Short Story Month, Day 21. The Fairy Tale Book

I thought I'd say a little bit about fairy tales today, and fairy tale influences. The picture to the right is the cover of a book that made a great impression on me in my early childhood. We actually had two copies--I think it was a case of the duplicate gift--so we had one at home and one at my grandmother's. Originally, it was called The Fairy Tale Book but it has more recently been revived and kept alive by Golden Books, with the title now shown on the cover.

I don't think of myself as a big fairy tale aficionado. I've never read Bruno Bettelheim on The Uses of Enchantment, so I don't know what beneficial effects these strange tales have on children or if they are beneficial at all. Nevertheless, a lot of the stories I've written have been influenced by this magical realm, even if all unwittingly. Perhaps it was this book, with its beautiful jeweled illustrations (click here if you want to see a bit more) that set the tone.

Today's prompt comes from yet another random generator I found, namely the Fairytale Plot Generator.

Write a fairytale.  Make up your own or use the Fairytale Plot Generator to start you off on your way. Here's a prompt I picked up for you there:

The story is about a shy soldier who must defeat a giant, outwit a witch, and return home to evade an unwanted lover.  Things are complicated by a jealous rival.

Easy peasy, no?