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Thanks for reading!
So I need help, briefly, with a plot problem. (Let me start my saying that although you will be dealing with the concept of mermaids, my stories are NOT fantasy,so I'm not posting there.Thanks!)
I'm writing a series of stories about an urban mermaid. She gets around the city, goes about her day, etc. There's nothing anything magical or unusual about her except that she's a mermaid.
I got an idea in a dream last night for a very short piece told from the mermaid's mother's point of view that explains how she came to live on land. The mermaid's mother used to live on the land, she bargained with Yemaya (the Queen of the Ocean--this comes from Santeria, Ifa, and similar religions). She has a mermaid baby, but because she used to live on the land, she's given the choice of if she wants her child to live on the land or in the water.
What I can't figure out is why she chooses the land. She'll establish that her baby won't die without being in water and can be mobile and everything on land, but it still doesn't make sense to me why she would choose what seems to be the more difficult path. Nostalgia is the only reason I can come up with--perhaps the mother feels lonely or estranged from the other mermaids and thinks the human world is nicer and/or more interesting? There must be a better reason than that.
Can anybody come up with one?
Thank you!
So I need help, briefly, with a plot problem. (Let me start my saying that although you will be dealing with the concept of mermaids, my stories are NOT fantasy,so I'm not posting there.Thanks!)
I'm writing a series of stories about an urban mermaid. She gets around the city, goes about her day, etc. There's nothing anything magical or unusual about her except that she's a mermaid.
I got an idea in a dream last night for a very short piece told from the mermaid's mother's point of view that explains how she came to live on land. The mermaid's mother used to live on the land, she bargained with Yemaya (the Queen of the Ocean--this comes from Santeria, Ifa, and similar religions). She has a mermaid baby, but because she used to live on the land, she's given the choice of if she wants her child to live on the land or in the water.
What I can't figure out is why she chooses the land. She'll establish that her baby won't die without being in water and can be mobile and everything on land, but it still doesn't make sense to me why she would choose what seems to be the more difficult path. Nostalgia is the only reason I can come up with--perhaps the mother feels lonely or estranged from the other mermaids and thinks the human world is nicer and/or more interesting? There must be a better reason than that.
Can anybody come up with one?
Thank you!
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