3 Tips for Writing Original Fairy Tales

Fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast” have been told and retold. But how do you craft your own story that feels like a fairy tale without it being a retelling?

Here are some threads of inspiration for weaving fantastical tales, as told through the lens of the middle-grade fantasy novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This novel won the 2017 Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious American awards for children’s literature.

1. Start with a Mystery

Fairy tales often begin with whispers and uncertainties. A strange monster lives in a cave, hoarding unimaginable treasure. A family curse goes back centuries, with no known cause.

The opening of Barnhill’s novel hooked me right away because the narrator creates intrigue about The Day of Sacrifice. The town leaves a baby in the forest as a sacrifice for “the Witch,” but they don’t know what the Witch actually does with the child or what would happen if they neglected to carry out the ritual:

Look at the woods! So dangerous! Poisonous smoke and sinkholes and boiling geysers and terrible dangers every which way. Do you think it is so by accident? Rubbish! It was the Witch…