When a writer’s muse appears to be on vacation, she may not have story ideas. While there are a number of sites and tools online to help creativity flow, one tool that writers may overlook is the study of folk tales.
Reading folk tales is a great way to spin a new thread, especially for children’s writing. I recently reviewed a children’s picture book published by Sylvan Dell that was based on an American Indian folk tale. This shows that they are publishable.
Folk tales, Also known as tales and folklore, they are stories specific to a country or region. They are usually short stories that deal with daily life that come from the oral tradition that is transmitted from generation to generation. Most of the time, these tales involve animals, celestial objects, and other non-human entities that possess human characteristics.
There is Mexican folklore, Irish folklore, Chinese folklore, as well as folklore from many other countries that have tales unique to their area. There is also American folklore that covers stories from each of the 50 states. There are a lot of stories to spin and weave.
In addition to reviewing a couple of published children’s books that were based on folk tales, I wrote a children’s fantasy story based on an ancient Chinese tale.
Interestingly, before receiving a summary of the story From a well-known Chinese non-fiction writer, I never thought of rewriting folk tales. But, once they gave me the outline, I loved the story and the message it presented. The outline itself was very crude and was written with an adult as the main character (MC), which is often the case in old folk tales.
After reading the story, I knew that the MC would have to become a child. Every child writer is aware that children want to read about children, not adults. And, the MC should be a couple of years older than the target audience the author is writing to.
Based on this, the MC became a 12-year-old boy. And since the ancient Chinese flavor of the story seemed perfect, I saved it and made the story take place in 16th century China. Once this was established, it was necessary to create a title and the name of the MC.
When choosing a title for your book, It is important to keep it in line with the story and make it something that is marketable for the age group you are targeting. I think Walking through the walls.
As for the character’s name, you will have to base it on the time period and geographic location of the story, unless the character is out of his element. Since my story takes place in China, the MC needed a Chinese name.
So that the flavor of your story is consistent, It should also give it a feeling of authenticity. This will involve some research:
How did people dress during the time in your story? What names were used? What did they eat? What type of job or education was available? What places could you mention? What types of crops and vegetation would be present? What types of homes did they live in?
There are many aspects of the story that you want to be as authentic as possible. And it does matter, even in fictional stories; will add richness to your story.
The next time you are in the library, ask the librarian to show you some popular tales. Then imagine how you could rewrite one or more of them for today’s children’s book market.