Part 1: Why agents love stories inspired by fairy tales

Understanding why fairy tales resonate—and how this helps you write fiction editors want

The little gardeners by Guillermo Lorca. Photographed by Sanjida at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Barcelona.

‘But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.’

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale has just been released. The series is based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian story, originally published in 1985. There are many reasons why the story still captivates us today (it tackles religious extremism, the erosion of reproductive rights, and gender inequality, just to name three), but one of them could well be because the story was originally influenced by a fairy tale: Bluebeard, a story about a man who forbids his wife from opening a certain door—a clear echo of the patriarchal secrecy and horror in The Handmaid’s Tale.

I love fairy tales—their comforting familiarity—Once upon a time—their reassuring ending—and they all lived happily ever after—and their darkness. Fairy tales are born of an oral tradition: storytellers and listeners curled around an open fire, comforted by the light and the warmth as unseen dangers stalked the darkness behind their back. Years later, various writers, including the Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang and Charles Perrault, gathered these stories together and wrote them down.

Many of my own books have been influenced by fairy stories—the theme of Little Red Riding Hood runs through my psychological thriller Bone by Bone, for instance; The Beautiful Game, my award-winning story in anthology The Perfect Crime, is inspired by Bluebeard.

But why do fairy stories still resonate with us today? I think there are four main reasons why fairy stories continue to comfort, thrill and scare us. Knowing what they are could help you shape your own stories and inspire you to tell new ones. In Part II, out later this month, I’ll give you five practical ways you can use the power of fairy stories to craft your own stories that agents and publishers will find hard to resist!

1. The dark core of fairy tales

Fairy tales were originally violent and grim, sometimes with a cautionary ending. For instance, in the original version of Cinderella, the stepmother tells her daughters to cut off their toes to fit their feet into the glass slipper. The deception is only noticed when the shoe fills with blood. Recent versions have often been sanitised and softened.

Fairy stories address our deepest fears, darkest desires, our moral dilemmas. They help us process the primal fears of childhood: being lost, abandoned or powerless. Many address anxieties about growing up, danger in the world, and the power of the unknown.

Fairy tales acknowledge life’s brutality but also provide a sense of justice.

Despite the darkness, they hold hope—goodness, bravery and resilience often triumph. They depict a form of rough justice where villains get their comeuppance, offering catharsis and moral clarity—even if it’s harsh; the butchering of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, for instance.

2. Cultural inheritance & universality

Fairy tales were originally shaped by oral tradition and reflect the values, beliefs and fears of the societies that invented them.Think of the Nigerian tale The King's Magic Drum, which explores themes of generosity, greed and consequences through the story of a drum that brings abundance but also ruin if misused, or the Mongolian story of Sükh’s White Horse, a tale celebrating bravery, loyalty and the bond between humans and animals central to Mongolian nomadic culture.

Yet, they also share universal themes—different cultures have versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood. In a sense they can preserve a culture’s heritage while being endlessly adaptable, morphing with each retelling to fit new eras and perspectives. Indeed, their very simplicity makes them easily transportable across cultures and time.

3. The magical element & the power of the impossible

Fairy stories usually contain some kind of magic. It can be straightforward magic—straw spun into gold in Rumpelstiltskin; the entire inhabitants of a castle cast into a deep sleep in Sleeping Beauty. But the enchantment in many cases is often a narrative device that allows characters to undergo transformations, tests and trials. For example, the ugly ducking turns into a swan; Cinderella transforms from daughter to servant to princess.

There are fantastical elements—talking animals, curses, impossible tasks—and these all symbolise internal and external struggles delivered in a heightened form. Consider the Russian tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful, in which a girl completes impossible tasks with the help of a talking doll, symbolising inner wisdom and resilience against adversity.

The idea that fairy tales offer us is that the world is more than it seems—that the ordinary can suddenly become extraordinary. In Irish mythology, the tale of Oisín in Tír na nÓg depicts how an everyday encounter leads Oisín to a magical land, illustrating how porous the boundary is between our mundane reality and an enchanted realm.

In Part II, I’ll show you how to adapt this to your own fiction.

4. Structure & plot: The fairy tale blueprint

We are natural born storytellers. We’ve evolved as a species to like stories that are told in a certain way. Fairy tales follow a classic narrative structure that seems to resonate with human beings the world over, and which has been adapted by modern fiction writers as well as movie screenwriters.

For instance, anthropologist Joseph Campbell gathered together myths, folklore and fairy stories from around the world and showed that many shared a common theme, which has become known as The Hero’s Journey, described in Christopher Vogler’s eponymous book. There are several stages to the journey and a number of character archetypes, but the journey usually includes a departure, some kind of initiation ritual or a magical elixir that needs to be found, and a return with the prize.

There are other elements that we love in fairy stories—the rule of three, for instance (three challenges, three wishes, three brothers); the rule of seven (seven dwarfs, seven ravens in the Brothers Grimm story The Seven Ravens). As well as the aforementioned trials, tribulations and transformations, such as the frog in The Frog Prince, who is turned back into a prince through an act of compassion and courage by the princess (this is in a later version of the story; in the original the princess throws the frog at a wall in disgust!).

This structural simplicity makes fairy tales the perfect template for storytellers and is a blueprint that we can borrow and adapt for today’s stories.

Why fairy tales still shape fiction today

Fairy tales endure because they speak to something primal in us. They offer a framework for storytelling that is endlessly adaptable. They invite us to reimagine old stories, to confront timeless fears in contemporary settings, and to explore transformation—not only of character, but of genre and structure. So whether you’re writing a dystopian novel like The Handmaid’s Tale, a crime thriller, or a modern fantasy, these age-old stories continue to offer us that spark of wild magic every storyteller needs.

What do you think? What’s your favourite fairy tale and why does it resonate with you?

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In case you missed it, you might be interested in

Your editor wants you to create a meaningful connection with your reader. What do you do?

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And - we have a date for an Ask Me Anything about Writing!

7-8pm GMT Wednesday 30 July

Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83315279829?pwd=LyOwfXaN82YS6fiSjuUUaFzkthb4q7.1

Meeting ID: 833 1527 9829

Passcode: 823649

Replay for members. Feel free to email me or DM me questions in advance (sanjidakay@substack.com).

Sanjida x