Outline

Using my post-it note technique I have come up with a story line that I intend to follow for a while to see what it produces. It's a detour from my original vision of the piece, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it does get to the same point, I think (the scholarship on Ophelia vs who Ophelia actually is) but through an outside character.

The professor then, who was originally going to be interspersed with Ophelia, will become the main character. In fact, at this point I only have Ophelia appearing once in the entire piece. Now this may change since right now it is only an outline. The next step is to write through some of these scenes and to see if they work. Then I still won't know if it's the right story until I get up on my feet and try it out.

So back to our teacher. At this point, Sophie is the name of the teacher, and she will open the piece with a lecture about Hamlet, as if it is the first day of a high school class. She will get side-tracked by the subject of Ophelia and madness. Then through "scenes" with her sister, we will discover that she has recently lost her mother, who had been classified as insane. The piece will then focus on her perception of insanity, her fears of becoming insane, etc. She will also be forced to make a choice. I believe she will be offered a position at a university, and she will have to decide whether to take it (and move and accept success) or not.

I developed this story from the story of Ophelia. Basically, I put all the moments of Ophelia's life (that we see in the play) on post-its and arranged them on a wall. I then developed corresponding moments in my created character's life. They don't mirror each other, but rather the events in Ophelia's life inspired the new events.

Of course, actually getting down to the writing is my next step, to see if this version is the one to explore. I find writing in this manner rather terrifying, but I am ready to explore.