Twisted Tales, Ben 10 Style

[Phoenix_Wings]

Sooo, my muse has suddenly become very fond of a plot bunny that refuses to die and I have a writer's block on everything else...
I'm halfway growing on the idea of doing some manner of Ben 10 twisted fairy tales or something similar (and I have no clue why, because I've always hated trying to re-write fairy tales). I use the term fairy tales loosely because first, I might throw in some fables and mythology-ish stories too and second because when you say fairy tale, most people think of the more popular Disney ones, I'm thinking more Brother's Grimm, which I'll need to go look at...and out of the two hundred ten stories, maybe, just maybe I can find one or two that haven't already been done to death.

Well two questions, 1) Does this sound interesting to anyone else (or is it the caffeine telling me it is)? and 2) Has this been done to the point where people go "bleagh" and don't bother themselves to read it?

[perhapsormaybe]

I'm a little leary of reworkings of other stories. I've done it myself and I do believe it can be done, but too many bad writers use it as a crutch and a reason to explain why the character being out of character is reasonable (no. No it's not) typically by claiming "it's a different world, so of course they act different!". If you adjust the characters slightly based on the time of the story it can be done and I think I'd read it. I'd definitely go more Brother's Grimm if I were you (just because Disney is so sugar syrupy sweet that Ben 10's world would be kind of boring if you merged it - and this is coming from a huge Disney fan).

I'd probably look into it if you write it. Do you have any specific outlines, like a basic story rewrite you would want to do?

[Phoenix_Wings]

I know, that's why I'm heasitant myself, the concept is abused and I'm afriad of mangling things.
Uhm, not sure what you mean by 'basic story rewrite' do you mean which stories I'm thinking of or the way I'm going about it?

I don't realy have much thought out yet, I have a few stories I like, that I would like to try re-writing, but I'm not sure I could pull it off. I'm still trying to decide if I should keep the stories in their past settings, or update it to a modern version...or flip-flopping depending on the story.

[datdude]

If you cant write and this is all thats flowing use it to get things rolling again. As for rewriting fairy tales ive heard worse ideas.

[perhapsormaybe]

Exactly - what stories do you have in mind to rework so far?

[Phoenix_Wings]

I haven't made it through all of the Grimm's yet (I admit I'm not familar with the stories), two that halfway caught my eye were "Donkey Cabbages" (...) and "The Seven Ravens", either would take alot of tweeking, but hey, that's why the working title is 'Twisted Tales'.
I had actually started working on a version of one of my favorite folktales (not a Grimm) called "Psyche and Eros", but I stopped and started to wonder at what point does "tweeking" change the story to the point it's no longer the same thing? Afterall, none of the Ben 10 cast fit perfectly into the story formula...

[dragonelf]

Fairy tale rewrites have been done a lot, but I've seen some good ones. Mostly I've seen rewrites of the popular fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast, so it would be interesting to see some of the more obscure stories brought to light.

I've heard "Psyche and Eros" and while I agree that no one fits exactly, I think changing the story is fine. As long as it keeps some resemblence to the original story, changes are good and much more interesting to read than a cough-up of the story, just with a different set of characters (seen this too many times). As for the two Grimm stories, I haven't read either of them, but I'll check them out and get back to it.

[Phoenix_Wings]

This might help, there may be better translations, but it's the first I found.

www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms-toc.html

Because of course, the only book avalible at the library is in the reference section.... -_-

[perhapsormaybe]

I don't believe the story has to be exact. There's nothing wrong with saying simply "inspired by (such and such tale)".