Topic Brainstorm

 Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana

I am interested in writing and learning more about supernatural characters of the Ramayana. I am playing with some ideas of maybe possibly having Ramayana characters as the origin of the modern monsters we know like vampires, werewolves, and such (possibly some sort of evolution). There are many characters that I am intrigued by including some of the rakshasas, Suvannamaccha, and Viradha. What really stands out to me is with the rakshasas as the Ramayana is flooded with them. Having that contrast between good and evil is great if I would prefer to do a superhero type of story. 

Alternate Version of the Ramayana

After seeing the many creative past projects, I am inspired to write my own version of the Ramayana. Although there is much to the story, I am most interested in Rama as the focus of my story. Exploring the love story between Rama and Sita might be a great challenge as well. Their love story is complicated with twists and turns even kidnapping! The first idea I have is to turn the complicated story into a romantic comedy type of plot or a highschool complicated relationship plot. 

Jakata Tales

I really enjoyed all the stories from Week 2 and would like to possibly retell a few of the stories but put them in the same city by setting each of the stories in the same high school and telling it from the perspective of a teenager. For example, having the story of the cunning crane and crab as two different mean girls in a school competing with each other or having the crocodile and the monkey as two brothers fighting in school.

Aswathama 

This is definitely the coolest character of Indian epics. His story is so dark and gruesome. My idea for this storybook is to write about his life from different times. From when he was first cursed, to maybe the 1900s, to the 2010s. So, essentially him in a different era. Although, he was cursed for 3000 years so I am still not sure about the timeline. I'd like to write about how his life has turned out and his journey in coping with the curse. I think the story depends on the timeline so that's what I need to do research on. I found many conspiracies regarding whether he is still alive today which makes the topic even more exciting. Another part of me wants to put him in the marvel universe. Many ideas still being debated in my head.

Ashwatthama uses Narayanastra (Source: Wikimedia)