By Guest Amberley Martin, Author of The Fairy Godmother Tales
First, I want to thank Rebecca for allowing me to ramble on about one of my favourite topics: fairytale retellings. For those of you who don’t know me, Hi! I’m Amberley, and I write fun, fairytale adventures. I’m currently publishing one series, The Fairy Godmother Tales, where each novel is a mashup between a classic fairy tale and a Shakespearean play. I don’t claim to be an expert, so this is going to be less of a “how to” guide and more of a “things to think about” guide. 😂 If you’re a writer, it might give you some ideas for how to go about writing your own retelling. And if you’re a reader, it should give you some insight into how retellings are written (by me, at least.)
Why retell a story?
Why would you want to retell a fairytale (or myth, or legend) in the first place? After all, they’ve been told a million times. Who wants to read another Cinderella story?
Okay, fair point, these stories have been told over and over through the years. Because they’re popular. They evolve and adapt with each telling, and readers can’t get enough.
Calling your book a “Cinderella retelling” is shorthand to let the reader know there are some things they’ll probably find inside:
- A tragic orphan treated like a servant
- A wicked stepmother
- A makeover
- A prince, a lost shoe, and a kingdom-wide search
- A happy ending
You’ve got a predefined plot to work with, and an existing cast of characters. Whether you deliver on those expectations, or subvert them, is up to you.
You can go light or dark, funny or tragic, familiar or surprising.
When you think of Cinderella, what comes to mind? The Disney movie? The Charles Perrault version? Did you have a copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales as a kid? Or watch Ever After starring Drew Barrymore? There’s no one “true” version, so why not add your own to the mix? Especially if you’re part of a minority group that has been traditionally under-represented in these stories.
Retelling or Reimagining?
Next, you need to decide whether you’re going to write a traditional retelling or more of a reimagining. What’s the difference? I’m glad you asked.
These are my definitions, so you might find these words used differently elsewhere on the internet, and they’re also not hard and fast rules.
A retelling
- Sticks to the original story/plot
- Probably uses to the character’s original names
- Probably follows the original main character
A reimagining
- More likely to vary from the original plot
- Might have different names for the characters
- Might follow a different character
To use Cinderella as an example, a retelling is more likely to have a main character named Cinderella (or maybe Cindy or Ella), who loses both her parents, gets treated as a servant by her stepmother and stepsisters, gets dolled up by her fairy godmother or a magical tree, dances with a prince and flees by midnight, leaves one of her shoes behind, and lives happily ever after. A reimagining could have a character called Danielle or Samantha. It might be told from the POV of one of the stepsisters, the prince, or Cinderella’s dead mother. She might be a robot, her stepsisters might be nice (if she has them at all), or the story could start after the wedding.
You might have noticed there was one thing I didn’t mention: setting. That’s because whether it’s a retelling or a reimagining, it could take place in the typical historical, pastoral setting, or a modern city, or even a futuristic, alternate universe.
There are pros and cons to both retellings and reimaginings, and although it would be awesome to weigh them up logically and make an informed decision, sometimes you already know the exact style of story you want to tell. In which case, go for it. But if you’re unsure, the main question to ask yourself is do you want to stick to the original plot and characters, or would you rather write something that only vaguely resembles the source material?
For The Fairy Godmother Tales, I was always going to go down the reimagining route, because it meant I had the freedom to blend in the Shakespearean elements. And although each book is based on a fairy tale, I pull in a lot of different elements/tropes to create something new and fresh. Which leads me to …
Point of Difference
Whether you decide to go with a retelling or a reimagining, the next thing you need to work out is your point of difference. Fairytale retellings are popular, which means there are a ton of them, which means you need some way to stand out. “My retelling is different because …”
- It’s set in the future! (The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer)
- It’s gay! (Ash by Malinda Lo)
- It’s about taking down the patriarchy! (Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron)
- The princess saves herself and/or the prince! (Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine)
- The characters know they’re in a fairy tale! (The Ever After High series by Shannon Hale)
A great way to figure this out is to read other retellings, see what they do, and see what you like about them. But also, read things (and watch things, TV and movies are great for inspiration) that aren’t fairy tales. What happens when you go on a superhero movie binge and start to wonder if poor, sooty Cinderella is all an act, and the makeover she gets from her fairy godmother actually transforms her into her superhero persona. No one recognises her! Just like Clark Kent. (Wait a minute, I’m just going to write that idea down. 😂)
For me, one point of difference for the first book in The Fairy Godmother Tales came not from a fairy tale, but from Shakespeare. A thought kept nagging at me. In Hamlet, his father’s ghost appears and demands to be avenged, but I kept wondering, what if Hamlet said no? What if he noped right out but the ghost kept hanging around, nagging him about it? I wanted to write a story about this version of Hamlet who was desperately trying to avoid doing the one thing he really needed to do, and I wanted it to have the fun vibe of Disney’s Tangled, which is how I ended up writing a (very loose) Rapunzel reimagining.
Bulk it up
Lastly (or maybe this should have been firstly), you need to be aware of whether you’re writing a fairy tale or not. Huh? I hear you say. Exactly. Genres are messy and hard to pin down, but the term “fairy tale” traditionally means a short story. Perrault’s Cinderella is about 2,500 words. The Grimm Brothers’ version of Snow White is close to 3,000. Something you could read to a kid before bed (and possibly give them nightmares about.)
If you’re writing a novel (anywhere in the vicinity of 50,000 to 100,000 words), then you’ll probably call it a fairytale fantasy. Or possibly a sci-fi fairytale retelling, fairytale romance, or fairytale mystery. Mash those genres! My books tend to land smack bang in the middle of that range, around 75K, and I’ve had readers describe them as quick, easy reads, which might have more to do with my writing style than the total word count.
If you’re going long, you’re going to need to bulk that story up.
To use a different example, I recently read a version of The Fisherman and His Wife, about a fisherman who finds a talking fish who can grant wishes. The fish had once been a prince, which made me ask how he’d gotten turned into a fish. And had he always been able to grant wishes, or was that only after his transformation? So many questions, and none of them were answered. That wasn’t the point of the story. (It’s about greed, and learning to be happy with your lot, in case you haven’t read it.)
But it’s a prime example of what I was talking about above. You could reimagine this story from the point of view of the fish/prince and expand on his backstory. How did he turn into a fish? (Let’s be honest, following genre conventions, it was probably a witch. Possibly his stepmother.) Is he happy as a fish or does he want to turn back into a prince? Is someone looking for him? Is he hiding from them? If he can grant wishes, why doesn’t he wish himself human? Or does someone else need to make that wish for him, freeing-the-genie style? And what happens after his encounter with the fisherman and his wife? Does the fish learn a lesson, does he yearn for his old life, does he earn his freedom? You’ll need all this and more if you’re going novel length.
Wrapping up
So, there you go. Those are my tips for retelling fairy tales.
- Decide how closely you’re going to stick to the source material/popular versions
- Put your own spin on things to help your story stand out
- Dive into the characters’ backstories and motivations in order to increase the length
Once you’ve got that sorted, actually writing the story should be easy …😜