So, things have moved on, but we're still struggling to come up with an actual meaningful story, and that's because we're not focusing on character, but rather on the puzzle of putting these objects together.
There's something about the 'cold' and the 'mirror' which is telling me that this is a story about someone or something 'defrosting' - but not in a physical or literal sense. There's something too about the mirror that suggests someone who is haughty and self-obsessed. You might call someone who is haughty, conceited and unfeeling 'cold' - you might say they heart is made of ice. The castle element is just begging for a fairy story-esque element, and while the spectre of Disney's Frozen is lurking about here somewhere, I think it feels perverse to 'not' explore these options; so
What happens if your 'Snowman' is in fact a Snow King, who lives alone in a castle of ice, the landscape around it is blasted with wind and snow. He is in love with his own reflection in the mirror; it's his only company. The mirror shows him as powerful, strong, but cruel. The mirror is big - door-sized. Then something happens to change the King's world-view - I don't know, a bird with a broken wing comes flapping down one of the castle's chimneys. At first the Snow King ignores it, but he finds he can't and he befriends it, nurses it etc. The time comes for the bird to be let go. But he doesn't, he cages it. He goes to the mirror, but his reflection shows a King who looks guilty, who looks unhappy. The King can't bear it any longer, and he lets the bird go. Sad now, he looks in the mirror, but this time his reflection shows a man who has dignity; a man who can love; at the moment, the ice mirror melts, and we discover that the 'door-sized' mirror was in fact a doorway to the outside world, which is sunny and warm - and so he walks through it...
Or something like that; it just seems that your 3 components are glimmering with classic Beauty and The Beast themes, and the original Snow Queen story, wherein a fragment of mirror can freeze a person's heart, turning it into ice. I think you can have your snowman as an 'ice man' - a character literally made of ice and snow (which is, of course also a metaphor for his emotional life) and that the castle is his, and that the mirror is used as a transitioning object - a way that he can glimpse the change. Anyway - some ideas in there - give it some thought.
OGR 22/01/16
ReplyDeleteHi Katie - and thanks for being patient :)
So, things have moved on, but we're still struggling to come up with an actual meaningful story, and that's because we're not focusing on character, but rather on the puzzle of putting these objects together.
There's something about the 'cold' and the 'mirror' which is telling me that this is a story about someone or something 'defrosting' - but not in a physical or literal sense. There's something too about the mirror that suggests someone who is haughty and self-obsessed. You might call someone who is haughty, conceited and unfeeling 'cold' - you might say they heart is made of ice. The castle element is just begging for a fairy story-esque element, and while the spectre of Disney's Frozen is lurking about here somewhere, I think it feels perverse to 'not' explore these options; so
What happens if your 'Snowman' is in fact a Snow King, who lives alone in a castle of ice, the landscape around it is blasted with wind and snow. He is in love with his own reflection in the mirror; it's his only company. The mirror shows him as powerful, strong, but cruel. The mirror is big - door-sized. Then something happens to change the King's world-view - I don't know, a bird with a broken wing comes flapping down one of the castle's chimneys. At first the Snow King ignores it, but he finds he can't and he befriends it, nurses it etc. The time comes for the bird to be let go. But he doesn't, he cages it. He goes to the mirror, but his reflection shows a King who looks guilty, who looks unhappy. The King can't bear it any longer, and he lets the bird go. Sad now, he looks in the mirror, but this time his reflection shows a man who has dignity; a man who can love; at the moment, the ice mirror melts, and we discover that the 'door-sized' mirror was in fact a doorway to the outside world, which is sunny and warm - and so he walks through it...
Or something like that; it just seems that your 3 components are glimmering with classic Beauty and The Beast themes, and the original Snow Queen story, wherein a fragment of mirror can freeze a person's heart, turning it into ice. I think you can have your snowman as an 'ice man' - a character literally made of ice and snow (which is, of course also a metaphor for his emotional life) and that the castle is his, and that the mirror is used as a transitioning object - a way that he can glimpse the change. Anyway - some ideas in there - give it some thought.