Common PAW Plot-Lines

[rvm45]

I started to put all this in my comment to Shortie's Story--but then I thought that its content applied more generaly than that.

Most Survivalists Stories follow one, or more of these Formulas:

#1} Here we have a rich fellow who starts to prepare years, or even decades (Generations?--Hold onto that thought...) ahead of the Collapse--then the EOTHAWKI comes, and we get to see NoahII Survive grandly, or Survive very roughly--or maybe not survive at all.

#2} The second fellow has also been Prepping for years, but always on a relatively small scale. He has to Save, Scrimp and Improvise every step of the way. He is prepared--but not nearly as well as he'd liked to be.

#3} This Dude studies the approaching collapse diligently, but his Preps are very minimal--for whatever reason.

#4} The Fellow who hasn't prepared at all--and has to survive by Wit, Toughness and Luck.

#5} The Dude who isn't prepared, but who manages to "Coat-Tail" on someone else's Preps. This method seems to work best with Nubile Young Fems.

#5a} Amongst the unprepared may be folks that are Wizards with a Gun and/or a Great Martial Artist.....

Or maybe he's a skilled Hunter or Trapper--or even a great Fisherman--a man next to a good-sized River with a John-Boat and a Trot-Line would be an asset to any MAG.

#6} Is the "Bug-Home" or "Bug-Out" Story. When the Bell rings, this Dude has to get back to his intended Base of Operation where he Stashed most of his Preps.

#6a} The Dude has to leave his relatively safe Retreat, and go on a mission in the Outside World.

You might think of some other Plot-Lines.....Good. Tell me about them.

Shortie's story "Eli and Me" is more #1 than #2. These folks can't blithely buy any and everything they like--"Like Right Now!"--But they probably are more Prepared than most Readers.

It changes the Dynamics a bit when you're talking "MAG" (Mutual Assistance Groups) rather than one lone individual or family.

Jerry D Young has used all these plot devices in his many stories. Some folks gripe at him for emphasizing #1 & #2 Type stories--but let's face it.....

These are the people most likely to Survive.....

And there's just a lot more to tell about their Prepping.

O yeah,

Here's one more Plot Line:

#7} The Dude who manages to Survive through some Unusual and Brilliant Gimmick.

I want to write a story about a Dude who survives by putting together a Shantyboat and living on the River.

Do y'all know anything about Shanty Boats?

Hey, we all pick up a lot of our knowledge of things through Mass Entertainment.....

Nothing terribly wrong with that--as long as we don't swallow things uncritically and as long as that isn't our primary source of info.

When I was a small boy, I saw the three "Tammy" Musical's about a girl raised on a riverboat, then they made a TV Series based upon the Movies--that I can barely remember watching.

Anyway, "Tammy" seemed to be embarrassed fairly often by her Kin's Back-Country Ways.....

Whereas I couldn't see why anyone lucky enough to be born into such a neat culture would want to leave.

"Damn the Anglisch!"

(Amish Dutch Accent--They call outsiders "English".....

Yeah Well, The Mormons refer to all outsiders as "Gentiles".)

Anyway, a few years later, I came across a couple old--very old--Reader's Digests, that had articles about the Shanty Boaters.

My Father--who was older than me--told he that there used to be Shanty Boats right here in The Nation---on The O-Hi-O, near Pigeon Creek. {O-Hi-O is Indian and translates roughly as "The Wide and Beautiful River"--but when I say: "TW&BR"; no one knows what I'm talking about.}

The County condemned the Shanty Boats shortly after WWII.

One More Time:

Damned Anglisch! By Damn!

Anyway, Wondering through the Wonderful Open Stacks at Purdue University, I came across the Book "Shanty Boat" by Harlan Hubbard.

One of the very best books that I ever read. Get a copy if you can.

Harlan was a very literate intelligent Fellow--a Writer and an Artist.

He wanted to do the Thoreau Thingy.

If you've never read "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, stop right now and go buy you a copy. Now read it--and reread it!

The book operates on several different levels, don't expect to get all of it the first few times that you read it.

Anyway Thoreau was an advocate of "Voluntary Poverty"--in fact, he may very well have invented the concept. Thoreau wanted ample time to Fish on the Lake, Saunter through the Woods, Read, Write Poetry, Grow Beans, and take long Meditative baths in the lake and spending most of the afternoon air-drying naked in the sun.....

And to do that, he was willing to live--at least part of the time--like a Hottentot.

Harlan thought that a Shanty Boat was his trip to "Walden Lake".

Harlan goes into some detail as to how he built his Shanty Boat, and what life on the River was Like. I think that he lived on the River for ten or maybe fifteen years.

His second Book only covers about the last month they were in the boat, till he sold it to someone in the Delta of New Orleans. Read both those books.

His third book is about his later years living on a small farm in Kentucky, not too terribly far from my home.

I've read the first two--look forward to reading the third--

But its been over thirty years since I last read the book. I want to read it at least once more before I write about my Shanty Boat Survival.

www.amazon.com/Shantyboat-River-Life-Harlan-Hubbard/dp/0813113598/ref=pd_vtp_b_2

www.amazon.com/Payne-Hollow-Life-Fringe-Society/dp/0917788664/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

.....RVM45

[patience]

rvm45,

It seems to me that most PAW stories are nearer fantasy than anything else, probably for the entertainment value. They do offer some good info, but more for the wealthy than the average person. A plotline I would like to see is one reflecting our present reality:

With serious, insidious inflation making life tougher each day, how do various folks prepare for any calamity?

-Young couple, not much money, but creative and energetic, living in a rented house, and able to make payments on their nearly new SUV.
-Middle aged couple, fairly successful with good jobs, but just had their "awakening" to the economic crash that is coming. They are in debt up their eyeballs on the house, 2 SUV's, credit card debt, etc..
-A single guy, divorced from a bad marriage, Navy SEAL veteran from Gulf War 1.0. Decent job, but not much else. If he has a gun or three, nobody knows about it.
-A middle aged divorced woman with a couple teenagers. She has a fair job at the bank, and child support, paid only erratically. Has maybe 3 days worth of food in the house, and old car, buts owns the home from the divorce.
-Half a dozen young college kids, of various backgrounds, with no resources to speak of. Clueless, but they get an awakening from a precocious Econ student. They brainstorm about how to make it when the US dollar crashes.
-An old couple, limited income, but no debts and doing okay as long as Social Insecurity continues. They know they are looking down the barrel of dire poverty if the "system" breaks, and expect that it will.
-A mechanic in a farming community, making a living, but just getting by. Has a wife and a couple mid-size kids, a garden, and a boneyard of mechanical parts, scrap metal, and a home shop. He has his Dad's old shotgun and a .38 he took as part payment for mechanic work on the side.

As each of the characters learn how insecure they really are, they realize the need to deal with a crashing economic system. Some have better ideas of what that means than others do. All face Noah's Problem, of having everyone think they are a kook.

There is potential for cold, gut-wrenching fear in all of these people, as they wonder how long they have to prepare for the inevitable, and the unknowns it will bring.

They don't know it, but they have a couple years before it all comes unwrapped.

[Jerry D Young]

I have been asked to do stories with those types of plot lines many times. How people with no money, no preps, no time, and no clue can survive a major disaster that occurs without warning. Small ones, sure. But surviving a major disaster without preps and without outside help, and there will be many people that do, will be sheer good luck and some random occurances that can not be anticipated.

I've done stories where people prepare over time on a budget. Stories where the people were clueless (titled "Clueless" by some strange reason). Stories where the people had simple good luck or outside help. Too much of that good luck, coincidense, random occurances, and outside help and it is no longer a prep story, it is sheer fantasy.

People without preps are going to go through severe hardship and many will die. I can't in good conscience write a story that leads people to believe that a couple of tricky efforts will allow them to survive a major disaster. Besides which, I'm not smart enough to come up with those tricks and make them halfway believeable.

I am open to realistic and believeable ideas as to how people can survive without money, without preps, without time to get preps, that have no inkling on how to prepare anyway, and the situation happens at the begining of the story, not after years of slowly learning and acquiring the things that are needed to survive. I've done several like that.

Writing those kinds of stories seem to be beyond my mental capacity. Whenever I try, the story turns into a real downer with hardship beyond imagination, and death all around. I want to write uplifting stories, not downers.

Just my opinion.

[patience]

Jerry,

I agree, most of the characters I outlined above would not make it through any disaster that amounts to much. If restricted to an economic crash only, some would have a chance, but it would be as much luck as anything else.

Yes, it would be a downer, with the many casualties. But I would like to explore how the economic crash would work out. If nobody gets a story written in time, I think we will see it soon enough in reality. Germany, Argentina, Zimbabwe, to name a few, have suffered through hyperinflationary disasters. A lot of people died, but many made it through. FERFAL's stories from Argentina come to mind.

I met an old German fellow who got out of Germany just as the Weimar Inflation was coming to its' peak, and came to the US with almost nothing. When we talked, back in late 1979, inflation was cooking along here at about 20%+/year, more on some things. He expected the same things to happen here at that time. He wasn't too concerned about himself, saying he owned a dairy farm and he would be okay. But he had some hair-raising tales to tell from others who stayed in Germany, of starvation and such.

Given a couple years, I think it is very possible for those dedicated to the idea to get themselves in shape to endure a prolonged economic crash. But they would have to have a few advantages when they started working on it.

I firmly believe this is going to happen, and think our family has a very good chance of weathering the storm, but we have some of those advantages: living in a rural community, home based business before we retired, education from family who lived through the 1930's, skill sets to match that life, farm backgrounds, and other things.

The tale I have in mind would just be a peek into the future, getting a look at how things work out.

[rvm45]

I remember an unusual Biography that I read. I don't remember the Title or the Author.

He was a teenaged Jew in Germany or Austria, during WWII.

For the most part, he skipped the Death Camp Scene, and lived as a Feral Human, homeless on the Urban Streets.

Obviously, the NAZIs didn't allow folks to live in Cardboard Containers in alleys--Especially Paperless Jews.

Our Hero survived by a number of Schemes: He hustled Pool. He cheated at cards--he wasn't a great Poker Player, but he teamed up with a fellow that had an elaborate scam.

He ran Black-Market Goods--He didn't cop to it--but I believe he was a Medium Level Drug Mule occasionally. I mean, The NAZIs can't send you to Auschwitz Twice--once for being Jewish, and once for Selling Heroin.

He did some Penny-Ante Burglary; though towards the end, he and his friends were cleaning out whole Small-Scale Grocery Stores.

He did some security/strong-arm work for a local Madame--mostly in exchange for a place to crash, an occasional meal and an occasional chance to pick up an odd-job.

He suspected that she only employed him and some of his friends occasionally, as a form of Charity, since she already had several very formidable ruffians on full-time.

The Madame did have a room or two dedicated to the Gay trade. He had a Friend who tried being a Male Prostitute for a couple weeks. He couldn't continue--but he never recovered his self-esteem, being a very broken man from then on. The soft-hearted Madame kept him on as a Janitor, but he was never the same.

The Janitor fellow died of Consumption. Tuberculosis is real my Friends--Two of my Uncles had it. One died from it, as recent as the mid-'60s.

Thing is though, Tuberculosis Thrives on People who have Depression. Being Physically run down isn't good either, but Depression is like a magnet for it.....Though obviously, Healthy and Deliriously Happy Folks can get Tuberculosis sometimes too.

Lesson: Never do something to Survive, that you won't be able to live with after. Judas found a Tree and went and hanged himself.

Dude had come by a Gestapo Badge somehow, and he and his Buddies rolled some Fags with it. Friend cruises crappers looking Fruity. Fag invites him home. Dude follows.

Right before Friend and Fag get down to business, Dude comes barging in, Waving around a Gun and a Badge.

(Homosexuals were carted off to Concentration Camps, Just like Jews and Gypsies. They were forced to wear Pink Stars instead of Yellow. Can't remember the Gypsy Color.....)

Friend gets arrested, but Homeboy gets a temporary Reprieve by turning overall his cash, jewelry, good food, and anything else of value. He has until tomorrow afternoon to go to bank and raise a wad.....

Only friend never comes back--too much chance of getting Caught--its a Short-Con.

One of his main Jigs was as a Gigolo. Think Friends, he's an attractive sixteen or seventeen year old--not too Jewish, or he couldn't walk the streets.....

And men were in crying short supply due to the War.

He was up for a one-night Date--rarely "Quid Pro Quo" for money-but there was generally at least one good meal, liquor, sex and generous "Cab Fare" in the morning.

Sometimes he'd move in with some woman who's husband was away at the front.

The women at least pretended to believe that he was a Deserter--which I suppose made them feel better than admitting:

"Lassen Mir Mit Ein Juden."

However, there was an additional hazard. Women are Emotional Creatures--especially women with a Guilty Conscience. A lover's spat might cause his main squeeze to turn him in.

Several of them admitted, when angry, that they knew perfectly well that he was a Jew. Even if she'd went and told the Laws that she knew where a Deserter was, they'd hardly throw him back for only being Jewish.

Even relatively Well-Off women generally had some job. He tried to shove off early when he flashed on heavy emotional weather ahead, cleared out while the Woman was at work, and took everything that wasn't nailed down.....

This wasn't a game to him, his very survival was at stake.

Several Points here:

Even in a crisis, even during TEOTWAWKI, People will Strive To Feed Their Addictions--Including Breathing and Eating, but all kinds of other Addictions too.

Gambling, drugs, sex for hire, perverted sex.....

There will be Pool Halls, Card Rooms, Whore Houses, Crack Houses--as well as Prostitutes, Pimps, Madams, Professional Gamblers and Con-Men.

Now Dude and Friend saved a long time to buy a Pistol for each of them, on the Black Market. Yes, even in NAZI Germany, during WWII, there were illegal Guns on the Market.

Dude bought him a Pistol an extra magazine, and a modest amount of ammo, and payed extra for a quick lesson, and the chance to try a few rounds in a Deserted Basement.

He didn't state what make or caliber. He said "Small"--in that time and place, my ideal Gun would be a .32 ACP Walther PP. I'd sooner have a Browning P-35; but a Non-Gun person probably wouldn't consider that concealable.

He meant to shoot it out and go down fighting, but when finally captured, he was blitzed, and never even got to make even an aborted snatch at his Gun.

He managed to survive those last few months of the War in a Concentration Camp.

He said that while everything about his Precarious years on the street stands out in Bold Colorful Relief, the days at the camp were a blur.

There is a lot to be learned there. If I still have the book and I run across it, I'll be sure and give Y'all the name and title, so you can read it.

(I have hundreds, perhaps thousands of books--never counted them. A few years ago, the Sewer backed up into our house. Many books either in Boxes resting on the Floor, Stacked on the Floor, or on the Bottom Shelf of various Bookshelves, were ruined.....

Then at some point, a few more were stolen from the storage trailer.....

Right Now, many of my books are stored in various ways, that makes them a real pain to get to.....)

Thing is: Lot of elements there that could be woven into a tale of "Fascist Amerika of The Phuture".


.....RVM45

[patience]

rvm45,

Lots of great material there to develop a young character. Stories with varied characters can be really compelling, by showing their very different reactions and means of coping with hardship and conflict.

[patience]

Well, I did the best I could in my tale, 'Dirty Money', to develop characters of many kinds and levels of wealth and skills. It wasn't fully what I had in mind initially about poor people surviving, but I think I made the point about the value of a cooperative community.

Jerry's analysis is spot on. He made the excellent point that without time, money, skills, or resources, people simply won't make it without a LOT of dumb luck. I agree, and like someone said, 'luck' is when preparation meets opportunity, or something like that.

To some degree, money/resources are interchangeable with time, skills, and labor, depending on the circumstances. I want to explore that in a story.

I think I'll give it another try, starting with a guy who has virtually no money, but has some brains, skills, street smarts, and most of all, TIME to get his act together. I think he would have a good chance if he works hard at it. Hmm?

[pauldude000]

rvm45... Alot of what would be realistic is determined solely by the major plot event.

For instance, the concept of prepping.... consider the laws right now. The law states that the government can legally come into your house during a PERCEIVED emergency and take all your stored 'stuff'. By law, refusal to allow them to take said 'stuff' means you are pushing up posies, and all America would cheer. All they have to do for that is to paint you as some form of psychopath, a molester of various types, or religious fanatic nut, or one of a thousand other things which are socially abhorred.....

And your own best friend will tell them how to get into your stash, and volunteer to go with them, and will feel like a hero for doing it, in sheer disbelief that you managed to fool him for so many years.

The troops refusing to go along with such a scenario which would support you would invariably be fighting a war.... somewhere else overseas, with no way home.

So, if the story-line is rogue government, MAG is fancy suicide, and prepping an unintended invitation to the party.

If the main story line event is foreign invasion, then the outcome is variable depending upon whom wins the war, and just where the MAG is located, and the attitude of the government. (occupied or unoccupied territory) Either way, it could be the same as just mentioned. Only one of three possible plots allows for them to be heroes. (In war time on US soil even with benevolent government, intentionally denying our troops necessary materials in your possession for the war effort is called treason. The odds of non-confiscation are HIGHLY unlikely.)

Natural disaster? See the original paragraph, unless the gov is completely wiped out for some reason.

Gov wiped out? See COG and paragraph 1. Or see feudalism on the local level and no need for paragraph 1.

MAG has a serious flaw, and it is prevalent in most PAW fiction. Rebels cannot stay in a fixed AOP. Rebels that refuse to be highly mobile are by nature dead rebels.

I read and write PAW fiction because it is entertaining, and quite fun. However, the reality of most of such working in reality? Not even. Not in this day and age. MAYBE a hundred years ago, but not now.

Unless the 'Ronin' or 'Rambo' type hero or heroine has anti-aircraft AND anti-missile missiles, forty or fifty saws with practically unlimited ammo, about ten thousand trained and outfitted troops, and a small fleet of tanks and artillery.... and a band of the best hackers available, then it is reasonable to say the fixed and fortified area of operations is not a realistic option. Otherwise they have to be as mobile of an AOP as the modern rebels in foreign countries.... which by nature leaves out the modern conception of prepping.

This big problem with reality in PAW sotry lines I see is the 'survival of the fittest' concept (most prepped, most trained, etc.. I even include my own stories/characters in this), when in reality it is generally survival of the luckiest. The only way a MAG can survive in almost any situation in a fixed OP is never to be found. If they are found, then word will go out, and they will eventually be overrun, if by nothing more than sheer bodies.

I know what I am saying is not going to be popular. The self styled Ronin and Rambo types will take offense. However, I have several thousand years worth of history to compare with, and guess what. Those whom refuse to learn from history ARE doomed to repeat it.

One last thought, before I get back to work on my current book.

What would have happened to the average Indian village if Custer found it? History shows decimation. Whom defeated Custer despite inferior weaponry? A vastly larger band of Indians in comparison to Custer's trained troops. Wave after wave of Indian attacks were repelled before the final massacre.

In modern times, we think of the rifle and the handgun as something special. So did the Indians with guns and bow at Little Big Horn. Yet which citizen even has one multi-burst artillery weapon capable of shredding an entire hillside from five mile away? Or a stack of hell-fire missiles and a means to deliver them? How about even ONE true anti-tank weapon? For that matter... one nuke or EMP device? How about EMP hardened anything? How about modern microwave pain field generators or even actual tasers and not just stunguns?

MOST governments capable of ending up in the U.S.A. have these types of toys. EVEN IF every American owned and knew how to use a Barrett fifty cal, it is the modern equivalent of the bow and arrow.

Still can win most scenarios, but not with a fixed AOP, nor the current definition of prepping. This is a whole different mind set, and movies are movies.

I guarantee you not a popular standpoint on the matter, but history bears it out as true.

Paul Andrulis

[canthsrider]

Paul, have you ever heard of a little country named Vietnam? There was another country that thought they should be able to roll right over Vietnam, too...

Just depends on how desperate the people on the short end of the force disparity are and how willing they are to get really nasty.

[rvm45]

This gives me a chance to do a Public Service Announcement.

The ideas that we lost the War in Vietnam is a Liberal Shibboleth that generations of naive Americans have swallowed.

The Republic of South Vietnam asked us to solve their problem with the Viet Cong--a Guerilla Army.

North Vietnam was very reluctant to use the ARVNs (Army of Vietnam)--at least very often, or very directly--for Political Reasons.

Thanks to shilly-shallying we compressed a year campaign into only eleven years--losing perhaps twenty times as many men as we needed to.....

But the day came that the Viet Cong were thoroughly shut down--no more than a fond memory.

America said, "We've done what you asked. We'll leave you to handle it from here."

Within months, North Vietnam said, "To hell with it! Send in the ARVNs."

South Vietnam fell--making our sacrifices of the last eleven years pointless.....

But we beat the Viet Cong and Won the War.

And we could have done it much sooner, if we'd been ruthless enough.


.....RVM45

[cthorner]

As far as plots go in a PAW fiction story you have nailed it for the most part.
As for my PAW Fiction Series I struggled with this dilemma also. That’s when I came up with the idea of survival as a business model.

I asked myself, what if a corporation was formed by a business man who thought the SH** was gonna hit the fan?

That’s when I decided to write Corporate Survival and have it published on kindle.

Corporate Survival is a series where a group of like minded people form a corporation for their mutual survival, and have to defend their way of life from enemies both foreign and domestic. Where they not only survive but thrive.


If anybody has any questions drop me a line.

CT.

[kaijafon]

why do so many writers make the mistake of making women do all the 'women's work' and the men do all the 'men's work' after the Poo poo hits the fan?

why the reverting to that sexist stuff? can men not cook and do laundry? can women not learn to farm and work on cars/tractors/trucks?

just curious. I see it in most all PAW fiction.

[cthorner]

I’ll take a whack at that.

For the most part you are correct and people are by nature prejudice.

However lumping in all writers together is just as prejudice.

For me I try to consider basic instinct in a SHTF situation. Now before you go all “what about woman’s basic instincts” Step back and check yourself because if you read my books you would see I am not like most authors.

However, for the most part I share the generally popular opinion that men have a deep basic instinct to protect women. In doing so they are generally placed in as safe a position as the man can provide. Unfortunately this means leaving them in camp, and yes the one in camp does the cooking and cleaning by default.

Why do they do that? Because the reader want’s to believe the men feel that way, and yes especially women readers want to believe a man (Qualified: Their man) will risk everything for them.

Is this fair? No! Is it reality, likely but not always so. So why does it happen more so than not?

The best simplest answer is perception.

What’s that you say? Just a cop out!

Nope it’s reality because you can’t sell ice to an Eskimo. It’s that simple.


Wait what does this have with selling ice to Eskimo’s?

Most authors write books that they think will sell. No mystery.

Sorry but that is just a fact.

Also, a side note but just as important. This site is apparently to promote the writing of PAW fiction. One must assume the creators are for promotion and sale of PAW fiction. PAW fiction that most people enjoy reading would be a plus in my book.

CT.

[papaof2]

re: traditional gender roles

Doing something different (writing a story) requires using some brain cells that aren't necessarily exercised every day, so it's easier to pick a female role model for a female character (example: I need someone just as crazy as my cousin Gail (or her daughter if I need the next younger generation) - it's easy to use someone you know because you can predict how she'd respond to various circumstances and have a character with a fairly consistent personality). If you base a female character on your crazy cousin Larry, where do you have to make allowances for gender differences? If a female is tough and capable, does she lose her traditional nurturing side? And the reverse also applies.

It takes extra thought and time to consistently have Sam stirring the clothes in the wash pot while Mary splits more wood for the fire - but are there good reasons for those job assignments? Perhaps Sam lost his glasses and can't see well enough up close to safely use an axe or Mary has better eye-hand coordination. Then you have to remember that characters are multi-dimensional in their abilities - for some things, either can do the job adequately but there may be an appropriate gender bias in other things (Sam outweighs Mary by 50lb so he does better holding the sheep down for shearing).

I occasionally need to read 'Accidental Family' from the beginning to see if the next steps in the storyline are consistent. And people wonder why it's sometimes so long between chapters - although yard work and the like do have some influence ;-)

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[millwright]

I have been giving some thought to dipping a toe into the writing waters.

A guy that I used to work for explained to me once, "You bring your best talents to a job, I'm an accountant and I see things from that perspective, you are a contractor and make things work....that's a totally different perspective than mine".

I guess the root of that lesson it to apply experience to an initial writing project.

My grasp of the English language is ok, but jeeeez I suck at punctuation and sentence structure.

Regarding possible plots, I haven't found a twist that is twisted enough to set me in motion. If it comes to me in a blinding flash....ya'll will be the first to know.

[papaof2]

millwright,

A writing challenge that starts wth your skill set -

Someone asks you what it costs to build a tornado shelter.

Write out the conversations you would have with this person.

What questions does he have about materials and costs?

What questions do you have about total space and the equipment for the shelter?

Does he ask if a tornado shelter can serve as a fallout shelter? What circumstances might cause him to ask?

How do you answer him?

What do you tell him if he asks to see a shelter you built for someone else?

What's the basic cost difference in tornado shelter versus fallout shelter construction? Why?

What's the cost difference in how a tornado shelter would be equipped versus a fallout shelter?

Where does he get the money to have the work done?

What discussions/arguments happen between your client and his family members?


Remember that spelling and grammar checkers are sometimes helpful, but you really need a human for proof reading - preferably several humans, as different people see different types of errors. Some people notice doubled words, some don't. Some are good at seeing similar sounding words and knowing which to use (your versus you're, their versus there versus they're).

Microsoft Word 2003 has a big glitch when it encounters "you're" in some contexts - it suggests "you is" which is only correct in something like "you is used for both singular and plural".

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[rvm45]

Please excuse my spelling.

Some keys on my keyboard are dead. A new one is on 1he way.

Meanwhile:

I1 really drags my bea1 1o criticize anyone—well, people who haven'1 ticked me off...

Bu1 I was readin6 a fairly good Survivalist type story recently. 1he writer seemed 1o have a relatively fresh approach 1o 1he genre.

1hen his hero rescued a woman from brigand bikers and be6an 1he obli6a1ory "Love In1eres1"...

And I stopped reading in dis6us1...

So 1ri1e! So Formula!

Every Dan6 story doesn'1 have 1o have a blasted romance.

How about 1he occasional story abou1 a cranky old bachelor who intends s1ay 1ha1 way? Or a wicked old maid for 1ha1 ma11er?

Sick, sick, sick of love stories. PAW Fiction is no1 a sub-6enre of Romance Novels...

1he Firs1 1ime 1he hero rescued a damsel and was punished by having her as a lifelong companion i1 was new. Now i1's cliche and Schlock.

{Yeah I let "spellcheck" help me where i1 would—1ha1's why my neologisms aren'1 consis1en1...}


.....RVM4_five

[millwright]

RVM, I know that when the balloon goes up, I will save some 20something smoking hottie from the MZB's and she will make my every whim and desire come true AND......shovel out the chicken coop between running batches through the canner.


She needs to bring the canner too.......

[mnn2300]

Come on RVM, the stories belong to the writers and if they want it to include Romance that is their right. Just as its your right to not read them.
Many of us do have romance in our life and find it one of the main reasons we enjoy life.

[rvm45]

Sure,

Folks have a right to write them.

Others have a right—perhaps a duty—to point out that certain plot elements are cliched.

One isn't going to go very far with cliches unless he can really turn them around and wrest them into some fresh new shape.

So many folks new to PAW Fiction write Millwright's classic "Rescue the Beauty Queen from the MZBs" precisely because they're not aware of how many times that it has already been done.

A new twist?

What if the girl in question is shockingly ugly, but is nonetheless determined to reward her horrified rescuer and keeps trying to hook up with him all through the book?

What if your "Josie Wales" style rescuer turns out to be a straight tomboy once she strips off the goggles and scarf and slouch hat—but the beauty queen still wants to reward her in kind?

That could be funny.

What if our hero went out of his way to rescue the woman—wasted time, effort, pain and ammo...

And she ran off with the first greasy gigolo type they run into?—now that would be more like life.



.....RVM45

[millwright]

And there is reality...

Meet a stunningly beautiful gal that seems way cool in all aspects, then find out she is batshit crazy.

BTDT....I kept the house and the suburban.

[kaijafon]

"However lumping in all writers together is just as prejudice."

That is why I did NOT say "all writers".... lol!

[kaijafon]

"Why do they do that? Because the reader want’s to believe the men feel that way, and yes especially women readers want to believe a man (Qualified: Their man) will risk everything for them."

Not ALL women readers want to believe a man (even "THEIR MAN") will risk everything for them.

Some women readers want to see the woman save their man....

[kaijafon]

awesome discussion folks!! RVM45; awesome ideas!! I may borrow one or two! lol!

I personally, think that men and women should be well versed in many different areas and then do what they like best ...most.

I just get bored very easy with stories that go on about how the guys get all the fun and the women stay home and cook and clean... that's no fun at all....

I think that is why my stories always have a female character who is 'out of character' somewhat.

[millwright]

As a plot device, in a PAW world where able bodied people are needed, how do you deal with the equivalent of a divorce?

.....without a gun LOL

Seldom do I read about unresolved interpersonal conflicts in small groups, usually its a kiss n make up deal.

I would have traded my ex for an Almond Joy and a hot Coke tho....