For example, you may pick a theme like “family” and focus on your relationship with your sister. You can then create a fairy tale around the birth of your sister or around a childhood memory that involves your sister.
For example, you may use your neighbourhood as a setting and include a talking tree by your house. Or you may make the setting futuristic by imagining what your neighbourhood might look like in 100 years.
Start by introducing characters or setting in the first line of the fairy tale. This will engage your reader right away and set the scene.
For example, you may have a heroine who is a loner in high school. She could then get lost in a new part of town and meet a series of strange beings or magical creatures.
For example, you may have a villain who is a magical rabbit who hates humans. The villain could then make if difficult for your heroine to find her way out of town and get home.
In fairy tales, the focus is usually on the characters, setting, and plot. Language is secondary to the magical elements of the story.
For example, you may have a fairy tale about a young girl lost in a new town with a moral about being open to meeting new people and accepting the differences of others.
For example, you may write a happy ending where the heroine finds her way home and spend time with her family, telling them of the strange characters she encountered on her journey.
For example, you could retell classic fairy tales like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Hansel and Gretel,” or “The Three Little Bears. ”
You can also try writing the fairy tale from the point of view of an inanimate object in the story, like the house in “Hansel and Gretel. ” You can also create a new perspective to update the story, such as writing “Little Red Riding Hood” from the perspective of a young, female wolf who lives next door to the wolf.
For example, you may set “The Three Little Bears” in the future, one hundred years from now. Or you may set “Little Red Riding Hood” in Tehran in 2017.
For example, you could switch around the villain and the hero in the traditional fairy tale so your main character is now the villain. You could make the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” the hero in your retelling.
For example, you may change the ending of “The Three Little Bears” so Goldilocks has to pay for eating all the porridge by cutting off her golden locks of hair.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
You should also listen to the fairy tale to make sure each sentence flows and is easy to follow. Change or adjust any wordy phrases.
You can also read the fairy tale aloud to others to get feedback. Be open to constructive criticism, as it will make the fairy tale better.
