Sue Fliess is the author of over 35 books for children! She has written multiple fractured fairy tales, and her newest book, Goldilocks and the Three Engineers, comes out this spring. Thank you, Sue, for sharing your wisdom with us!
Sue will be giving away a signed copy of one of her fractured fairy tales! To enter, drop a comment below about how your FFT is coming along this month! Winner will be chosen 2/1/21.
Fracturing Fairy Tales is Twisted Fun
by Sue Fliess
When I do school visits and kids tell me they don’t know what to write about or how to get started, I often suggest fracturing a fairytale. For starters, you already have something to work with, almost like having a rough draft—woohoo! But how you fracture it is where the magic comes into play.
I have three fractured fairy tales, a fractured nursery rhyme, and a fractured Christmas song (We Wish for a Monster Christmas) within my resume of published books. Proof that you can fracture just about anything! Here are some ways to go about it (though I’m sure there are many more!):
1. Start with a fairy tale that you love and brainstorm ideas, using the What if? model. What if Sleeping Beauty had insomnia? What if Rapunzel rescued herself? What if everything Midas touched turned to jelly?
2. Think about what kind of story you want to write, and search for a fairy tale that is somewhat linked or related. For example, you want to write a female empowerment story, so you take a story told from the POV of a boy and make it a girl. Or take a tale and infuse it with your culture in order to shed light on your ancestors or traditions, while keeping it linked to the original story.
3. And this one is my favorite—take the title of a fairy tale and see if you can change just one or two words. Maybe you can include interesting wordplay. This will very likely dictate the story, which is why I love this method! I did this with Mary Had a Little Lab. I happen to have 2 Labrador retrievers, so Labrador was the first thing that came to mind. But that seemed silly. Then the obvious route hit me. Lab could be short for laboratory! Because there was already a lamb in the original, that book felt like it wrote itself. What would Mary make in her lab? A sheep, of course! I did the same with Little Red Rhyming Hood, and The Princess and the Petri Dish. With Little Red and Petri Dish, I really had to sit down and hash out storylines to go with those fun new titles.
Once you’ve chosen your starting point, as much as you need your story to be completely new and your own, you still need to sprinkle in aspects of the original tale so that it is recognizable to readers. I learned that many kids were not that aware of the original Princess and the Pea story, and my Princess Pippa’s harrowing story of unruly pea vines was enough to stand alone as a story. But to please those who knew of the fairy tale (and likely editors, too), in my mind, peas needed to be integral. With Mary Had a Little Lab, Mary is a lonely inventor who creates a pet sheep, which gains her friends. In Little Red, she speaks in rhyme, which makes her unusual, but she finds acceptance in her daily visits with Grandma, who discovers a poetry contest where Red could shine. Presto! Your twist becomes your 2nd hook. If you can weave in a third hook, more power to you.
I have a new fractured fairy tale launching in April called Goldilocks and the Three Engineers. This one took many, many, many attempts to get right. I finally landed the right story when I decided to have Goldilocks (an inventor) be the one who goes for a walk, and the bears (who are engineers) stumble upon her place. I hope you’ll check it out!
Whatever tale you choose to fracture, remember to keep it fun, don’t be afraid to take chances or push limits, have it nod to the original just enough, and most of all, make it your own.
Visit Sue at www.suefliess.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.