What fairytales need can be summed up as:-
- Strong characters, not necessarily likeable ones.
- A clear hero/heroine and equally clear villain. These do not have to be the obvious ones - ~Shrek inverts this beautifully.
- A clear and worthy goal for our hero/heroine.
- For the villain to have good reasons to oppose the hero/heroine yet still be clearly wrong.
- As an alternative to 4, for the villain to be totally evil so it makes it easy to cheer the hero/heroine along.
- Some magical elements.
- A good ending (doesn't necessarily have to be happy, Hans Christen Andersen proves that).
- A plot which has a good pace to it so readers are glued to the page (but not literally, it can get messy!).
- The right mood. Often fairytales can be funny, often they can be sad. It does have to be relevant to the story.
- To be the right length for the story. Some are better off as short, or even flash, pieces yet The Snow Queen to name one example is a long tale and needs to be.
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