This last weekend I had the opportunity to attend an annual story telling retreat called Roots and Wings. This is the first time I’ve been introduced to the concept of vision boards. A vision board is when you will randomly page through multiple magazines and cut out photographs that have some meaning for you. Apparently a vision book can be used in two ways. First, it can be used as a self-analysis tool where people will glue a bunch of photos from the magazines put them on a big poster board and then try to determine why those photographs are important to them. This is the way the kind of be reflective upon your past and motivations.
The second purpose of a vision board is to use it as a tool for come up with new story plots. We were given a selection of books of popular fairy-tales. We were to select one and then with different photos to inspire us. We come up with alternative plot.
I found this to be a very productive experiment. The original story is fairy-tale is called the Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. The plot line was the mother goat that left the house and told her seven little kids to be careful of who they let into the house. She gave them the description of the traits of a wolf. The Wolf ends up tricking the kids to open the door and he eats six of the seven baby goats. The surviving goat and his mother go looking for the Wolf and his missing siblings. They find the Wolf asleep. They cut open his belly and the six goats escape. The mother then puts rocks into the Wolf in place of her kids, and sews the Wolf’s belly shot. The weight of rocks cause the Wolf to fall into well and drown.
The first photo that started the genesis of my idea was of an aardvark. I got the idea of a bunch of termites who were really frightened of this creature, eating them all up. So the termites traveled from animal to animal in the forest to find a solution to stop the aardvark from eating them.
The termites first go to the elephant and he suggests that the termites crush their tormentor with their feet . They can’t do that because they are too small as termites.
Next they go to a deer that has multiple horns on his antlers. The deer suggests that they impale their tormentor with their horns. They move on to the next animal.
They encounter a large bird. He suggests that they fly away from their tormentors. The termites don’t find this an option.
They encounter a leopard, and he says to attack and bite them, but the aardvark is well protected.
Finally, they came across a collection of penguins. The Penguins suggests they use their strength to their advantage. Since penguins can tolerate the extreme cold, they live in the South Pole. Few other animals can tolerate the cold like they can. thus, there they have few predators. So they are safe.
After thinking about what the Penguin suggested the termites realize that their bigger strength is there a huge number. But their plan to gain victory over the aardvark means that some termites will have to sacrifice their lives. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. So the next time their tormentor comes to visit the nest, they begin a trail into his mouth until he is so full of termites that he explodes.
I thought of a moral to the story of where just like the termites came up with what was important for the good of the community, so man in history has sacrificed much for the good of their country. Recently we had an anniversary for the attack on Normandy. The Americans were attacking the French shoreline to begin their track of pushing back the German invasion by beginning at Normandy. The battle was so fierce that thousands of men died. Everyone perseveres because they have to gain victory on the beach in order to move across the continent. They finally gained victory and begin moving across the France. From France, they start moving to the other European countries, gradually freeing country after country.
The name of the story will be called: We Are Legion.
The moral of the story may go something like this. There may be a time when we face a tormentor, or foe that seems stronger than what we are. That is when we will need to think of what our strengths are, which may include companions that share a similar goal that we have. Where we can work together, we have a greater chance of success.
Now this particular story needs work, of course, but at least it is now the genesis of an idea that is a warped version of the seven kids fairy-tale. It’s unique from the original and includes some relevant to today’s history.
All of this was inspired by the vision board. I could see how this idea could also be used for creating the genesis of a pitcher book or a middle grade book.
If you have any experiences of work with a vision board, please feel free to share in your experiences. Thank you.
