Inconvenient facts

[pegkerr]

In the interest of story research, I went to the Aquatennial Milk Carton Races this past Sunday. I'd always planned to have Solveig be in a boat in the race, and I needed to work out some details. The idea was that because of some mishap, she ends up underwater, where a fish talks to her again.

I got to the race, and boy did I feel stupid when I saw the list of the rules. I'd figured there were lifeboats standing by, of course, and that was fine: I wanted her to get fished out of the water (so to speak) quickly. But of course they're going to make all the contestants wear lifejackets, which means that even if Solveig does end up in the water, she's going to bob right up like a cork, no fish-chats possible.

Of course, I'm the author, and I can decree some way around this. Um . . . she's on a part of the boat that's sticking out, and it breaks off, and the boat's going so fast that it goes over her, so she's under water under the boat for maybe 15 seconds. That's long enough. The trouble is, those boats are hardly speed demons. So I can come up with a work-around, but the problem is, it's going to bug me everytime I read the scene (it's been halfway written for a year now) because I'll know every time I read it of course it couldn't really work like that.

So . . . does this happen to you on stuff you write? You have to have something work a certain way, and you find out that no, technically it can't, so you pull out a lame work-around and hope nobody notices?

This is the sort of the thing, I imagine, which will bug me, the author, much more than any reader of the book. Milk carton boats have broken apart, and some have sunk, after all.

Click here, here, here and here for some pictures of other milk carton boats through the years.

[Note: and to add to my irritation, I still haven't figured out what the damn fish says to her in the first place.]

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

Could she have taken off her life jacket momentarily (that intent, anyway) to put on more sunscreen? And then, (un)luckily, that's right when she gets knocked in the water? Or maybe the jacket chafed her and was interfering with her ability to row. Or someone else was having trouble with *their* jacket and asked to swap. Or she initially had a t-shirt on over her swimsuit, but the day got too warm so she removed the jacket for a moment to pull off her shirt and then... Any of these momentary excuses for having her be jacketless work? Or inspire something better? ;) She would even get in trouble then, after she got fished out (so to speak) for having broken the rules.

Do you know what message you want her to come away with, after speaking to the fish? Not the exact words, but the impression and impact it will have on her? Maybe it would work better to go backwards like that.

[averagegirl.livejournal.com]

God, all the time. Nothing more frustrating than logic thwarting the writer's inherent sadism.

But, hmm...Maybe the thing capsizes and she's stuck underneath it for a bit? You know how it is, you're suddenly underwater and it's cold and you're short on air and you have no idea which way is up.

I also just wanted to say that Solveig is such a cool name - nice choice. I had a violin teacher named that once...didn't get along with her, but it didn't make her name any less cool. Is it Swedish?

The name Solveig

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD!

I chose it because it's Norwegian (it's actually derived from Old Norse) and this is Minnesota after all. But not until now had I actually looked up the meaning of the name.

It means "House-woman," or on another website I checked, "House of Strength."

What a PERFECT name for a woman architect!

Damn, sometimes I'm so inadvertantly brilliant that I scare myself.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Could her lifejacket get snagged on something that held her underwater? A submerged stick, or a piece of jetsam?

Alternatively, could it be a practice run prior to the real race?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Also, an insufficiently-tightened life jacked can slip up once you're in the water. She would still be floating, but maybe just her nose would be out of the water. Her ears would still be submerged. Of course, that's not as good as having her all the way underwater.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Go over to our house, get a PDF jacket out of the garage, (They are hanging in the corner near the canoe), take it down to the lake and put it on. Go in the water and figure this out. It will make sense once you do this.

Also, there's an intensely charming children's book that was my mother's on the tallest shelf in the basement. It's called "The Land of the Lost" and is all about talking fish. Borrow that, if you like. Just let me know you've got it, 'cause it's one of those important family books.

Just call up Erik and Nicole and tell them I sent you.

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I will do that!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

K. [life jackets are designed to keep an unconscious person floating with their face out of the water. This does not mean one can't do anything else with them. Also, if you go down to Nokomis, think about water clarity and whether she can see the fish]

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

could she just be trailing one hand in the water the way you do when the boat's trolling, and gotten a sharp nibble, and thought she heard the fish?

Geek answer syndrome...

[kalikanzara.livejournal.com]

"SOS Inc., (SOSPENDERS brand), of Fruitland, ID, alerted the United States Coast Guard, distributors and public that they are recalling approximately 7,200 automatic inflatable personal flotation devices (PFDs or life jackets) to investigate a safety defect involving the Hammar model MA1 Manual/Automatic inflators."

Not having enough character background to know where/how/who she borrowed/bought a life jacket from, but it'd be easy enough to borrow one that had a safety recall, maybe. The trick is to not use one of the failure-proof foam already inflated ones but use an older manual/automatic inflate one, where the bladder could have a hole, the co2 cartridge is empty, or the valve sticks just long enough...

http://www.boats.com/boat-articles/Safety+Gear-145/Inflatable+PFDs/12490.html

Hrmph. Automatics aren't usually approved. Still, a munally inflated one (borrowed?) meets the approved, and if you're not familiar with how to inflate it has a failure scenario that could work:

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=752763

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Dude. Your town is cool. (But we already knew that.)

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Old life jackets come apart, usually when you need them the most. If Solvieg doesn't use hers on a regular basis, and was in a hurry when she put it one, it wouldn't be all that improbable that it wouldn't work.

See "Komarr" and breather masks - same principle.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Some of the local boat-races for boats-made-of-nonstandard-materials (near MIT, empty milk cartons may approach a standard material) have crews of friends working on last-minute assembly and rigging, before the race itself. Your character might be doing that kind of assistance, for a race where life jackets rules are only enforced for the race itself. Around here, the reasoning is that the race begins at 2, at such-and-such location, so all the mad scramble shortly before 2 is legally disconnected. Especially if it's 100 yards from the official race location. Especially if the boat owner/official race entrant (ie, the only one who signed the liability release) doesn't care if his or her helpers wear or fasten flotation devices when helping with setup.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Are you serious? This is easy.

1. Lifejackets are design to save lives, not prevent ones hair from getting wet. I don't see a problem here.

2. Lifejackets are not perfect. They're put on improperly. They're taken off in the heat of the moment. They have structural problems.

I agree with K. Go get a lifejackt. Thrash about in the water for a while.

This isn't a problem.

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Go get a lifejackt. Thrash about in the water for a while.

The things I do for Art.

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

A couple of thoughts, if they're wearing PDFs (more common than life jackets if you're paddling), then you don't get flipped over, you can still be face in the water. Or could you just have a "it felt like much longer" bit?

Life Jacket...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

People can get careless. The jacket can slip off, or she can end up temporarily upside down (the jacket can shift). She can also get tangled up in the milk-cartons... I assume there's lots of excitement and rivalry at the race, and very, very tempermental boats.

Take K's advice and try a life-jacket. I don't think it's that hard to fall out of one or end up with your head under water.

Re: Life Jacket...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

uhm, make that face down... it can be easy to slip out of one though...

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

She takes the vest off in defiance of rules because it is inhibiting her performance of some urgent task? That's usually how on-job injuries happen with machines: even if machinists are required to wear gloves, one will inevitably get frustrated with fumbling because of the gloves and take them off "just for a second, until I get this done". Next thing you know, there's a thumb somewhere on the ground. This also sounds like something Solveig would do. People of her personality type really do half believe that they are invincible sometimes.

pfds

[erickavan.livejournal.com]

our friend d. is a search and rescue/recovery diver, and has seen many cases where the pfd slid off, broke off, or got stuck on something; so you would be able to realisticly have any of this happen.
go have fun in the water :)
e

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

In falling off the boat, she gets ducked briefly before the jacket pops her up. She thinks she hears something trying to talk to her, is startled, puts her head under deliberately to check it out. No problem.

(From what I know about water clarity in the lakes here, the point about her *seeing* the fish is probably pretty much right on.)

[dawn-came-dim.livejournal.com]

Actually, even with a lifejacket, it's possible for her to be underwater. If the jacket were fastened improperly so that the top strap came undone though the lower two remained attached and she hit the water face first, the force would be enough to keep her upper half down for a bit of time while her torso was bobbed upwards. This is how life-belt wearing water athletes have drowned that way.

Anything's possible -- just play around within the laws of physics. >:D