I've got something silly and (hopefully) fun for you guys today, in advance of Fairy Tale Fortnight. Remember the silly Mad Libs and fill-in-the-blanks you used to do as a kid? I thought it would be fun to make a game of them for Fairy Tale Fortnight.
Basically, I took some familiar fairy tale elements, and created Fill In The Blank stories from them, so that we can each do silly little fairy tale retellings. I'm hoping to get some people to do these and save them to post
during Fairy Tale Fortnight. So though I am putting the fill-ins up today, it's just to give you a head-start; if you want to participate, please either send your completed Fill In to
me or
Ashley to post as a guest post during the event, OR post it on your own blog from April 17th - 30th!
We're hoping to get a mix of authors and bloggers playing this Fill-In game, so that we can spotlight them throughout the event --so all are welcome. I may post a few more stories closer to the event, as well as some other silly games. You can do as many or as few as you'd like. Also, if you're a teacher and want to do these with your class, feel free! No obligation to share the results, though we'd love to see them!
[And remember, everyone who participates via a guest post or a post on their own blog during the event is automatically entered into the participants-only giveaway I'll be having.]
So without further ado, here are the silly story Fill Ins:
Story 1:
Three Wishes
Three wishes. The strange little man had offered
_______name_______ three wishes. But what to wish for? The obvious answer was _________________, but that would never do, for obvious reasons. And ____________ was out of the question.
_______name_____ squandered the first two wishes on _________ and __________, and really needed to make the 3rd one count. There was only one thing to do: he/she would ask
____person_____.
So early in the morning,
_______name_______ set off for ___________ where
____person_____ lived. It was no easy task getting there;
______name_______ went through _____ and ________, and nearly lost hope of ever reaching
____person_____ and making his/her final wish.
But in all good time,
_______name_______ reached the door of the one person who could help. With great trepidation,
_______name_______ knocked and waited. Finallly,
____person_____ opened the door and peered out. “Yes?” he/she said.
_______name_______ launched into the story of the little old man and his three wishes, but
____person_____ merely held up a hand and said “It’s simple, really. I’m surprised you wasted your time coming all the way out here -- you must wish for _______________.”
_______name_______ was baffled. Wish for __________?Not magic League Boots to travel the world, or a wheel to spin flax into gold?
_______name_______ wasn’t the best pumpkin in the patch, but it didn’t seem like a great idea to him/her. So
_______name_______ did the only thing he/she could, and wished for ______________.
Whether it was the right choice, the world will never know, but for
_______name_______ it meant _________________. And with all of the wishes gone,
_______name_______ lived ________ ever after.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Story 2:
The 3rd child
There was an old woman who lived in a __________.She had 3 children, the bane of her existence. The first was a thick-headed, doltish son, who was prone to buying magic beans and geese that laid strange orange eggs. The 2nd was a beautiful but haughty daughter, who stared at herself ceaselessly in any reflective surface, speaking in rhyme to the reflection there. But the 3rd child, _______name_______ , he/she was the worst of all. The first 2 children gave her endless grief, but it was _______name_______ who drove the old woman to distraction, for _______name_______ was always ____________.
The old woman had no choice but to lock _______name_______ high in a tower -- from which _______name_______ promptly escaped, climbing down a ladder made of hair and fleeing in a giant pumpkin carriage. (The old woman’s fault, you see, for braiding hair-ladders and growing what were surely mutant pumpkins...)
The 3rd child traveled night and day, finally reaching the Great City. When
_______name_______ reached the City, he/she ________________. It seemed too good to be true. So
_______name_______ promptly stole
____item______ from a poorly attended vendor’s stall nearby, and set off to/for _______________.
_______name_______ ‘s quest was not an easy one, and before long, he/she found him/her-self ______________. Not knowing what else to,
_______name_______ did what any ___description___ 3rd child would do: using
____item______ , he/she __________. This of course caused ______________, which led to ____________. Which is exactly what one would expect of such a 3rd child.
_______name_______ lived _________ ever after, of course. But to this day, when ever someone says ______________, everyone thinks of
_______name_______ , the 3rd child of the old woman who lived in _______answer from first fill-in________.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Story 3:
The Beanstalk
The Beanstalk sprung up out of nowhere, it seemed, right outside Jaclyn’s window. When she went to bed: no beanstalk. And when she woke up: beanstalk. Probably her fool brother’s doing. Being the first to rise, as always, Jaclyn had a choice to make: go about her morning chores as usual, or climb the beanstalk and see what all the fuss was about? Because everyone knew what could be found at the tops of these sudden Superstalks: ___________________ and ______________ and _________________, as far as the eye could see. But Jaclyn was always the responsible one, and if she wasted her time climbing beanstalks, who would milk Bess? So she grabbed her bucket, tromped to the barn, and prepared to do the right thing, as always -- only to discover Bess was gone. In her stall, miniscule in the place of her not-small cow, was a note from her brother. It read:
Jaclyn,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Well. Wasn’t that just like him? But that settled things in Jaclyn’s mind. There was only one thing to do -- she would climb the beanstalk.
It was tough work, beanstalk-climbing. Jaclyn kept having to _______________, and every so often she would come across the most curious ________________. There were strange noises coming from above her, and more than once she thought she hear Bess’ plaintive low; periodically she would feel tremors travel the length of the stalk, vibrating through her fingertips. But after many long, sweaty hours of climbing, Jaclyn neared the top of the stalk.
Suddenly, she felt rough fingers on the back of her neck, and found herself being hauled up by ____________! Not entirely sure how to react in the situation, Jaclyn ___________________, which only seemed to ______________________. She looked around her; as far as the eye could see, there was/were _____________ and ______________. There was/were even ___________________. This was what could be found at the tops of beanstalks?
Well, Jaclyn, resourceful girl that she was, knew just what to do. She’d ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
How else was a poor farm girl to live _____________________ ever after?
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Story 4:
The Gift
Life wasn’t always easy for a miller’s son/daughter, especially one 6 brothers and sisters, as
_______name_______ had. Times were always tight, and there was little enought to go around, but
_______name_______ had a kind soul, so when
_______name_______ an odd little man at the well on a hot summer’s day, asked for help,
_______name_______ helped, as always. In return, _______name_______ was delighted when the man offered
_______name_______ ‘s choice of three magical gifts:
______gift 1_____,
______gift 2___, or
______gift 3_______.
_______name_______ chose the
______________, of course, and decide to set out to make his/her fortune.
_______name_______ stopped by the crumbling old house attached to the mill to collect some clothing and small food store to take on the journey, only to find his/her father, the miller, crying disconsolately on the doorstep. “
_______name_______ “ the miller said, “I have done a terrible thing. An odd little man knocked upon our door not an hour ago, asking for food and drink. I shooed him away, and when he begged, I feared I shut the door in his face. And we, your siblings and I -- I fear we laughed at him. But then, I heard him shout, and behind me there was a great kerfuffle, and ----” here the miller sobbed, and could not finish his story -- but behind him, peeking out of the door were 6 white swan faces.
_______name_______ looked from the miller to the swans, and back again, before suddenly realizing -- these were his/her brothers and sisters!
_______name_______ shook his/her head in pity and disgust, and debated what to do: take the
_____gift________ he’d earned from the odd old man and leave, never to come back, or see if he/she could use the
______gift______ to somehow restore his/her family to human form?
_______name_______ chose to
_______________________________, and set about preparing. Just what could one do with a magic
___gift____?
_______name_______ decided to try ____________, but when that didn’t go as planned,
_______name_______ tried to ___________________ instead.
It was a long, strange time, and
_______name_______ did many strange things, but it all turned out exactly as one would expect in the end:
_______name_______ simply used the
_________gift_______ to _____________________________________________________, and lived _____________ ever after.
Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1)
River Marked
The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 2)
or Wise Man's Fear, I would suggest you do so. Now. 
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, were both New York Times best sellers, with a combined 1.3 million copies in print. Now the PPZ trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After.
Last Week on FFO: The Forest of Hands and Teeth battled tooth and nail against Never Knowing, fighting its way through the brambles (with its face, apparently) to come out victorious!