Retellings of fairy tales and myths
are all over the place, but some are better than others. Here are five things
to look for in a great retelling.
1)
The author only borrowed elements from the
original version, not copied it entirely. Let’s look at Cinderella for this
example. Unless you are affiliated with Disney, chances are, you can’t just
retell the same story in a different, albeit gorgeous, format. The foundation
of the story may have existed before, but the author has taken those roots and
twisted them into a story of her own telling. A great example of an original
Cinderella retelling is Cinder by Marissa Myer. Cinder took pieces of the
original story and wove it into something entirely new story set in a dystopian
future, featuring an alien Cyborg missing a foot for the title character. Liz
DeJesus also wrote a fantastic retelling of Cinderella set in modern day. When
reading multiple retellings, you should be able to identify the elements that
were borrowed from the original, but otherwise they should be entirely
different stories.
2)
Something major is different. That something
needs to move beyond the surface. We’ve all seen and read retellings that only
genderbent the cast or changed the setting but otherwise left everything the
same. When a key component is changed that should force the author and the
reader to consider the story from an entirely different perspective. A great
example of this is Fool by Christopher Moore. He takes the story of King Lear
and tells it from the Fool’s perspective. Almost all the original dialogue is
there, but the perspective is so different that the plot arc has completely
changed. No one could say Fool is the same story as King Lear. It’s something
different entirely.
3)
It uses the changes to highlight some important
social issue, but not at the expense of the story. Westside Story changed the
setting of Romeo and Juliet to highlight gang violence as well as racial
tension. But Westside Story didn’t go overboard. There are no after-school
special monologues hitting the viewer on the head with the message. The
comparison is quietly made and the viewer is left to draw their own conclusions
from it.
4)
Most of the stories that are retold have had a
profound impact on culture. The absence or repetition of that myth needs to be
explained in the universe. In my story, Persephone, the myths are still
happening in modern day. Persephone, the character or the myth, didn’t exist
until she was born. That made changes to the culture. I used the lesser known
myth of Boreas and Oreithyia as a stand in for the Persephone myth in their
culture. I also had to consider the myths she was involved with later and
consider how removing these from the society would change that society. Other
versions use reincarnation or have characters allude to the original myth and
the similarities in what they’re going through.
5)
They go deeper. The story, the motivations, the
world building, the characters. A shallow version of the fairy tale or myth
already exists. If the author built on it, at all, that should automatically
make it deeper. The deeper, the better. A great example of this is Wicked. The
Wicked Witch of the West was a very flat character in The Wizard of Oz. And it
worked because she was an archetype. She didn’t need depth. But a good
retelling forces you to reevaluate the story by adding depth. Elphaba has major
depth and motivation and a backstory and flaws and great traits. She’s a three
dimensional character at its finest. But the original mythology is accounted
for in the story. When watching the Broadway, it’s easy to see how Dorothy
would have seen her as the wicked witch caricature. The original story is acknowledged, respected
even, but it goes deeper. That’s what makes it an amazing retelling.
There are many retellings out
there, but some are better than others. Share your favorites, and what made
them great, in the comments below.
Blurb: The
Daughters of Zeus, Book One
One
day Persephone is an ordinary high school senior working at her mom's flower
shop in Athens, Georgia. The next she's fighting off Boreas, the brutal god of
winter, and learning that she's a bonafide goddess--a rare daughter of the
now-dead Zeus. Her goddess mom whisks her off to the Underworld to hide until
spring.
There
she finds herself under the protection of handsome Hades, the god of the dead,
and she's automatically married to him. It's the only way he can keep her safe.
Older, wiser, and far more powerful than she, Hades isn't interested in
becoming her lover, at least not anytime soon. But every time he rescues her
from another of Boreas' schemes, they fall in love a little more. Will Hades ever
admit his feelings for her?
Can she
escape the grasp of the god of winter's minions? The Underworld is a very nice
place, but is it worth giving up her life in the realm of the living? Her
goddess powers are developing some serious, kick-butt potential. She's going to
fight back.
Kaitlin
Bevis spent her childhood curled up with a book and a pen. If the ending didn't
agree with her, she rewrote it. Because she's always wanted to be a writer, she
spent high school and college learning everything she could to achieve that
goal. After graduating college with a BFA and Masters in English, Kaitlin went
on to write The Daughters of Zeus series.
Connect with Kaitlin: www.kaitlinbevis.com
