I love that you think there is one!
No, really, this blog is an expandable curriculum on the writing craft. The idea behind this blog came from a small but growing ministry in two areas that are dear to my heart. One is writing. Any kind of storytelling, but words on paper move me the most. The other is young ladies, because I was once one myself. When I first became involved with a local (wonderful) writers’ group, I was asked to teach a workshop on writing to a local homeschool association. Since I was once a homeschooled girl who wanted to write, I agreed.
I wanted to talk about characterization, which meant using examples from stories everyone knew. To keep it simple, I decided to use fairy tales for a brainstorming exercise (my notes are available here, if you care to know more) and choose characters from stories they all knew. Much to my astonishment, many of the teenagers at the workshop claimed to know no fairy tales at all.
Perhaps they all needed another cup of coffee that morning, because they eventually found a few stories they all knew. This group knew their Star Wars. That one knew Star Trek. These girls knew their Disney movies. And these girls only read dragon books, thank you very much. The students were delightfully astonished that they learned something from stories they had thought were useless.
One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes is his dedication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to Lucy Barfield: “By the time this is finished, you will be too old for fairy tales. And by the time it is published, you will be older still. But one day you will be old enough for fairy tales again...” The idea that people grow out of fairy tales, only to grow back into them later, seemed strange when I first read it. Age has only made it stranger, because how can anyone who wants to think for herself claim to have no use for fairy tales?
Fairy tales service a couple specific functions that are all eminently useful for a writer. First, they provide “stock plots”—basic story structures that many storytellers employ. They may be simple, they may be stories you’ve heard before, but they give a writer a good idea of what an audience will find believable. Second, they are better than tinker toys. All the storytelling elements—plot, characters, themes, archetypes, literary devices, twists, dialogue, you name it—can be easily identified, taken apart, and put back together in experimental ways. Third, fairy tales aren’t “yours.” Since a fairy tale isn’t a story you yourself have written, it’s rare for writers to be possessive of them. Much easier to study.
And lastly, fairy tales pass on lessons from the storyteller to the audience. This may be why a lot of us, especially the teenage set, prefer not to pick up a fairy tale. We’re often so busy discovering our own moral compass that we don’t want someone else setting it for us. Because fairy tales can be easily broken down, the stories stick in our heads better. We carry these pre-fabricated sets with us, eventually reconstructing them (for children in our care, if no one else) with such ease that we don’t notice how much we have absorbed. The fairy tales of a culture come with clues about that culture's morals, beliefs, and values. These might be muddled, but they are usually disguised within an irresistible story.
“The Plan”—such as it is—is to tackle forty fairy tales in a year. Sometimes, we’ll repeat a story by looking at a different aspect of it, which is going to make that tally harder. But each week, a different literary term or concept will be studied. Hidden themes—or obvious ones. Dialogue. Plot devices. If you have a problem, or a favorite fairy tale, requests, questions, or suggestions are welcome.
At the beginning of each week, a question will be posed. These will usually be suggestions for rewriting part of a fairy tale, though sometimes they will be open-ended questions about stories you’ve read or stories you’re writing. A one-page response (roughly 300-500 words) is what I would ask of a student. This gives you enough room to be creative without having to slave over the work.
At the beginning of each week, a question will be posed. These will usually be suggestions for rewriting part of a fairy tale, though sometimes they will be open-ended questions about stories you’ve read or stories you’re writing. A one-page response (roughly 300-500 words) is what I would ask of a student. This gives you enough room to be creative without having to slave over the work.
Please Note: You don’t have to send them to me. I can give you feedback, but I’m not interfering with things like gold stars or gray dots (if you want to know that reference, click here). However, this blog is loosely based on an Honors English curriculum I developed for homeschooled future-writers. You and your parents can integrate this into your current studies as creative writing assignments—even when the question asks for an essay answer instead of a fictional one. The exercise of making yourself write outside of your normal comfort zone will help expand your skills as a writer and a storyteller. (The students I worked with in designing this program each jumped a grade level in communications skills and comprehension by the time we'd done ten lessons.)
