why can't fanfic authors writing folktales just be normal instead of shoehorning everything into a frame narrative

“kibi didn't you literally just publish the first chapter of a folktale collection which situates the entire thing as a frame narrative” THAT’S DIFFERENT

META frame narratives are fine i’m talking about the obligatory five paragraphs at the beginning where some elder gathers a bunch of younglings around them and is like “now let me tell you a story…”

“but how will people know it is a folktale if i don't situate it in the context of some fake imagined lore-sharing” idk have you tried switching up your authorial voice

it just makes it feel childish to me like you can't trust the audience to figure out that this is a story without slamming them over the head with it at the beginning and end

i’m also bothered by the authorial voice thing in general like the point of a folktale is transmission of cultural knowledge it has different aims than an ordinary fanfic and it SHOULD be written differently

if you aren't asking yourself the question “why is this story being told” throughout the entire process of putting together your folktale you are failing; it's not as simple as coming up with a cool story and sticking a folkloric wrapper on it

folktales can be cool stories!! but they're never JUST that; they're always informed by the agendas of the people telling the tale