The Writing Process

The Sigmas of Midon

A fairy-tale adaptation, as well as a mixed-up fairy tale. How did that get started?

Mixed-Up Fairy Tale:

Well, it helps that I’ve always been fascinated by fairy tales. I’m working on writing a few more books in the fairy tale genre, don’t you worry. But this one was my first.

What really got this book started was the Pocket Princess Fancomics by Amy Mebberson (find them on Instagram: @officialpocketprincess). Mebberson’s comics had the Disney Princesses all together, talking, living, playing, working together. From her comics, it seemed they were living in a house together.

And that’s what got me thinking: what if I wrote a book like that?

So I started. It was January 2016 when I started planning. I watched all 11 Disney princess movies. I took notes. I categorized who had which parent, who ran away from home, who loved what hobbies, and who had magic in their lives. I wrote down who had pets, and extrapolated, based on the clothes they were animated wearing, what their favorite colors were. I studied these girls and the boys they loved—why and how did they meet, what was it about the boy that made our girl start loving him?

After that, I went to the original stories. For most of the Disney princesses, their backstory was easy to find—the original fairy tales. And can we take a minute here and thank Walt Disney for making his fairy tales better than the originals?!

Once I had the princesses down pat, now was the time to translate them into the modern world. What would their names be? How would the magic in their lives translate into regular life? How could a medieval princess become a modern girl?

Their names were, by far, the funnest part. For example: my mom helped me with Cinderella’s name. I had thought at first to go with “Cindy.” Then maybe something with “Ash”: Ashley, Ashlyn. I knew I didn’t want to go with “Ella.” Then my mom suggested using “Ember.” And that’s how, in my book, Cinderella became “Embry.”

For those who haven’t read my book yet, here are their names:

                Snow White – Whitney “Whit” Snow

                Aurora – Rosie Spindle

                Cinderella – Embry Miller

                Ariel – Andrea Pearl

                Belle – Breiah “Bree” Marquis

                Jasmine – Jamila Karim

                Pocahontas – Pakwa Matoaka

                Fa Mulan – Mei Feng

                Tiana – Tia James

                Rapunzel – Rachel Leonard

                Merida DunBroch – Maggie Duncan

Next were the villains—male and female—who torment the princesses in their movies. New names, new reasons for tormenting. Not as fun as making up names for the princesses, but it still had its charm.

Now, I needed to put the girls in a situation that would explain why they lived together. And the answer was easy: a sorority. And so the research of sororities began. I stuck with the good ones—the ones with uplifting mission statements and goals, and the ones who never hazed their pledges. Internet search took me far enough, but I needed someone to talk to. Finally, I met someone in my church group who had been in a sorority while in college. And one evening during an activity (it was Family Home Evening, for those who know what that is!), I picked her brain on sororities. And I finally got a sorority worthy of the Disney princesses.

All I needed was my own name. I finally settled on Sigma Beta Pi, which stands for…well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

By September 2016 I had started writing. I pulled mostly from the Disney movies for character development and plot points. But I also put in tidbits, details, and events from the original fairy tales. That hopefully gave the story, and the characters, a richer foundation.

It took two years to write the first draft, during which I researched some more, and rewrote scenes as I was writing the first draft. This book was only ever meant to be a fun idea, of taking my favorite girls and putting them in one place together.

But then Wreck-It Ralph 2 happened, and ruined everything.

Wreck-It Ralph Ruins the Princesses:

I never saw either Ralph movies. I never wanted to. But I saw the scene where the video game girl (whatshername? V-something?) happens on the Disney princesses. As soon as the princesses realize she’s in the room with them, they gasp. And then most of them do very uncharacteristic things.

Mulan whips out her sword. Belle holds her book like she’s gonna squish a spider. Merida pulls out her bow. Ariel points a fork. Rapunzel holds up her frying pan like a baseball bat (with the most murderous look on her face!). Jasmine holds up the lamp. Pocahontas grabs her dad’s club. And Cinderella breaks her glass slipper to brandish the broken shards at the Video Game Girl.

Whoa—what?!

The only two whose reactions are even close to being in character with their movies are Mulan and Merida. Both of those girls were trained as warriors, and would pull out their weapons to ascertain a threat. But even then, they can see that Video Game Girl is alone and unarmed. When Mulan is startled in the movie, at most she would hold up her hands to defend herself. And Merida studies the problem—even Mor’du—before she pulls out her bow. Both girls practice Look Before Shooting.

But the rest of them… Where in their movies do you see violence from any of those princesses?!

Video Game Girl then goes on to say that she’s a princess, too. And this is where my heart broke the most. According to these “Disney princesses,” the only kinds of princesses are those who:

                Have magic hair (Rapunzel)

                Have magic hands (Elsa—who was later ruled not a Disney princess, thank goodness!)

                Have animals who talk to you (Cinderella, Jasmine, and Pocahontas)

                Has been poisoned (Snow White)

                Has been cursed (Tiana and Aurora)

                Has been kidnapped or enslaved (Rapunzel and Belle)

                Has made a deal with an underwater sea witch (Ariel)

                Has had true love’s kiss (Snow White)

                Has Daddy issues (Jasmine)

                Doesn’t have a mom (Belle, Pocahontas, Elsa and Anna—again, not princesses anymore, thank                                                 goodness!—Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White)

Video Game Girl finally is ruled a “princess” because people assume all her problems get solved because a big, strong man showed up.

Oh. My. Gosh. It’s like the animators had never watched a Disney Princesses movie before! All of that is wrong in so many ways. And every second of that clip broke my heart more and more.

And that’s when The Sigmas of Midon turned into a more serious piece of literature. It became an apologist paper on the Disney princesses.

Apologist Paper:

I was an English major in college, so I wrote lots of papers. Those who are also English majors know what I’m talking about.  

In most English papers, the writer is making an argument one way or another on an assigned topic, be it a novel, poem, or play. English majors are taught how to see the topic from all sides, and are trained on how to effectively argue both for and against the issue of the topic  in question. At the beginning of the paper, you state your opinion on the topic, then spend the bulk of the paper doing what’s called “defending your thesis.” That means you show through quotes from the text of the novel, poem, or play, that prove you are right in your thinking. Sometimes in your paper, you are required to prove why the “other side” is wrong, also using quotes from the text. And at the end of your paper, you restate your argument, sum up your reasons for being right, and then make a grand statement that once and for all settles the question.

An apologist paper is similar to that. An apologist is someone who argues in defense of something controversial. An apologist (unlike how the name sounds) does not apologize for the topic’s existence, nor for its controversiality. An apologist only defends the controversial topic as being a positive thing. (C.S. Lewis was perhaps the most famous apologist. He argued for Christianity.)

That’s what my book became, and that’s what it still is. A lot of thinking and research went into making the book an apologist paper. So I thought I would break it down here, princess by princess. I’ll show you how I defended the princesses from their critics and wrongful portrayal in Wreck-It Ralph 2.