Read a Sample
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section ONE: Find Your Fairy Tale Voice
Not always what you think
Character
Setting
Plot
Magic
Theme
How to Stand Out
Section TWO: Brainstorm Your Fairy Tale
Character
Character Outlines
Setting
Create a map
Plot
Tropes
Test of Three
Plot Chart
Escalation
Magic
Theme
Time to Write
Where to go From Here
Chapter 1
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A… CHARACTER
“There was once on a time a poor man, who could no longer support his only son.”
“There was once a girl who was idle and would not spin, and let her mother say what she would, she could not bring her to it.”
“There were once on a time a king and a queen who lived happily together and had twelve children, but they were all boys.”
A poor man. A son. A girl. A mother. A king and a queen. Twelve brothers. The Grimm stories are about all kinds of people. From peasants to kings. From murderers to priests. Not to mention imaginative creatures like giants, elves, and water nixies.
In fairy tales, there are few limits on who we can create. Our characters don’t necessarily have to look or act a certain way. A girl can have impossibly long hair, or a man can turn into a lion during the day.
Grimms' characters have a variety of occupations, physical descriptions, and family situations.
But these are all external characteristics.
What attracts readers to care deeply about fairy tale characters is a shared emotional experience. We might not know what it’s like to be locked in a tower from childhood, but we’ve all felt loneliness. We can relate to the hope of looking out through an open window and wondering what’s out there for us. We don’t take the form of a lion during the day, but we know what it feels like to be different from those around us and not quite belong.
Even though the Grimm stories often lack emotional cues, readers still reach into the circumstances with their own feelings. We imagine what the characters are going through. We instinctively know it’s those deep emotions that cause characters to act. And we wonder what we would do in those circumstances.
Go through this sampling of characters pulled from Grimms’ stories and circle/highlight the ones that stand out to you. Then, add your own favorites. Use the space to expand the descriptions to include your favorite traits, descriptions, names, etc. Remember, you’re building your fairy tale voice. How you handle character is one element of your voice.
