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Saturday 4 February 2012

Rethinking story ideas

Right after reading Phil's feedback and having a sleep on it I'm trying to piece together something that involves the cellar more focally, and the grappling hook. Something that doesn't seem long winded, is instead simple without being boring.

This is one idea that I've just had pop into my mind and thought I would just share it on here perhaps get some feedback rather than hiding it away while I struggle to think up some more.

Trying to link the cellar and pirate together more focally:

-When I think of cellars I can't help thinking of wood. Cellars arn't necessarily made of wood but there are a lot of wooden components inside them such as storage crates, barrels and shelving. A cellar to me is some sort of storage facility.

- So thinking with pirates in mind I am reminded of the ships and all the wooden parts of them.

- Could it be that my story looks at the creation of a small pirate ship from elements of the cellar?
- But then how do I make the pirate's presence in the cellar seem right.

- Back to the cellar as a storage facility I am reminded of how film photographs are chucked in shoe boxes and stored away, very unlikely to be seen again.
- Could the presence of memorabilia within the cellar trigger the want to build this ship?

- With this in mind I am reminded of something I watched not too long ago on TV. During an episode of this show the main character stubbles across her friend arguing with someone about the storage of a boat. This person wants to sell the building and so needs him to move his boat. The main character soon finds out that this boat used to belong to her friend's father and he was working on completing it but now that there is nowhere to store it her friend is too upset and wants to throw it away. Instead she stores it in her garage and now he has somewhere to go to finish it just as his father wanted and be surrounded by memories.

- Could my character stumble across some memorablilia of someone in his family who just died? Perhaps a childhood notepad of their fixation of pirate stories. Self portraits of themself as a pirate, journeys they will go on when they become one. (I am reminded of the beginning of Up) Then memorabilia later in their life of drawings of their dream ship.

- To feel closer to this family member they have just lost my character goes about making their dream ship out of things within the cellar.

Incorporating the grappling hook:

When it has come to this one of my three componets I have up until now made it my mission to use something else like a grappling hook. Well now I'm looking at a grappling hook as a grappling hook rather than something else which just complicates things. So how to put it in my story...

- Handmade ship is now complete, maybe my character stumbles across some memorabilia he missed. This stuff now about his lost relative's dream to sail. There is a river outside town but how to get the ship there?
- The cellar wouldn't neccessarily be just full stuff to do with this person's pirate dream. Objects collect in storage when they are no longer used so maybe the grappling hook makes an appearance inside the cellar due to a past expedition of one family member up a mountain. My character could proceed to attach the grappling hook to the ship and pull it up the stairs and off down to the river.

- Onboard he dons a handmade pirate hat and eye patch and heads down river with his son who is busy drawing portraits of himself as a wizard... so the lost relative could be my character's father.

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