Into the Forest discussion

Hi! Can anyone help me with this quandry? I have a story outline in my head using Sleeping Beauty (from her mother's POV) but I think some of my ideas are lifted from a retellings I've read in the past. Does anyone recognise either of these elements? Many thanks in advance!

1. Prince who kisses Sleeping Beauty reprimands her parents for letting so many fine heroes of the past die on the thorns of the briars that grow up around her.

2. Sleeping Beauty is lain in a burial barrow not a castle, and is found by an archeologist rather than a prince.

Lynden wrote: "Hi! Can anyone help me with this quandry? I have a story outline in my head using Sleeping Beauty (from her mother's POV) but I think some of my ideas are lifted from a retellings I've read in the ..."

Both sounded familiar, but I can't place the stories based on my bookshelves/ notes. It's possible I'm thinking of film retellings, so no help at all there.

Though, #2 brings up this news story from 2018: https://www.sciencealert.com/siberian...

Thank you, Leah. I watch few films so it's unlikely I got the ideas from one. The Siberian princess is interesting!

You can check out a short story And Still She Sleeps by Greg Costikyan (you will find it in Black Heart, Ivory Bones anthology). I think Sleeping Beauty was found by archeologists in this story, but I am not sure, I haven't finished reading it.

the first sounds vaguely familiar, but I may be imagining things. I'd say you're probably safe. If nothing else add a disclaimer at the beginning or end saying that you're pretty sure these are original ideas, but if not that theft was not intended and you'd like to know the originals. (speaking there as a student who tutors other students at my college, that's what I'd tell any of them that came in with a similar quandry)

I have not read anything like what you described, but I have not read that many retellings of Sleeping Beauty. I love the idea of an archeologist finding her!

Thanks, Julia, Shannon and Jalilah. Julia, I'll follow up that retelling. I suspect that if I've read either of these ideas before, that my subconscious will make me write something rather similar.

Ideas are not copyrightable.

True enough, Mary. But I didn't want to write something too similar to what's out there already.

The art of pulling your story away from what was written before is like every other aspect of writing: it needs to be practiced. Took me a while to master writing that only technically did not violate copyright.

Hmmm -- here I am, rambling endless about it:
https://marycatelli.dreamwidth.org/10...

That is a wonderful & fun little essay.