A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 19
This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with…
This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.
Today’s story: “On Her Final Trip To Hospice, Dying Woman Talked Of The Ocean. The Paramedics Made A Little Detour.”
The paramedic team of Dave Moran and Ray Smythe, who work at the Wauchope, New South Wales Ambulance Service, were taking a terminal elderly woman, Mavis, out of her home and onto a palliative care unit.
She was was very ill.
They started chatting away, and Mavis spoke off many things.
Of how she desired to die at home, and hope she could do so.
And she spoke of her meeting her husband of 65 years, Ron, at the beach.
And how they loved the beach.
Ron had recently passed.
Said Ray, “She mentioned her and Ron had met on Clovelly Beach, and Dave piped up from the front seat and said ‘do you want to go via the beach?’”
“Well, do you want us to take you down by the esplanade?”
And they did so, as they stopped at Flynns Beach in Port Macquarie, and brought the gurney out facing the water.
They could smell the ocean in the sea breeze.
“So we went off to Flynns Beach and Mavis was quite impressed … she spotted a whale.
She was becoming quite frail and couldn’t get out of the stretcher but her mind was as sharp as a tack and she knew what she wanted”.
Dave went down to the waters edge, and collected both wet and dry sand, and a cup of sea water.
Which they put into her hands.
Mavis tasted the water.
They both stood by her gurney for 45 minutes. She had her eyes closed much of the time with the sun on her face and the salt water in the air.
It was a quiet time, with each person thinking their own thoughts.
She mentioned to the pair of all the many moments from her life at the ocean that were flashing in her mind and heart.
When she was a young child playing in the sand. When she was a young woman with a beau strolling at the shore. When she was with her young children as a family on a day outing.
Meeting her husband when they were both so young.
She was asked what she was thinking as she was watching the waves.
“I’m at peace. Everything is right.”
Apart from the simple beauty of this act of empathy and kindness, I’m moved with a few creative ideas for a possible story setup.
The first thought that came to mind was the movie Driving Miss Daisy.
A journey with what I call stranger sojourners, two disparate personalities. If you go the route of a hospice driver, then that indicates they would have more of an upbeat personality which then suggests the dying person does not. Of course, they’re dying, but their mental state of being can be anything, but let’s just say they’re feeling pretty bitter about their fate.
Of course, you could go another route: It’s an ambulance driver and they are the character needing to connect with their inner humanity. Overworked … facing a divorce … stressed out by their job. Receive a call to pick up an old woman to transport her to a hospice center. I’m thinking Ruth Gordon from Harold and Maude.
Whatever the cast of characters, the dying character wants to see the ocean one last time. The other thought I had is it’s not close. The ocean is hours away, thus, not an easy decision for the driver.
No matter the particulars, you’ve got your ending: They do get to the ocean. Driver and patient. The sunlight. The breeze. And the limitless ocean stretching out to the horizon.
And as I tell my students, “If you know your story’s ending … you’ll figure out how to get there. Just listen to the characters.”
There you go. My 19th story this month. Free for you to take and write.
Previous articles in this year’s series:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea.
Let’s say you’ve found a story concept from an article in this series. Or you have an idea of your own, but you’re at the very beginning of the story-crafting process.
How to develop, then write it as a screenplay?
May I humbly recommend my book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.
Hundreds of people have sent photos of my book. Here’s one.
The book is structured to provide writers an approach to the story-crafting process grounded in immersing oneself in the lives of the characters (Parts I and II). Then Part III presents a stage by stage approach to break story: from concept to outline.
Go here to read endorsements from dozens of professional screenwriters, authors, and academics.
You may purchase The Protagonist’s Journey here:
Come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.