Hello today listeners of Tomorrow Tales,
Iām chuffed with the early responses to this project. Some see its āpotential to take off, reach many people and hopefully inspire changeā. Others, ālove itā. One person even assured me āit will become a quiet revolutionā. Fingers crossed.
It gives me ā¤ļø to learn how Tomorrow Tales is resonating with people.
To help bring you on this journey with me, I want to explain my vision for this exploit. This is not final. Itās open to being shaped by others, owned by others, destroyed. If you like this vision for Tomorrow Tales, tell someone about it. Ask them to be involved!
Phase One: Setting the intent
This is the bit where we grow a base audience and learn how best to pitch what Tomorrow Tales is all about!
As exhibited by The many voices of Dahoum, I will start by offering some of my own ideas of how I think a Tomorrow Tale could look with a new reader narrating each fortnight.
I think of these first stories as a basket of acorns: an offering, hopefully beautiful, something to scrutinize but not to consume in their entirety as a complete prototype of next generation fairy tales. Youāre invited to crack it open and find whatever you think is nourishing inside to keep. Spit the rest out.
Phase Two: Integrating the community
In a couple of months, we will start releasing work from other writers. From time to time, I will share some originals too ā for the love of story-telling ā but step back as the creative force.
I see my role becoming that of community organiser ā someone who brings like-minded people together and empowers them to believe in a place where people can create beauty and meaning together.
In addition to more tales, weāll introduce some (totally optional) interactive forums and spaces people can engage with one another. For example, creative contributors will have opportunities to:
retell an existing tale (orally or in writing), making it your own
be paired with a stranger to collaborate on a prompt
write the ending of someone elseās piece
For the rest of us, there will be plenty of interesting tale mongering to enjoy and share.
During this phase, audience growth will not be prioritised over the quality of our community and content.
Phase Three: Reaching out
Once we have a strong collective idea of what a Tomorrow Tale feels like and a core set of stories, we can start dreaming bigger. And, in order to have the intended cultural impact, weāll need to.
This is when we:
elevate our work across new media and other, existing channels
take it to social change organisations working with children or to improve literacy
seek collaborations with publishing and movie houses
write grants to fund print runs of Tomorrow Tales (or whatever we decide is right for us at that moment)
I could go on. There are so many places we can take this āquiet revolutionā. But we need to start from and stay true to the core:
telling affecting, meaningful stories that help little people (and big) navigate modern issues
The next acorn is coming on Tuesday, 1 February.