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Lessons from Grimm: How to Write a Fairy Tale
Uncover the fairy tale secrets that made the Grimms famous.
By analyzing Grimms' fairy tales from a writer's perspective, you can learn how to write better fairy tales faster.
Historical fairy tale author Shonna Slayton spent a year blogging through Grimms' fairy tales looking for patterns that have made these tales so endearing. With this guide at your side, you can quickly learn these techniques for yourself and apply them to your writing.
Perfect for teenage writers and up, beginning writers will learn basic storytelling techniques while more advanced writers will hone in on specific tips for writing fairy tale magic and themes. By learning from plenty of examples from both well-known and more obscure tales, you'll come away with a fresh perspective on Grimms' fairy tales and lots of ideas for writing your own fairytales.
In Lessons from Grimm, you'll study how the Grimms handle key elements of character, setting, plot, fairy tale magic, and theme.
quickly brainstorm ideasstreamline the creative processcreate endearing fairy tale charactersbuild on time-tested plots and themeswrite a better fairy taleBonus! Includes comprehensive lists of characters, settings, plots, romance tropes, magic objects and more, saving you hours and hours of research time.
Get Lessons From Grimm today and get started.
By analyzing Grimms' fairy tales from a writer's perspective, you can learn how to write better fairy tales faster.
Historical fairy tale author Shonna Slayton spent a year blogging through Grimms' fairy tales looking for patterns that have made these tales so endearing. With this guide at your side, you can quickly learn these techniques for yourself and apply them to your writing.
Perfect for teenage writers and up, beginning writers will learn basic storytelling techniques while more advanced writers will hone in on specific tips for writing fairy tale magic and themes. By learning from plenty of examples from both well-known and more obscure tales, you'll come away with a fresh perspective on Grimms' fairy tales and lots of ideas for writing your own fairytales.
In Lessons from Grimm, you'll study how the Grimms handle key elements of character, setting, plot, fairy tale magic, and theme.
quickly brainstorm ideasstreamline the creative processcreate endearing fairy tale charactersbuild on time-tested plots and themeswrite a better fairy taleBonus! Includes comprehensive lists of characters, settings, plots, romance tropes, magic objects and more, saving you hours and hours of research time.
Get Lessons From Grimm today and get started.
- GenresNonfictionWriting
278 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 22, 2020
About the author
Shonna Slayton
23 books527 followersSHONNA SLAYTON is the author of the Fairy-Tale Inheritance Series of young adult novels, beginning with Cinderella’s Dress.
She edited curriculum for an education company before homeschooling her own children using literature-based whole book learning. She’s taught writing using fairy tales in school classrooms and workshops, as well as in public libraries as a writer in residence. Instead of seeing her in person, you can get the Lessons from Grimm Series which includes a writer’s guide and workbooks for writers to learn fiction techniques through fairy tales.
Join her email list and receive a free story as a welcome gift. Be the first to learn of new books and get behind-the-scenes info you can't read anywhere else. Sign up on her website Shonna Slayton
She edited curriculum for an education company before homeschooling her own children using literature-based whole book learning. She’s taught writing using fairy tales in school classrooms and workshops, as well as in public libraries as a writer in residence. Instead of seeing her in person, you can get the Lessons from Grimm Series which includes a writer’s guide and workbooks for writers to learn fiction techniques through fairy tales.
Join her email list and receive a free story as a welcome gift. Be the first to learn of new books and get behind-the-scenes info you can't read anywhere else. Sign up on her website Shonna Slayton
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 27, 2020
Fairy tales are a mine of ideas for new stories, their archetypal nature offers a wealth of possibilities for fresh adaptations. This is the book for anyone who wants to write a fairy tale or retelling of their own. Over 200 Grimms' fairy tales have been categorised by trope, theme and character archetypes, then distilled into a succinct two-line outline that can be used as a starting point for new stories.
This book explores how a writer can take the short-story form of fairy tales to use as a model for a novel outline, a synopsis, or a revision tool to show up structural problems, and for brainstorming ideas using fairy-tale tropes.
Simple enough to use in teaching creative writing and story structure to kids, and wise enough for seasoned writers to make use of it in clarifying and thinking about their own fairy-tale retellings. An excellent resource for writers of any age and level.
This book explores how a writer can take the short-story form of fairy tales to use as a model for a novel outline, a synopsis, or a revision tool to show up structural problems, and for brainstorming ideas using fairy-tale tropes.
Simple enough to use in teaching creative writing and story structure to kids, and wise enough for seasoned writers to make use of it in clarifying and thinking about their own fairy-tale retellings. An excellent resource for writers of any age and level.
June 2, 2021
I think I would like this better if I was using it in a class with other students. I found it difficult to use on my own.
June 22, 2020
Shonna Slayton, author of a series of stories set around the descendants of fairy tale characters, set herself a project: to read through all of the Grimm brothers’ collection, a doorstep volume with tales familiar and unfamiliar, whimsical and frightful, comforting and repellent. She found a treasure-trove of inspiration.
Of course, anyone can read the Grimm tales for themselves. But what the author has done here is to study every single one and analyse their components to help us see what makes a fairy tale. She draws out characters, tropes, magical objects, beginnings, challenges, endings, and talks about how we might use these to either work on retellings that will capture a reader’s imagination, or to create our own fairy tales. She has examples for every one of her points, using the lesser-known tales on the whole, a nice reminder to me of tales I’d forgotten, undeservedly. The style is easy to read and each short, chapter has suggested exercises to work through as you write your tale.
I particularly enjoyed the way the author drew out the romance in many of the tales. It is arguable that the many of the most popular tales, as originally told, feature marriage for status or protection (Snow White had never met the prince before she opened her eyes in the coffin; Cinderella’s goal was to go to the ball and have a good time, and there’s no mention in Perrault of her attraction to the prince) but Slayton reminded me of all the stories of parted lovers and wives searching out lost husbands. She also has some interesting things to say about the accusation that princesses are passive, and terrible role models for our girls. And thirdly, I really liked the chapter on magic, where she draws our attention to the subtle but important way a fairy tale is different from a fantasy.
There is a chapter on the Christian references in Grimm. As a Christian myself I found it interesting, but it may not appeal to everyone. It can easily be skipped: there are many other treasures to be found here.
I received a free copy of this book from the author, but the views are all my own. I have written short fairy tales myself, and would definitely like to write more, so I shall be keeping this book and digging into it for more inspiration.
Of course, anyone can read the Grimm tales for themselves. But what the author has done here is to study every single one and analyse their components to help us see what makes a fairy tale. She draws out characters, tropes, magical objects, beginnings, challenges, endings, and talks about how we might use these to either work on retellings that will capture a reader’s imagination, or to create our own fairy tales. She has examples for every one of her points, using the lesser-known tales on the whole, a nice reminder to me of tales I’d forgotten, undeservedly. The style is easy to read and each short, chapter has suggested exercises to work through as you write your tale.
I particularly enjoyed the way the author drew out the romance in many of the tales. It is arguable that the many of the most popular tales, as originally told, feature marriage for status or protection (Snow White had never met the prince before she opened her eyes in the coffin; Cinderella’s goal was to go to the ball and have a good time, and there’s no mention in Perrault of her attraction to the prince) but Slayton reminded me of all the stories of parted lovers and wives searching out lost husbands. She also has some interesting things to say about the accusation that princesses are passive, and terrible role models for our girls. And thirdly, I really liked the chapter on magic, where she draws our attention to the subtle but important way a fairy tale is different from a fantasy.
There is a chapter on the Christian references in Grimm. As a Christian myself I found it interesting, but it may not appeal to everyone. It can easily be skipped: there are many other treasures to be found here.
I received a free copy of this book from the author, but the views are all my own. I have written short fairy tales myself, and would definitely like to write more, so I shall be keeping this book and digging into it for more inspiration.
August 17, 2020
An excellent resource for writers wanting to adapt a fairy tale, write a new fairy tale, or learn more about fairy tales. The book explores the major aspects of fairy tales, from genre to characters to magic, with examples from the complete works of the Brothers Grimm. My favorite part of the book is the perceptive way it teaches writers to approach crafting fairy tales, including writing exercises in each section.
September 22, 2020
This is a very good, easy to follow, and informative book. I loved the format and used the questions to make my own tales.
September 25, 2020
Terrific overview of Grimm's fairy tales and tips on writing.
October 18, 2024
Excellent writing tool!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews