The Appeal of Retellings for Readers and Writers

It’s no secret that retellings of classic tales are popular and abundant. A prolific reader could spend a year reading nothing but various takes on Pride and Prejudice and still not get through all of the offerings. Readers like seeing new twists applied to their favorite stories. But what’s in it for an author? I was initially drawn in by something very simple; the idea of creating something I would love as a reader; I’ve enjoyed modern Austen retellings and thought Shakespeare’s comedies had similar potential for contemporary updates. 

Soon, I found myself drawn in deeper to the puzzle of fitting Elizabethan story elements into the twenty-first century and the satisfying task of creating rich backstories and inner lives for my updated versions of Shakespeare’s characters. In the original plays we only see their dialogue. For some of the heroines even that is rather limited because many of those roles were written for less skilled performers as they were often played by adolescent boys. This leaves plenty of space to create an emotional arc that speaks to modern readers.

The clue in Much Ado About Nothing that there’s more to Beatrice and Benedick’s story lies in a single line, when Beatrice says, “I know you of old.” By this point, we’ve already seen her verbally eviscerate Benedick (not that he doesn’t give almost as good as he gets) and now we start to wonder if she has a good reason to do so. Next, I examined the exchanges between them as the play progresses. The stakes seem to be higher for Beatrice. Benedick is having fun sparring, but she’s out for blood. When he gets a little too close to her at the masquerade, her remarks cross a line, and he retreats. It’s reasonable to conclude that he’s truly hurt her in the past and she’s holding him off to keep it from happening again.  

I brought these seeds of backstory to How to Align the Stars, my contemporary version of Much Ado. The task I gave myself was to give them a past together in which Bea believes she’s been wronged by Ben, create conflict in the present by shoving them together via circumstance, and play upon the dynamics of their banter. Most their bickering revolves around professional jealousy; Bea thinks Ben is getting an undue share funding and favors from the college where they both work, while Ben harbors feelings of inferiority; he doesn’t have a PhD, he couldn’t make a living as an artist, he’s struggling with student loan debt. They are both excellent at and passionate about their jobs so of course they start to catch feelings when they have to collaborate professionally. 

Mutual professional admiration was one piece of the puzzle of Bea and Ben’s chemistry for me. The other came when I sketched out a story that imagined them married, during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns. Thinking about how they would cheer and care for each other gave me the key, and it’s so simple I can’t believe I had to write five pages about peak-pandemic baking to figure it out. It’s just this: in order for someone to really upset you, they have to understand what will get under your skin. When rivals turn into lovers, that deep understanding translates into a unique ability to soothe each other’s souls. 

There’s lots more of Beatrice and Benedick’s story to explore in a contemporary version, including Beatrice’s entirely valid wish to stay single. While I added an incident in her past that fueled her dislike of Ben, it was important to me that her singlehood not be connected to it. She doesn’t want to be single because she’s been burned; she simply prefers it. Getting used to with the idea of herself as half of a couple is my Bea’s biggest struggle. 

Beatrice and Benedick are just one of two couples in Shakespeare’s original version; Hero and Claudio have a more melodramatic storyline, but we also get fewer clues about what makes them tick besides being dopily besotted with each other. 

When I originally had the idea to write a Much Ado retelling, I had a more traditional rom-com in mind. I planned to alternate between Bea and Ben’s points-of-view and use Heron and Charlie as supporting characters. As I began to outline, I became more interested in making the story about the women, contrasting their different attitudes and choices, and grounding the book more firmly in the women’s fiction genre by focusing on their emotional journeys. 

I had a eureka moment when I realized that no one was stopping me from making Heron’s story more satisfying. (How? You’ll have to read the book to find out!) And yes, it did take me a little while to understand that the Shakespeare Police were not going to show up on my doorstep to scold me for taking too many liberties. 

I’ve caught a serious bug for remixing Shakespeare’s comedies. My second book, The Advisory Role (coming soon) recasts As You Like It’s Rosalind as an advice columnist. My plans for the women of A Midsummer Night’s Dream have me researching psychotropic mushrooms, trickster lore, and what it’s like to run a summer camp. Then, perhaps I’ll revisit ‘90s workplace gender politics and the world of local TV news for a take on Taming of the Shrew. After that, who knows? Shakespeare wrote seventeen comedies, after all. 

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How to Align the Stars is Amy Dressler’s first novel, even though she has said being an author is her dream job since eighth grade. She has worked as a librarian, freelance pop culture writer, and in local government. As a literature major, theater nerd, and believer in the cathartic power of humor, Amy has always gravitated towards Shakespeare’s comedies. Finding ways ways to transpose those stories into contemporary settings that highlight the heroines’ emotional arcs is a fun–albeit emotionally fraught–puzzle. Like Beatrice, Amy enjoyed being single and was rather looking forward her future as an eccentric cat lady, but her plans changed when she met and fell hard for her husband. They are the eccentric cat couple of their suburban Seattle neighborhood.

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