Writing Companion

This is a great prompt because you already know the story. All you have to do is—add your own twist.

Choose a fairy tale. For example, Little Red Riding Hood.

Now, rewrite the fairy tale by changing one important element. Here are some choices:

Change the point of view / perspective. Fairy tales are invariably told in 3rd person. What about moving to 1st person, either Little Red’s or the wolf’s? Or jump the narration back and forth to bring in the perspectives of both characters?

Change the time period. How would you revise the story if the action happened today? Or if you placed the essentials of the plot (e.g., innocent girl, attempted murder through impersonation) in some other time, for example, 1920s Sydney or frontier USA in the 1800s?

Change the relationship. Revise the kind of relationship Little Red has with her grandmother, her mother, the wolf, or the woodsman who saves her.

Change the ‘place’. Place can be physical, cultural or socio-economic.

Physical: Move the story from the woods to another physical place–a beach, a shopping mall, a cruise ship.

Cultural: Set your story in another culture, e.g. an Australian barbecue, a Balinese market, a warring faction on planet Genetica. Or within a particular sub-culture, either formal or informal, e.g., skinheads, battle re-enactment group, a bonsai association.

Socio-economic: Working class/blue collar? People on the edges of society, i.e. the destitute, the fringe-dwellers? The stratospheric rich? The middle-class?

Change the genre. This one’s my favourite change. Move the story from the conventions of the fairy tale’s genre to another genre.
How would it change if it was written as a frothy chick-lit diary, a la Bridget Jones? Or as sci-fi, western, action/adventure, romance? Or as a breathless ‘kiss and tell’ memoir? Psychological thriller? Zany comedy? A whodunit? If you’re changing the genre, ensure your writing style matches your choice.

One of the funniest examples I’ve read was Goldilocks, rewritten as a crime story, as told by a tough ‘Dragnet’-style cop.

Variations:

• Brainstorm in a writing group to create a list of possibilities. Then individuals choose from the possibilities to create their own take on the fairy tale.
• Reverse the process. Take some modern story (fictional or news item) and see if you can make it ‘work’ as a fairy tale. Have fun deciding who’s the evil fairy, the trolls under the bridge, the fairy godmother, etc.
• If you don’t want to write a whole story, analyse the main character’s motivation on paper, then sketch out a possible plot. Spend some time working out how you’d establish a memorable beginning and ending.
• If you’re interested in non-fiction, what message does your chosen fairy tale suggest? Does this message hold up in today’s world? How or how not?
• Write a poem that identifies what most captures your attention in the fairy tale you’ve chosen. Can you write the poem without referring to the characters or the fairy tale by name? Or is it important to do so?
• Use the first line of a well-known poem. Then blend your chosen fairy tale with the poem to create your story.
  E.g., Whose woods these are I do not know. But I need to walk through them to get to my grandmother’s house. Today, the woods seem even more dark and deep. As I walk through them I watch them fill up with snow. Suddenly….
• Use the prompt as a creative warm-up rather than creating a more developed piece.
  You can use it for your daily freewriting. First write the title of the fairy tale at the top of your page. Then, without taking your pen from the paper, start writing about who is involved and what happens and why. Let your mind go off on tangents if it wants. For example, writing about Cinderella may remind you of a disastrous school dance you went to.
  Or try clustering or mapping ideas on a sheet of paper. Capture the odd associations your mind makes as it plays with the fairy tale.
  The goal of the creative warm-up is not to come up with something worthy but to let your creative mind off its lead. Let it explore the familiar for links and associations.

Have fun with this one,

Marsha