Week 6 Story Planning: The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull

A woman and a skull

For this story, I could rewrite it as a Shallow Hal type of story line. The daughter wants to marry the perfect dreamy guy, turning down anyone else that doesn't meet her expectations. One day, a strange man shows up and she falls for him, and everyone else is unsure as to why she likes him as he is even uglier than all the other men, but she doesn't seem to think so.

After reading the story and given the title, it sounds like parents play a large role in their children’s lives. Since her parents have tried numerous times to find her a husband, and she has turned every single one of them away, her parents become desperate and pray to the gods. That’s when the skull overhears their prayers and decides to take action. I think having the skull decide he wants to be with the daughter and turning himself into the man of her dreams is how I would incorporate him into the story. Since he is a skull, when he comes to town people can smell the decay, and even though he looks like a human to them, he is not a good looking man. It’s sort of Afiong’s punishment for not listening to her parents and being overly picky when it comes to the man she is going to marry.

I'm not sure I could write this story in any other style besides a normal short story. As far as the actual story line, I think it will be different than anything else I have written in the past. I might try to make it into a rhyme, and see how well that turns out, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get all the details into it that I would like. I also looked over the stories for children and I think I might be able to turn this into a story to scare children into listening to their parents when it comes to who they are going to marry.

Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell: The Disobedient Daughter who Married