One great source of ideas is to look behind stories and songs and work out the themes (see my post, Generating Story Ideas, on Allison Symes - This World and Others for more on the latter. This was inspired by an amazing Lyrical Challenge workshop at the recent Swanwick Summer School). Common fairytale themes include:-
Below are a couple of photos from the recent Summer School. The grounds of the conference centre were lovely and walks around the lakes there would have inspired further stories I'm sure.
- Justice will be served - eventually (and usually roughly!).
- The downtrodden are almost guaranteed to end up in positions of influence and power (so don't ill treat anyone or risk regretting it later!).
- The fairy godmother always turns up when least expected. (I like to think of Cinderella as silently cursing said godmother for not turning up a lot sooner and sparing her years of misery).
- Talking animals in fairytales are more sensible and intelligent than the humanoid creations. I never did like Goldilocks much, my sympathy always was with the three bears.
- You can never trust a Grand Vizier (or someone claiming to be your uncle who turns up out of nowhere - see Aladdin for more on this).
Below are a couple of photos from the recent Summer School. The grounds of the conference centre were lovely and walks around the lakes there would have inspired further stories I'm sure.
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