When I mention a girl in a red hood who meets
a wolf in the woods while carrying a basket
of goodies to her sick grandmother, you probably
recognize the story.
After all, Little Red Riding Hood has been
around a long time.
In fact, it’s been traced to an 11th-century
poem recorded by a Belgian priest.
So . . . yeah, it’s been around about a
thousand years or so.
Of course, when the same fairy tale gets told
and retold too many times, it can get kind of
boring.
That’s why taking a fairy tale and changing
it into something new can be
much more fun.
So for today’s writing tip, we’re going
to look at HOW TO WRITE A FRACTURED
FAIRY TALE.
I’ve got seven tips for how to fracture
a fairy tale.
Let’s stick with the story of Little Red
Riding Hood and see what happens.
One.
You can change the CHARACTERS.
What if the grandmother became a grandfather?
I know—not a big change, but it’s a start.
Let’s take a larger leap.
What if instead of a girl in a red hood, it’s
a boy who wears red boxer shorts on his head?
New characters…new story—“Little Red
Boxer Shorts.”
Two.
Change the SETTING.
Every story has to happen somewhere.
And that somewhere provides the setting.
Does Little Red’s grandpa live in a cottage
in the woods like in the traditional fairy tale?
Or does he live on a houseboat?
An apartment?
A spaceship?
Each of these unique settings would impact
the overall story.
Three.
Change the CONFLICT.
For a story to be interesting it needs some
sort of problem to solve—a conflict.
Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma was sick,
but maybe Little Red Boxer Short’s grandpa
lost his false teeth.
Four.
Change the PLOT.
The story’s conflict is part of the overall
plot—all of those things that happen to move
the story from the beginning all the way to
the end.
In Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red gets
distracted by pretty flowers and wanders off
the trail on the way to Grandma’s.
In our story, since Grandpa lost his teeth,
what if Little Red stopped to pick some wild
mushrooms that would be easy for Grandpa to
chew?
Five.
Change the ENDING.
In many versions of Little Red Riding Hood,
the wolf swallows both Little Red and her
grandma, then a woodsman comes by and saves
the day.
But who needs a woodsman when we have boxer
shorts?
In my tale of “Little Red Boxer Shorts,”
one super-stretched, undie-powered punch of
Little Red’s headwear saves the day instead.
Six.
Change the POINT OF VIEW.
Sometimes, perspective is everything.
How would the wolf tell the story of Little
Red Riding Hood?
Would the wolf still be the bad guy?
Or was he just an unfortunate wolf in the
wrong place at the wrong time and now he’s
stuck with an underserved reputation?
Seven.
Create a MIX-&-MATCH.
One more way to fracture a fairy tale is to
create a fairy tale mashup.
Take the characters and plots of two or more
fairy tales and combine them into something
new.
What would happen in “Little Red and the
Seven Dwarves”?
Or what about “Little Red and the Beanstalk”
or “Cinder Red Riding Hood”?
With fractured fairy tales, the possibilities
are endless, and so is the fun.
I had a blast writing “Little Red Boxer
Shorts,” which I turned into a readers’
theater script for elementary classrooms.
Now go ahead and try your own idea.
Explore these seven ways to fracture a fairy
tale and see what stories spring from your imagination.
