I watched The Young Victoria last night, which is something I’ve wanted to see for ages and really, I have no idea why I didn’t get to it when it was in cinemas. I really enjoyed it even though it’s bittersweet to think Prince Albert died fairly young and Victoria went on for 40 odd years without him.
I’m always intrigued by royalty. Being a princess ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure you get gorgeous frocks and some spanking great jewels but there’s a lot of politics and control and duty and what has to be a strange private life to go with it. Power and obligation vs the personal turns up in my writing a bit. In one of Barbara O’Neal’s writing courses, we had to figure out our favourite fairy tale and mine was Cinderella (much as I fought that discovery for a while). Now, I think the appeal of Cinderella for me is the “finding the place where you belong and are appreciated” theme rather than the “be rescued by a prince” theme but it’s undeniably a royalty/princess story, if somewhat from the other side and stopping before she has to deal with being a princess.
I’ve never actually written a princess (not many princesses in urban fantasy) but I have some ideas that might be close to princesses. We shall see. At the moment I have to focus back on my messed up assassin girl. She’s definitely not a princess and would stab you if you tried to make her one!
So who likes royalty? Or who has a favourite fairy tale?
>Interesting post Mel. My current m/s (the non-Rome one) is about a mermaid princess. She goes through hell and it's not just because she has to grow up. I hadn't thought about the fact I'm writing about royalty, however, this mer family is royal. She goes from being a Princess in all the negative connotations that go with it to Queen by the end of the book. On the fairy tale….tough call. However I'm assuming due to the life under the sea it's The Little Mermaid. Always, always fascinated by water stories 🙂
>Cinderella is my favorite too. I think it comes from being the youngest of 4 girls (not that my sisters are nasty like the Ugly Step-sisters). But something about being left behind and having to find one's own path resonants with me.