Think about Cinderella for a moment. The plot is - Poor girl can’t go to the ball but her Fairy Godmother shows up and organises everything. Cinders falls for Prince Charming and vice-versa and, after the slipper episode, ends up happily ever after.

 

Now compare that plot to any short fiction in women’s magazines. Yes, your main character has a problem. Maybe she’s poor, or lonely. Having a bad time, like Cinders. What does our heroine do? She doesn’t copy Cinders and that’s for sure!

 

If Cinderella was a modern girl, and feisty with it, as today’s female characters so often are, she wouldn’t sit and mope.

 

If I was Cinders I’d have taken a look around that kitchen, torn down the curtains, washed them and made myself a nice frock. (In fiction most things are possible – even me sewing!) And I’d have gone to the ball even if I had to walk.

 

In the real Cinderella story, our main character sits there and waits for help. That won’t work in today’s stories using modern characters. They need to be feisty, courageous, resilient. Or at least have the gumption to try to help themselves.

 

A mistake made by some new writers is to introduce a character, late in the story, who does the equivalent of waving a magic wand and makes all the main character’s problems disappear. I call this a Fairy Godmother moment.

 

In short stories, and full-length novels, you should never allow a Fairy Godmother to enter - in any shape or form. You need to have the main character solve her own problems under her own steam. It makes for a far more satisfying read.