Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Fairy Tales and Romance Week: Fairy Tales as Story Outlines

So this week is ending up to be more about romance novels and fairy tales, but since I've never focused on them before, I think it's a fair topic for the week either way.

During my research, I found Fairy Tales as Story Outlines by Jody Wallace, originally published in Love Notes: June 2002. It was republished online by Music City Romance Writers. In other words, Nashville Romance Writers, which I didn't even know existed although I live here.

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Why didn't the author try this?" or "If I were writing that, I'd change this and thus to make it better." While you can't revise another author's book and call it your own without getting immeasurable heckling and a lawsuit for plagiarism, there are indeed some basic plots which writers return to with great success. In the particular arena of romantic fiction, fairy tales often provide the framework for fascinating and original storylines — even if "Cinderella" has been retold ten thousand times.

The article is short and not very detailed, but it makes a few interesting points for beginning writers whether they want to write a fairy tale inspired romance or other genre.

1 comment:

  1. Very good article for writers in general and an excellent example in Rumpelstiltskin of how to use a fairy tale plot for a story not set in 'once upon a time'(I love Once upon a time, of course, but sometimes it's hard to think outside of that for a fresh idea).

    Thanks for the link. :)

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