Love at first sight? No thanks.
In almost every fairy tale you care to name, as soon as the prince and princess (or equivalent) meet, it’s love at first sight. They don’t even have to talk (in Sleeping Beauty and Snow White’s case, only one of them has to be awake) and they’re both quite happy to marry, have babies and live happily ever after. How often do characters in modern romances fall in love at first sight? In ‘When Harry Met Sally’, twenty years elapse before the pair even realise they have feelings for each other. In ‘You’ve Got Mail’, they talk for months but can’t stand the sight of each other in real life. No modern reader will accept the two main characters falling in love at first sight. Use whatever romantic plot device you fancy, but they’re going to have to really connect before we can believe in, and care about, their love story.
Less is more
A lot of modern fairy tales take the original story and just ‘convert’ the main features into a modern form. How many modern versions of Cinderella replace the lost shoe with a mobile, or a purse, or some other modern girl accessory? The prince’s ball is replaced with a high school dance, or a work do, or something equally banal. This makes the story oddly jarring sometimes; some elements of fairy tales just don’t fit with modern life. Why is Cinderella never helped by social services? Why doesn’t Red Riding Hood just get a taxi over to her granny’s house? How did the 3 Little Pigs all get planning permission at the same time? It’s also incredibly predictable.
A far more subtle and effective way of retelling fairytales is to take the original elements as an influence, but not let them dictate your story. Cinderella can grow up and move out of her stepmother’s house before she meets her Prince Charming; it doesn’t take away from the magic of the story. Another way of dealing with the difficulties of translating these classic stories to the modern age is to take the original elements as symbolic; for example, Snow White’s stepmother, in the original, demands her heart on a platter. Maybe in a modern retelling, she breaks Snow White’s heart in some way, or takes a heart shaped necklace from her. Don’t make the reference so subtle that a casual reader will miss the allusion, but there’s no need to overstate it either.
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