On realism in literature...
If I followed common wisdom and "wrote about what I know"...
...it'd definitely be crackfic. I spent about three hours this afternoon up a ladder outside with a hairdryer, kitchen towels, scissors and a car scraper.
See, we can't just have a leaky roof like normal people (well, we did for a while, but that's another story) - we have to have a leaky wall! Apparently the wall has somehow gotten full of ice/snow/meltwater, so while my little brother mopped up the slowly dissolving drywall on the inside, my sisters and I removed the ice from the side of the house in an effort to find the leak and stop it. At one point we thought this might involve the purchase of 7 rolls of Mortite; at another point, we semi-seriously considered crazy-gluing a tarp to the house. (Believe me, somewhere and somehow, it was foreordained that I'd grow up to write Macfic. *g*)
After rejecting duct tape, masking tape, double-stick tape, strapping tape, and clear book tape for a variety of reasons, we finally wound up attaching clear plastic sheeting to the siding with tape originally designed for caulking bathtubs. Hopefully, it'll keep any more water from getting into the wall, and we can concentrate on pulling out and replacing the drywall.
(Yes, we know how... that leaky roof I mentioned? 600 square feet of ruined ceiling, plus the opposite wall to this one. Thank goodness for the retired handyman who only charges $20/hour and loves teaching me stuff!)
I know a little boy who said something very wise when I was replacing his family's kitchen sink drain: "Inside the tiny problem, you find a small problem. Inside the small problem, there's a medium-size problem. Inside the medium problem, there's a large problem, and inside that a giant unfixable problem."
I quote that a lot.
...it'd definitely be crackfic. I spent about three hours this afternoon up a ladder outside with a hairdryer, kitchen towels, scissors and a car scraper.
See, we can't just have a leaky roof like normal people (well, we did for a while, but that's another story) - we have to have a leaky wall! Apparently the wall has somehow gotten full of ice/snow/meltwater, so while my little brother mopped up the slowly dissolving drywall on the inside, my sisters and I removed the ice from the side of the house in an effort to find the leak and stop it. At one point we thought this might involve the purchase of 7 rolls of Mortite; at another point, we semi-seriously considered crazy-gluing a tarp to the house. (Believe me, somewhere and somehow, it was foreordained that I'd grow up to write Macfic. *g*)
After rejecting duct tape, masking tape, double-stick tape, strapping tape, and clear book tape for a variety of reasons, we finally wound up attaching clear plastic sheeting to the siding with tape originally designed for caulking bathtubs. Hopefully, it'll keep any more water from getting into the wall, and we can concentrate on pulling out and replacing the drywall.
(Yes, we know how... that leaky roof I mentioned? 600 square feet of ruined ceiling, plus the opposite wall to this one. Thank goodness for the retired handyman who only charges $20/hour and loves teaching me stuff!)
I know a little boy who said something very wise when I was replacing his family's kitchen sink drain: "Inside the tiny problem, you find a small problem. Inside the small problem, there's a medium-size problem. Inside the medium problem, there's a large problem, and inside that a giant unfixable problem."
I quote that a lot.