Topic Brainstorm

 Ovid's Metamorphoses: Deucalion and Pyrrha

    The first topic I'm interested in creating a storybook about is one of Ovid's works, depicting the sole survivors of a flood: Deucalion and Pyrrha. I have actually personally translated the original version of this story from Latin to English in one of my intermediate prose classes, and have recently touched on their story in another of my classes this semester. Ovid's Metamorphoses provide a really nice baseline for rewriting stories, I believe, as there are so many elements that you can play around with in his stories. I could also bring in other elements from Greco-Roman mythology, as it is an interesting story bank to pull from. The story of Deucalion and Pyrrha also has many different versions, describing different reasons for the flood or the different ways the two survived the flood. Tales such as that of Deucalion and Pyrrha would be fun to integrate with a more modern-day setting, or perhaps in a dystopian setting, as is quite popular in literature today. The whole premise of Ovid's Metamorphoses is the transforming of something into something else, and that seems like it has a lot of potential for retellings, where you can either have the two lovers turn into animals themselves and scour the land, or they can create companions from sticks along the way, as they are both offspring of Titans. In my own stories, I could describe the origins of some other things, just as Ovid describes the origin of the next race of humans from the stones thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha.

Grimm: Snow-White and Rose-Red

    For obvious reasons, I like to think, all of the Brothers Grimm tales are an amazing source for creating a storybook of your own. I also have another Grimm story that I am considering, but I will mention that one after this one: Snow-White and Rose-Red. I think a lot of people forget about the tales of Snow-White and her sister, Rose-Red, typically only thinking about the Snow White in the Disney movie with the dwarfs. While this story still has the presence of a dwarf, the storyline is vastly different from the traditional story that first comes to our minds. Like the Metamorphoses, this story involves a transformation of some kind, in this case from a bear to a handsome prince. This story is also one that tells a lesson, both about being ungrateful and bestowing kindness on all. Plot twists are also a common theme of Brothers Grimm's works, which leaves lots of potential for writing new stories.

(Illustration by Alexander Zick, found in the UnTextbook)

Grimm: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

    Honestly, the main reason I chose this story as a potential choice to make my storybook is because of the Barbie movie. I was obsessed with Barbie movies as a child and the one featuring the twelve dancing princesses was one of my favorites. Also, one of my favorite books, Entwined, is a rendition of this same story and has a dark sort of twist that is common in many Brothers Grimm tales. One element of the story that I have seen multiple versions of is the way to where the princesses dance. Most stories depict some sort of entrance from their room, but all come in different flavors, from a simple trapdoor to a magical pattern that needs to be fulfilled for the floor to open up into a staircase. If I were to write a storybook based on this tale, I think I would possibly alter the activity the princesses snuck off to participate in, or maybe alter it to be princes who snuck off instead. The Barbie movie is where I would probably get much of my inspiration, as there is a magical aura to it that makes for good storytelling, and in a magical world, anything can happen.

Britomart: The Magic Mirror (A part of Stories from the Faerie Queene)

    So I have never heard this story, or the collection of stories it came from, but I am really interested in the idea of a lady disguising herself as a knight to find her true love. I have never been the biggest fan of romance stories, but when they have some other intriguing plot, I can find myself drawn in. In this short story, the main character, Britomart, pretends to despise and want to fight the love of her life, so she asks another knight to describe him to her under this guise. The magic mirror Britomart encounters when she is a child is much different from the first magic mirror that comes to our mind: the Magic Mirror from Snow White. Britomart's magic mirror shows her the image of her future husband when she thinks to herself what he would be like. Retelling this story, I could make the image of her future husband appear somewhere perhaps much more random, such as her dinner spoon or that one vase she's passed by since childhood. Also, I could make her excuse for finding him be that he owes or money or maybe he insulted her favorite horse on a visit and she had vowed vengeance.