Fairy Tale Writing Prompts

Little Red Riding Hood II, a photo by Maria Kristin Steinsson on Flickr.

For today's creative writing prompts, we are going to look at fairy tales. 

Free-Write: Invent a new fairy tale by taking an old favorite and mixing it up a bit.   You can change the ending, add characters, or change the plot. Try free-writing for 10 minutes and see where it takes you. 

For the Brave:

Below are two links to Poets.org The links will take you to poems.  One is "Fairy Tale" by Ron Padgett.  Notice how the poem is all in one stanza, but there are 3 distinctive parts.  One is the description of the elf, the next part is the place where the elf is, and the third part is a short monologue by the elf himself.  What effect do you have when you read the poem?  How do you think the way the writer organized this influences the effect?  Discuss it in your class or reflect on it in your journal entry.  Do writing practice by describing another character that might appear in a fairy tale, then follow it up by place (it can be a place in the present) and then of course, a short little monologue of what your character has to say and what he or she is planning (but don't give us too many details).  Take this as writing practice and feel free to share what you have.

Here is the link that also provides an audio track if teachers would like to play it for the class:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19923

The next link I'm going to give you is a sad poem called "A Fairy Tale" by Jennifer L. Knox.  This is your warning!  It pretty much brought tears to my eyes (pardon the cliche).  You can write a sad, modern day tale or a happy one.  It's up to you.  Below is the link, and don't say I didn't warn you!

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2320