How to Use Folklore's Characters in a Fantasy Story?

Putih - Malay version of Cinderella, Merah - the character who represents the two stepchildren, and evil mother (or step-mother, depending on the version you read). Badang, a character who gains extraordinary strength with the help of a demon. The mother and her son and daughter story, in which the mother dies due to the stone swallowing her up.

These are just some characters out of the many characters in Malay's folklores. I want to give them a new breath, fresh continuation, and recognition in the world of fantasy, but I don't know how. Currently, I have a clear idea of the sequel of Merah and Putih - helped by my friend - but when I start to write it out, I am stuck. I don't know what to do. So how am I going to find that ability to write out the idea using these traditional characters? I need help.

Obviously you know this folklore well, so my first piece of advice would be to stop thinking of these characters as people in folklore, and start thinking of them as characters. As a writer, you use your characters, plot, and setting to tell a story—so take them for your own while you're writing. You can give them back to the folklore afterwards. It might help if you renamed them, even to something similar, and made the allusions to the original folklore just that, allusions, rather than straight-out fact. You could twist the original story a little to give your story some messy exposition to work from, and so forth.

My second piece of advice is to read books on parsing folklore, or read novels that are in a similar genre to see how someone else worked it out and find a happy medium for yourself. I know there are a lot of authors out there who have done fairy tale and folklore rewrites, especially in the last decade—Gail Carson Levine comes to mind for her reworking of specifically well-known European fairy tales, and I recommend Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George (which is based off the tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon). If anyone else has authors who've done this well (they think), or anyone who's done retellings of non-European tales, toss them into the pot?

My third piece of advice is to stop being afraid. It sounds like you're afraid if you write this without knowing exactly how to write it, exactly what tone to use and what characterization you're going to give them, then it's going to suck. In reality, it's probably the opposite—if you try to plan every little detail down to the tone all the way throughout your story, you're going to end up getting frustrated in your first draft, because planning is never followed exactly as the characters and story develop. I would definitely recommend starting—but don't try to jump into the deep end right away. Dip your toes in the water, wade out as far as you're comfortable; you'll always have a second and third and umpteenth draft to fix things.

I love adapting folklore and fairy tales. There's so many stories and bits of belief, and they all open up so many possibilities.

One of the things I like to do in particular is look around for related folklore and stories and incorporate them into the one I'm writing. For example, what are some taboos that the story of Merah and Putih could encounter or barely avoid? What traditions do the characters observe? What knowledge do they have and make known? How do these things come together to result in the series of events that have been passed down in the folklore version of the story? Are there any events that can be reinterpreted in a slightly different way so that, while they're technically the same events as in the folklore version, they're still unexpected?

A lot of stories, traditions, and taboos are interrelated, so if you can tap into those relationships and elaborate upon them, showing how they're connected to each other and to the events in the story, you can really bring the story and the characters to life.

Fairytale retellings are my favourites.

First of all, if you're looking for recommendations of books where I think they do this well, I would go with The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, Beauty and Spindle's End by Robin McKinley, Cinder by Marissa Meyer (set in the future in New Beijing, it's amazing), East by Edith Pattou... that's all I can think of right now.

The Goose Girl is one of my favourite books of all time. And if you read it side by side with the original story, it's almost an exact replica. There is a talking horse called Falada, an unfaithful handmaid, a girl with long golden hair, a goose boy in a cap called Conrad. But what the author does is take all these elements, and fill in the blanks. Okay so how could the handmaid REALLY usurp the princess? Why does the wind listen to the goose girl? All the elements of the story are there to make it so much bigger and stronger.

I'm not familiar with Malay folklore, but I know that folklore in general tends to give the barest outlines of characters. For instance, fairytale heroines are generally (in Europe anyway), good and kind. So, you have a good and kind heroine. But what apart from that? Is she riddled with crippling anxiety that means she won't leave the house? Is she full of a hidden rage that she tries to keep under wraps because of her morals and reputation? Is she smart? What are her passions? There is a whole host of things we don't know about that character, tell us about her! In the fairytales I know, often the heroine of the actual story had some talent, like sewing or singing, that got her out of a sticky situation. So tell us about that thing. Or, if no such thing is mentioned, make it up!

I would write down what the tale tells us about each character, and then expand on that. I'm sure already you have an idea of what each character is like in your head. Fill that in on the page around the original bare bones of the folklore character.

As for story itself, again, have a look at what the original tells you. Is it set in a universe where magic exists? Or maybe, where certain people can talk to animals? Feel free to twist these things however you want them!

My favourite thing about a retelling is going "OOH I see what they did there!" Noticing little twists you put on elements of the story, introducing the old concept in a new, exciting way. That's the best part of retelling and reimagining these old, familiar words.

Let me know how it goes, I'd love to read a bit of this story

-Stella x

Thanks guys. You give me a lot of ideas to think about. Make me motivated to actually write the story seriously. I'll let you know if I've finished writing it. Creating the setting for it is also my problem - I'm not good at making settings.

Did someone say settings?

In all seriousness, I adore setting creation and have quite a few fantasy lands where I've taken a real-world culture and adapted it to fantasy. It's fun and a great way to have a pre-made world, so to speak, because you are taking from something already existing.

First off: you don't have to know absolutely everything to do the story justice. If you need to research, it's just fine to only research what you need. When you find yourself getting overwhelmed, remember readers want a story, and the setting is only there to give the story a backdrop.

That out of the way.

Make sure your fantasy world has similar geography and environment to the culture you're pulling folklore from. That culture was built from its environment, so if you're trying to recreate a culture, you have to start from the very land they're living on. It'll also help the world feel more real to include details about the environment that normally aren't included in fantasy.

Next up, look at the culture and ask yourself what's changed. Some cultures allow for magic, and others don't. Sometimes you want to add more magic than what the culture allows, and that's where you have to figure out what they do to allow for more magic. This is where you have to look at what they're trying to do with whatever limits you've broken, and do the spirit of the law while changing the letter.

For example, in one fantasy world I've retrofitted from Mughal India, there was a practice of moving nobility around on two year periods, and they'd try to get as many resources as possible out of the area in that 2 year period to keep standing, then they'd get to a new area. This was to prevent any noble from gaining loyalty from their population, and preventing an uprising. Because of how magic works in my world, moving families away from their ancestral homes is absolutely devastating and would harm everyone involved, so they don't. Instead, to get the same result (no family can cause an uprising), they have strict limits on the size of the armies each family can hold.

Thirdly, finding out how aspects of culture impact different people (if there's a class structure based on income, age, and/or gender). Culture isn't a single giant thing and does impact different people in different ways. If you're trying to create a full out setting, you'll probably have people who experience culture differently in your cast. This can actually help you build characters, because you integrate them with your world.

Then there's a certain amount of just letting go and writing the story the way you want.

As I said at the beginning, you will not know everything about the culture. You will never know everything about the culture. There are some periods in your writing you have to simply sit down, stop worrying, and realize whatever you end up with is just fine. You can always edit and rework parts of the setting you don't like. It's not set in stone at all.

All of it boils down to trusting yourself. It might be bad, it might be good, but it can always be better. You'll get there. Just keep writing.