The Tale of Jack - Notes
Just a few notes on the story that may interest you.
First off, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
This is the second story in my ‘Tales from the Woods’, based on fairy tales, the first being Little Red. I plan to do many more of these, and I’m sure Jack and possibly also Finn will pop up somewhere along the way.
My idea for Jack was originally to have him as a more jaded and bitter character who would be transformed by love, but once I added his Mama to the equation I realised that that wouldn’t work, and he became a gentle, optimistic but perhaps somewhat depressed and ashamed young man. It wasn’t difficult to write a romantic foil for his character, I knew from Jack’s personality that Finn would have to be kind, broad minded and honest, all of which neatly fell into place when I began writing the big lug.
Finn is named for Finn McCool, the giant of Irish legend who is said to have created Giant’s Causeway during an argument with another giant from Scotland. I kept the details of his past crimes and the era in which he first lived deliberately vague, as I wanted to make it clear that, away from the influences of wealth and social structure, he had changed so much that he virtually forgot any other way of being. Hence by the time he meets Jack, he is humble and introspective, even if some of his motives are mysterious, even to himself.
I very much enjoyed writing the secondary characters, in fact they are usually my favourite part of any story I write. I’m very aware when writing that, though my story is based in a town, it is hard to flesh out a settlement without going overboard on detail, or making it seem like the main characters are just wandering through crowds of faceless drones. Hence I was keen to add a few personalities into the mix, even Dr Prince who doesn’t even get to speak (and with a surname like that, you’d better believe he’s going to turn up again). Jack’s Mama was hard to get a handle on for a while: having grown up in a very matriarchal family, I don’t really know any women who are housewives, homemakers, stay-at-home- mothers, etc, so it was hard to write one, especially one who is now feeling adrift after the death of her husband. I was pleased with how Helena turned out though, and I was glad I added in the epilogue that she gets a job purely because she’s bored. I felt like it made perfect sense that now she’s overcome adversity and illness, she doesn’t want to become sedentary.
I realise that the beanstalk isn’t actually a beanstalk, which is why I didn’t put it in the title, but I did want to reference it somewhere, which is why I added Jack and Helena’s surname as Bean (I also like to think that that’s what the Green Man added as surname on Finn’s ID documents, because he’s a cheeky bugger). I also ended up giving it an aspect of Beauty and the Beast. I’ve already decided that I’m not going to write that story, or at least not as part of this series, and I decided that that was the best way to slashify this story. In the original tale, Jack visits the beanstalk three times and returns first with money, then a magic harp and finally with the goose that lays the golden eggs. I managed the money and the goose, but the harp was tricky as Finn basically lives in a hovel and it didn’t make sense for him to have musical instruments lying around, so I had Jack get the tune Finn had been whistling stuck in his head, which he found comforting.
If you’ve read Little Red too, you may have noticed that Red, Alex and Red’s Gramma all get a little mention in the first chapter. The village that Alex lives in, Hobart’s Field, and Gramma’s home town, Denebrook, both get a mention too, as well as the prosperous town of Green Meadow. As I see it, there are a cluster of smallish towns and a couple of little villages all surrounded by a huge expanse of woodland. They are connected to each other by roads, and there is a large, nameless city a few hours journey away. That’s about all I’m going to say on the setting for now though. I’ll let the stories flesh it out.
The next story I write in this series will be a sequel to Little Red entitled ‘The Boy Who Cried’. You win five internets if you can guess what that will be based on J Before I get started with that though, I’m going to get another chapter or two of The Blue Prince under my belt.
Finally, I must as always express my gratitude to Paradox13, who beta reads my stories for me and diligently spots spelling errors, run on sentences, continuity bloopers and poor metaphors. It’s a hard job and she’s good at it.
If you’ve any questions about the story, or anything else I write, please feel free to ask.
Thank you and goodnight,
DG