hamlet-of-delaware

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Things I'm currently working on:

Beauty & the Beast rewrite

Jackie's Thumbelina-inspired SWACIT fic

a Halloween short story (or two, since I'm debating between two developed ideas)

Teddy Lupin fanfic

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Well, ask me about my writing since I don't roleplay. :)

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Ahh, your video is cool~ I think you earned a fan here.

Aw, thank you!

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So I'm writing a bit of Teddy Lupin fic.

Sarah only put fuel on the fire. It's going well so far. So without further ado, here's how it was born (which has some info about it).

I posted this unpopular opinion about Harry Potter: Teddy Lupin might be in a relationship with Victoire Weasley, but my headcanon is that he was very flirty with people, both girls and guys. (And he probably got with a few people, too.)

Sarah: I never thought about it, but it seems like something that could have been. I’m down with that.

Me: I’m glad you approve. It just seems like that’s very possible. He’d be that fun guy who may or may not have snogged Whats-her-name in the broom closet, rumors say he and What-her-face made out in a disused classroom, people say he and Whats-his-name felt each other up and made out in a bed with the beddrapes closed, etc etc. But I think he and Victoire probably always had an easy relationship together, then ended up realizing they liked each other and started dating (much to the disappointment of many girls and a few guys).

Sarah: YOU’RE MAKING IT SOUND EVEN MORE APPEALING.

Me: I’M SO GLAD. :D I’m convincing myself even more, to be quite honest. I feel like anything that’s a rumor or hearsay Teddy would just play up and/or not really confirm it but not really deny it. He’d just have a coy smile and a glint in his eye as he just went with it. Teddy Lupin, Hogwarts’ resident bad boy.

Sarah: You should draw Teddy.

Me: I’m terrible at drawing guys. I haven’t in literally over a year. It’d be terrible. But I may give it a shot. I’m not sure. I definitely want to write a fic of it, maybe…

Sarah: I was going to suggest fic, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be up for it! Go for it. 

Me: Hahaha, I shall try my hand at it. It’ll be… interesting, that’s for sure.

Sarah: I’ve found that, with fic, it only seems ridiculous until you write it. After that it just gets… easier.

Me: Well by interesting I meant the writing process and the end result together, not that the idea was ridiculous. XD And btw, I’m so rusty on drawing guys that I’m going to have to use a guy as a reference. Currently figuring out some possibilities.

Sarah: …what possibilities

Me: Of guys to roughly base my sketch of Teddy on.

Sarah: No, I know that. I just wondered if you had thought of anyone to use as a reference.

Me: Ooooh, gotcha. Well, here’s some possible choices:

Andrew Garfield

Kyle Gallner

Mathias Lauridsen

Patrick Wolf

younger Jude Law

Jamie Bell

younger Lee Pace

Those are all possibilities. So you approve as those as inspiration for Teddy?

Sarah: I do! Mathias especially, ughhhh. RUINING LIVES.

Me: Good! I’m leaning towards him, but not that hairstyle. For the hair I’m leaning toward something Patrick Wolf-esque or maybe like Jamie Bell’s.

Sarah: Body of Mathias, hair of Patrick. I like that a lot.

Me: Yay! I’m really glad you do. And of course the hair will be the standard teal color.

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Characters (B&tB retelling)

Note: Ok, so I’d like to say that almost none of the characters have a name… yep. I just kinda put BEAUTY, FATHER, SISTER #2, etc. where their names should be in the story. Until I figure them out and get to know what each character is like, I don’t want to name them yet.

BEAUTY’S FAMILY (in chronological order):

Father

Mother (deceased, died birthing Beauty)

Brother #1

Sister #1

Sister #2

Brother #2 (deceased, got sick as an infant)

Beauty

possibly a Brother #3 or Sister #3 (Beauty’s twin, died with the mother)

BEAST’S FAMILY:

The Beast

his mother, a Queen

his father, a King (deceased, mentioned)

OTHER PEOPLE:

Beauty’s family’s maid (fired when family loses money)

Beauty’s family’s manservant (fired when family loses money)

Beauty’s father’s two affiliates, business men who deliver the sad news about his ship (though they may not be the best of men)

various townsfolk whom are mentioned/make small appearances

servants of the Beast are mentioned/alluded to and I’m still debating if they’ll actually make an appearance of any kind

the Fairy or Witch at the end of the story (the one to cast the enchantment on the Prince and the castle)

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So I asked followers on my main blog to ask me questions about my Beauty and the Beast adaption.

Here's what I got.

Q. I don't know what you're writing...I know Beauty and the Beast, but can you give me a general overview of how you're making it your own? - baxinator

The original is very… clear cut, let’s say. Not much depth. What I want to do is add more realism to it, even though it’s full of magic. And the castle originally was very beautiful and grand. I’m having my castle be old, dilapidated, even falling apart. Whole wings have been abandoned. But almost without realizing it, the longer that the Beauty character is there, the more the palace slowly returns to it’s former grandeur, bit by bit.

Also, there’s an old cathedral in ruins behind the castle. It ends up being important.

Q. So in your own version of Beauty & the Beast are you going the traditional route or the Disney route? - normajbaker

It’s definitely more traditional than Disney. Though I did make one small reference to the Disney version in a scene.

The Beauty character (still trying to figure out a good name I like) is pouring some tea from a teapot into a matching cup and she realizes it’s chipped on the edge. (This happens early on, before things start returning to their former state of grandeur.)

Q. Well… the first question would be, how are you modifying the original story? - intosilicia

Making it more realistic by giving it more depth. The original story is very clean-cut, so I wanted to give my story more depth by making it seem more real. I wanted to put more human emotion into it, and not just, “Oh what a scary Beast.” No, Disney was smart when they added in the terrifying confrontation in the West Wing. The story really needs a chase or something. So I’m trying to work out how to add in a chase scene through the castle or grounds, and I think I’m coming down to a good solution that won’t end as expected.

Q. I honestly don't know what to ask you because I just want to know everything you have. This project excites the shit out of me, I love retellings (I have vague plans for two retellings of other stories myself, as well as the first fifty pages of a completely unrelated novel; I take on way too many projects at once)

but seriously

this is awesome - making-beautiful

Haha, thank you! Honestly ask me anything. Anything at all.

I’m so glad someone besides me is excited for this! I really am. This makes me happy. :) And retellings are amazing. Robin McKinley is my favorite. <3

Q. Well, the original holds much more emotions regarding the Beast because it’s a very refined character despite the charm, he learned from it because of the spell… but if you make it’s personality more dual, it could change it very much. - intosilicia

I want to make both the Beast’s and Beauty’s personality deeper. For instance, my Beauty character has vibrant red hair, which reminds the Beast of his precious roses right away. So the first time the Beauty meets the Beast he’s exactly the opposite of what she expected; Instead of frightening and horrible, he deals with her as if she were a delicate flower in his garden.

Q. It's very poetic, I like it! The I hope then, you can show why Belle (?) is has she is, well if she is a strong woman that is. In the original she'd matured because of being the youngest of her sisters, which humbled her and made her appreciate the little things (or you can infer)… in Disney's it's not explained, she's just thrown as "the girl that likes books and dreams more of life" but since people could relate to that, they left it without an explanation on how she became that way. I hope you get to develop her in such fashion, then. - intosilicia

Thank you! :) In mine, she does have older siblings, and yes, she’s still the youngest. She has to clean up after them a lot, as well as her father. Her mom died giving birth to her, and so she’s been a source of woe to her siblings, and a painful reminder to her father considering how much she looks like her mother. So she could either mope around and feel bad for herself while no work got done around the house, or she could be tough and get shit done, so to speak.

Q. what made you want to do a retell of Beauty and the Beast? - wombatunicorn

That’s… that’s honestly a really good question. It’s been so long, I’m not sure I can give a good answer. I mean, I love retellings so I’ve always wanted to make an adaption of some form. I believe I had just rewatched Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and had recently found some blogs that post pictures of abandoned places (fyi: I love abandoned places). Some of the pictures of crumbling and long-forgotten mansions, castles, and chateaus got the idea of the Beast’s castle falling into disrepair until Beauty comes then slowly returning to it’s former glory into my head. I think I just thought that a unique enough idea to start as a basis and just kinda… went from there, I guess.

Great question. :)

Q. Who (or what) are some of the other characters? - austeralia

[answered in separate post due to length and formatting]

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Another update.

I feel bad that I haven't posted here in over a month. Between finishing high school (!!!) and all, things have been pretty crazy. However, I bought a Moleskine and have been writing and planning in it. I now have so much developed, and a lot of work done. So lots of updates will be coming shortly. :)

- Sean

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An update.

I know that I haven't been posting much, and I'm sorry. But life's been very busy, what with me near the end of my senior year and being in both a musical and a Shakespeare play. But I AM writing! I'll probably post that excerpt I promised a while back either tonight or tomorrow. It's when Belle's/Beauty's father first arrives at the castle.

-Sean

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So I've been thinking...

My English class is reading Shakespeare's amazing tragedy Macbeth, and it's my fourth time ever reading it. My favorite characters are Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches aka "the Weird Sisters".

Everyone knows that there's losts of theories concerning Lady Macbeth, one of which is that she's a Witch. This theory is derived from the fact that the Three Witches and Lady Macbeth both use words to make spirits do things, be it change the physical state (Witches) or change one's emotions and very nature to that of a man (Lady Macbeth). In Shakespeare's time, the auidience would have been more likely to make this connection between the Witches and Lady Macbeth. Also, the Three Witches can be seen as a version of The Fates, who... well, control fate. Lady Macbeth takes her husband's fate and twists it to her desires, and in that way controls fate.

But these characters got me to thinking.

I've been looking for how to explain the Beast's enchantment for my Beauty & the Beast retelling. In the original B&tB, a fairy enchants him and the fairy and the Queen show up in the end. What if the Queen was a Lady Macbeth-esque character, ambitious and cruel? And what if the fairy character was, indeed, three witches, who punished the Queen for her evil deeds through her son? I could then play with the motif of having the Witches throughout the story, subtly;

a statue of them on the mantle

a fountain of them in the garden

a gargoyle-esque placement of them on the castle walls outside

etc.

I may just scratch this idea, but it has potential.

Another idea I had was for a Sleeping Beauty retelling featuring a Lady Macbeth and the Witches. (Yeah... I like rewriting fairy tales.)

Basically, the Lady Macbeth character, a Witch-queen (not unlike Queen Jadis aka The White Witch [The Chronicles of Narnia] or Queen Grimhilde [Snow White]) wants the throne. Right when it's in her grasp, the dead king's brother comes and ascends the throne, bringing along his fresh young wife to be queen. The Witch-queen gets mad at this, and madder still when they have a baby girl and invite all the good witches, or "fairies" as they're called, but not the Witch-queen and her two sisters. (Note: Witch-queen + two sisters = Three Witches and, literally, the Weird SISTERS.)

The rest of the story would continue on as the tale we all know, more-or-less. And, naturally, when the Witch-queen crashes the newborn princess's feast she'd make a reference about smashing the babe's head in, a la Lady Macbeth.

Thoughts?

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Some point in the next few days, I'm going to post a short excerpt from my Beauty & the Beast retelling.

It'll probably be the scene when Beauty/Belle's father stumbles upon the castle for the first time. Keep your eyes peeled. :)

- Sean

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So the other day I mused over the idea of a Medusa-themed Beauty & the Beast retelling...

I've decided not to go with that ide. True, there may be elements of the Medusa tale in my story, but I'm going to write it more traditionally. However, after I finish my more traditional Beauty & the Beast, I think that I am indeed going to write a Medusa-themed version. Probably not right away, becauste that's just too much Beauty & the Beast over one period of time! That's months of writing nothing but two versions of the same tale. But I definitely want to write a Medusa-themed version because it's just too good an idea to not to write it and develope it.

So I'm officially commiting myself to two Beauty & the Beast projects. :)

Also, I've started sketching some concept art of how the Beast will look. Look for that to be posted sometime within the week.

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I love your theme!

Thanks, Ashley! :)

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A possible idea for my Beauty & the Beast retelling...

So today I was watching the History Channel's "Clash of the Gods: Medusa" (which you can watch on youtube here) and made a realization.

In the tale of Medusa, Medusa is a young, beautiful priestess in the temple of Athena who caught the attention of the god Posiden. Posiden suddenly appears in the temple of Athena and cruelly takes her virginity from her. However, in these myths when that happens, the woman is always blamed. No longer being a virgin, the goddess Athena punishes Medusa, resulting in Medusa painfully turning into a Gorgon:

her skin starts to crack

her hair falls out in bloody clumps and is replaced with poisonous snakes

her eyes become larger and can turn people to stone at first sight, which condemns Medusa to be forever alone

tusk-like fangs grow

often depicted with her tongue sticking out

The ancient Greeks based what Medusa looked like on a then-common everyday sight; corpses.

stretched/bloated/cracked skin

hair falling out

eyes nearly popping out of the skull due swelling

teeth revealed due to the lips being stretched open as the face bloated and cracked, often creating a permanent, grotesque grimmace

tongues sticking out (due to being swollen and bloated)

Also, Medusa's once lovely garden dies and starts filling up with stone corpses of those she's made eye contact with.

But how does this relate to my retelling of Beauty & the Beast?

Well, the myth of Medusa got me thinking of how much Medusa is like the Beast. Both were transformed for one reason or another, both were transformed by supernatural women (Medusa: the goddess Athena; the Beast: a fairy), both became hideous monsters, both lived in isolation, and both had gardens with a huge, lonely palace.

So I got to thinking about have some of my Beast's physical qualities be reminiscent of Medusa's. But then I got to thinking about having the Beast's former servants and anyone who came to the castle turn to stone by looking at him, and having broken and covered mirrors in many places in the castle. I really like this idea, because it would mean that the yet unnamed Beauty/Belle character could never actually look at the Beast, yet would fall in love with him anyway. It could present a very interesting dynamic.

But for right now, I think I'll stick to the traditional Beauty & the Beast. Perhaps I will give the Beast some of Medusa's physical features, though. But not the snake hair, for sure. I think that, after I write this retelling, I'll have to do a more Medusa-themed retelling of Beauty & the Beast. It's too good an idea to let go.

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Beauty & the Beast: My Retelling

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been able to post much recently, but I been busy with school, college applications, and just life in general. So in my spare time I've been working on my huge writing project: a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

My ultimate goal is to get it published, so I've been working really hard in developing it. I've been drawing on many sources, especially the original tale by Madame de Villeneuve. The website SurLaLune Fairy Tales has been a huge help in my research for my tale as we as an inspiration source.

Look below the cut for some details about my version of Beauty and the Beast!

Although I don't have a name yet for the Beauty/Belle character, I'm toying with the idea of her starting out with her not considering herself pretty, and her two sisters picking on her for it. So her father calls her "my petite belle", or "my little beauty", as a term of endearment. By the end of the story, however, she's grown into a beautiful young woman; a fact she can't deny but also takes no pleasure from. To her, it's merely a fact and not important.

The Beast's castle is falling to ruin, though it's still livable. It's just starting to show it's age; cracks in walls, overgrown vines and grass, cobwebs in door frames, etc. Not a single room is 100% without a reminder that the castle is falling to ruin, and though most rooms are still habitable, there are quite a few that are seemingly beyond repair.

Over time, the Beauty/Belle character starts realizing that the castle is showing less age, and it's almost like the castle is returning to it's former glory the longer that Beauty/Belle stays there.

Nothing good can thrive at the castle. The gardens are overrun with grass, weeds, and strangling vines. The only thing that continues to grow is the Beast's roses far in the depths of the garden. This is why the Beast gets so mad when Beauty's/Belle's father steals a rose. (In most stories, there's no reasoning as to why he gets so enraged about the stealing of a single rose, which has always bothered me. So I gave him a reason to get mad.)

Beauty/Belle is a red head. She has very bright, vibrant ginger hair, which makes her stand out among the everyone she's ever known. And (if I go with bullet point 1), it's one one of the reasons she views herself as plain.

Beauty's/Belle's vibrant red hair strikes a chord with the Beast. It immediately makes him think of his precious roses, the only things that have thrived in his shadow. He thinks that if the roses thrive here with him, then perhaps this girl will, too.

When Beauty/Belle returns at the climax after staying away from the castle too long, the castle has returned to as she first saw it; in fact, she realizes that it's even worse off then it's ever been. A sharp wind is blowing dead leaves everywhere, and even the roses have started to wither and die.

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Welcome!

Hey followers! Welcome to my new tumblr that I made for writings and such. I really hope that you guys enjoy it it. I'm posting a longer post about my current writing project later today.

Enjoy! And thanks for following. :)

- Sean