Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.

Today: The Transformation Chase: Shapeshift Your Way Out of Danger

Happy Weird Wednesday!

In a previous post, we discussed evading ogres with everyday objects— aka the Obstacle Flight, in which the villain’s benevolent, magical child turns combs into bushes and mirrors into lakes. But there is a second half to this fairy tale trope: the Transformation Chase.

“I wish,” said [the princess Aimée], “in the name of the royal fairy, Trufio, that our camel may become a pond, that the Prince may be a boat, and myself an old woman, who is rowing it.” Immediately, the pond, the boat, and the old woman were there, and [the ogre] Ravagio arrived at the water’s edge. “Hola, ho! old mother,” he cried, “have you seen a camel, and a young man and woman, pass by here?” The old woman, who kept her boat in the middle of the pond, put her spectacles on her nose, and looking at Ravagio, made signs to him, that she had seen them, and that they had passed through the meadow. The Ogre believed her; he went to the left.  —From The Bee and the Orange Tree

That’s right, we’re no longer turning pebbles into mountains, we are changing our very selves! 

Check out the blog post for the whole story and some magical writing prompts, such as:

A madness in the method. Perhaps the disguise has to have a single flaw that could give the whole thing away. Like a car with a license plate for a state that doesn’t exist, or a dictionary with the word “dictonary” on its cover, or a person with a dew claw on their ankle. You could also use specialized knowledge, things only some characters would likely know, like a knitted blanket and a crochet hook, or a piano and sheet music with B-naturals instead of B-flats.

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