Writing with Fairy Tales: Inspiration for Any Genre
Eastern Ontario Writers’ Festival
Saturday, September 19 | 11:00 AM | Casselman Public Library
Fairy tales are found in some of your favourite literature, whether you know it or not!
In this workshop, fairy tale scholar and author Tish Black will introduce participants to fairy tales and how they have been used in literature of all kinds. There are more ways to interpret fairy and folk tales than you may think: “Cinderella” is not just about how to entice a prince with dainty feet.
From short stories to novels and even memoirs, fairy tales can be a writer’s inspiration, provide story structure, and use familiar motifs to connect readers to the material. Fairy-tale-influenced writing can be any genre.
Participants will use what they learn in a writing exercise. Given a familiar fairy tale and a story alteration as a prompt, you’ll write or plan your own fairy-tale-inspired story. The workshop will wrap up with time to share what you wrote and learned.
Whether you’re fairy-tale-loving or just fairy-tale-curious, you’ll leave this workshop with some unexpected inspiration!
*This 45-minute version of the workshop is available for free through the EOWF workshop program. See below for the full 2-hour workshop available soon online.
Writing with Fairy Tales: Inspiration for Any Genre
Fairy tales aren’t just for happily ever afters. Fairy tales have influenced every genre of literature, and they can influence your writing, too. By studying fairy tales, you can learn how to use them in your writing, whether you want to write a clear retelling or integrate motifs more subtly.
In this workshop, hosted by fairy tale author and scholar Tish Black, you will get an overview of what fairy tales are and how to understand them to use them in your writing. You will learn what you can do with fairy tales in retellings and some examples of the many ways fairy tales can be retold and interpreted. You will use what you learn in two short group storytelling exercises to get those fairy-tale ideas churning. And finally, the main writing exercise will provide prompts to pair a fairy tale with an alteration (What if…) and give time to write or plan your own fairy-tale-inspired piece.
This 2-hour workshop will be available online in August and in person around Ottawa, TBD. Sign up below to be informed when it is available.