Stone Rose: and the writing process

Happy Halloween, dear Reader.Yesterday I told you about the things I don't like about the Beauty and the Beast story. Today, I'm going to finally tell you what my version is about. I'm also going to let you sneak a peek through the window of my drafting process, as it were.Here were a few of my starting points:

• What if the Beast was not cursed because of anything he had done that was wrong or unkind?
• What if the Belle character was actually the "beast"?
• What if more than just the prince suffered because of the curse that transformed him into a monster?
• What if the true "Beauty" wasn't quite who you might expect?

Well, those were the questions I started asking. Then I came up with a main character, and a few points of where I thought the story might be heading:

1. Intro main character: Karyna, young female servant in the palace - younger than the prince, but sort of grew up with him... they were occasional playmates when they were younger

2. Intro mystery: Statues of people - hints that they are more than statues, actual people who were turned to stone when the Prince was turned into abeast... (which happened when he was 21... and it's been 10 years)

3. Intro beast/prince: always in beast form - but with the mind of a man, but when he leaves the palace grounds, his mind becomes all beast...

That was where I got stuck for a while, because I wasn't sure where to go with that. I bounced ideas off of my various Stormcave accomplices, and decided that it would be a lot of fun to have the Prince not only be trapped in beast form, but also in a palace that is not his own (adding the element of "he can't even go home" to the story). From there, things began to move a bit more smoothly. I added a few new questions to the mix, and was able to break through my writer's block from there:

• What if the "Beast" had a younger brother?
• What if the moral of the story is not just about not judging a book by its cover, but also one of forgiveness?

Finally, I had the outline worked out for the story and the writing began to come together. This is a pretty rough "blurb" as it were (I just whipped it up a few minutes ago), but it's late and my head hurts, so this is all I can give you for the time being:Ten years ago, there was a ball to celebrate Princess Bellenya's 18th birthday and coming-of-age. It was also the night she came into her full magical powers. However, during the festivities, something went wrong. A terrible curse was cast upon the palace, the Princess disappeared, and everyone in attendance was turned to stone, all except Prince Barend, who instead had his appearance transformed into that of a monster. He retained his ability to speak and reason, so long as he stays inside the palace grounds - but if he leaves their boundaries, his mind becomes that of a beast as well, thus trapping him forever in a castle that is not his own.Karyna was just a young girl when the curse was cast, too young to stay up for an evening ball. She has remained at the palace in her role as a servant for the past ten years because it is the only home she has ever known, and her father is one of the people who was imprisoned in stone inside the Throne Room. Although many have tried to break the curse, none have succeeded.Now, Karyna sets off on a quest to discover the source of the curse. She is one of the few people in the land who yet believes the curse can be broken, and she is determined to find a way to save the people it harmed.