One exercise often taught in creative writing classes is that of re-telling an old fairy tale from a different perspective. This is so popular that it has produced quite a few novels and books of short stories, including a wonderful series of anthologies with such titles as Silver Birch, Blood Moon and Black Swan, White Raven.
Although this is definitely a wonderful exercise and you should certainly give it a try if you haven’t before, today I’m going to suggest something slightly different. Today, tell your own fairy tale on your own terms. One possibility: go to a site such as deviantART and pick one or more pieces of art to inspire you. Alternatively, if you currently have any fiction set in a fantasy world of your own devising, or if you’re a game master who has created their own campaign world, try setting your fairy tale in that world.
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