Sunday Picture Post 31 / Dying Words
“Dream House” image by oilcorner at DeviantArt
WRITING TIP OF THE DAY: DYING WORDS
Countless stories and movies have characters that speak dying words; important messages that writers want to scream out to the world.
If you knew you were going to mysteriously vanish forever after writing your comment on this post today, what would you write?
What would be the very last thing you would want people to hear you say?
What would you want humanity to learn from your life experience?
Words of wisdom? Love? Regret? Inspiration? Missed opportunities? Secrets?
This is a creative exercise, feel free to write something entirely fictitious, dark, humorous, or real that another person may have passed on to you during his/her dying day.
Try to combine your dying words with the Sunday Picture Post movie idea for extra credit.
Dying words are the undercurrent of your story. It is the message you want to get across to your audience. It is the idea around which you build your story, whether or not anyone actually dies or says the words, the message is there.
The dying words we hear most in movies or from loved ones are to tell people you love them and to forgive them. Since you want your story to stand out and be unique, see if you can come up with some original dying words.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SUNDAY PICTURE POST
For The Sunday Picture Post, we flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday, I post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, using the image above, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
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10 Responses to “Sunday Picture Post 31 / Dying Words”
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(working) Title: Journey of a Lifetime
Word: destination
Sentence: A grandson and his family look out at the horizon from the house/castle his grandfather “built” for him.
An aging visionary, Marcus, takes his grandson, Nate, on a fantastic life-changing journey, showing him how to think outside “the box” (reality). The grandfather takes the boy and a few others on a trip beyond their wildest dreams to find a lost treasure. Others possess this knowledge of “out-of-the-box” comprehension, and are looking for the great treasure as well, but for an alternate darker purpose. Time is running out for Marcus, and he must pass on the legendary secret so it won’t fall into the wrong hands before he dies. But first, he must make Nate a true believer of the power the treasure holds.
Dying words: Marcus is dying after a victorious battle between the family and the villian. They arrive safely to the castle/house and are out on the balcony at Marcus’ request. Marcus is lying in Nate’s lap as he dies… “I did it all for you. I didn’t get a chance to bring your father here in time, and I needed you to see this. This is what I’ve been preparing for you. You are not just the caretaker, but the master. I built this for you. This place is yours. All of it. I did it all for you.”
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I apologize if it sounds a little cheesy, I’m on the sleepy side and it’s way past bedtime, but I couldn’t sleep on a budding idea. I see this as being a family adventure movie with lots of bright colorful eye candy. I swear I’ve seen something like that picture somewhere in a movie a couple times. I won’t give examples now.
And dying words have always stood out to me in movies. Well, not just movies but everywhere. I try to have somewhat happy endings in my stories, so I rarely get the chance to use dying words.
t.sterling — Great job tying it all together with an exciting and moving story. I would go see that for sure.
Jaden,
Can’t do this one today in any detail because I was literally around someone who is going to die in a few days. I’m kinda spent.
I will say I like the way this pic combines the water earth and air elements. I guess all that is missing is fire. Although it is a bright and sunny day. If I was going to write a pitch it would probably center on that. Well, maybe. I change my mind frequently. This is a good one though.
It’s almost like a slice of time. A preservation of things past.
Ellen Wilson — I am sad to hear about your loved one. I wish you strength through this time.
I was at a funeral this weekend, the 4th one this year, after a lifetime of relatively little tragedy, so dying words are on my brain. What is it that is important to us in those last few moments or days? This woman who passed this past week, had all these unfinished beautiful ceramics in her art studio and was upbeat and humorous, even though she knew she was living her last days. She lived her life like this — positive — and I was inspired by it.
Jaden,
I would like to die like the woman you knew.
I’m a hospice volunteer so the person wasn’t a relative. I think it’s important to provide people comfort before they die. I would want someone to do that for me.
I haven’t been around death that much either. I didn’t realize it would be so hard.
Thank you for your kind thoughts. E
Oh, that wouldn’t meet the current Building Code.
It wouldn’t. Not at all.
(Sorry, that’s the Engineer in me talking!)
@Jaden and Ellen
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make light of your losses. I just came late to the party, and I saw the funny looking building.
Friar — Laughing here. I have done that several times on other blogs. Or like back when I was on dial-up, and half the page never appeared, but I didn’t even know.
Yeah, this structure looks pretty unsafe…. and totally F’ing amazing!
This picture reminds me of Avalon, Isle of the Apples.
Suddenly it surfaces. After this long time.
Title: Renaissance Rising and Apple Biting
Word: Mystery
Sentence: Chartreusse, Indigo and Ahmed sit around a Ouija board and weird things happen that involve historical events from England to Spain.
Pitch: Jacques the Jester (from previous picture post) joins the above characters to solve a mysterious puzzle involving Shakespeare and the Inquisition.
Oh this is stupid and I could do better. I have the basic idea down but not the pitch and all the other stuff. Funny how all the other stuff is the hardest for me. Idea is not a problem.