How to use classics to inspire your next fantasy story
Taught by cartoon condiments
Here on Substack I have written—perhaps too often—about my passion for peanut butter. Sorry if I’ve made anyone hungry.
My kiddos refuse to touch my favorite sandwich: the classic PBJ. However, one thing my boys and I do agree on is our love for When PB Met J, a delightful picture book by Katelyn Aronson.
My youngest spied When PB Met J at our local library and was instantly enamored by the friendly cartoon characters on the cover. When my first grader read it, he was riveted by the story of two condiments from rival sides of the kitchen (fridge vs. cupboard) and the meeting that sparks their star-crossed friendship.
While reading the book to my boys repeatedly this week, it suddenly hit me—When PB Met J is a take on Romeo and Juliet.
Actually, it took me a minute to get to Romeo and Juliet. What PB/J most reminded me of is a scene from West Side Story: a gang fight of Jets and Sharks rhythmically snapping fingers—except here the gangs were a bunch of animated food engaged in a dance-off on the kitchen counter. West Side Story was, of course, inspired by the Shakespearian classic, Romeo and Juliet.
The tradition of stories being inspired by former classics goes back farther than 1949 (when the musical version of West Side Story was born). Dante was inspired by the Bible and Virgil. Virgil was inspired by Homer. Yep, literary inspiration goes *way* back.
In fantasy fiction the influence of past greats also abounds. Typically fantasy writers seek inspiration from mythology, folklore, legend, and my personal favorite, fairytale. When I search for story inspiration, these are my most common sources. I rarely flip through my mental catalog of Shakespeare for story starters.
When PB Met J expanded my view of the types of classics that could inspire me. PB/J also provides an excellent roadmap for transforming a classic inspiration into an engaging and unique fantasy story. PB/J taught me what makes these types of stories satisfying. Here’s what I learned.
Pick a good story
What imbues a classic with inspiration potential for your next fantasy story? Classics prove themselves worthy by withstanding the test of time. A story written around the 8th Century BCE (I’m looking at you, Iliad) appealed to the ancients, the Edwardians, and continues to feel vital to us today.
Another key characteristic to consider is popularity. Shakespeare is the most-read author in the English language. He’s a popular writer, and Romeo and Juliet is one of his most popular plays. A lot of people like this story. Likely your readers will, too.
Stories can prove inspiration-worthy by relating to your genre (like my beloved fairytales), or they might be perfect precisely because they are unrelated to your genre. Choosing a story not normally associated with fantasy might add just the twist, the spice, to make your story really sing.
So let’s say you’ve chosen a time-honored classic: Romeo and Juliet. What are you going to with it? Fortunately, PB/J shows us the way.
Use classics as a springboard—not a blueprint
The most important thing I learned from PB/J was not to rewrite a classic story. The classic serves a springboard for your imagination, but there’s no point in rewriting something that’s already been done. Your story needs to be your own. It also needs to work for your audience.
Consider your audience
Let’s say the audience for PB/J is kids aged 4-7 (my boys are four and six). What do kids this age like? Humor—PB/J has got it. Stakes, but not too intense. Cute cartoon characters with enormous eyes—check. Bright colors—check. Grounding in something familiar, possibly even quotidian, while kindling a sense of adventure and play—check and check. PB/J goes the extra mile adding wordplay jokes for the adults assigned the task of reading the same story at bedtime every night for two weeks.
In other words, this story might be based on Romeo and Juliet, but nobody’s gonna end up dead. Peanut Butter (Romeo) and Jelly (Juliet) sprout hearts between them and even share a brief dance, but four-year-olds brook no kissy-kissy nonsense. PB and J are star-crossed friends, not star-crossed lovers. Nobody dies in a duel. Rather, mortal peril is expressed by the contents of a condiment’s container spilling and/or being eaten by the family dog.
If I were writing a fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet, the kissy-kissy and dueling might stand, but I’d have to consider other audience expectations. Fantasy fans are looking for magic—perhaps the supernatural— and a sense of wonder. Fantasy readers delight in an external journey that maps to an internal journey. They’re also looking for an intriguing setting and detailed world building. So don’t forget to:
Integrate your world building
World building is PB/J’s greatest strength. The setting: a suburban kitchen. The characters: food. The geography: Fridgers live in the refrigerator, the Cupboard Crew resides in the cupboard. They meet for a dance-off once a week on the kitchen center island.
The Fridgers and CupboardCrew express disdain for each other’s food storage lifestyles—those Fridgers are so cold—plus, what goes on in that fridge when the door is shut? The condiment characters make music by strumming the slicers. They fight by shooting off their lids or by leaping from up high to land on an enemy. Their vulnerability is having their container contents spilled. They are all scared of being lapped up by the dog.
Every sentence of this story and every plot point is influenced by its unique characters and setting. If you can accomplish the same with your take on a classics story, you may have a new classic on your hands, and here’s why:
References and Resonance
Whether we’re reading about Jets and Sharks or the Fridgers and the Cupboard Crew, these groups don’t have to stand on their own to impress readers; they stand on the shoulders of the Capulets and Montagues. My kids don’t yet have the reference for Romeo and Juliet, but I sure do. Every time I read this story it pings deeply resonant chords of familiarity, of a story I’ve not only read, but known since I was in elementary school. This makes the story feel right. Something clicks between the story and our collective cultural consciousness that we experience almost as intuition. The story is both new and a tale as old as time.
And for my young kiddos who don’t have Romeo and Juliet waltzing through their subconscious? It’s still a darn good story! A boy and a girl from rival clans who meet and make friends. It’s a catchy concept. So even if your reader is four—or has somehow emerged into adulthood unfamiliar with Shakespeare—your classics-inspired story will still delight. Just ask a mom who has read PB/J to her four-year-old every day this week.