Writing a fable: a template

 Here's a nice guide on writing fables. I'm trying to get better at writing short self-contained stories, preferably some with morals, because writing a complete story helps me practice my writing of characters, terseness, and move away from writing scenes that go nowhere and don't contribute to the story.

The trick about learning to write something new is to start with a template, I've discovered. You write something from scratch, you don't know what the rules are, what railings you need to catch, what mistakes you need to avoid. A good template gives you support for all of those, and yes it does 'limit' your creativity in that you cannot do literally whatever comes in your head storywise, but more rules means a greater need to actually be creative. So here we go.

Determine the moral
    It needs to be short, and general. It shouldn't be specific. Examples of morals:

1. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
2. Slow and steady wins the race.
3. Appearances can be deceiving. 

Pick one, or two at most, major animals or inanimate objects to be the main characters. Characters don't need name, they can go by kind. Examples include: sun, moon, wind, rat, fox, lion, tiger, owl, and so on.

Pick a trait for your character, that will create the meat of the story. Eg. the haughty rabbit, the slow tortoise, etcetera. In case of 2 characters, it's easy to contrast the negative characters of one with positive or the other character.

Create a conflict, that will highlight the personality traits of the characters, and make the point in the moral.

In conclusion, start with this table, for your character or characters.

Character | Personification | Conflict | Moral

The final step is to just write the story.

Remember that the moral can be negative or positive, if the evil character 'wins' in the story, the moral has to be about trust, or doing something that would have stopped the evil characer from winning.

Fables are often short and to the point. The book of fables that I have and use as inspiration for writing more myself has the actual fables last for a few lines. So if you want to make them longer, decide to the environment of the story rather than making the plot needlessly complicated. The fable about the thirsty crow can go on to describe how hot and dry it really was in the desert, to increase the tension, how desperately the crow needed the water. It's a bad idea to instead talk about the crow's passions and desires, or how the crow thinks he should have listened to his mother. Have no distractions, every word, every line should be in the service of the point that is being made. If the story reads too 'one-dimensional', don't worry because that's the point of the fables: to present an argument from an angle. Don't be afraid to take sides, because that's what fables are...telling others what to do.