Alright, so I wanted to share what I worked on recently. The idea just popped into my head, actually – thinking about the phrase ‘undertaker daughter’.
It sounded kinda interesting, you know? Made me wonder what kind of person that might be. So, I figured I’d try and explore it a bit, just as a little creative exercise for myself.
Getting Started
First thing I did was just sit with the idea. Undertaker’s daughter. What comes to mind? Obviously, death, funerals, quietness maybe. But she’s also a daughter. A person. Does she help out? Does she hate it? Is she totally normal despite the unusual family business?
I grabbed a notepad, started jotting down some quick thoughts:
- Maybe she’s really practical and down-to-earth because she’s seen death isn’t some big scary mystery, just a fact of life.
- Or maybe she’s super rebellious, wants nothing to do with it.
- Could she be quiet and observant? Used to watching people grieve?
- What about school? Friends? How do other kids treat her if they know?
Trying to Build Something
Okay, brainstorming is one thing, but I wanted to try and make something more concrete. Decided I’d try writing a short character sketch, maybe a scene.
I focused on the ‘practical’ angle. Thought it might be more interesting than just making her gloomy or spooky. So, I pictured this young woman, maybe late teens, early twenties. She’s not morbid, just matter-of-fact. Maybe she’s good at comforting people in a quiet, steady way, learned from her dad.
Then I tried writing a little scene. This was kinda tricky. Getting the tone right was tough. Didn’t want it to be depressing, but you can’t ignore the setting. I imagined her helping her dad in the workshop, not with the bodies directly, maybe just organising things, polishing wood for coffins, something mundane against the backdrop of the business.
Wrote a few paragraphs describing her doing this, trying to show her personality through her actions. How she handled the tools, her focused expression. Tried to hint at the contrast between the ordinary task and the extraordinary context.
Hitting a Wall (and working through it)
It felt a bit flat at first. Just describing actions wasn’t quite enough. It needed some kind of interaction, maybe?
So, I thought, what if someone interrupts her? Someone who doesn’t know what the family business is. Maybe a delivery person, or a friend dropping by unexpectedly. How would she react? Would she be secretive? Open? Awkward?
I added a bit where a classmate comes looking for her, sees her in the workshop. Tried to write that moment of hesitation, the slight awkwardness, but then my character just explaining simply what she’s doing. No drama, no big reveal, just “Yeah, helping my dad out.”
Where I Left It
Ended up with about a page or two of notes and sketched-out scenes. It’s not a finished story or anything close. But it was a good process, you know? Taking that initial phrase ‘undertaker daughter’ and just trying to build something from it, step by step.
It really forced me to think about character and how background shapes personality. Even if I don’t do much more with this specific idea, the exercise itself felt useful. Just documenting the process here, sharing how I went from a simple phrase to trying to put words on a page. That’s the work, right there.
