Storybook Plan

By: Maria Dawson

While looking around on Google I found this amazing image of a storybook that I wanted to include within this post! This picture is by HisLoveNeverFails

For this project, I have tried many paths and have done a ton of research on what interests me as a writer while also sticking to something I know very well. I started this research by narrowing down between wanting to look into Gods/Gossesses or Heroes/Heroines. While looking things up on heroines I found a subgenre called "Feminist Heroines", right up my ally. I love taking women and gender study classes to truly see how far women have come from while at the same time learning what we can do to improve. Being able to merge these two topics into one is something out of a dream!

During this more specific research, I have found three stories that interest me a lot. The first story is  Ruru and his wife Priyamvada this story is about love and sacrifice. The second story is called Shauntala: TheWoman Wronged which is about a woman who is seduced by a king and ultimately becomes pregnant where she raises the baby by herself. I would really like to recreate this one because I could easily rewrite it in today's modern times which is something I like to do. The third story is Savitri: The Perfect Wife I think this story was very feminist for its time and could be used to show how we take the main lesson learned, Savitri goes on to try and find her perfect husband instead of the husband being picked for her, into modern telling. 

Topic Research: Heroines

ʜᴇʀᴏɪɴᴇꜱ

ʙʏ: ᴍᴀʀɪᴀ ᴅᴀᴡꜱᴏɴ

I choose this picture for my topic because she is the lead "face" of feminism in Canada. This picture is by Pixabay

To narrow down what I want my final project to be after poking around on some site I think I am going to decide to focus on heroines. To be more specific I would like to try and find some stories that talk over feminism and the female heroes within these stories that have helped progress us throughout society. However, I would also like to write about sacrifice seen within these epics. I would love some more ideas on types of epics that would fit within this category or examples. 

The first story I found during my research is the story of Ruru and his wife Priyamvada. In this story, his wife is bitten by a snake and dies without being with his wife Ruru gives half his life to her. What draws me to this story is the most is the love behind it and being able to create my own swing on this love story would be fun to complete. 

The second story that caught my eye is called Shauntala: TheWoman Wronged which is about a woman who is seduced by a king and ultimately becomes pregnant where she raises the baby by herself. I am inspired by this story because she is able to stay strong within all the miss happening in her life and I would like to tell her story in my own translation. 

The third story I am considering doing the project over is Savitri: The Perfect Wife. I am interested in writing my own version of this story because it starts out with a birth that was considered a miracle and its what she does with this miracle that impresses me. Savitri goes on to try and find her perfect husband instead of the husband being picked for her. I believe with this story I can show how she went through her life through the feminist view I see,

Topic Brainstorm

BrainStorming for Projects

By: Maria Dawson 

I like this picture of brainstorming because you can produce so many ideas before one really sticks out to you. This picture is from OpenClipart.

For this project, I want to first focus on the previous categories I found interesting in week 1. The first one I enjoyed reading stories about was God and Goddesses. I find myself drawn to these particular types of stories because there is so much that can be done with them. For example, a god or goddess can be made out of anything such as the sky god or Tales of Vishnu: The Gentle God. I think there is a lot that can be done with this category which interests me because I have a hard time staying in one particular category.

I am also interested in writing about heroes and heroines for some of the same reasons as gods but also different reasons. While there are a lot of different stories when it comes to heroes and anyone can be a hero making it easy to write about. However, with this category, I feel more drawn too because I believe it would be easy for me to create new stories into modern-day stories with heroes, which is an aspect I enjoy. I found a post on the New York Times that intrigues me about how an old Indian epic can survive in the modern world. 

Going along with the modern aspect of the writing I want to create I would also enjoy taking this writing and mixing it with science. Another topic that caught my eye pertaining to this is the Geography of the Ramayana while this one might be tough to create an entire storybook out of I am always up for a challenge and I am interested in hearing the stories and creating my own spin on them. For example, Ayodhya is the birthplace of the Rama which would be very interesting to create a storybook on the different cites and what was born where. 

The last storybook topic I would be interested in writing over is Food. This topic would be interesting to write about because I feel like it could be overlooked in the involvement in the stories involved in it. For example, if you were reading over the story Hanuman where kheer plays a huge involvement within the story allowing the story to progress. I am also interested in how the food at festivals play a role in creating atmosphere and topics in a story.