(so here’s an idea if you’re looking for inspiration...)

...people who make simple mistakes that create terrible circumstances and how they deal with the guilt brought on by the simple mistake.  I tried writing about this once - it was in second person.  You were a babysitter who left the back slider open a crack and the two-year old you were watching got out and drowned in the pool while you were peeing.  I wanted to imagine that situation well enough to develop some way of dealing with it.  This is perhaps because what I rely on as a guide for my behavior is my reasoning more often than how everyone else does something , so I’m in danger of making a simple logical error, doing something differently, and having it wreak havoc in my life… So I was preparing myself for that.

But maybe I gave up because I recognized that being prepared for a terrible situation has a slight negative effect on the motivation (and therefore efforts) to avoid it.  Maybe I stopped writing that story because I decided that being prepared to deal with having let a two-year-old drown is worse than not being prepared.  I guess concentrating on strategies that protect us from making mistakes is better than preparing for the fallout if we do make them.  Anyway, it was just an idea…

Funny how I read this and thought - hey, I enjoy reading about this too!

The tricky thing with this concept is that it needs to be written in such a way that readers can really associate with the action. If there’s too much ‘prep’ work or if it’s written in a too logical straight forward way, the reader may end up saying ‘yeah, as if I would ever have done that’.

It reminds me of the classical horror movie setup: the ‘bad guy’ (monster, killer, whatever) is introduced, it’s dark, there’s a storm out there, the electricity and phone are out, the poor victim hears a noise...and goes down to the basement to investigate, without as much as a baseball bat to defend themselves. Everybody says: ‘uh..stupid, you’re going to die...’

In real life situations however, we all find ourselves doing just that, because it’s the logical thing to do, because we don’t think of monsters or killers (well ok, most of the time I do, but I send my husband downstairs for me :Þ).

It’s all in the setup: making the reader believe that the action is realistic. I think that when I read a book, I anticipate reading about fantasy, or stuff that would never happen to me. Funny how sometimes we have to work hard at convincing the reader to believe in stuff that actually happens every day

<<But maybe I gave up because I recognized that being prepared for a terrible situation has a slight negative effect on the motivation (and therefore efforts) to avoid it.  Maybe I stopped writing that story because I decided that being prepared to deal with having let a two-year-old drown is worse than not being prepared.  I guess concentrating on strategies that protect us from making mistakes is better than preparing for the fallout if we do make them.  Anyway, it was just an idea… >>

It’s a great idea.  It’s kind of a psychological twist on King Lear or something.  I’m not sure I haven’t got my plays wangled, but isn’t there a Shakespeare play where all the effort put into avoiding the prophesy, or whatever, goes into making it come true?  I think THAT is a fairly common theme, but yours is a bit different because it’s about trying to get ready not to screw up AFTER screwing up, as opposed to trying not to screw up, and getting screwed up in the process.  Being prepared to deal with having let a two-year-old drown is an extremely weird concept.  It’s a kind of pessimistic mind-set, but hey, you never know.  I guess a Boy Scout, say, should be prepared for ANYTHING! (?)

Anyway it strikes me as a weirdly twisted good idea, which will now haunt me.

Well shoot, I guess it could be a whole story about an author whose attempt to prepare for screwing up do actually make it easier for him to screw up… and so he blames himself, but then his preparedness to handle the tragedy he causes amazes and astounds everyone and he becomes a tragic hero, hating himself for failing to back off (as I did - yay me!), but loved by all because of his amazing ability to cope and even make as much good out the tragedy as someone obsessed with preparing for it would be able to.

Oe maybe…

It should be a story about an author who just can’t shut up and writes sentences that are so damn long that nobody can understand him so instead he builds a website and gets people who are better at writing to write the stories using ideas he comes up with, but then finds out that the people on his website come up with better ideas and he learns that age old less where the students master their master.

Or maybe…

One of you should come to my house and watch over me so you can stop me from doing all this typing so that A) I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive motion syndrome and B) I don’t make a fool of myself in the forums by posting a lot of inane things like poorly metered poetry and runons and long lists of things concatenated with the word ‘and’ and stuff that makes your brain hurt and other stuff that makes other parts of your body hurt.

I’m sorry for any pain I have caused.

On knowing that I will burn the turkey? (Again?)
On knowing that I will forget to set the alarm clock?
On knowing that I will lose my debit card and make it to the bank just as the attendant locks the door (shaking his head, firmly)?
On knowing that I will mis-label the Christmas gifts, thus sending my twelve year old niece on a thirteen year bender involving rum and egg-nog?  (Never mind my brother, who has always wanted to play with Barbies, but never felt he had Permission....)

I told you this would haunt me.
Merry Christmas, anyway.

I enjoy reading things that a reader can tell are done well.  I enjoy storylines, and plots, and descriptors that are thought out and then edited up to a level of fineness only the involved author can polish and make shine on.  Writing is more then just simply writing.  Editing by the author adds a personal touch, a final stroke of insight otherwise not seen in many works submitted by more lazy prone or incomplete writers.  To this writer, careful editing is key.

I ask any reader, “Which do you preffer: a meal prepared by an everyday greasy spoon cook during a hurried lunchtime, or a fabuously presented serving that was prepared by a Five Diamond certified Chef during a dinning exierence anticipated and reserved for a high priced weekend night out?  I savor a medium well done steak with a proper glass of wine over a slapped together corporate hamburger and a system drained coke anytime, even if they are essentially both cuts of the same meat.