Every Peice In Chess Was Carefully Considered Before Inclusion. The Pawns Are There Cause You Need A

i mean this so seriously if you have any sort of creative project you can and should be a little obsessed with it. you should reread your own writing and look at your own art and brag about your ocs its literally good for your health

i love it when characters are package deals, i love duos i love trios i love quartets, i love groups and squads, i love it when you can’t find one without the other(s), i love it when they’re glued at the hip, i love it no matter the context of these dynamics, i lov

Writing a Unique Fairy Tale Retelling

Credit: https://lindsay-elizabeth.com/how-to-write-a-unique-fairy-tale-retelling/

Intro

Fairy tale retellings are one of my absolute favorite genres to read, so I had to make a post on it! Retelling a story is addressing the original one with your own love letter and homage. A retelling is also a deeply personal experience, because whatever you want to retell is something that you find worth returning to, over and over again.

This post is primarily for fairy tale retellings, but any of these elements can be applied to folklore, mythology and other literary retellings as well!

1. Get to know the original story

We all know the most popular fairy tales well because we’ve been told them so many times in a variety of ways. However, the original stories were penned centuries and even thousands of years ago, so there are a lot of things you’ll probably want to leave behind, like misogyny, racism, and underage/toxic/inappropriate relationships. There are many other interesting story details, though, that you can pick up from the original text that can make your retelling richer and more layered.

Every writer interprets things differently. You never know what detail could spark your imagination and turn out to be something few others have used, so definitely take the time to read the original works. You can find pretty much all of the classic fairy tales for free online since they’re in the public domain (meaning the original copyright has expired).

2. Pay attention to themes

What makes fairy tales timeless and so pervasive in every culture are the underlying themes that we all relate to. They’re the truths that we connect with and instantly recognize on a deeper level. They explore topics like transformation, self-discovery, justice, judgment, class, and love. We’re inspired by the main hero’s will, spirit, and perseverance as they face challenges and ultimately overcome them on their journey to finding true love and happiness.

These are deeply human feelings and experiences, which is why they resonate with people of all generations and backgrounds. Fairy tales (and the best stories in general) make us examine these truths and help us understand them more deeply.

When writing a fairy tale retelling, look for the core of the story that you’re putting a spin on. What human experience is at the heart of it? As long as you have this, you can get as creative as you want with the rest of it!

3. Take note of your favorite elements

Besides the themes, what else do you love about the fairy tale you want to retell? Take some time to examine the story and take notes on what draws you to it over and over again.

If it’s the love story, what is it specifically about the love story that captures your heart more than others? The dynamic between the characters or a particular trope?

Keep pulling back the layers. The more you understand what you’re drawn to about this particular fairy tale, the more creative license you’ll be able to take because you’ll know what needs to stay the same to maintain the core of the story and what you can play with to make it unique.

4. Look at existing retellings

Take some time to go through the books currently available in the fairytale retellings genre to see how other people are playing with these stories and what the common threads are. Some places to check are:

GoodReads Lists of Fairy Tale Retellings

BookBub’s lists like this one of 20 Magical Fairy Tale Retellings for Adults

Amazon’s Best Sellers List for Teen & Young Adult Fairy Tale and Folklore Adaptations

What is missing? What hasn’t been done that you would love to read? Just one twist on the story can be the starting point for something completely fresh and intriguing.

5. Take note of what you like and don’t like

In all of the fairy tale retellings you’ve read and watched, what were your favorite things about them? What did you love about the characters, the scenes, the plots, the dialogue? What inspired you and pulled you into the story? And what didn’t you like? What did you think could’ve been done better? What did you feel was missing? All of these answers could be the first spark and building blocks to your own unique retelling.

6. Read reviews from other readers

Take a peek at the reviews for some of the most popular fairy tale retellings. What did other readers like and dislike about them? You’ll learn a lot about genre expectations here, as well as expectations for each individual fairy tale, and pick up a lot of valuable information you can use when crafting your own.

You never know what could spark your imagination; something someone says they “wishes” had been different in the story or that they never see in fairy tale retellings could be the impetus for a whole new story idea!

Keep in mind, writing is completely subjective, so just because someone else likes or doesn’t like something doesn’t mean you can’t tell the story you want to tell! This is just a way to get different perspectives on the genre and individual fairy tales to get your own creative juices flowing.

7. Take liberties with the plot

Following the original plot (or the most popular adaptation of it) too closely can get boring and predictable because your readers will know what’s coming. This offers a great opportunity to subvert expectations with unexpected twists on them.

8. Ideas for twists

Besides playing with the plot, there are a lot of other ways to put a twist on a fairy tale. To make it really unique, combine multiple twists.

New genre

Different time period and/or location

Gender-swap, role swap, combine roles, change roles

Switch to a different POV

Crossover/mix stories

Prequel or sequel to the original story

i will never not be angry at white fantasy authors being like "this is fake russia and this is fake germany and this is fake scandinavia and this is fake netherlands and this is fake amsterdam" then turn around and be like "oh but there's only one fake collective african country and one fake collective asian country"

simongerman600

is it just me or the books that I always delay reading are the ones that actually becomes my favorite

How to Write the “Gifted” Kid

Intro

First, I apologize for the slightly misleading title when this is also a thinly veiled excuse to rant about being said “gifted” kid. But I also do want to touch on this topic because it’s something I’m familiar with, having seen it in many other people my age. The irony of the system I’ve seen and experienced is that it’s meant to push us up, but instead far more often pulls us down.

Note: I think the idea that people are more gifted than others is complete nonsense, therefore I have placed it in quotation marks in the title. I will not be using the quotations throughout the entire post; however, please assume they are there, just invisible.

Remember too, that this is my experience, and a lot of these are my opinions; you may have had a different experience, and that is also completely valid!

Pressure

“Gifted” kids are often singled out at a young age by the education system. Usually they have desirable qualities like good memorization, determination, and curiosity. Sometimes they’re chosen by their school to take part in a “gifted and talented” program or something similar. The result is that they grow up with a lot more pressure on them to do well in school, and later on, life. They are expected to achieve high and aim for success, all with relatively little effort because they’re “gifted.”

But as they grow older, they become more insignificant as the number of gifted kids increases, and suddenly they’re struggling to compete with a dozen other people at any given time.

And speaking of grades, that’s another thing gifted kids focus on. A lot of gifted kids end up connecting their self-worth to their grades, which eventually leads to low self-esteem, mental exhaustion and low mental health, and burnout.

Perfectionism

Another effect of being a gifted kid is growing up believing that you have to be perfect. This often leads to a huge fear of failure and/or disappointment. 

Perfectionism has always been a huge issue for me. When I check my grades, I get a cold, almost nauseous feeling from the anticipation. I cry when I don’t understand a lesson the first time because I expect myself to be perfect. I hate not being good at something the first time I do it. It’s terrible and it’s irrational, but it’s a habit, and a hard one to break, at that.

Not all gifted kids are perfectionists, but it’s a common trait. You probably know that one kid who complains about getting an A minus or some other grade that’s still good. That’s the gifted perfectionist, on a bit of an exaggerated level.

Gifted kids are held to a much higher standard, and I believe that’s what causes the perfectionism in the first place. Our identities are tied to our success. If other people aren’t satisfied with us, we aren’t satisfied with ourselves. If we make mistakes, we become them. It’s a vicious cycle that’s difficult to break out of, but unfortunately, it’s a reality for many.

Academic career

(Disclaimer: A lot of what I say here applies to the United States. If you live in another country, I would be interested to hear about what the typical “gifted” academic career looks like!)

Gifted kids frequently take honors classes, AP classes, or IB classes in their academic career, and usually more than one at any given time. Also, note that College Board, which runs AP and a bunch of other tests and classes, is regarded as a scam and a rip-off by most people, and it’s something of a running joke among AP students. I’m not going to dip into that discourse here, but I do believe that exams are very expensive and the grading scale is designed to be deliberately detail-oriented and harsh.

All of this is to say; gifted kids spend most of their early lives learning to build toward their future. A frequent problem is, though, that it’s not a future they’ve chosen for themself. I’ve chosen it, but there are plenty who haven’t, or people who want to escape it and can’t.

Burnout and motivation

All of this can lead to declining mental health and self-esteem and close connections. “Gifted kid burnout” is a common condition as gifted kids get older. They work themselves to the point of exhaustion, and use coping mechanisms such as old childhood/comfort hobbies or fandoms. Another popular coping mechanism is procrastination.

Often at this point, productivity sharply tumbles, and the gifted kid is left wondering why they can’t seem to summon any of their old achievements and success. This may bring them to a loss of motivation and increased apathy towards life.

Why it’s problematic

The entire concept of “gifted” kids is designed to benefit only a select few, and then then, after the system is done with them, I wouldn’t call those few “benefited.” And what about those who aren’t deemed gifted? Are they average? Below-average? The system is divisive and discriminatory, and it needs to be reworked.

Gifted kids are also forced into competition, both with others and themselves. Their careers become a race against their own productivity and success. And when that fails, they’re left with the dregs of their mental health.

Outro

Hardly any of this was actual writing advice, but I hope some of it was useful, or at least eye-opening. This may not be the most important issue out there, but it is certainly one of the most common ones. When you're writing a gifted kid character, keep these things in mind. Thank you for reading!

I had a writing professor who told us how he was sitting at a window seat in a coffee shop when somebody fell from the roof to the sidewalk. He was horrified, yet nobody else in the shop even looked up from their coffee. Some of us were appalled right away and others jumped to questioning the validity of the story. We never got a straight answer from him on if he was telling the truth but he had us discuss the entire class time whether it matters if people looked up or not. What story is told either way and why are we focusing on those in the coffee shop rather than the man who fell from the roof? How many stories can we tell from a singular event that may not have ever happened and what’s the goal in telling each one? Does there ever have to be a point in telling a story?

That one class reshaped how I think about reading and writing, and I’ll never forget it

f*ck personality tests, what font do you write in?

i think that all stories are about consumption, performance, and/or narrative, and the best combine elements of all three