 Drama: July 06, 2005 Issue [#464] |
 
Drama
This week: Edited by: Nikola~Thankful Library Lady  
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Life is Drama. Whether it is merely a leaky faucet or a torrential downpour, there is drama at every turn.
Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
~Tom Stoppard
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Last month, I used a storm spotting situation to demonstrate how to leave your readers hanging with no closure.
This month, I'll write on using differing points of view for the same situation.
About a week after my last editorial, I was called out once again for a severe storm.
I had been watching this particular storm as it tracked down from the northern part of Oklahoma. It was still two or three counties north of me when I decided to take a nap. No more than that thought left my head when the weather radio went off signaling a severe thunderstorm warning. Who needs sleep anyway?
This particular cell had a history of 75 MPH straight-line winds, large hail and heavy rain.
I headed out to my hill and set up. One of the other watchers was several miles to my northwest. Whatever was coming, he would get nailed first.
We waited about 30-45 minutes. Finally I heard him radio in that the wind had picked up and it was raining hard. Ten minutes later, sure enough, it hit my location.
The wind and rain increased noticeably. Then the highway, the one not a fourth of a mile to my west "disappeared." Then I lost visual of the trees across the street. In the next split second, my car's hood left my view and my little car started rocking in the wind! In the meantime, lightning had struck our tower and we lost our repeater, which was the channel we were working on. My fellow watcher and the Emergency Operations manager both were trying to get me on the radio to no avail. After I had ridden out the storm on my own, the manager called me to let me know that we had changed back to our regular frequency.
A few minutes after all quieted down to a light rain and nice breeze, the manager radioed and asked my uncle's fire department radio number. I didn't have a clue. He told me someone had called him and said a large tree had blown over on their house and power lines were down. The directions weren't to my uncle's place. I told the manager I was headed back into town to see what damage we had.
As I reached the intersection where the small country road I was on met the two lane highway, I found the power lines had my way blocked. I could see the house I mentioned earlier across the highway. A very large tree had fallen and taken out the south side of the roof. We're talking major damage! I turned around to backtrack and made my way to town. By now, the fire department and deputies were blocking the roads into town. Skywarn was going to bring in our generator to help set up a command post for emergency workers, so I was let through.
While the other spotter went to get our generator, I sat at the dark firehouse and watched lightning play across the sky. Mike finally got back with the generator and set it up. We waited for over an hour before the fire department decided they didn't need it after all! Thanks guys. I could have been in bed.
When dawn broke, I went to get a better look at the damage. The first pole had gone down at Main street. The domino effect reached three miles to the Arbuckle Mountains. The house with the damage was ruined. Crews from the power company had been working all night and had a long road ahead of them.
It was a harrowing experience to say the least. But, I'm okay, my house came through with no damage. My power was restored fairly early that next morning. All in all, a good thing.
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Now, how many points of view could you write this story from? I gave you mine. The other storm spotter? How about the emergency manager who couldn't raise his rookie spotter on the radio? Certainly the people who live in the house that now had a tree decorating their roof. How about the townspeople who rode the storm out in the community shelter? The deputies? Or the crews from the power company?
So many people were affected by this storm in differing degrees. Their experience and mindsets are different for each one. You could choose one or several for a story depending on the length.
Think about how many points of view you can write just one scenario with next time you sit at the keyboard. If one character doesn't have much to say, I would bet there is another waiting in the wings ready to run!
Nikola~Thankful Library Lady
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