question about Fairytales

This is very hard for me to explain.. I have a question and I can't ask the question. I'm going to use a sencario I have 5 characters A) Mary, B)James, C)Adolf, D)Eleanor, E)Edward. A) is the main character but its d) who is "telling"/narrating the story..

3rd person narration? I don't know exactly what you're asking or how this is related to fairytales?

I'm working on a new story and its fairytale based. Well the only way I can seem to work with the story is by having Eleanor be the POV the story is told from. But she's not the heroine of the story. She's just the heroine's maternal aunt. Mary is the heroine, James is the hero, Adolf is the villain, Eleanor is Mary's aunt on Mary's mom's side and Edward is a uncle of Mary's. Aunt Eleanor does play a role in the story itself.

If you're writing it from Eleanor's POV, then Eleanor is the narrator of the story, then it's 1st person narration. You would write it out like this:

I watched as Mary went into the woods. I knew her going alone would be dangerous, and despite her insistence to go alone, I followed her.

If you're having dialog between, say Eleanor and Mary, it would be like this:

I said to Mary, "I don't think you should be going into the woods alone."
Mary snapped back, " Don't tell me what to do, Eleanor!"

Or something similar.

Anyway, this really didn't seem like a question about fairy-tales (even if that is the background/plot for the story). It seems like you're asking more about how the narration would go--which would be a general story-telling question.

I'm doing a similar type of narration with my legacy family, where the youngest child is telling the story from her POV, therfore she is the narrator. Take a look if you want, and maybe you'll get a better idea:
http://brunettesimgirl-thejoneslegacy.blogspot.com/

This was the hook I was thinking of: "Once Upon a time in the woods there lived a good woman with 6 kids. She always had time for her niece." Its 3rd person narration

Yes I know that's 3rd person.

I would add some background in about the niece before the "...She always had time for her niece" part. There is no mention of the niece in the first sentence and it is just sort of...there without any explanation.

Some thoughts about how to introduce "the woman" and the "niece":

Why does she always have time for her niece? Does the niece live with her? If so, Why? Was the niece orphaned? If so, what happened to the parents?

I would include her name...if it's Eleanor...."Once Upon a time in the woods there lived a good woman, by the name of Eleanor, with 6 kids."


But IMHO, if you're going to have Eleanor be the story teller (from her POV) then I would change the "hook" to something like this:

My name is Eleanor, and I live in the woods with my six kids. Then have her talk about her niece in first person.

I'd steer clear of having a 3rd person narration since you are planning on having the story be told by Eleanor's POV. It could get confusing for both you and and reader...especially if you don't stick with that style and jump back and forth between 3rd and the 1st person, but if you're up for it...go for it. I think it would be very challenging though.


Edit: Unless! you are using the hook in the prelude (setting up the story, describing the characters personalities etc.)...then I can see using 3rd person and then later using Eleanor's POV starting with Chapter 1.

Mary is "shared" between Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Edward (Edward is her father's youngest brother)) 6 months with one person and 6 months with the other person. Eleanor is a good woman who keeps on eye on things..with her potions,etc.). She's knows about the at the moment namesless Mcguffin (plot deivce that moves the plot along) since it belongs to the Boylen family.

Okay make sure you explain that in your story so that the niece doesn't just seem to appear out of nowhere with no explanation as to why Eleanor and Mary are close.

I should try to mention how "Uncle Edward" is Mary's father's baby brother?

You should give as much detail of the important characters as you can. If "Uncle Edward" isn't really going to be a key character in the story, then I would just give a quick little background to him, and concentrate on creating the other characters (Eleanor and Mary) personality and background. Basically don't waste too much time describing and giving a background to a character that may only be present in the very beginning, middle, or end of the story.

Example--Mrs. Hobbert in my story is my legacy family's next door neighbor, but she's not going to play a big part. I gave a description to her so the reader would get an idea of what she may look like and her demeanor, but that was it.

She was an older woman, possibly in her late sixties, short, and thin. She had shoulder length silver hair that seemed to sparkle when the sun hit each strand. I could tell she had a garden, and had been working on it, because she had dirt covered knees, like knee-pads, she had dirty garden gloves on and a straw hat to shield herself from the sun. She introduced herself to me as Mrs. Hobbert, and asked if my mother was at home.

Since she doesn't have a big part, and is not a key character in the story...there was no need to go into great depth about her, or her background.

I'm trying to let the story write itself..but until Mary was 7, she lived only with her uncle

That's fine, but you still have to have some sort of structure to it or otherwise it's going to be a mess.

just had this idea!! Eleanor lives in the woods between what will be Mary's kingdom and what will be Jame's kingdom and Edward's lives in the city of what will be james kingdom