Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all are recovered from the holidays and back to your routine, back to writing.

I’m in the midst of writing my second royal series book, this one about an American girl who discovers she’s a long lost princess.

As I’ve been working through the first book and now the second, I realized each one has a fairy tale structure. Susie got jazzed about me blogging on this topic.

The fairy tale structure is rich and entertaining. Though like all storytelling, it still requires me to dig in and work the story that is true to the characters.

All the great thing we learn here at My Book Therapy on story structure still apply. Even more so in fairytales.

The story world. The dark wound of the past. The greatest fear and the secret desire. Oh, my mind is reeling with fairy tales that fit this kind of character map.

For example, Cinderella’s wound is the death of her father and the subsequent servitude put on her by her jealous step mom.

Cinderella wants to be free. She’s afraid she’ll never be free. Attend a fancy ball. Or meet the prince.

Bit of foreshadowing in the Disney version that Cinderella can see the palace from her tower bedroom. Her heart is full of songs about life and love.

But what if we left the story structure and changed Cinderella’s character. Made her more of a feminist?

How would it have been if she got ticked at her evil step sisters and socked them in the mouth. We’d have cheered but then where would the story be?

Her character would’ve changed from one who must be rescued to one who can rescue herself. We don’t need Gus-gus and the other mice. Or the birds. Or Bruno.

Instead, Cinderella rescues herself.

Can you see that ending?

… And so Cinderella whacked Drizella and Anastasia with the broom handle and told step-mom where to go. She grabbed the footman by the ear and said, “Take me to the prince,” where she demonstrated the glass slipper fit. They lived happily ever after.

(In his later years, the prince came to dread the sound of a broom sweeping over the stone floor.)

No! We love Cinderella because she was humble, a servant when she was mistreated. She loved even when loving was impossible.

She deserved to win the prince’s heart, daggum it.

This is the part of the fairy tale structure we want to weave into our books.

What if Snow White had suggested counseling with her step-mom to get over the hate and misunderstanding? If you’re watching the show Once Upon A Time, you’ll find there is a lot of wounding among the characters. All over true-love lost. Or the lost of a child.

So can you see Snow sitting in a counseling session with her wicked witch step-mom? It immobilizes the story.

Snow is also like Cinderella, humble, kind, a servant. Of course she wins the heart of the prince!

There are some consistent elements to a fairy tale that I think play nicely in Christian fiction.

Humility.

Kindness.

Servanthood.

The supernatural.

There’s always a magical element to fairy tales, but for the purposes of Christian fiction, why not something supernatural?

Fairy tales are about ordinary, mere mortals finding themselves in extraordinary situations.

Can that be you and me as we serve an extraordinary God? Or our characters?

So, stop by every Thursday as we delve into fairy tales. We’ll take it as far as we can go, learn all we can and hopefully role in the elements of a great fairy tale into our own works.

Even if you’re not writing a fairy tale plot or even romance, this structure will be good to review. Especially for fantasy or speculative fiction authors.

 

Have a great writing week!

~ Rachel

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Best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She excels in seeing the deeper layers of a story. With a love for teaching and mentoring, Rachel comes alongside writers to help them craft their novel. A worship leader, board member of ACFW and popular writing teacher, Rachel is the author of over 15 novels. She lives in Florida with her husband and her dog, Lola. Contact her at: Rachel@mybooktherapy.com.

Go forth and write!

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Go forth and write!