5 Comment

1. 

   tutorphil says:

   6 February 2010 at 16:09

   Hi Matt,
   
   Okay - I'm going to throw a conceptual hand grenade in your general direction... I don't think you're really thinking as creatively about your three components as you could be; in other words, you're not asking enough of the difficult questions; that said, you do have a difficult trio - but here are a few new ways into thinking new thoughts regarding your approach to crafting a satisfying story....
   
   1) What does a mermaid need with an umbrella? Well, why does anyone need an umbrella? To stay dry! But a mermaid is already wet, so why does she need an umbrella - for the same reason - to stay dry - but why would a mermaid need to stay dry? Answer - because she doesn't want to get wet? Question - why doesn't she want to get wet? Answer - because if she gets wet, something undesirable will happen - but what? Well, let's think about the folklore surrounding mermaids? According to 'The Little Mermaid' fairystory popularised by the Disney adaptation, the mermaid wants to walk on land as a human; and according to the Ron Howard 1984 movie Splash, if woman-who-was-once-a-mermaid gets wet, she gets her fishtail back...
   
   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088161/plotsummary
   
   So, a mermaid might have a very obvious reason for always carrying an umbrella: she's a mermaid in disguise, and uses the umbrella to protect herself from transforming back into a fish! In this way, the mermaid and the umbrella become 'logical' and necessary to one another - as opposed to separate props; indeed, the umbrella starts to be a major plot-driver and not just a thing...
   
   So, for the sake of argument, let's say that your character is a former mermaid who needs to get to her umbrella before she gets too wet; so what's stopping her? What can create the tension... Is it a race against time - and how does it involve the elevator?
   
   Answers on a postcard please...

2. 

   Charlotte says:

   7 February 2010 at 04:08

   Just looking at the comment Phil made, I recomend you watch the film Splash I think it's called. It's about a mermaid who turns into a human and comesup onto land. However whenever she has a bath etc, her legs turn back into a tail.
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splash_%28film%29
   
   I know it's a wiki adress but it'll be a start

3. 

   Farideh says:

   7 February 2010 at 08:03

   hmmm I can see Phil's point here on how you should be ask more difficult questions maybe making a spider diagram of ways you could go with this or just in general peicing the story together. I think charlotte has a point you should watch Splash and research into mermaids a little more and I think your story will become more clear ^_^

4. 

   matt hyland says:

   7 February 2010 at 09:57

   cool cool i like the comments and thanks phil, all the stuff ive put up are just concepts :)

5. 

   Ath31as says:

   7 February 2010 at 14:37

   From my part of the world we also used umbrellas to guard us from the sun (to keep from drying out ^_^) but Matt good work on getting your thoughts up on the blog, keep going with the ideas explorethe possibilities.