Day 4: Eulogy

15 minutes to write synopsis, 30 minutes to write. Monologue from a section of Purgatory.

Character biography and motivations
David is Ana's brother, who was in the car crash when she died. He's a little shy, and easily flustered; he's at university studying Psychology and English Literature. He's very emotionally sensitive, doesn't control his emotions well, and doesn't have huge amounts of self-confidence. He prefers to let other people do the talking for him. He and Ana had a very close, tempestuous relationship; he was her support and vice versa, but there was a lot of normal sibling arguments.

Emotional undercurrents
David has had a few days to come to terms with Ana's death; he's feeling a little bit numb, nervous, and he doesn't want to be giving the speech, yet feels he should. He was, as previously mentioned, very close to Ana, and so he's feeling very vulnerable. He misses her, and feels bad for pushing her about the drinking--he feels if he hadn't have done that, she'd still be alive.

Aims
I want to write a beautiful obituary of around 1-2 pages in length. I want it to be a well-structured speech, written by a man who isn't one for beautiful turns of phrase. Short, but meaningful.

Synopsis
He begins by introducing himself and Ana; he speaks about how when they were little, she would always be the one to hit him--but whenever somebody threatened him she would jump to his defence without hesitation. They had a very close relationship, even though they lived very different lives. He talks about how they stayed together even when they moved out--and how she helped him through a very difficult incident in his life, even though she had just lost her job and had no money herself.

He talks about how she was always trying to help him and other people, and that she had a great sense of humour--even if it was a little twisted. He says if she was there, she would have told a joke to lighten the tension; he tells a bad joke, pauses, and says she always had terrible taste, with a laugh.

He says that they didn't always talk to each other much, but they were always there when they were needed. He says he misses her, and that he loves her--and that he hopes wherever she is, that she's happy.

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