This time around, I'm opting for a story planning post. My issue isn't so much figuring out how to spin these stories as which one of them to choose, and I think part of that problem is that I haven't quite struck the essence of any of the stories yet. So I'm using this opportunity to lay out the three different options I'm debating between, and then mull over them some more for the next few days.
Story Option #1 is inspired by "The Pellings," in which a mortal hides near the venue of a group of dancing fairies, then crashes their party, leaping out to snatch one of them up. The rest of the fairies panic and scatter, but the moral brings his captured fairy home and employs her as his maid. I liked the idea of a mortal planning and waiting to capture some kind of creature, so my protagonist would be inspired by that concept, set a trap of her own. But instead of a fairy, she'd be capturing something dangerous, in order to force it to help her stop some other kind of monster, get someone back, or set out on some sort of vendetta. I like that last option best, especially because it gives me the chance to debate which of them is the real monster here, but we'll see.
Behind Story Door #2, meanwhile, we have something sparked by the character Billy Duffy, of the eponymous "Billy Duffy and the Devil (Part II)." Specifically, the way Billy is always carefully manipulating things in advance so he can spin every situation to his advantage: letting someone fall into one of his traps, waiting till they ask for help getting out, and then asking, "What are you going to give me if I do?" I like the idea of a protagonist who's always ahead of the game like this—one who you'd underestimate at first glance if you didn't know his reputation, because he's a walking wreck who can't get his life together. But also one who doesn't let that stop him from remaining three steps ahead of everyone else, even when he can't do anything else right on a personal level, doesn't let that stop him from ruthlessly pursuing his own agenda.
Finally, my last option is inspired by "The Fishermen of Shetland (Part II)." In this story, the protagonist is stuck in the shape of a bear so he can kill the evil witch's accomplice. When he finally gets his chance and offs the guy, he instantly transforms back into his human self—only to realize his true love and her sister were nearby and witnessed the whole thing, from the murder to the transformation. In the story, the girls were just glad to see him, and they run up and kiss him and shower him with questions. But I like the idea of an opposite reaction: the sisters seeing what he did and being horrified of him. More than that, I like the idea of a protagonist under some kind of curse, who can only become human again in short bursts, and only after committing some kind of terrible, inhumane sin. This is the one I'm closest to having found the essence of already, and it's something to do with the question of being human and how that relates to humanity itself: I'm interested in exploring a character who can only be human when he's being inhuman. So that's always an option too.
Bibliography: Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter Emerson. Source: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.
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