Rags to Riches

New moon on February 9, 2024

Today begins the Hunger Moon and the Lunar New Year! We selected prompts this month with an eye not on a genre, as such, but a plotline long used throughout the world: Rags to Riches. A quintessential example in the Western world is Cinderella, whose second family kept her low until one day her fairy godmother started her on a path of freedom and self-awareness that ended with her winning a kingdom.

Most good stories begin with a main character bound by some need. The story then explores whether and how they meet that need. Basic needs—survival, love, acceptance—are universal, and money tends to cure all manner of want. Consequently, the transition from poverty to plenty has plenty of storytelling juice. There are many angles in the rags to riches plot to explore, and don’t forget about its reversal, the fall from wealth into penury.

This makes it a broad canvas to start from. The prompts of course can help narrow focus, but if you’re having trouble getting off the starting block, you might consider some of these questions.

How does your character make the journey, through fair means or foul? There’s a strong element of rags to riches in many coming to America tales; how might your idea riff on such ideas as finding or creating a new home or a new identity? Can the character complete their goal alone and what does it cost them along the way?

When in doubt, enjoy what others have done with the plot. There’s a great short list of the best rags to riches films over at The Cinemaholic showing what others have done with the general plotline.

And for all its modern treatment, this particular trope has a long pedigree. Oedipus Rex, staged at Athens in 429 BCE, is a remarkable example, examining the child abandoned at birth who finds his way to the throne of Thebes with terrible consequences.

Wherever your medium of choice takes you, we hope this month’s prompts inspire you in your work! And we wish you a happy and rewarding New Year in this year of the wood dragon.