Storytelling Styles: Week 3

Topic: I've decided to do my storybook on Surya, aka the sun. I want to observe and rewrite stories about Surya and maybe his immediate family. I also want to incorporate his chariot into my storybook somehow because it seems like an interesting item. I want to include the story of Jatayu and Sampathi who flew too close to the sun, burning off his wings. I also want to try to incorporate the story of Sugriva and Vali into my story because Sugriva is Surya's son. I'd like to explore Surya's reaction to this in a story. I also want to include the story of How the Sun God was Tamed.

Surya, found on Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography
1. "Sampathi" by R.K. Narayan, from The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (2006)
2."Sugreeva's Story" by R.K. Narayan, from The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (2006)
3. "How the Sun God was Tamed" by Maya Balse (2011)

Possible Styles

Surya's Point of View
Doing a storybook from the perspective of Surya might be an interesting style. He has a definite 'bird's eye view' so his perspective for some of the choices I'm considering would add an interesting element to the storybook. It would also open up several more stories, not just ones where Surya is physically in or closely related to the story. 

Modernizing
I've written a few stories in more modernized settings and I really enjoy being able to switch the setting so drastically while still keeping a similar story. It would be fun to modernize stories with Surya because it opens a lot of other possibilities. For instance, Surya could be interpreted as riding a spaceship or perhaps a satellite. It could be modernized beyond just the physical setting and I could add a futuristic tone by making Surya some sort of alien-type character, which could lead in an interesting direction. A modernized story offers a lot of different options.

Twist the Ending
I think this might be an interesting style for my storybook. It opens up a lot of doors for change and I would love to be able to twist the endings to some of these stories. Since he is the sun god, it would be interesting to be able to change the way his stories work. This could have repercussions for a lot of different aspects of life in the stories. 

Reality Show
Finally, I think it would be fun to watch the earth from the perspective of Surya as though he was watching a reality show. I could either bring in another character to 'narrate' the show, or I could have Surya himself be the narrator for the reality show on earth. I think this would be a fun and creative way to observe Surya's reactions to some of the stories that include him, particularly the examples I am considering above.