Fantasy stories are imaginative texts with magical characters and backgrounds. A fantasy story about a primitive topic constantly needs some innovation to remain relevant. One of the ways to do that is by integrating local culture into the story. Local culture embodies the ideas and/or values, local views that are wise, full of wisdom, and that are embedded and followed by every member of the community. Writing a fantasy story based on local culture does not mean it loses its imaginative and magical elements. Local culture as a story idea or theme has various benefits for students, including: (1) preserving culture, (2) promoting moral values, (3) representative experience, (4) fostering empathy, (5) generating imagination and inspiration, and (6) the pleasure of reading. To include local culture content in students’ writing, a context approach can be used. The context approach assumes that while writing, the writer is actually oriented towards the purpose of writing and the reader is the target thereof. With this innovation, students can better understand, inspire, and preserve culture through learning. The novelty of this study is an analysis of local culture that can be collaborated into story ideas or themes for writing fantasy storyboards.
Keywords: teaching material, writing, fantasy story, local culture