The Weaving Word
Weaving together the threads that make up my passion for the written word…as an author, editor, and follower of The Word.
Featured Author: Christine Haggerty
Why Fairy Tales?
by Christine Haggerty
Yeah, yeah. Fairy tales have been done before.
A lot.
So why did I jump on that over-filled train and do it again? Retell a fairy tale? Especially since most of them don’t even have any fairies in them?
Because I can. And it’s fun.
And humans, those beings who buy and read books, can’t seem to stop reading them. So, as long as I’m having fun, I’m going to write them.
Fairy tales have some kind of effect on our subconscious existence. They spring from our souls. I would like to argue that fairy tales are particularly embedded in Western culture, but did you know there is a Cinderella story in every culture in the world? The dates for these stories’ origins prove that these stories do not exist because groups of people traveled and shared them. These Cinderella stories originated in every culture in the world. The poor orphan girl and her evil stepmother are part of being human, part of our DNA. I had a copy of each of these stories in my classroom when I taught language arts.
From a reader’s perspective, fairy tales are familiar enough that they’re safe. We already know if we like the way Cinderella turns out. We already know that Gretel shoves the witch in the oven. We just want to see how the writer gets here.
From a writer’s perspective, fairy tales provide a sort of storytelling menu. We can use the parts we like and reinvent the parts we want to play with. We can leave the plot alone and focus our energy on character and dialogue, or setting and symbolism. We can also blame it on the original if someone doesn’t like our story—it was Grimm’s or Andersen’s fault, right? I just hope that their ghosts come to haunt any unaccountable author who actually uses that excuse.
If you want to try a fairy tale, go for it. Find one that hasn’t been done a million and one times and make it your own. Then write another one. Then another. Then make up your own.
Keep writing.
Christine Haggerty, Author of The Grimm Chronicles
Christine Nielson Haggerty grew up in rural Utah with three brothers, a sister, several chickens, a goat, and an outhouse. She always loved the escape of fantasy and the art of writing, and her passion for life is to craft stories of strength and survival.
As a former high school language arts teacher and a black belt in karate, Christine has found a niche in combining those skills to help authors write effective fight scenes.
An award-winning young adult author, she is now launching her dark fantasy fairytale novella series The Grimm Chronicles.
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Reblogged this on christinehaggertyauthor and commented:
A guest post about writing fairy tales. Fun!
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Thank you for hosting my article. I’m glad to hear from the comments that it was as fun to read as it was to write.
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You’re quite welcome! I enjoyed hosting–honestly I love myths and fairy tales too! You’re welcome back anytime.
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Another one for the ‘to read’ pile! Thanks for bringing this to my attention – good short reads are a godsend amidst lengthy tomes!
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Reblogged this on Robertson Writes.
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Great Guest Post…I finished reading The Grimm’s Chronicles: Pretty Things last night. Only took about and hour in half, I couldn’t put it down. Almost was late picking my mom up from work because it was so good I lost track of time 🙂
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Reblogged this on Mama Bear Musings and commented:
The Grimm Chronicles
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Reblogged this on Dragon Knight Chronicles.
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