Developing your fairytale

What is the course about?

This course is designed to help students on their quest to write innovative fairytale stories. Ideally suited for students who have taken our Writing and rewriting fairytales workshop, Developing your fairytale explores approaches to perspective, narrative twists and fulfilling resolutions that bend traditional genre rules. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with different approaches to writing and will have the opportunity to receive some constructive criticism on their work.

What will we cover?

- Approaches to perspective in fairytales.
- Approaches to narrative twists in fairytales.
- Approaches to resolutions in fairytales.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

- Experiment with writing from different perspectives in the fairytale genre.
- Experiment with developing a twist in your fairytale project.
- Experiment with writing more than one resolution to your fairytale.
- Apply constructive feedback to your writing.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

Ideally, students will already have completed our Writing and rewriting fairytales workshop or have previous experience with writing in a fantasy genre. Students will need to come with a fairytale project in mind and have a character and storyline to work with.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

You will be taught through a mix of pair work, group work, writing tasks, text analysis and tutor instruction.


All writing courses at City Lit will involve an element of workshop. This means that students will produce work which will be discussed in an open and constructive environment with the tutor and other students. The college operates a policy of constructive criticism, and all feedback on another student’s work by the tutor and other students should be delivered in that spirit.

For classes longer than one day regular reading and writing exercises will be set for completion at home to set deadlines.

City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe and welcoming space for all and we strongly support the use of content notes in our classes. This means that learners are encouraged to make their tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing they wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. If you are unsure about what might constitute sensitive content, please ask your tutor for further clarification and read our expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Please bring writing materials and details of your character and storyline with you.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

City Lit offer a range of genre fiction writing courses including Writing myths and Writing fantasy stories. For more information, please browse the writing section of our website.

All students are invited to join us at Late Lines, our regular performance night for City Lit writers. Students are also encouraged to submit their work to Between the Lines, our annual anthology of creative writing. For the latest news, courses and events, stay in touch with the Department on Facebook and Twitter.