Time for another Weekend Writing Warriors snippet. Every Sunday, I join a bunch of writers through a blog hop and post an 8-10 sentence snippet of my current project. You can click on the link to see what everyone else is up to.
Last week’s snippet involved discovering The Wild Swans, the fairy tale that Lotte thinks might be a foreshadowing of her own story. Since I’m the author I can readily say that yes, Speechless will have major parallels, so luckily my characters are on the right track. Let’s see how the family puts their heads together to think of a solution.
“Does it have to be shirts?” my dad added. “What if you made something smaller—”
“What, like a hat?” Peder chimed in.
“No, Peeds,” Alex interjected, “something cooler, like man bracelets.”
My confused expression was thorough enough I didn’t have to write anything down.
“You know, just something thick and non-sparkly,” Alex explained without skipping a beat.
“Have you seen any patches of sparkly weeds lately?” Ben asked.
“It’s worth a try,” Thomas said, “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re willing to try anything.”
“How will we know if they will work?” Ben asked. He looked at me with soft eyes and a concerned mouth.
How would your family react to this fairy tale? I pretty much love writing any scene that involves Lotte’s brothers and parents. Their dialog is just fun to write, especially because I have three brothers; I’ve got a lot of fodder to work with, and it’s nice to write “modern” dialog after using a higher tone for my fantasy novel, Destiny Seeker.
Until next time, check out other snippets here. You can also learn more about the novel, Speechless, here. Don’t forget to comment below if you’ve got a snippet to share as well! Compliments and constructive insight are equally welcome.
“I have three brothers; I’ve got a lot of fodder to work with.” Don’t you mean a lot of brodders to work with, and just one fodder? (Sorry, sorry, I apologize. Sometimes I can’t help myself…)
Oh wow, it took me a few read-throughs to catch the joke. haha!
Ha, man bracelets. That’s awesome. Love the dialogue! Very realistic. 😀
Thanks! I’d like to think that I do my best work in dialog. Maybe I should just write screenplays…
OMG, The Wild Swans is my favorite fairy tale! My mom used to read it to me in German, over and over and over again. 🙂
Cracking up over “man bracelets.”
Oh wow, yes! I love that as I work on this manuscript, more and more people are like, “Yeah, I know that tale!” It’s like finding secret friends out of nowhere—even though we’ve been friends before this. 😉
Always fun to read an updated version of a favorite fairy tale. Can’t wait for more! (Can you make the font in the comment box any darker? In the settings maybe? I can hardly see it…thanks!)
I’ll see what I can do! I just got a new blog theme so I have to dig deeper to find where I can fix it. Thanks for the heads up!
Fairy tales never get old in any language or retelling. Great snippet. Tweeted.
Thanks for the tweet! <3 What's your favorite fairy tale or retelling? I can't get enough of either.
Sometimes fairy tales updated to modern times don’t feel right to me, but this one sure does. Creative and interesting! I agree that the family dynamic seems natural and believable. Hope you pick up from here, I’m really curious how the family’s going to tackle this.
I really appreciate your comment! I know what you mean about modernized retellings and as I write and revise, I try not to make it cheesy or unbearable to continue. Thank you for reading!
Man bracelets! Heh. I suspect the size and effort required for a shirt is part of the point. In the old tales, you bleed for your magic.
Right? There’s so much sacrifice in the older tales that it really shows how much the characters trust that whatever ritual they have to perform that it’ll actually work. I think I’d go crazy first!
I have no clue what’s going on as I’ve never read anything else, but I love it! The humor clearly shows through and Alex’s comment made me smile.
Aww thanks! I’m glad it came through. Thanks for reading!