Fish Skeletons

Let’s pretend 

I am a teacher

And you are a student 

In a class full of artists 

I’m going to hand each one of you

A piece of paper

Not just any piece of paper

A piece of paper with a skeleton of a fish on it

Great

So everyone has a skeleton of a fish

Next

I dump hundreds of crayons & coloured pencils in the middle of the room

Every colour you could possibly imagine 

And I ask you to colour in that fish 

Anyway you like

Have a blast 

Do whatever you want!

Twenty minutes later

We have a show-and-tell

Little Billy has made a blue fish with spiky fins and big red eyes

Jumping Jack has created a happy looking rainbow fish with huge goofy teeth

Winnie has drawn a very calm looking purple fish which almost looks eerie

Levi has made a fish with all kinds of spindly looking extensions

Scarlett’s fish is upside down and signing a song

Mackenzie’s fish is striped like a zebra 

The list goes on

So

Everyone got the same skeleton

The same structure

But everyone had the freedom to flesh it out in their own way

And what we got was a bunch of unique fish

One-of-a-kind 

But they were all still fish

Mmm 

Acting 

Everyone is given the same structure

But everyone is given the freedom to flesh it out in their own way

Structure equals freedom

Am I adhering to the structure that this project requires? 

Or am I just doing something which doesn’t actually serve the story?

And

Am I able to flesh it out in my own way?

Or am I just creating the fish I think I should in order to please everyone else?

It’s a hell of balancing act

And one which will keep us busy right up until the end

Serve the structure

Flesh it out in your own way

Hope this helps 

X