A good fairytale is not necessarily one with a happy ending but, as with other stories, it should show the lead character changed during the course of the tale.  Ideally it will be for the better.  They will have learned something from their experiences and so on.  Sometimes a character does NOT learn from their experiences (the result is usually disastrous - the lesson there is for us readers.  It's a warning we should learn or risk disaster ourselves).

A good fairytale will also show us something of ourselves/our human nature.  That doesn't necessarily mean we will like what we see!  The Little Match Girl by Hans Christen Andersen is, to my mind, rightly scathing of those who pitied the girl because she was dead but did nothing to stop her dying, which is the whole message of that story (and the exposure of hypocrisy).

A good fairytale will have memorable characters and there is usually a strong moral message with it (though conveyed in the story.  A good story, of whatever type, will never leave you feeling as if you've been preached at).

A good fairytale will keep you gripped to the last world, will conjure up images of its setting and give you characters you can identify with/root for, even if they are strange alien monsters!  A good fairytale will usually see injustices put right too.

One of the joys of writing flash fiction is it doesn't limit your possibilities with a very strong story idea.  I have written a short piece (usually one of my 100-word tales and then, separately, extended the story at a later date to the standard 1500 to 2000 words required by most writing competitions.  So I have two stories around one strong central premise.  I like this! 

I must admit I do this sparingly because I have usually moved on to the next story idea etc. (I also think it is something best done sparingly anyway and for your very best ideas only, otherwise you dilute your own work too much). 

This situation comes about when I realise I am having problems working out where exactly to end a story.  Do I leave it at the short punchy ending which suits flash fiction so well or do I extend the characters out (and the plot with them) and trust the right ending will emerge from that (it always does incidentally)?

My main method of working out the right story ending is to work out at which point the story has the most impact on the reader and that is where I leave the tale.  Nothing more, nothing less, job done.  For flash fiction, which aims to give short, sharp impressions on the reader, this is by far the best way of working out where to stop the story (I think).

Can there be reality behind fairytales?  I think so.

Writers are always advised to write about what you know (which can be difficult for authors of sci-fi, horror and fantasy in particular when you stop and think about it!  We are inventing new worlds. How can we possibly "know" something that does not exist except on our pages?  I suppose the what we know here is knowing in good enough detail the world we've created and inventing characters readers can identify with.  Knowledge of human nature is crucial here).

But there is reality in fairytales.  Not just of character types.  Whatever world you write about, characteristics do not change much.  There will always be those who lust for power, the oppressed, those who fight back, those who go on seemingly impossible quests because they have to save something/someone and this is the only way to do it and so on.  (Great stories come from the last category alone, think The Lord of the Rings to name but one).

When I think of a realistic fairytale, my mind nearly always turns to Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Match Girl.  Definitely not one of his cheerier tales but, without giving too much away, to be able to write this as well as he did, he had to know something of poverty (which he did) and I strongly suspect he actually saw real match girls which inspired this tale.  To me this story is a barely disguised report on something he saw and his underlying jibe at people being allowed to suffer like this girl did is as hardhitting now as it would have been when he first wrote the tale.

Often with fairytales it is the message behind them that is the realistic bit.  I think this is why fairytales have always resonated with people and always will.

My latest Chandler's Ford Today post talks about the changing seasons and why I love autumn.

A sad change for me this week has been the loss of my elderly border collie.  In the fullness of time we'll adopt another rescue collie but right now the house feels very empty without my lovely Mabel.  Change can be a terrible thing at times.

Having said that, change is vital for writers.  We need to be able to see what is wrong with our own work so we can edit it effectively.  We need to be open to new writing ideas.  (My being open here led to me writing flash fiction and ultimately being published in it with From Light to Dark and Back Again).  We need, I think, to keep setting goals and striving to achieve them if we are to develop further writing skills (and hopefully publication credits too).

A more positive change recently has been where I was interviewed by Gill James.  (I've interviewed her before for CFT).  I share the link here.  Amongst other topics we talk about why I write in the genre that I do.  Sometimes re-examining why you are doing what you are writing wise can be a good idea.  It can reinvigorate your enthusiasm, also perhaps get  you to evaluate if something really is working for you  (and be open to change if not).