How to Write a Fable
Generally, fables are short stories—they may even be only a few sentences. To use the genre of fable, an author:
- Develops a simple but familiar situation
- Includes some sort of conflict that could occur in every day life
- Follows with a relevant lesson to be learned.
Remember that the two key elements of a fable are:
- A moral, usually directly revealed at the end of the story.
- Some (or all) human characters are replaced by anthropomorphized animals, plants, elements of nature (like weather), or other normally inanimate objects. This key feature turns an everyday lesson into a story that encompasses a lesson, which makes a fablea memorable, interesting, and lasting way to deliver and share information.
The most important part of every fable is the lesson to be learned—a story that includes talking animals but has no lesson is not a fable.
When to Use a Fable
As you now know, fables are used to teach lessons. In truth, the passing of fables through cultures, languages, and history has been achieved primarily through oral storytelling. Even today fables are shared as bedtime stories or used as verbal anecdotes. Fables are written or retold when an author or person wants to deliver a lesson/moral in a unique, creative way that is more appealing to an audience than common rhetoric. As they are fictional stories, they are most successful when used independently, as their own freestanding stories; or when incorporated into other forms of fiction, as outlined in the examples below. Furthermore, fables are a very popular genre for children’s stories, television shows, and movies. The unique and unusual characters found in fables make them an especially appropriate and appealing form for children’s literature.