Behind the Scenes: Under the Roses

Beauty and the Beast, Europa’s Fairy Tale Book (1895), p. 39, Source: wikicommons

Here I am with another “Behind the Scenes” post to give you a peek into what went into writing my story. First, we’ll talk a little about source material and inspiration before diving into method.

La Belle et La Bête

If we’re going to talk about source material, we need to address the Beast in the room.

Most of the time, the title “Beauty and the Beast” conjures images of talking clocks, dancing feather dusters, and musical numbers. In other words: Disney.

However, the story “Beauty and the Beast” did not originate with Disney. It was, originally, a French novella written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve. It involved a complicated plot: a queen regent, good and bad fairies, a princess in hiding, and a prince punished to be a beast not because he was selfish but because he refused to be seduced.

Other, more simplified versions of Villeneuve’s story were written over the years, all of which were aimed at children, unlike Villeneuve’s original adult audience. The 1991 film (we’re going to pretend the live action never happened) was the latest addition to the “canon”.

In regard to folklore and myth, the “bride and animal/beastly husband” is a common trope. Examples would be “Cupid and Psyche” (Greek), “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” (Scandinavian), and “The Snake with Five Heads” (African). There are also tales where it’s the woman who is the beast.

When I went into writing Under the Roses, I latched onto one element in particular. “Beauty and the Beast” has always seemed, to me, to be a woman’s coming-of-age. She’s transitioning from the innocence of childhood (what’s more innocent than picking flowers?) to the sophistication of an adult. Beatrice finds herself faced with very important decisions about where she stands in the community, how she will relate to that community, and very dire consequences of her actions. This stands in contrast with her friend, Mattie, who seems more interested in gossip and fashion.

What really divides Beatrice from her childhood is not the attentions of Emmerich. Rather, it’s when the consequences of her actions land in her lap and the way she chooses to respond to them.

Small Favors

Another big influence on this story was the Young Adult novel Small Favors by Erin A. Craig. The novel is set in an isolated farming community. No indication of where, exactly, the town exists is given. The nearest city is only referred to as “the city”. The woods around the town are full of trinkets hung on the limbs of trees as protection against a ghastly horror that had visited the town many years prior. When a supply party goes missing, townspeople fear the monsters have returned.

The book centers around how a community can fall apart due to suspicion and selfishness. It even has some of the qualities of a “Beauty and the Beast” tale in its central romance.

I was inspired by the idea of a group of people choosing to become isolated and how trauma from their history informed how they lived their present lives. Master Kip and his honeybees is a nod to the novel because the main character and her family are beekeepers.

My Method

Initially, Under the Roses was written in response to a prompt given by fellow Substacker,

Scoot

, and that prompt was “an unkempt garden”. I wrote the whole story in perhaps a month or more. I can’t remember how long, exactly.

I tried to keep it as fairytale as possible, with explanations as minimal as possible. That reflects my writing preference in general. While I enjoy the “hard fantasy” of Brandon Sanderson, my heart resides in the “it’s magic, just go with it” vibes of Robin McKinley.

Also, while it’s obvious these are pre-electricity days, I tried not to give any indication of whether the story was post- or pre-Civil War. What I wanted to emphasize was the agrarian nature of the community. But, also, how the Catholic Church calendar was tied to the life of the community, which is how English and European community life used to function and still does in some cases.

I read through and tweaked the story once before breaking it into parts. I selected the parts based on pacing and length. Then, every week, I sent one part to my critique group at the Catholic Writers Guild. I tried to have a buffer of a week or more but, toward the end, the buffer dissolved. In fact, I was still rewriting Part Nine the evening before it was to post.

Fun Facts

Emmerich nearly died. I came dangerously close to killing him off in an attempt to subvert the “Beauty and the Beast” trope. But, in the end, I chose not to.

I originally advertised ten parts instead of nine because, apparently, I can’t count.

In the first draft, Arthur barely made any appearances. But seeing the response to his character, I edited the story so that he played a larger role.

The original ending was not a proposal to court but a marriage proposal. However, it didn’t feel right to me for the characters to jump straight into marriage. The original last line was, “It was fitting, after all, that they be married under the roses.”