Hii i have like the start of an idea for a fantasy Hamlet retelling and thinking about it automatically made me think of you and darkling (which I absolutely love), so i was wondering if you had any tips?
first of all. 😳thank you 🥺
second of all!! i am not an expert by any means, but i do read a lot of retellings (particularly shakespeare) and i also write them like you’ve said! so! i do have some thoughts!
[obligatory disclaimer: your mileage may vary. i am not a professional; i am just a bitch with adhd who thinks about writing and shakespeare an awful lot. the opinions expressed in this post are mine and i don’t intend to shove them down anyone’s throat and please don’t call me out for cyberbullying any authors because i’m vaguely about to do just that.]
i think, boiled down to its core, my advice would be: the heart of the story is what matters. and you can do whatever you want with everything else.
just yesterday, i finished watching “twelfth grade (or whatever),” which is a youtube webseries retelling of twelfth night, set in the modern day. there are multiple plot/character elements that were changed (everything from “x character is now nonbinary” to changing some endgame romantic relationships). yet, in my opinion, it was still a wonderful adaptation, because it struck at the character dynamics that make twelfth night work! plus it was just... so much fun. as a comedy should be. (of course i have my gripes, but i have my gripes about everything.)
what i’m saying is it’s all right to shift things around. it’s all right to change characters and settings and plotlines and endings. in fact, i personally find retellings more fun when they don’t stick to the original story on a one-to-one level. my favorite king lear retelling is set on a midwestern farm in the 1970s; my favorite macbeth retelling is set at a modern private school. my favorite hamlet retelling is... well, i guess it’s rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead, but if we’re talking out-of-the-box adaptations that more than fits the bill.
the thing is that you can change whatever you want. that’s the point of a retelling. in my experience, what makes the retelling work will have far less to do with the plot (and even the end!) and far more to do with the core of the story. let me get on my shouting-about-books soapbox for a moment and take a (relevant i promise) detour to tell you why dunbar by edward st. aubyn, aka half the reason i think cishet men shouldn’t write about the lear sisters*, fucking sucks.
[*the other half is fool by christopher moore, but you didn’t hear it from me.]
the thing is that dunbar should work. it’s a king lear retelling that adapts lear’s kingdom into a multi-billion-dollar media company, and that MAKES SENSE. beyond a political position of some kind, lear-as-CEO is the obvious route to take. the plot also follows the original story: the old man starts losing his grip; he disowns the daughter who truly loves him and is mistreated by the daughters who kowtowed to him; he fucks off out into a storm and has a character arc and gets reunited with his daughter and then she dies before they can take the company back. and i literally could not possibly have cared less.
because this book, despite hitting all the clear notes of a lear retelling (old powerful man? check! three daughters? check! madness? check! tragedy? check, check, check!) has no core. it is a book about which millionaire is going to inherit a megacorporation. and maybe i’m just a gay communist, but i don’t care. and yet i do care about king lear, the play. i care very, very deeply about king lear.
and that’s because king lear isn’t just about who will inherit lear’s kingdom. king lear, at its heart, is a story about people who are power-hungry because they are desperate for love - because they just want to be loved, and in a world where love is quantifiable and limited and there’s never enough to go around, grabbing for power seems like either the best way to get love or the best alternative. in dunbar everyone’s squabbling over money (except dunbar’s Angelic Good Pure Virgin Daughter, i guess; don’t get me started about the women in this book); in lear, what everyone wants is love. and that’s why i care about one and not the other.
of course, anyone reading this post can go off and read king lear and come back and go “max, what the fuck, that’s not what king lear is about. king lear is about X and Y and Z.” and they’d be just as right as i am. arguably this is all up to interpretation. That’s Literature. but for me, king lear is about love. and so, despite being set in the modern day and centering on a bunch of mentally ill gay and trans people and also having magic and whatever, my king lear retelling is about people who are power-hungry because they are desperate for love. even with characters’ names changed, even with the setting shifted, even with major elements of the plot changed (because major elements of the plot are definitely changed), it’s a king lear retelling not ONLY because it shares the original story’s setup/concept, but ALSO because it shares (my perception of) the original story’s heart.
so my advice would be to figure out what, to you, is the heart of hamlet. why do you like hamlet? why are you invested in it? what is your personal connection to this story?
anyone can retell hamlet; i mean, i’m going to do it one of these days, allegedly. but your hamlet retelling is not going to be the same as mine or anyone else’s; it’s going to be yours, because to write a retelling is to climb inside a story and make it your own! so whatever makes your hamlet retelling Yours is something you should lean all-into!!! what’s a retelling except saying, “all right, this story is my city now, and i’m going to explore it my way?”
so what is your way?
how can you make this story yours?
how can you tell this story like no one else can?
what, to you, is this story really about?
the answer to that last question? keep that. and do whatever the hell you want with everything else.
[closing notes: you should 1) put gay people in it (joke; do what you want) and 2) definitely tag me / hit me up if you ever post about it (not a joke; i fucking love hamlet and i would love to hear more about your retelling 👀👀👀)]
