Essential Elements

You know the important pieces of a fable, but how would you go about writing it? With such a loose yet specific form of writing, you will want to identify the essential elements of your fable before creating it. Similar to cooking or baking, you need to identify your ingredients before you can begin creating.

1: Your moral. What message are you trying to tell? What wrong are you trying to right?
2: Your characters. Who are they? What are they?
3: What conflict arises?
4: What setting are you in? (You don't always need to describe it, unless it is relevant to the plot.)


Tips

There are certain aspects that all fables have in common you will want to remember for this playlist.

1: The characters are non-human, or at the least the non-human characters are anthropomorphized.
2: The story ends with a moral, usually typed as a statement at the end of the story.
3: The problem must lead to the moral, not be an extra story or a useless part of it. Remember, fables tend to be short.


Closing Activity

Go through these steps and write a fable of your own. If you're having trouble finding an angle to take, look through this list of morals and pick one (without having read the fable it relates to). Make sure your fable fits the rules, and does not go on too long.

Hint: Fables tend not to be very descriptive. They stick to the action, and progress to the moral, pretty directly.

Post your fable in response to this XP.

Feedback: Read at least one other post here, and let the author know what impact their fable had on you.