Playwriting Exercises: Death

I love words and how we use them. I love complex words with interesting means. (e.g. agelast: someone who never laughs. That is an awesome word and definition.) I love it when there are multiple ways to say one thing. I love it when one sentence tells a whole story.

Over at Vast Public Indifference, there is a catalogue of different synonyms for “died” that was gathered by looking at pre-1825 tombstones. A little grisly perhaps but such a fascinating list of words. And so many stories:

Part 10: Slain by the Enemy

Part 11: Departed This Stage of Existence

Part 12: Went Rejoycing Out of This World

Part 13: Submiting Her Self to ye Will of God

Part 14: Fell Asleep

Part 15: Changed a Fleeting World for an Immortal Rest

Every one of these sentences tells a story. Every one of these sentences describes a life.

Playwriting Exercises: 

• Look at the list. Choose one as inspiration for a scene. My favourite one from above is “went rejoycing out of this world…”
• Take a look at something you’re writing. Can you condense it down to one sentence? What is the one story that tells the life of your main character?