Brainstorm Topics

Topic: Resolving Fantasy and Reality
Comments: My appreciation for Alice in Wonderland manifests in a couple of ways:  Lewis Carroll uses Alice as an eager, but not necessarily fully willing, participant in her own journey into psychological fantasy. We can see that Alice herself tries to rationalize things she sees in Wonderland if she thinks they have become too far-fetched. This way the story manages to always address of more intense, reality-based topics, yet maintain its fantasy setting.
Possible Stories: from Alice in Wonderland
Sample Story: Down the Rabbit Hole
Bibliography:  Book title- Alice in Wonderland; Author- Lewis Carroll; Year- 1865; Link- Alice in Wonderland


Topic:  Superhuman Efforts Manifested in Flawed, Mortal Form
Comments: I love reading stories with mortal, flawed characters who strive for a goal, and find their capacity for superhuman feats by virtue of that internal drive. Now, due to the flawed quality of the character committing the action, the culminations of these superhuman efforts usually don't wind up becoming perfectly ideal.
Possible Stories: from Homer's Odyssey
Sample Story: The Cyclops Defeated
Bibliography: Book title- Odyssey; Author- Homer; Year- 750-650 B.C.E.; Link- Homer's Odyssey

Topic: Complex Morals and Perspectives
Comments: Character-driven stories thrive when they rely on using the characters thoughts, words, and actions to drive home a moral lesson that could have multiple interpretations. If the author begins the story with a character's vice and their journey to rid themselves of it, this allows the audience to step into the characters' shoes and into their mind.
Possible Stories: This theme plays out very well from the Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales.
Sample Story: The Wicked Prince
Bibliography: Book title- Fairy Tales and Stories; Author- Hans Christian Anderson; Year- 1835; Link- Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales

Topic: Deep Cultural Understanding
Comments: I really like stories that have the cultures in the world of the story very well researched, OR at least well realized/imagined. The most successful of these stories seem to be those that exhibit their cultural habits and rituals, not as a blatant form of propaganda, but as a necessity to understand what's going to happen next in the plot (no matter how unusual). This tells the reader that there's a lot more to this world to understand and to be explored beyond the author's words.
Possible Stories: One of my favorite series of stories to have this quality are the tales of Robin Hood
Sample Story: Allen a Dale
Bibliography: Book title- The English and Scottish Popular Ballads; Author- Francis James; Year-1882-1898; Link- Robin Hood