Wednesday 1 February 2012

Story Idea 2

And idea numero dos.

Lepidopteran Lunacy
A foppish lepidopterist (butterfly collector) has travelled across the galaxy to find spectacular specimens for his collection. He has made one final stop on a space station orbiting Earth before returning home, where, while they are being quarantined, one of the butterflies escapes. The entire station goes mad at the possibility of a disease vector flying loose, so everyone, man, woman and child, embarks on a wild butterfly chase. A young child, with her skipping rope, desperately tries to lasso the creature, but the savvy butterfly evades it until it is driven to the fop and a pack of other butterfly hunters. The fop and all the others leap upon it, nets at the ready, and trhe butterfly is caught – temporarily. It turns out the fop’s net has a hole in it, and the story ends with the chase beginning anew.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Meg,

    I like the idea of this also! the only problem again is with the skipping rope... I just don't buy that a girl would try to catch a butterfly with it.

    What I could believe is that she and her mother are walking around the space station the alarms go off warning about a quaratine with the possibility of an outbreak, in a hurry the mother pulls the girl causing her to drops her skipping rope.

    From there, you could have a chase of the butterfly style thing like you wrote with the skipping rope remaining dormant. As they are just about to catch it they trip over the skipping rope which triggers the chase anew ;)

    Just a thought, I hate sounding like im ordering changes. Tune me out if you need to I'm not sure im the best advice sometimes lol

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  2. All feedback is good, Stitch - CGAA first years are not made of porcelain and are not to be treated as such ;) This stage is all about getting the crap out of the way as quickly as possible, because ideas are still cheap and cost you nothing. Hey Meg - if the skipping rope is causing you difficulty, then put the difficulty at the heart of your story;

    for example,

    Let's imagine that the 'skipping rope' is actually something like 'the milky way' - i.e. that it is not a small, tradition toy - it's a nebula... And what happens if your 'butterfly hunter' is actually a replicant hunter, as in Deckard in Bladerunner (after all butterflies have very short life-spans). Remember what I said, these components MUST be used to originate a great story, but there is wriggle room if it's the right kind of lateral innovation.... If it's a prop, the skipping rope would need to be 'used' somehow - but that doesn't preclude the idea of it 'functioning like a skipping rope' but not actually 'being' a skipping rope.... Hope this is helping!

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