Today we continue with the third of my ‘fairy story’ structures: Hansel Gretel.
The Prompt
Start with a life-changing moment and lead your characters through the story to show us who they become.
Hansel and Gretel starts off with a bang: two kids, alone in woods, abandoned!
What are they doing to do?
After the big opening, all their struggles teach us about the kids’ characters. By the time Gretel finally kicks the witch into the oven, grabs her brother and they make their way out of the witch’s cabin, we know enough about these kids to know they’re going to be OK.
How can you replicate this for your characters?
This is a big week at StoryADay: we’re creating a lot of skills that will help you build stories throughout the rest of the month and beyond. Stay tuned!
And don’t forget to leave a comment to let us know you’ve written, how it’s going, and what you’re learning.
Today’s story turned out a bit on the long side. I suppose the fairy tale idea got stuck in my head and my inciting incident was a woman finding a goblinish creature on the lawn at her farm, which prompts a realisation that fairies are real, and perhaps other things she hasn’t quite managed to admit to herself are…also real. I ended up really liking the characters, so I lingered with it a little longer than I have other stories this month. Not as dire as the plot of Hansel and Gretel. This turned out quite cute.
Complete. I went with a horror story here – it’s funny, I never actually thought of how horrifying the tale of Hansel and Gretel actually is until I tried to write a modern adaptation. I really liked the result! I’m actually going to file this one away as a basis for a longer story later on, perhaps. Thank you for the prompt!
I love horror! Agreed that Hansel and Gretel is thoroughly gruesome.
Took me a bit longer today, but I did get the story done. Visiting Erik and Jeff with this one again. It picks up near the end of Friday’s story, only from Erik’s POV this time.
https://fallonbrownwrites.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/story-a-day-day-13-heed-the-signs/