Hmmm - now I might be being a bit thick here, but I've read and re-read your succinct outline - and I don't get it, and I don't see how, from this, we're supposed to know your Private Detective's backstory re. the other case, or the significance of the padlock offering up an address (I think?) for the perpetrator. I also think that the 'theatre' is not being used in any proactive sense and the way I know this is because I can replace it with any other location and your story is unaffected. I apologise for not getting to this sooner, but I'm going to suggest something radical, which is to let this idea go, because I don't think you've considered everything the audience might need by which to share your story and I'd suggest too that by not using the theatre as an active element, you're closing things off.
Some further ideas for you:
One of the most popular genres of play is the Whodunnit - i.e. the murder-mystery - think Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, for example, which has been running in the West End for about a million years... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap
Have you considered setting your story in theatre land - i.e. the story is about actors and actresses performing in a murder-mystery, maybe one in which fact and fiction get intertwined? Another famous Agatha Christie story is 'And Then There Were None' which sees a bunch of characters killed off one by one. Just thinking outloud, but maybe you could consider some kind of rivalry-based story in which two actors are in conflict. When it comes to plays, lead actors always have an understudy - an actor who can step in and play the lead should anything happen to the lead actor - an illness, or maybe being locked in a room and unable to perform...?
There's something about your location that holds the key to telling a properly integrated story that truly uses all of your components to drive the story.. as of writing, I don't think you've got that yet. Look to the theatre, Mike - there lies the answer to this challenge! :)
1 comments
OGR 23/01/17
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
Hmmm - now I might be being a bit thick here, but I've read and re-read your succinct outline - and I don't get it, and I don't see how, from this, we're supposed to know your Private Detective's backstory re. the other case, or the significance of the padlock offering up an address (I think?) for the perpetrator. I also think that the 'theatre' is not being used in any proactive sense and the way I know this is because I can replace it with any other location and your story is unaffected. I apologise for not getting to this sooner, but I'm going to suggest something radical, which is to let this idea go, because I don't think you've considered everything the audience might need by which to share your story and I'd suggest too that by not using the theatre as an active element, you're closing things off.
Some further ideas for you:
One of the most popular genres of play is the Whodunnit - i.e. the murder-mystery - think Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, for example, which has been running in the West End for about a million years... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap
Have you considered setting your story in theatre land - i.e. the story is about actors and actresses performing in a murder-mystery, maybe one in which fact and fiction get intertwined? Another famous Agatha Christie story is 'And Then There Were None' which sees a bunch of characters killed off one by one. Just thinking outloud, but maybe you could consider some kind of rivalry-based story in which two actors are in conflict. When it comes to plays, lead actors always have an understudy - an actor who can step in and play the lead should anything happen to the lead actor - an illness, or maybe being locked in a room and unable to perform...?
There's something about your location that holds the key to telling a properly integrated story that truly uses all of your components to drive the story.. as of writing, I don't think you've got that yet. Look to the theatre, Mike - there lies the answer to this challenge! :)