festival at Mohawk Day Camp in White Plains, New York, on May 5th. I\u2019ll be there from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and I’ll have time to chat. I\u2019d love to see you! 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