26. Allusions and Inspirations

An allusion is a short reference to another story, usually through well-known elements. For example, you can quickly reference Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by mentioning a white rabbit. Allusions generate interest because they set a context for the story you’re reading while hinting at the similarities or differences between the two works. Creative writers use allusions often, wide-ranging as storytelling interests, referencing Egyptian and Greek mythology, Victorian fairy tales, Beowulf and Norse mythology, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and modern cinema, to name a few.

Allusions also enrich a story by connecting it to another universe, enhancing the reader's experience through shared knowledge. Allusions also enrich a story by connecting it to another universe, letting the reader bring what they already know into the room.

Fanfiction runs on this. A writer borrows characters someone else built, then asks a question the original never answered. What if Snape had told the truth earlier? What if the villain won? The reader already knows these people, so the writer can skip the introductions and go straight to the part they actually care about. Sites like Wattpad and AO3 hold millions of stories that work this way.

Serious authors do the same thing. They just call it something else. Gregory Maguire took the Wicked Witch of the West and turned her into a college student with a conscience (Wicked, 1995). Rick Riordan moved the Greek gods to New York and gave them custody problems. Jean Rhys took the locked-away wife from Jane Eyre and wrote her a childhood, a country, and a reason (Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966). The line between fanfiction and literature is thinner than it looks. A lot of it comes down to who owns the copyright.

What readers get from this is simple. They want more time with characters they already love, or they want to argue with the author about how it ended. What the writer gets is a shortcut past the hardest job in storytelling, which is making a stranger care, plus an audience that already knows every reference.

Here are some tools for approaching an old story from a new angle:

Change point of view: Choose an alternate character to retell a familiar story. In the novel Foe (1986), J.M. Coetzee narrates the tale of Robinson Crusoe from the point of view of Susan Barton, a castaway who washed up on the island in the middle of Crusoe’s adventures.

Modernize themes: Many classic tales get a gender-based upgrade, where an author will delve into a female character’s head from a more modern perspective. Margaret Atwood’s novella The Penelopiad (2005) revisits Homer's Odyssey through the eyes of Penelope and her chorus of 12 maids.

Switch a story element: This could mean taking a story to a new location—Cinder (2012) by Marissa Meyer re-imagines Cinderella as a cyborg in Beijing—or changing the type of story—in The Snow Queen (1980), Joan D. Vinge turns Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale into a space opera.

Make it yours: Take a familiar story and add a bit of your background or experience. Mario Puzo did this with panache in The Godfather (1969), bringing elements of Shakespeare’s Henry IV to the world he knew well: Italian immigrants in post-war America.

HOMEWORK

In the comments section below, write one or two paragraphs based on one of the following prompts:

1. Alternate Perspective: Choose a well-known story and rewrite a scene from the point of view of a minor or background character. For example, describe the ball in Cinderella through the eyes of one of the mice that helped her get ready.

   
   

2. Modern Twist: Pick a classic fairy tale and reimagine it in today's world. How would the story change in a modern setting? For instance, picture Sleeping Beauty in a modern city, where the "spell" could symbolize a different kind of challenge she faces.

   
   

3. Genre Swap: Select a well-known narrative and transform its genre. What would Romeo and Juliet look like as a science fiction story? Or how would The Three Little Pigs unfold as a horror tale?