Topic Brainstorm: Frame Tales and Other Ideas

1. My first idea is to combine the world of Alice in Wonderland (story here) with fables by using frame tales. Our professor helped me think of this one and I really love it! I have always been a lover of the obscure nature of Alice in Wonderland and how it shows the progression and confusing aspects of childhood. I also absolutely adore fables and any story with a moral (examples: the "Tongue-Cut Sparrow", "The Tortoise and the Hare", and "the Man in the Moon"). So the idea is this: Characters (the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and the White Rabbit) from Alice in Wonderland would be telling fables to a boy who fell into the world and is in need of a few life lessons. I would use common fables but twist them in a way that is unique to each storyteller. With this idea, I hope to learn how to better use frame tales so that I can apply them to my writing outside of this course.

2. Another idea I have is to have a character (potentially from a show, book, or folktale) take a trip through the underworld with Hades who is showing a character how different people died and why they are receiving punishment. I would use stories from fables about greed, anger, etc. The TV show The Good Place has really instilled in me a desire to understand what could happen after death, what it means to actually be a good person, and if any individual truly deserves to be punished for eternity. I would love to explore this and come up with my own opinions on the matter. Plan A for this idea would be to write deceased characters who you would not expect to be in hell and do not deserve the fate they were given (i.e. they were a good person but just did a couple of bad things that landed them in hell). Plan B is to write actual evil characters who "deserve" they fates they were given. 

3. My third idea concerns the backstory of the Seven Dwarfs. I would pick a few of them (if not all) and apply folktales/mythology to them that serve as their backstories. For example, Grumpy might be the way he is because of a story in which a character loses everything he loves (I'm depending on what I learn this semester in this course to give me ideas for stories to retell and apply to this). I am interested in this topic because I always wondered why each dwarf was the way he was when I watched Disney's Snow White. This would be a good opportunity to come up with my own backstories for them. From this, I hope to learn more about how to creatively write backstories because that is something I struggle with immensely. 

4. My final topic idea is twisted and unfair endings. For this one, I would use stories that are supposed to teach people a lesson (like Aesop's Fables), but the endings would favor the antagonist. For example, in "the Tortoise and the Hare," the hare would end up winning the race because the tortoise is too slow and the hare's ego does not get in the way. Putting stories in this light show the harsh realities of life and can bring attention to the fact that life is not always fair due to advantages and opportunities that some are lucky enough to have. I am interested in this topic because I grew up always hearing happy and seemingly impossible endings, and it would be nice to read something realistic, albeit frustrating and negative, for once. They would be more in line with nursery rhymes like Jack and Jill or the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. From this I hope to learn how to avoid writing to please the reader and instead write for the sake of a story. 

(After writing these out, it seems that the most important part of this project for me is that I use stories that can teach a lesson. I am most interested in using Aesop's Fables and Japanese folktales. Whether they are about greed, kindness, anxiety, or other issues, I really hope to convey some type of message. With the exception of the third idea, this is the general pattern of my ideas. Even with the fourth idea, I would still be applying life lessons to my writing, even if they are not happy ones.)

(Image Information: illustration by Sir John Tenniel from Un-Textbook)