The Wolf and the Fearie
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If you're interested in the intent behind this work, read on:
The Wolf and the Fearie is a bridge work, which is meant to connect the language of self-insert fiction and fairy tales. In other words, the derivative creations of larger worlds, and stories which feature worlds which have never before been described in the way an author intends on portraying them. In my opinion, and that is what you’re reading this for, there is a very specific line that separates fan fiction and original work—this is details.
In a fan fiction, a writer can simply use the name of a character or a place and an already completed idea is called forth in the reader’s mind. Fan fiction written in a way that uses established characters and places as short hand for description of them is hollow when taken outside the context of the original work. And it doesn’t need to be any more than that, especially when the intention of the author is to simply slip their story into the existing work, or to make just a brief interaction. Often the fan works that seem to be of a “better” quality, still take the time to establish their own setting and character, even if those traits are borrowed from another work very precisely.
However, when I browse my favorite genre of fan fiction, or even erotica as a whole, I often choose to read work from fandoms that I have never participated in. Works that feature characters and places I’ve never seen or heard of.
This creates an interesting effect. When a name is used as short hand for an idea I have no pre-existing concept of, what am I supposed to think of? Even though I don’t know what these things, places, or people are, an image of them still begins to form in my mind. Most fun, is that more often than not this image is hardly even approximately accurate to the actual character.
At this point, that line mentioned earlier has been crossed. What was once a defined object outside of my understanding now has a new life of my own creation. Playfully, I wanted to create that feeling in an original work. When you read The Wolf and the Fearie, you’ll see there is a complete lack of character description. However, as you read, I promise a vague image of who or what every character must be will be conjured up. That’s the power of the human mind, often explored by painters by use of negative space. You will create figures of all shapes and kinds from even the vaguest insinuations.
With this concept, I wanted to play with language that evokes an archetypal sense of story—which meant to me that it had to have a fairy tale style of whimsy. This framing left enough room for a sweet love-at-first-sight style plot but also enough room to flesh out the environment somewhat. Where they are, and what they are doing there, is always the more important part of short-form story telling but especially so with those a part of oral traditions and fables.
In most fairy tales, the main characters are hardly described outside one or two key features. How funny that this is so much like the characters in fan fiction or related self-insert works! In The Wolf and the Fearie, this is taken to a fun extreme.
I’d be interested to know what you saw when conjuring up the imagined Wolf Prince and his Fearie lover. Please don’t hesitate to share your comments or reviews with me anywhere you prefer.
~With Love, Bede.