Fairytales, Myths, and Reworking the Past: Q&A with Author Giselle Vriesen

First passed down through a spoken tradition, storytelling has been used throughout time as a way of exploring the world we live in. "With myths and fairytales, we have the opportunity to reimagine the past in order to reshape the future," says author Giselle Vriesen, Guest Judge for our Fairytales & Myths Writing Competition. "Remember to break the stereotypes those old stories depended on, put a new twist on it."

Read on to hear more about her journey to becoming a writer and her advice for reworking old narratives into fresh and powerful pieces.

Did you always want to be a writer? Has your idea of what it means to be a writer changed over the years?

I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was fifteen. I had read all of the books at my tiny local library and knew it was time to get involved in the writing process upon my third re-read of The Vampire Diaries. When I first started writing, I thought of it as being just an extension of reading, that I could deepen how I was engaging with magic, adventure, romance, and fantasy through it. I didn’t realize until I wrote a few truly terrible drafts that the difference between being a reader and a writer is so vast. 

In the beginning, as a reader, I constantly wanted to take control of where the stories I was already reading went. But as time went on, I realized that there were very few, if any, non-white main characters in YA (Young Adult) fiction. I couldn’t find a mirror reflecting my experience back to me in the books I was reading (which is a lot of the reason we read when we’re young—to discover where we might fit into the world.) So, while I initially thought being a writer meant taking control of the narratives I was already seeing, as I wrote more and took this job more seriously, I realized that all I really wanted was to write new stories that were unique to my experience and to create storylines I didn’t get a chance to read when I was younger. 

Your debut novel, Why We Play With Fire (which just came out last month!), weaves together themes from existing mythology “with the real-world experiences of characters living in the margins.” How can mythology and fairytales be used as a lens into our own everyday lives and particularly highlight the obstacles faced by marginalized people?

I believe that mythology is incredible because all of our mythology is about the same age: thousands of years old. When you look into world mythologies, you’ll find that many have similar characters, gods, stories, and lessons. Writing with mythology and understanding it from a present-day lens can give us the opportunities to recognize and uplift those similarities in each other now too. We all have cool gods and awesome storylines to pull from. 

Fairytales, which usually link back to our idea of European cautionary tales à la Grimm, tend to depict old witches being burned in the woods, for example. In a fairytale you’ll find a myriad of allusions to the ‘other’ being ‘bad’ in the same way you’ll find rhetoric targeting marginalized people today. So, using fairytales to combat stereotypes can be really powerful when we retell them through our modern lens.

In the case of mythology or fairytales, we have the opportunity to reimagine the past in order to reshape the future.

I’m intrigued by the fact that you incorporate mythologies from around the world. How did you choose which myths to work with and how to weave them together into a fresh story? Do you have any suggestions for our writers, who can invent their original fairytale or integrate existing mythology into their imagination?

I come from a mixed-race household. My family is Chinese, European, and Black, so using the mythologies of my ancestry wasn’t just a choice; it was a need. A need to see myself represented, to see my family represented, within an art form that I love. 

The suggestion I have for writers wanting to integrate mythology or fairytales into their story is to use their own background, really dig into it, and remember to break the stereotypes those old stories depended on, put a new twist on it, and put themselves in it.

You’ve written beautifully about the value of procrastination. Sometimes, it feels like procrastination is the biggest enemy of writing! How can it actually be helpful to the process, and how do you eventually overcome it?

When you procrastinate, you have to figure out what it is you’re actually avoiding, admit it to yourself, and sit with it. There's no way around it. You can't just stop procrastinating and suddenly become productive. At least I can’t. Usually when I’m avoiding something there's another reason. Either I'm burned out and I physically can’t push as much as I want; I'd rather be doing something else; or I'm struggling to believe that I can finish. 

Whatever it is you’re avoiding, it’s never actually the work. Using procrastination as a tool for introspection is how I get a clear enough head to know which direction I need to pivot from in order to move forward in a way that doesn’t hurt.

So, whenever I’m procrastinating big-time, I have to just fully quit. It’s only after I’ve let go all the way that I realize the weight I was laboring under wasn’t actually the work. Only then can I get to finishing.

What are you looking for in a winning entry? Any other advice for the writers, especially those who are new to this genre?

In a winning entry, I’m looking for someone who is showing themselves honestly, in whatever state they are in. I think fiction should be truthful even though it isn’t real.

If you’ve never written within the mythology/fairytale genre, try digging into the stories you heard growing up in your household: What were the cautionary tales, inspirational stories, etc., that you were taught, and how did they impact you? I would also highly recommend basing your story on the mythology/fairytales of your own ancestry. If you’re not doing that, consider why. 

I'm very excited to see what you create!

About the Guest Judge: Giselle Vriesen (she/they) lives on Halalt First Nations land on Vancouver Island, Canada, and is the author of her debut novel Why We Play With Fire through Row House, an inclusive publisher committed to “raising the volume on voices that matter.” She is the co-creator of the Anti-Racism Course for Educators, and teaches writing through her course Book Baby, which encourages marginalized writers to decolonize through storytelling. Giselle is also a dreamer, a crafter of tiny worlds both in art and the written word, and is constantly managing her anxiety.