You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. —Golda Meir
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It was 12:34 a.m. when Frank woke up. We know because he said later he looked at the digital clock on the night table and thought how interesting it was that the time was 1-2-3-4. That was just a second or two before a bone-rattling crash shook the house.
I had never heard a sound like that before. Coming out of a deep sleep, I found myself standing beside the bed before I was fully awake. At first, I thought lightning must have struck the house to cause such a deafening noise.
The burglar alarm was blaring, so we both rushed out into the front hall. I ran straight to the alarm keypad and shut it down. Then I looked toward the sunroom, and my bewilderment deepened.
Our sunroom was at the back of the house. It ran along the center portion of the house and was connected to the living and dining rooms by several glass-paned doors. Those doors had to be closed and deadlocked in order for the burglar alarm to be armed. All the doors were wide open. That’s when I got nervous. Maybe somebody had broken into the house after all.
Then my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I could see debris hanging down from the ceiling in the sunroom, and there was a strong aroma of oak. None of it made sense.
Frank decided to take a flashlight and go outside to see if he could figure out what was going on. I thought that was a really bad idea, but I couldn’t think of anything better, so he left. In a little while he returned. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said. (That’s not good thing to hear at any time, but especially not in the middle of the night.)
A very old and very large oak tree (we figure it weighed approximately ten tons) that was just off the north end of the house had fallen directly along the length of the house and was lying like a beached behemoth on top of the sunroom, kept in place by the very large slot it had made in the roof on the north end of the house.
The tree had taken out part of the roof over the kitchen, the sunroom, and the second story as well as part of the second story wall. Fortunately, our bedroom was at the south end of the house.
The lights in the house were blinking, and we were afraid of wire damage that could cause a fire, so we called the fire department. When they arrived, they checked the house but couldn’t find evidence of fire. However, they suggested we turn off the master switch and go to a hotel to spend the night, which we did.
The next morning, we met our insurance agent at the house to assess the damage. When we walked around to the backyard to view the situation in the daylight, the sight was more awe-inspiring than the sound had been the night before.
The base of the tree was hanging off the north end (right side) of the house and the main part of the trunk lay on the sunroom roof. The top of the tree extended off the south end of the house and beyond the frame of this picture.
We arranged for a company to bring in a crane to remove the tree from the house. I held my breath as a very brave man climbed onto the tree and used a chain saw to cut the top piece off so the crane could lift it and set it down in the backyard. Then he moved to the next piece, and took the monster off the roof one very large piece at a time.
It would take months to deal with the aftereffects. During that time, we moved into an apartment, met with contractors, oversaw the repairs, and dealt with our insurance company (which was very supportive, thank goodness), all around our regular work schedules. Plans we had for those months were put on hold. Necessity is the mother of new scheduling.
All ended well. The contractors did a fabulous job of rebuilding the house, and our insurance company treated us with the utmost respect and care. The insurance covered almost everything, and in the end, the house was in as good or better shape than it had been before.
It took a while, and it wasn’t fun, but everything returned to normal eventually. (Well, almost everything. I used to view trees as my friends. Now I regard them as potential criminals. 😒)
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We all know that life can take a wrong turn sometimes. Things happen. The best laid plans and all that.
So what does this have to do with writing? It’s obvious, right? We come to a stopping point in the WIP and realize things are a mess. We’re going to have to make major repairs to make the story structure solid. It’s time to rethink, reschedule, and do the hard work of rebuilding. But the end result will be better. All in service to the story.
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So TKZers: Have you ever had to stop and regroup when you were writing? How do you handle it when a giant problem lands right in the middle of your story?
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Glad no one was hurt. Scary stuff!
As to writing, yes, sometimes we have to clean up messes in our manuscript. In fact, I finally grasped a week ago my current wip was heading in the wrong direction and needed major repairs. But it’s all for the craft we love.
Good morning, Mike!
It’s hard to take the time to tear down and rebuild a story. But it’s all for the craft we love. Well said.
Have a great week.
So glad nobody was hurt, Kay. And you were so fortunate to have a cooperative insurance company.
Good morning, Terry.
The “big tree problem” happened back in 1999. Our insurance company was so supportive and helpful, we decided we would keep all our insurance policies with them, and we have.
Can’t imagine how much more difficult it would have been if they had been part of the problem.
I did put a piece a way after realizing that: Not much had happened, and there was no place for the story to go. It might become a chapter one day.
Weather – In May the St. Louis area was hit with a tornado. An old friend had part of his roof in three different yards. His insurance, most people’s insurance, has been great. His house will be repaired. My children evacuated a daycare. Their little charges had songs and extra snacks while waiting on the parents.
It has been months. Palatial homes from the early 1900s have tarp roofs. There are still piles of cut up trees. 3,000 to 5,000 trees will be replanted. But it could have been so much worse.
Morning, Alan.
Tornados are terrifying. Glad your friend was okay.
“But it could have been so much worse.” Always good to remember. We reminded each other of this frequently in the months that followed our tree problem.
Wow, Kay, thank goodness you and Frank weren’t hurt. What a massive tree.
As a writer, I try to drop trees on my characters at the beginning of the story then watch them clamber over the limbs to get out.
The most challenging plot problem happened in my third thriller Eyes in the Sky when I killed off the villain halfway through the book. The male lead had means, motive, and opportunity and is arrested. Uh-oh. Now what?
Being a pantser, my gut said it was the right move but I had to do some serious clambering to climb out from under the disaster I’d created. Ultimately it worked. Whew!
Good morning, Debbie.
“As a writer, I try to drop trees on my characters at the beginning of the story then watch them clamber over the limbs to get out.” Love your metaphor.
Keep dropping those trees. 🙂
What a terrifying episode, Kay! Even after 26 years, you did an excellent job of rendering the jarring suddenness of it. So glad you and Frank were okay.
Your post hit home today. It’s been a year of interruptions for me, with illness, a brother who was hospitalized for two months, and a now a close friend in the hospital for a month. In the midst of all of that, I’ve been trying to revise my WIP, in a start/stop fashion. A revision which has taken place “off the page,” because I realized that the plot logic needed a lot of work, as did the motivations for several suspects. Mysteries can wind up being nested like Russian dolls if you aren’t careful.
Finally, after some sustained work without taking days off, I had multiple insights and brainstorms about the novel, and saw what my unconscious had wordlessly been trying to tell me, and the plot problems evaporated. Now the “on the page” revision, rewriting the actual manuscript, can begin.
This might be the topic of my next TKZ post.
Hope you have a wonderful week!
Good morning, Dale!
Sounds like you’ve had a tough year, but I appreciate the way “the boys in the basement” helped out.
Hope the rest of your year is worry-free. Looking forward to your next book and your next TKZ post.
Wow, Kay, what a story! And I love how you tied your potential “disaster” to re-building a story with a gigantic tree in the middle of it.
Sure glad you and Frank weren’t hurt. 🙂
I had to regroup when I discovered, with my new WIP, that I’d started the story in the wrong place–something we’ve discussed here at TKZ. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew something was because I’d lost interest in it. If I could lose interest in my story, I’m pretty sure my readers would too, right? 🙁
Thanks for this post, and have a great week!
Hi Deb!
It’s hard sometimes to step back and regroup, right? But realizing that need seems to be an important part of writing novels. (I like the way you determined it was time to rethink the beginning.)
Have a great week!
Scary story. For those with large trees, invest in a yearly visit from a certified arborist who will check on the health of your trees. A worthwhile expense which may lower your homeowner insurance.
My novels are planned out so a disaster of my own making rarely happens, but the trajectory of one novel was almost destroyed when I realized the vital clue to the MacGuffin and the villain–a certain poem by Poe– had a publishing date where it wouldn’t work. My research source was wrong, not me. Pre-internet and the book was from my graduate school days so it should have been accurate.
After the panic slowed, I did what I always do when I’m dealing with a problem. I found a long, boring job to do. In this case, it was a total clean out and clean up of the refrigerator. By the time I was done, I’d figured out how to use the date to my advantage, and the answer fit the story far better than my original ideas.
Definitely scary, Marilynn. Something you think will always happen to somebody else.
I like your solution to dealing with a problem. I find exercise of any kind will free my little gray cells to roam around and come up with solutions.
Have a good (and safe) week.
This article vividly captures the chaos of a sudden disaster and its unexpected parallels to writing. Kays personal experience is both relatable and inspiring, reminding us that setbacks, like destructive storms, can ultimately lead to growth and improvement in our work. The metaphor of rebuilding a house is perfect for the challenges we face in writing.play basketball
Good afternoon PB. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
So much of life can be a metaphor for writing. The good and the bad.
Have a good writing week.