nose pre-smashing
Last week, I wrote a blog about how real life can abruptly change in ways we cannot predict, and it's important to take that into account when writing. If everything we write seems logical, follows a sequence of action, readers can get bored. They know it's not how real life goes, but what is inserted has to feel real.
Sunday night Farm Boss and I had planned to watch a video. As it was being set up, I went into our bedroom to use the bathroom and noticed I had not made the bed. That's not the usual, but it'd been a busy day. So I made it, petted the cat on it, headed for the bathroom.
The Oriental area rug, between me and that bathroom, is played with by the cats; so I had no reason to take for granted it would not be curled on the edge. I did. I walked toward it without paying attention. I caught my toe on its edge and felt myself beginning to fall.
You know how you have that moment when you think-- what to do? I tried to do a quick step to save myself but no good. I was clearly going down. I had my hands out to brace my fall but shockingly slammed my face into our flagstone stone floor anyway. I remember thinking this should not have happened, but blood was spraying every which way. It had happened.
To make a long story short, I finally got the bleeding stopped, decided I likely had broken my nose and with the help of Farm Boss, got some ice and laid back on the bed to hopefully reduce the swelling that was inevitable.
After some internet research (plus he had experienced such incidences-- although it was my first), we did what he suggested which is ice mostly, be sure the nose is breathing properly and that it looks straight... then you just have to let it be. I have a large nose at best as you can tell by the above photo. I was imagining all kinds of disasters for what I would next have.
So my evening got totally rearranged with one event. One momentary moment of carelessness which frankly could have killed me as that stone floor is a hard one. I could have slammed my head into the dresser and ended up with a concussion. I could have broken off teeth. Overall, since it's just my nose and a fat lip, I got off lucky.
How one moment from out of nowhere can impact dramatic writing was reinforced when I read this article the next morning.
We plan our lives. As writers, we plan our plots, but sometimes fate steps in, carelessness, someone else's nutty behavior, and it's all for naught. Not only can life not be ultimately planned, neither can every aspect of a manuscript. Even when we know where our story is going-- and I always do-- how it gets there can have a lot of surprises. I got one of those last night.
It looks like my nose is straight (if it ever was), and now all I have to do is wait to be sure it is healed before i go pushing on it. That sounds like a couple of weeks deal. I will likely have a small scar on the bridge of the nose as my glasses were pushed aside when I hit and dug out a piece of flesh. Not great and also bled a lot. Glad I am almost 71, as that kind of thing matters less to me these days than my body's overall health.
