This Swan Story is Like That Swan Story

As you may/may not know, I've been on a Wild Swans/Six Swans kick and have been left somewhat bereft in getting that special thing I want out of the story, which is a feeling we've all had when we put down a book and go "I really hoped _____ and now I feel hollow inside because it didn't happen." Earlier someone recced me Daughter of the Forest which gave me more sibling interaction but only left me with yet another gaping hole of needs unfulfilled!

"Fine, I'll write my own Wild Swans retelling, and it's gonna be awesome because I get to break out my quirky fairy tale voice!" Which is by far my favorite voice (I know other people like my mythic voice more but SHUT UP).

So I get into it, have it nicely plotted out, and realize that I started a large-ish project right on the eve of nano--I didn't really plan on nano, I figured I'd use it to finish up Stormwright/The Lightning Tide. I guess I'll be attempting to split nano between these things.

I notice something as I'm writing, as this story curls cozily around my heart.

It bears some marked similarities to my Swan Lake novel. Like. Really marked.

1. MC is the youngest and only daughter in a family with a kajillion sons--actually she's the seventh child of seven children. But while Odile is the beloved disappointment to a great sorcerer, Adora is merely the baby of a big family and her magic abilities aren't any more spectacular than those of her brothers.

2. MC's brothers are turned into birds--in Adora's case they're the titular swans, in Odile's case, it's ravens. In Adora's case, it's evil stepmom believing she's returning order to the world. In Odile's case, it's a man who has no time for the first six children when all he needs is a seventh son of a seventh son.

3. MC has a close relationship with her youngest brother, and her oldest brother keeps an eye out for her, whether she agrees with his methods or not. The swans are far less mischievous than Odile's brothers, though, who are a hoot to write in all their raven-y glory. Florian's earnest wise-cracks, constant hovering over Odile's shoulder, and tag-teaming Odile with Odette's help when Odile doesn't listen to reason is just... my favorite part of the story (and Florian is by far Odette's favorite part when she doesn't want to strangle him).

4. There is a light/darkness theme again that I'm not totally sure I'm gonna run with--I just wondered "why do they turn back into humans at night? If I were evil stepmom they'd be swans forever (or dead, dead is smarter). Obviously they are protected by the power of love! Why the eff would this be at night?" Obviously they are night people of some sort. But I didn't want to stray into good/evil territory; Odile's story is all about what it means to be a raven-fairy-sorcerer creature while being true to her mostly nice "I just wanna get along" self (which occasionally wants to devour all the pretty things and hoard them, but you know, fairies).

5. I'm not totally sure if my "darkness/night isn't evil" tendencies are some deep down meditation on the nature of evil or just my unwillingness to write much in the way of mean people.

6. The Language of the Birds appears again. Apparently I can't resist making my characters walk through forests full of rude corvids.

7. One of the guys falls for a black princess.

8. Who is Spanish.

9. Seriously I didn't plan it out but this is the coincidence that made me go "...I have certain things I default to." When I first wrote Queen of Swans I tossed in a Spanish princess to give Siegfried's side of the story more to do. She and Siegfried team up to pretend to court one another so their families stop trying to make them find someone marriageable (Siegfried is waiting for The One, Isolde is busy having fun). This means they go out hunting together and having (to them) platonic adventures while Benno is like "this is going to bite you both in the ass." Going over the second draft I was reminded of the black princess figure, who shows up in fairy tales occasionally and is evil and a rival for the prince's affections. When I was younger I thought she was a princess in black only to realize, newp. Black princess. Evil. And since Isolde was one of the "rival" princesses, I knew what I had to do.

10. It's a lesbian Swan Lake retelling I'm sure you know that since Odette/Siegfried doesn't happen, this is going exactly where it sounds like.

11. I did it again in Wild Swans because I guess that was on my mind and medievalpoc on Tumblr shows up on my dash all the time. Moorish princesses weee~

12. This one is a lot less of a wild child but she does nearly stab oldest bro at least twice. To be fair, he's pretty stab-able.

13. Also it's about people turning into swans, which is the similarity that most people will jump to but to me possibly the least relevant when comparing the projects.

So. Yeah. I apparently tend to do certain things when I'm not thinking about it.