Topics - Week 2

1. Possible Topic: Elf Tales. I love Christmas, but really just any holiday in general. I have always been interested in looking into and exploring where all the make-believe traditions came from. Who came up with Santa? The North Pole? Elves? I think I could write a series of stories exploring where some of these traditions and icons came form.

Research so far: Here is a link to some info about how Santa Clause came to be. There are also many many other names for Santa, and I could look at what other country’s traditions are. My story might not be accurate to how these figures actually came to be, but a possible story of how they could have started.

(Old Santa Claus - wikimedia)

2. Possible Topic: Friends/a TV show. I have read a few other storybooks about TV shows, and how people have added onto them. The one that sparked my attention today was a storybook about the show friends. I love this show, and was so sad when it ended. I might look into a TV show to write a storybook about. Another storybook I read was about gossip girl. This also made me think about movies too. One of my favorite movies is Inside Out, and I have wanted them to come out with a second movie. I would be interested in writing a storybook based on the movie concept.

Research so far: Here is a link to a bit about the concept of the movie Inside Out. It is such a unique movie that I would be interested in exploring it deeper. The movie was intellectual, moving and funny. It was also great for all ages. This would give me a lot freedom to take my storybook in the direction I would want.  

(Inside Out character - Flickr)

3. Possible Topic: Beauty and the Beast. I chose to look at this story for my storybook because I love classic Disney stories. I honestly haven’t read many of the original stories so I was really interested to look into the original stories. Since I did use to love the story of Beauty and the Beast so much when I was younger I think I would enjoy creating a few extended stories based on it for my storybook.

Research so far: This is a link to the wiki page that tells a bit about the origin of this story. It has a French origin, which I think would be an interesting topic to look into. France screams romance, so I might be interested in writing a few stories that elaborate on there love and romance.

4. Possible Topic: The Little Mermaid: I had no idea that the Little Mermaid movie and story had so many differences. I find that this is often the case though, so it makes sense. I read about half of this Little Mermaid story, it is very long so I just wanted to get the general idea of it.  This is another one of my favorite Disney stories, and I actually really liked the original written story as well. I might be interested in writing a storybook about multiple different Disney stories, or even combine this story with the Beauty and the Beast.

Research so far: Here is a link about the original written story. I had no idea it was written so long ago, but I found that really cool. The ending of this written story is the biggest difference from the movie. I would be interested in looking more into just the ending of the written story and exploring it.

Week 2 Storytelling: A Flood from Under the Water

Once upon a time, right here on earth, there was a terrible flood. This flood covered every bit of land, up to the tallest mountain. All that was left was water. Now many might wonder what happened to all those living things that lived on land, but did you ever wonder about the fish that lived down below? Were these sea creatures happy that now their whole world was truly their oyster? Or did they have just as hard of a time as all the other living creatures of the earth? This flood came swiftly and lasted an entire year. Here is the tale of one fish in particular, a fish named Sparky.

(Earth Cover by Water - Wikipedia)

Sparky was a tropical fish that lived in warm waters right in the center of earth. Sparky was a mid-sized fish with hints of blue and yellow coloring scattered over his body. He had two fins on the side of his body that were yellow and three back fins that were a radiant blue.  Sparky was a fast little fellow, and he loved to spend his days dashing from seabed to seabed. He had lots of brothers and sisters that he did everything with. One of his favorite things to do was play games and swim all day with his friends and family. He often went to shore during the day to play in the waves, until one day, there was no shore. Where there once was a beach with radiant waves, there was now just more water. Sparky was sad that he could no longer play in the waves, but he found that he had tons of green vegetation to eat. There were more plants to eat than he had ever seen in his life. He ate and ate until he nearly couldn’t swim anymore. As weeks turned into months Sparky began to lose his spark.

(Sparky - Wikimedia)

He really wished he could play in the waves like he used to, and he couldn’t even swim very fast anymore. He had eaten so much that he had become fat and no longer had the speed and agility he once had. The shallow sea beds where Sparky used to go to hang out with his friends was there no more.  The whole ocean had changed. There were no longer shallow waters for Sparky to lie down and rest. He found himself constantly moving from place to place, and often became very tired.  There was too much water and all his normal migration patterns were messed up. Sparky had a hard time finding any fish or living things around him sometimes at all. This dark era nearly caused Sparky to lose hope and forget all the good times he used to have.

Until one day something changed. Not all at once, but Sparky could feel that something was different.  He had been swimming in deep waters of darkness for so long, but he could now see rays of light. The water had also turned so cold during this last year, but he could now feel it warming back up. He began to grow optimistic with each passing day. After a few weeks Sparky finally saw land. That was probably the happiest any fish has ever been to see land. Sparky returned to the warm waters of his home, still a bit plumper than he used to be, and after what seemed like an eternity he played in the waves.

(The Land and Waves - Pixabay)

He was reunited with his fishy friends and family. Some of his friends didn’t make it back home, which was very sad for Sparky and his friends. All the fish will still remember the year where the whole earth was under water for a long time. But for the most part things went back to normal and Sparky got to go back to his fun sparky ways.

Author's Note: This story is based on the story Noah and the Ark, and the flood in that story. This flood lasted one year and covered the whole earth in water. Noah put two of every species of animal on this Ark in order for those species to survive. He was not able to put any fish or marine animals on his ark though.

We always hear about all the animals, people and living things on land that suffered from the flood, but no one ever considered the animals in the water. There are many major problems that would have caused marine life to suffer from this flood as well. First, the migration patterns of animals would be completely messed up and many of those fish would become separated. Secondly, lots of fish can only survive in shallow waters and would not survive in all the deep waters that covered the earth. Another factor that would be harmful is the change in salt water and fresh water. The fresh and salt water would become mixed and entirely change the water composition. There are many more problems that would come from this flood that would impact aquatic animals. These are just some major ones that I can thing of.  

This story originates from the Bible and I wanted to make it fun and lighthearted to where children would like reading it. If they read this story they might want to learn more about the original Noah’s Ark story and other stories from the Bible. 

Bibliography: Noah and the Ark , by Louis Ginzberg, 1909. Link to online source