Writers in Residence discussion

You can ask for ideas, or tell others. If you don't want your ideas used by others, please say so.

I have an idea about a Beauty and the Beast retelling that’s very difficult to describe again.

Oh yeah! Was it that one that you posted on the KOTLC group?

Yeah!

I like that idea, it was super cool.

Nova wrote: "I have an idea about a Beauty and the Beast retelling that’s very difficult to describe again."

Here's the idea (copy-and-pasted from the other discussion):

I recently became fascinated with the idea of fairytale retellings, and I got this story.
So it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but not what you'd expect. Also, I think it should be in third person, for reasons I'll explain later. Anyway, the protagonist is a teenage boy, around seventeen. He's a coward, scared of everything, and he's also an animal charmer. So one day he's walking through the forest, gets lost, and oh, look, it's night already! And I guess he makes some mistakes, does something bad on accident, or something, and basically gets kidnapped by a young woman, probably around eighteen, who calls herself Beast. Beast is ugly, hence why she calls herself that. Beast wants to sell our poor charmer protagonist on some black market, or something, to receive money, because, well, he's an animal charmer. But he manages to convince her not to sell him, and now he's living in her basement, as a hostage, to get money from his wealthy parents. In the basement, there's another young woman, but she's asleep, and doesn't seem to wake up. She also seems to resemble the princess that disappeared from the castle a few months ago. The charmer slowly pieces things together, and tries to gain Beast's trust. Eventually, she lets him out into the forest, with his flute, so that he "doesn't forget how to charm". And this is where the fact that it's in third person begins to matter. From here on out, the reader gets to just be an outside observer, and doesn't get to see much of the protagonist's mind anymore. Then, one day, a bunch of investigators barge into Beast's house and arrest her, then the sleeping princess is awoken by a prince from the neighboring kingdom (yeah, I mixed some Sleeping Beauty in, too), and the protagonist is called a brave hero, as opposed to how he was called a coward before. You might think that that's the end, right? The bad guy was defeated, the princess saved, and our protagonist became a hero. Wrong. Here's where the plot twist comes in, and where the third person POV really begins to matter. Beast wasn't the antagonist; the charmer was. What the reader didn't know was that the princess and Beast are twins, but Beast was hated and forgotten by everyone but the princess because she was ugly. The princess was to be married to the creepy prince from the neighboring kingdom, but she didn't want that, and the prince only wanted the kingdom to himself. So, the twins ran away from the castle and hid in a cottage in the forest. Then, the princess got a disease, and, to keep her alive, Beast put a sleeping spell on her. She needed money for a cure, because the disease couldn't be cured by magic. Using her ugliness to her advantage, Beast becomes a criminal, selling things on the black market, stealing, and using other illegal methods of getting money. What the reader also didn't see was the charmer heading out into the forest, using Beast's trust against her, and charming some animals into getting a message delivered to the palace about Beast and the sleeping princess in the basement. That is, after all, the charmer's motive. He wanted to be recognized as a courageous hero, not a coward, and this was the perfect way of doing that. He betrayed Beast, and was rewarded for that.
And that is the story. We thought that the charmer was good, and that Beast was bad, but it's the complete opposite.

Also, names. I think the princess should be named Bella, and the Beast's real name should be Brutta. I couldn't think of a name for the charmer, though. I don't have any appearance in mind for Beast, but the princess, I think, should be pale, with blond hair and light brown eyes. I envisioned the charmer having warm brown skin, brown eyes that turn purple when he charms, and black hair.

Sorry for how long this is. I wasn't expecting it to be this long.
I also have a title idea, Charm and Courage, though I will happily accept any better ideas.
And that's it.

Also, the charmer's name is Ilan, pronounced like "island", but without the "d" sound at the end.

Be warned, I love chapters!

Chapters by numbers, character uses that number in the first sentence of each chapter.

Different character P.O.V. each chapter.

Story in evils P.O.V. that does not turn good.

Atomic bomb survivor. (debate in school)

Two undercover secret societies. One is bad (somehow), one''s was part of the first but is now part of a new one (good). There are powers. (crazy dream I had XD)

Kid who witnesses parents death. Blames it on someone who is innocent, and on his side.

Start @ end of story and move forward from there, revealing things in the past.

Protagonist waves from coma/other form of sleep in the middle of action.

The perfect Utopia; one citizen and a congress of rulers the one person is satisfied and gets anything they want. (haven't fully figured it out yet)

Please, these are my ideas, I'd appreciate it if they stayed that way, thank you!

Man you guys are so creative!! That's my problem with writing, I love it and can be decent with it, if only I have an idea to start with. But sadly, I seem to not have a single creative bone in my body!😂

Here are some writing prompts:

1. Coconut Crabs take over the world.
2. You are pulled into a story of some kind; movie/book/spoken story/video game/maybe a picture/etc.
3. You find a mysterious amulet in your dresser.
4. You find a letter hidden in a corner of your basement labled simply: "Laurie"
5. A family member or friend disappears.
6. You live in a fairy tale realm, but suddenly you are brought to the "real" world.
7. You have to take down a criminal empire selling bananas.
8. You wake up on the moon, without the Earth in sight. You can be alone or with someone else; you decide.
9. A strange person walks up to you and says: "[Insert character name here], thank goodness I found you. Ever since [villain name] whisked you away, [friend name] and I have been worried that we would never find you again." You have no memory of any of these people; you simply live a normal life!
10. You meet a gnome.

(By the way, I'm hoping to do something with #9 someday. You can use the prompt, but don't be alarmed if I do too.)

Thanks! I love prompts!

I recently had another dream. Ants are invading the world. They crawl up your skin, up your neck, into your cuts, ears, mouth, eyes, nose. Then you turn into a human ant!

OR

When you pick a weed, about ten red ants will crawl on you and bite you about five times each, then you turn into a human red ant.

OR

You die.