Should a Character Star as human or mermaid

[Prince Calypso]

In a mermaid novel or book or what have you
which do you prefer.

a story where the character starts out human and for whatever reason becomes a mermaid

or a character who starts their story as a mermaid

[Mer-Crazy]

If the transformation has an original concept, a logical concept, then I don't see why you can't do that. But I swear if I see one more magic rock/pool/cave/spell mermaid transformation where the entire series is about them just playing with powers and getting splashed and hiding their tails from their family I'm going to scream. (I watch a lot of mermaid web series and they're all pretty much that formula). This is also if you have some kind of original story planned out.

Starting as a mermaid can also be very cliche if all the story is about is them coming to land, experiencing human life and falling in love with a forbidden land boy.

I think what's important first is having a solid story concept. The characters tend to flow very easily after that. Though I think there's more space for originality with them starting as a mermaid, more difficult to fall into H2o cliches.

[Prince Calypso]

well to take my mind off my money issues and not being able to start making my tail yet
I've begun working on this story that has been swimming around in my head for like almost a year.
the only issue is i have no idea if i want the main character to start out as mermaid who has been living in the human world
or for the character to start out human who has mermaid blood and then turn into a mermaid and go from there.

I'm still working on the concept but it all depends on which why i go with the story either starting with my character as a mermaid or as a human