A fairy tale is a short story about magical creatures or imaginary characters with a moral lesson. More than other types of writing, it requires the writer giving free rein to his or her imagination.

It is often based on binary oppositions like good and evil or poor and rich. It is possible to understand these notions based on realizing the difference between them.

Idea

A well-conceived idea lies behind any fairy tale.

Characters

Before starting writing, one should reflect on developing characters. A good tool is to use associations.

For example, your positive character may be some animal associated with certain features. Often when some people see a rabbit, they perceive it as a lovely fluffy creature. So it can serve as a positive character. An important point to consider is that the latter should not be an ideal one. Throughout the story, the one should be close to readers, even making errors like humans. Through overcoming challenges or conflicts, the character should also learn lessons. So a perfect one is not a good choice as it seems to have nothing to learn.

On the other hand, a bear or a wolf is an animal arousing fear in most persons. Thus, it may be associated with a villain or evil character.

However, talking animals are not the only imaginary characters in fairy tales. A dwarf, unicorn or a witch as well as other magical creatures can serve such purpose.

Moral Lesson

Furthermore, an idea requires a moral lesson that the fairy tale is going to teach. So here, it is important to determine the age group of readers. In addition, it should not be necessarily too narrow. Logically, children of different ages require grasping varying values, ideas, or lessons.

Structure

• A fairy tale should start with presenting the context, where and when events occur, and characters. An example is a well known phrase “once upon a time, a very beautiful princess lived in a castle…” It requires describing the character to show the purpose the one serves in the story (in the name of good or evil).
• Then a situation, conflict or a challenge affecting the character should be introduced together with evil characters. This part should spark the interest of the reader.
• The central part should be devoted to the development of events, description, and dialogues representing the challenge or conflict affecting characters.
• In the end, the fairy tale should have resolution, which can often be unexpected, but not necessarily. However, it should be interesting, demonstrating the victory of good over evil or the situation where after overcoming all challenges, the positive character learns some lesson.

Conclusion

Overall, important points to consider are as follows: (a) conceive an idea; (b) use associations; (c) create characters; (d) determine a moral lesson; (e) present a challenge or a conflict; (f) develop it; and (g) provide a resolution.