Story templates
Just as you can take an existing story like Cinderella and vary the
characters, you can use the story as a starting point and change it bit
by bit to create a new story, but doing so in the knowledge that the structure
basically works. Here's how it might work:
| A. |
The Cinderella story omits the father having died. She is brought
up to believe she is an orphan. When she goes to the ball it is
not the prince but his parents who recognise her as the princess
stolen by the nurse for a ransom, but never found. She is actually
the sister of the prince. The wicked stepmother was her nurse when
she was a baby.
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| B. |
Cinderella was one of twins who got lost as a child. Her sister
has married a prince and on passing through the village Cinderella
lives everyone notices the resemblance. She is reunited with her
Princess sister.
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| C. |
Cinderella runs away and is cared for by an old woman in the woods.
Cinderella returns the woman's kindness with love. It turns out
that the old woman is a fairy who helps Cinderella meet the Prince.
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| D. |
In the house where Cinderella lives there is a locked room that
she has never been allowed into. One day it is left open. She goes
in there and finds and old man who is ill and incapable of helping
himself. She discovers he is her father, long thought dead. The
wicked stepmother and daughters have kept him a prisoner to control
his money. The father recognises his daughter but is afraid that
now she knows the secret of him her life will be in danger. Etc.
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Using existing stories as a template for a new idea enables variations
on the theme to be tested without having to create a new structure.
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