Read a Sample
Table of Contents
Note to Students
Note to Educators
Beginning Prompts
Middle Prompts
Ending Prompts
Appendix
Chapter 1
Note to Students:
Grimms’ fairy tales include magical stories as well as fables. When you see a prompt, start thinking, “What if…” and go from there. Think of a few ideas and then pick the one you like most and write about that. For example, if you think a pot should be magically fill with porridge whenever someone tells it to, then make it so. Or maybe you would rather the magic pot fill with pizza!
In this book you’ll get to work with beginning, middle, and ending prompts quoted from Grimms’ fairy tales.
Beginnings: In these prompts, the Grimms start the story for you, giving you characters and setting. You get to come up with the conflict and the plot. Start by thinking about what could go wrong…
Middles: Here you are stuck in the middle. What happened before and what is going to happen after? Remember to introduce us to your characters and show us the setting where the story is taking place.
Endings: Work backward to find out how the characters ended up here. It’s like you are a fairy tale detective and have to piece all the evidence together.
Appendix: Look here to find out which story the prompt came from. Then go and compare your story with the Grimms’ original.
Examples:
A beginning prompt:
There was once a King's son who was seized with a desire to travel about the world, and took no one with him but a faithful servant.
A middle prompt:
At length the three brothers arrived at a castle where stone horses were standing in the stables, and no human being was to be seen, and they went through all the halls until, quite at the end, they came to a door in which were three locks.
An ending prompt:
Thereupon the wedding was celebrated, and the lion was again taken into favor, because, after all, he had told the truth.