Thursday, February 3, 2011

Foreshadowing in Real Life

Something very disheartening happened today. The water heater broke. But by the end of the whole situation I realized something. Something that, amazingly, has to do with writing. But in order to explain, let me tell you what happened.

First off, it has been unexpectedly cold, extremely cold, which is the reason why all of this happened in the first place. Now then, last night, when I turned on the faucet on the separate side of the house a little trickle of water came out, then stopped. I knew the water had probably frozen and told my dad but he didn't seem to be concerned so I didn't worry. This morning the news said that the electrical companies wanted everyone to turn off things they may not be using to minimize the number of black outs that might happen, so the heater in the other part of the house, where the water had froze, was turned off. Later this afternoon I went to the pantry to make a sandwich for lunch and I heard some strange water-like noise from where the water heater is and immediately thought of flameable gas and the house exploding and stuff. Thankfully I was wrong, but the water heater had instead busted and was spewing water like a river. I hadn't even seen or felt the water I had walked over when I heard this (I was wearing slippers).

So, what does any of this have to do with writing? Well, this whole entire problem was perfectly foreshadowed! First, this cold front came in, foreshadow #1. Then the water had frozen, foreshadow #2. We turned off the heater in the back (which therefore made the water heater work harder at keeping the water hot, causing it to build up too much pressure), foreshadow #3. And then, boom! It busted!

It was so cool to realize that that it was almost worth it! I mean, come on. That, I think, is just like the foreshadowing leading up to Plot Point One. The water heater didn't just bust, there were all the signs leading up to it, and I can't call an event to mind where something like this was foreshadowed so perfectly.

I'm glad because this has shown me, to my face, how to foreshadow an event.

But on the other hand the other part of the house now has no water, so maybe I shouldn't be so glad.

Good day (or night), everyone!

4 comments:

Misha Gerrick said...

Hahaha that is the perfect example of foreshadowing.

Even down to the fact that I would not have known where it was going...
:-)

Claudie A. said...

Oh god, so sorry for the water-busting thing. I hope it's not too bad. We had something similar happen in November's last weekend (YES, at the end of NaNo) and had to redo the floor here.

Still! Good lessons on foreshadowing. XD There's nothing like life reminding us how to write.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Sorry about your water heater breaking. That really sucks. At least it wasn't Cyclone Yasi though. I was looking at the footage on the BBC and saw that luxury yachts were thrown two blocks inland. Yowsa...could always be worse I guess.

TayLyee said...

Misha- Oh, I had no idea where it was going either, didn't know until the situation was taken care of ;)

Claudie A- Oh no! Right at the end? Of course it had to happen then, couldn't just wait until December.

Yeah, never thought life would get in on the writing thing. But this has given me a new perspective on random things that happen (or were they so random?) ;)

Michael Offutt- Everything's fine now :) Yeah, it could always be worse. The house could've really blown up, if what I initially thought was happening really did ;D