5 Reasons I Write Fairytales and Fables
Not a lot of people are making a lot of money writing fairytale and fable retellings. So why did I choose it as my main genre? I have plans for fantasy and sci-fi style fairytale retellings. My first series is a foundation for the rest of the stories, and is actually a retelling of Merlin in another world. I often am asked where I got the idea for this book, and why I choose fairytale retellings. Here are my top five reasons for writing in this niche:
1. I already did. It took me a long time to realize this, but I already was. My first attempt at writing at ten years old was trying to retell the story my brother was trying to write. After that, it was rewriting fairytales I saw in Disney and old Barbie movies. Then I moved on to fan-fiction for Lord of the Rings, and I even spent a lot of time writing a more fantasy style story based on the musical Wicked. I always got inspired by something else, and I figured using that as a basis to build my own story worked. My first series is a retelling of Merlin’s inspired by a few different places. The BBC TV show, funnily enough, CW’s Smallville, and my scripture study.
2. I devour fairytales. I do. I love reading books like The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I used to love the TV show Once Upon a Time before they made it bluntly clear it was Disney making them. I also found most of my favorite books had fairytale or fable elements. The tribute idea in Hunger Games came from the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Harry Potter is littered with fairytale and fable references. And the list goes on and on. I already adore it. Why not specialize in it?
3. It’s a genre I feel is lacking in depth. Don’t get me wrong. I love a lot of the books in this group, but most are very romantic, puffy kind of stories. I like a story that is more like the Harry Potter Series where it starts out that way, then gets more serious. Many other series do this well in addition, but most of the books in this area are pure romance. I love a good romance mixed in, but I like a darker story, more of an epic fantasy style with that mixed in. So I decided to write the type of books I wanted to read.
4. It’s easier to market with a narrower target. It’s true. It’s harder to get started to find those people, but once you find the market, it explodes and stays consistent. As I mentioned in the last point, I write a kind of book I don’t find very often. I know people personally who agree with me, and would like the kind of books I write. Having a niche just makes it easier to write and find people who want to enjoy the same books I enjoy writing and reading.
5. New ideas are easy to come by. My goal is to publish a book about every six months from here on out. And to do that, I have to keep new ideas flowing. Though I’ve not come close to running out of ideas yet, hitting a standstill over the years seems likely. And fairytales are everywhere. If I stall for ideas, I can just jump into every retelling of any fairytale or mythology, or fable, and I doubt it will take me too long to find a new idea.
(BONUS REASON) I almost forgot about this one, but another reason is because I adore Disney movies. I love to talk about them, how they’re made, the marketing of them, the live-action remakes for better or worse, and so on. Looking at they did wrong with any remake makes it easy to get ideas for a whole new and better (in my own humble option) story.
So in short, it’s because I love studying fairytales. I will watch Disney movies anyway, and having a unique niche I enjoy makes it easier to market. Fairytales are more than just prince charming, and the feminists hating on history. There’s a lot to it, and I like looking at it. So why not make it a focus in my writing business? Why do you enjoy these kinds of books, or why not?