My favourite writing exercise
As a children's writer
As a beginning writer, I honed my skills on retelling folktales. This helped me focus on the words, the sentences and language and the story, a timeless tale was already structurally sound.
So when I teach picture books to new writers, I always set the first exercise to be:
Retell a favourite folktale or fairytale in your own words, style and with any modernisations and a unique take.
This is a great exercise because the story is already taken care of - usually in these ancient tales, the protagonist is clear and strong, the purpose is set and the problems are escalating. So our job as a writer is to retell that either true to its original form or with a twist.
This can also lead to publishing success too! Very often educational publishers are looking for writers to retell classic tales or trade publishers are looking for retellings with a twist!
You can also refresh these stories, telling them in verse, or rewriting them as a play or setting them in a different environment! What will happen if Red Riding Hood is set in Iceland?
This exercise can also be a great starter for experienced writers who are staring at blank pages or coming back after a hiatus.
So here is my challenge:
Can you rewrite Red Riding Hood as a teenage thriller?
How about the Cinderella story with a surprise villain?
Or Jack and the Beastalk as a heist story?