It’s fascinating to think if you change a moment or two in a story it can change the projection of said story. What if Simba from the Lion King never returned to his birth place? What if Voldemort did successfully kill off Harry? What if Cruella Deville actually did skin the puppies or Gaston managed to actually kill the beast? What if the supposed hero becomes a villain instead? As you can see, the ‘what if’ game offers you plenty of ideas to chew on.
It’s especially fun to play the game with stories you’re familiar with, whether it is a book or movie. One of my favorite “what if” stories involving Disney characters is Lydia the Bard’s Disney Princesses but they’re Villains music series on YouTube. Lydia either takes songs from the movie and messes with them or writes a whole new song all while pairing it with a story in the description. The stories in the description are Lydia telling the “princesses” stories with a slight twist. Mulan is caught earlier. Hercules doesn’t save Meg. Tiana agrees to Dr. Facilier’s deal. Merida fails to save her mother and siblings. As of writing this, Lydia has about twenty three of them. The most recent one being Alice’s villain song, I Only Paint in Red Now.
While Lydia did her retellings in music form, others have done it in book and movie form. Some of the many movie retellings include Ella Enchanted, the A Cinderella Story “series” (stand alone movies under the same title with a subtitle) and Maleficent. For book retellings, there are a ton of them and more being made. Just this year in 2024 fairy tale retellings such as The Fall of Snow: Guard Your Heart by Tara N. Gabrys and Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly are appearing on bookstore shelves.
Admittedly I have also dipped my toes in the writing style due to a summer writing program my tenth grade Honors English teacher encouraged me to attend. We were given a list of eleven fairy tales and a list of ten genres. Then we were told to roll a twelve sided dice to see what fairy tale we would be retelling and what genre it will be in. We could only reroll once after getting your initial fairy tale and genre. I rerolled because I wasn’t familiar with Hansel and Gretel enough to comfortably do a retelling in the romance genre. My reroll gave me Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for my fairy tale and the romance genre again. Apparently the universe really wanted me to write a romance for the first time. Before I could write my retelling though I had to read up on the genre. Yes, this was my first time reading in the romance genre. Why? Because I read and write stories focused on friendship and adventure; it’s my comfort zone so to speak. Even so it was fun trying a new writing style and genre while also being awkward and uncomfortable in it. This exercise caused me to think and look at a different angle of writing I wouldn’t have done otherwise. However that exercise will likely be the only “retelling” I’ll do as my liking for the
writing style is not enough to do more than reading a handful every so often. Which is fine, you don’t have to like something as long as you gave it a try.
Have you gone outside your own comfort zone?
Whether you have or haven’t, I would still recommend trying the same writing prompt I did in the summer program or something similar (you don’t have to actually write it, you could just brainstorm). You can do it out of curiosity, for fun, or just to get your brain working creatively. It could be color motif and the type of house a character lives in. Romantic relationship status and a city the story takes place in. How the characters get magic and the amount of siblings they have. A character’s favorite food and the time they go to bed. The possibilities of pairings are boundless.
What kind of list/prompt will you make or choose? What kind of “what if’s” will you discover?
Meet the blogger:
SHANI CASPER is double majoring in English and Communication studies with a concentration in writing, editing, and publishing with Creative Writing at Hamline University. She is always carrying a book and writing supplies with her to enjoy whenever she has the opportunity (makes waiting a lot easier). When she isn’t holed up reading or writing you can find her outside or crafting something with art supplies.
