Yup, Script Frenzy again... Reverse engineering a magic spell -- a little help brainstorming?

[capri0mni]

(It may not seem like it, but I really am being selective, and holding back from posting all my thoughts about this)

Okay, so in my original idea for my story (outlined here), the story was kicked off when a king gives his daughter's hand in marriage to the person who returns his magic signet ring, and the main conflict being how the princess tricks her way out of the marriage by switching places with her serving maid.

Since then, I've decided that it would be a deeper character development if she finds herself falling in love with the prince after all, and going through with the marriage. But that leads to the $60,000 question: so what was the whole point? Thanks, btw, to drox, for raising that question here and helping me refocus my story's orientation.

So I've decided to make the ultimate point breaking the magic bond between the king's life and the ring, so that he's no longer as vulnerable to attacks by thieves and scoundrels (and it's the princess's rebellion that sets that in motion).

So what I need is:

• A spell that could bind a man's life to an object that is given to him (I'm thinking that the general will present the ring to the king as "a sign of loyalty") that could then weaken that life if the object is ever stolen.



• That when the ring spell is foiled, there's a backup one against the king that somehow needs something from the princess (a lock of hair, or drop of blood) to be completed. (And because the two young women have switched identities, the witch takes the hair or blood from the wrong person).



• Some little piece of evidence of the spell that Adalaide can take from the witch's hut as they escape, because there's something about it (a charm written in the general's handwriting, or something), that she doesn't fully understand the signifigance of at the moment, but that can be used to reveal the original spell as the moment of the climax draws near.



• A way for the spell to be undone in a climatic revealing-the-truth banquet scene, with all the main characters each playing a different role to trick the villian into admitting his crime.

This is a bit like writing a murder mystery -- in order to figure out what clues to scatter through the story, you have to write the crime scene first... Any ideas (I figure, with all the witchy, Paganish types on my f'list, we can come up with some neat ones)?

And I have a poll!
[Poll #992939]

Comments

[uncacreamy.livejournal.com]

Montage.

[drox.livejournal.com]

Still pictures, as seen in fragments of a tapestry, or illustrations in the pages of a book?

or

Voice-over of the witch and the general casting the spell, with a dark screen?

I like the tapestry-pictures idea for the visual (very fairy-tale medieval feel there) but to really convey what's happening you'll probably need more detail. So I'm thinking of a voice-over, either the way you described, with the witch and the general conspiring, or with a narrator giving the background while the visuals show tapestry illustrations. With a narrator, you could even start it with the classic opener "Once upon a time" if you wished.

As for titles, I like "The Trickster Princess", except in the story you describe the princess is not a classic trickster figure. She's doesn't trick people just for the sake of tricking them, but only because there's a compelling reason. More than one compelling reason, actually. So "The Clever Princess" might be more fitting. And more positive, because cleverness is a virtue while tricking people is generally not.

Will see what I can find for binding spells as you describe.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I like the tapestry-pictures idea for the visual (very fairy-tale medieval feel there)

Right. That's just what I was thinking. And there's some precedent in history, as, iirc, the Unicorn Tapestries were created tto celebrate a royal wedding...

With a narrator, you could even start it with the classic opener "Once upon a time" if you wished.

The problem with a narrator, though, is that I don't want the audience to know everything ahead of time, but maybe just enough to be one, to maybe three, steps ahead of the princess (like, when they come to the witch's hut in the forest, thinking the hut looks familiar)... Maybe have a minstrel singing a Renaissance-style ballad warning the listeners of the dangers of false allies?

Will see what I can find for binding spells as you describe.

Thanks. You know, I posed this same question over on the Script Frenzy forums, and this is the first time I haven't gotten any replies within the hour. I'm beginning to wonder if people there just assume the thinking-through a spell requres is a little hand waving, and someone saying: "It's Maaaaggiiic!! Wooo!"

Tsk.