help a college student graduate with an ice fishing tip

[Guest]

pikehunter: it's not meant to be scary. it's about a boy whose brother has died, and sort of to cope with it he decides to live out in his friend's dad's fish house on mille lacs for christmas break. the scene i originally asked for help brought the boy and a girl to the fish house during a blizzard and i wanted him to teach her something while they were stranded out there. because i use fishing as a sort of metaphor for life throughout the piece, i wanted him to teach her something about fishing and then sort of realize something about life himself, if that makes any sense. any suggestions?

[Mueske]

How about going for dramatic twists like the following. We all know that black=evil, white=good, well about this reversing when the lad tries to walk for assistance in the blizzard? You know, what looked pretty at one time becomes a life-threatening menace? We've all seen that several times, right guys? Then, just when you think you have things turned around in your mind to match reality, BOOM! things reverse again. The lad is no longer scared of the bone-chilling cold wind and blinding snow and is in fact now embracing it and begins to strip off his clothes, believing he is now warm and safe as his body's core temperature is decreasing rapidly and he envisions he is with his brother, thinking that he had dreamt of his brother's loss. Only to arrive back to the relative safety of the shack, completely by accident, just in the nick of time. Helpful?

Kevin

[Mueske]

Ooops. That's kinda scary, isn't it? Sorry.

Kevin

[CANOPY SAM]

Icestorygirl,

This is really a nice change from the normal drivell we mull over here.
It sounds like there is really a lot of emotion and soul searching intertwined throughtout this story. There is tremendous amount of beauty in fishing, and being one with nature - especially on the vast frozen icescape of a frozen MN lake.
Lakes that are frozen have shifing ice as the air cools and warms from day to night and back to day. When this happens there will be loud cracks and booms in the distance, or even right beneath you at times. It's a little startling if you're not used to it, but it's really cool when you know you're safe.
Many people today catch and release really big fish for numerous reasons, but mostly because it's the right thing to do. That might play into this story nicely. If your male character were to catch a really big beautiful walleye and release it back to the water for his own personnal reasons.
Many nights you can watch beautiful Northern Lights displays in the northern sky - Christmas and northern lights would be a nice tie in.
Fishing is also a very spiritual experience for many. There are a multitude of references in the Bible to fishing, and Jesus spoke of references to fishing in many of his parables.
Imagine this character's grief...He's lost his brother and he's stareing into the icy depth of a frozen lake. What is he thinking as he sits with his companion? He can only see the inside of this small, plain wooden box. They would likely run out of lantern fuel after one or two nights. Heating the house with a wood stove might not be to applicable today, but not to many years ago it was the only way to heat a fish house. A burning fire is another good metaphor for a story such as this.
I could go on forever...very, very interesting. Would you please contact Rick (the owner of this site) and get permission to print your story here. I think a lot of us would really enjoy reading the finished product. Thanks for the nice diversion! Good Luck!

[CANOPY SAM]

Dog gone it!!! Would somebody delete one of those posts outta there so I don't look like such a lemon!
Why does that happen? My first post doesn't show up for an hour and a half, so I rewrite it, send it, then both are there at the same time.....Hhhhuummmmpphhhhh!

[pikehunter]

icestorygirl:
The story sounds awesome ... all the how-to's in this forum are great. (Having spent a few Christmas breaks in a fish-house myself, I would recommend any of them.) It might make a good scene to have the experienced hand teaching the girl how to cook over a fish-house heater. It's something I'm sure many of us have done. And since the charachters are stranded it may also be a neccesity. He could also teach her a jigging method that works. (This may be simple to explain vividly too.) He could teach her that slowly raising the bait than twitching it as it falls will entice fish to bite ... or something like that.
One of the above posts made a good point ... if your charachter is religous, there are several fishing references in the bible that may be of good use, but alot of that depends on what your charachters are like.
As far as a fishing metaphor transferred to life, there are many ways to go. There are several lessons about patience and persistence that could be taught and carried into life and crafted into a metaphor.
Hope some of this helps ...
pikehunter

[jdm911]

stranded: must have been a Polaris