Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Time Dilation
Have you ever noticed how time plays tricks on us?
Done-over
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. ~Henry Ford
The weirdest thing happened yesterday.
I had a hearing to close my Worker’s Compensation claim.
Okay, no problemo. The ankle is in fact as healed as it’s going to get and frankly is adequate to return to work on. The ribs, not so much but that’s an unrelated matter as far as WC is concerned.
At the hearing, they decided that the specialist I was sent to in November was the determining date for closure of the case.
Y’say what now?!?
I protested the accuracy of the statement, but the presiding judge says “We paid, didn’t we? So, what does it matter?”
Well, first of all, the specialist being cited spent all of 3 minutes wiggling and poking my ankle.
- It didn’t get into his report that the injured ankle was swollen to almost twice the size of the uninjured one.
- It didn’t get into his report that one of the places he poked got me to say “There it is!“
- It didn’t get into his report that I stated that there was a poking sensation on the outside and front of the ankle nor that I stated there was a tearing/burning sensation in a circular area around the inside of the ankle.
None of that made it into the report but what did get into the report was that I had a “normal gait“.
What also didn’t get in was that I only had a normal gait for up to 15 minutes of continuous walking and that I couldn’t descend stairs like a grown-up. That wasn’t part of the evaluation. Just the cursory wiggling and poking.
“We paid, didn’t we? So, what does it matter?“
Well, it matters because the fact is that I could not descend stairs like a grown-up until January when I had my follow-up visit with their second specialist.
It matters because the fact is that I could not possibly have walked around a factory floor for 12 hours in November. I required and received several weeks more of physical therapy as well as a brace to wear from the second orthopedic specialist at the first visit in December.
It matters because if you close the case as of November in accordance with the first specialist’s report, you might think about billing me retroactively for all the care and income provided between the first specialist’s evaluation in November and the second specialist’s follow-up visit in January.
But hey, if the judge says it doesn’t matter because they already paid then I guess it’s all good.
If they start sending me bills, I guess I can tell them “You paid, didn’t you? So what does it matter?”
I expressed these concerns to the employer’s lawyer and he said they can go to some state fund for whatever. He didn’t promise to do so. He didn’t promise not to bill me retroactively for income and medical care costs. He simply said they can go to the state fund.
Pardon me if I spend the next couple of weeks or months with a sphincter tight enough to create diamonds
waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Gone To Plaid
Time? Totally subjective. It all depends on where you are.
Are you having a good day? Time is probably zipping right by.
Are you having a lousy day? Time is probably dragging tortuously.
Are you traveling close to the speed of light like Paulo was in the Carl Sagan excerpt?
Time is definitely zipping right along like your superluminal Vespa and tough rocks for your brother Vincenzo.
2018 dragged ass like you can’t believe and yet here I am again at the beginning of a new year in exactly the same state as I was this time last year.
Forget time dilation. I’m stuck in a causality loop.
What Happens Next
For me, the writing process is the same as the reading process. I want to know what happens next.
~Neal Asher
Me too. There are the types of writers who plan out their entire storyline and those who are called “pantsers”.
Pantsers are those who write by the seat of their pants, so to speak. They start typing and let the story go where it will. I’ve done quite a lot of that and I always wind up painting myself into the proverbial corner.
What’s really needed is a bit of both.
Take a look at the video below about the uniformity of good storytelling. The eight steps of an impactful story still allow a fair amount of pantsing insofar as the story detail goes, but at least it gives you a decent framework to navigate by.
One of the interesting things about this time of year is the impact that snow has on traffic patterns. Obviously, it’s slippery but it also often obscures the lines on the road. You have no actual sense of where the center line or the shoulders are.
Of course, if the road is fairly narrow and the shoulders are fairly steep the snow will conform to these contours and it’s easy to determine where the usual guidelines are. On a flat country road surrounded by relatively level ground to either side, the cues are totally gone and you might drive right off into a farmer’s field.
Pantsing without at least a vague idea of what the story is going to be about is not unlike driving around on what you think is the road. It’s easier to wind up in a ditch without that yellow line down the middle to keep you oriented.
I knew about the traditional storyline structure, but I was expecting it to occur somewhat naturally amidst the pantsing.
It has occurred to me that not only do you need to know what the story is about (superheroes, in this case) but what the characters are going through and how it will cause them to grow in relation to the eight point continuum described in the video above.
What I’ve always admired about excellent storytelling is how authors such as Charles Dickens were always able to weave seemingly unrelated character experiences together into a rich and engaging tale. I also enjoy how mystery writers like Agatha Christie are able to throw breadcrumbs out as the story goes along without our realizing that they are relevant until the detective connects the dots at the end.
Each character has a life and motive of their own. Sometimes the storylines intersect and sometimes they go independently parallel. That’s what I’m striving for. I really want to be able to have a meaningful story with believable threads of people going their own way and intersecting at needful intervals.
So, that’s what kept me from posting on Wednesday. I knew that waiting until after the WC hearing would make for very interesting reading. I hope you feel it was worth the wait.