Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved fairy tales. Not just loved them. I devoured them. There was something about the romanticism and fantasy that fed my soul. I was drawn to the magic, the fairy godmothers, the possibility of finding the prince of my dreams, getting married in a beautiful white sparkling ball gown and living happily ever after.
My favorite stories were Sleeping Beauty, The Princess and the Pea, the Ugly Duckling and Cinderella. The Wonderful World of Disney managed to fuel my imagination even more with their versions of my favorite tales. In fairy tales, good always triumphs over evil and the antagonist always gets his or her just reward.
Why can’t real life be like fairy tales?
Imagine a world where bullies learned their lessons, where every teen girl was noticed for the beauty inside, not out. A world where abusive parents were punished for their atrocities, and teen boys could be heroes with super powers to save the world. Imagine a world with no drugs, no teen suicide, no eating disorders, a prince for every princess, a happily ever after for everyone. It’s a dream I have. Maybe someday my dream will come true. Until then,
What about you? Do you wish for the fairy tale or do you live for the challenges of reality? What is/was your favorite fairy tale?
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YA Chit Chat 
Most fairy tales were too hum drum for me. I created my own. (yeah, no surprise, I know) I just wish I’d thought of writing them down so I could remember them thirty years later. They would have made great MG stories!
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I love fairy tales. “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” and “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” are probably my two favorites. I’ve grown to love the original tales more than the kid-friendly ones out there now, so no, I don’t want my life to be like a real fairy tale. hehe But there certainly are some parts of my life that are like the Disney fairy tales! =) I actually posted about fairy tales a few days before your post. February 26th was “Tell a Fairy Tale Day”. Who knew there was a DAY for that?!
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Disney has a habit of sugar-coating fairy tales which were actually quite Grimm (if you’ll pardon the pun!) I like to believe as you do, that everyone deserves their happy ending. If they can’t have it, they can at least retreat into the fantasy of fiction so I try to have the worst scenarios resolved satisfactorily at the end. 🙂
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Hi Jenny,
I’m Erika, an author just like you trying to get her foot in the door. You’re blog is great. I like all the pictures and I LOVE fairy tales. Though when I was young, I often dreamed about the perfect fairy tale. Now I realize all the flaws. Call it experience. ;0) My favorite fairy tale was Thumbelina. I loved flowers, bugs and all sorts of weird things when I was little. I am also short, so I can relate in some way.
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I ADORE Enchanted. It’s such a touching, magical movie and makes one wish they could find their true love’s kiss.
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I’m a huge Disney fan too, I love Beauty and the Beast! I also wish life was a fairytale and that I could be a princess 🙂
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I love the idea “and they all lived happily ever after” but I really struggle actually writing stories like that lol.
I’ve often thought about re-writing fairy tales with a modern twist. I did a bit of research on this recently and discovered that a lot of the ones we are familiar with are actually quite dark.
xx
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I hope you do get the fairy tale. Good luck.
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My favorite fairy tale was Rapunzel. I love fairy tales. Have you read the Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry? Great fairytale style writing. And I like to believe good does win out. Or at least that badness eventually comes back on people. Maybe not right away and maybe not in this life. But there has to be a rebalancing of the scales.
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That’s what I love about fantasy, too. I’m drawn to the world of fantasy primarily because I am free to create the world as I want it to be without any restrictions being imposed upon me. I like stories that take place in mythical, dark settings, where evil is palpable and pervasive and goodness is a treasured commodity. I like using a fantasy setting to show, much in the way that the writers of Once Upon a Time seem to be showing, that people are people no matter where they are and what setting you place them illustrating that regardless of where they are, villains are still villainous and heroes are still heroic. Just like in the real world, my fantasy world villains, criminals, ne’er-do-wells, and underachievers have a litany of excuses and no end of rationalizations for why they do what they do, I like to create worlds where morality is not relative or marked on a sliding scale. It is clear and unmistakable. In fantasy, it is actually easier for me to paint a picture of the real world as I believe it ought to be – not perfect, but better for its imperfections.
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Wow, so WordPress really did something quite strange and posted a gazillion of the same post. When I deleted them, I deleted some comments, too, so I’ll try to answer them.
Brinda: yes, I have written fairy tales but I’m not completely satisfied with any of them. I need to revisit them as my granddaughter is getting old enough to read them, and I wrote them for her.
C.B. Wentworth: I, too, am addicted to Once Upon a Time, just as much as I’m addicted to Merlin.
Char: I think that’s why I write fantasy. It is the ultimate escape from reality and I can make the world the way I want it to be.
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