Plumbing the depths

GottaPlunger? Well, it wouldn't be enough to solve the current plumbing woes in these parts. Recent blogging and writing time has been spent mopping and whining instead, and I've kept on hearing a phrase running through my head (which I take from Tom Lehrer, but may predate him): "Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it what you put into it."

But being a writer, I hear that phrase in my head while squeezing out a mop head, and I start to think "hey, that's the exact reason I'm having the problems I'm having at the end of my manuscript, and I sure hope I move my foot out of the way in time since I'm wearing new sneakers!"

Because really, for a writer, books are like a sewer, too -- you pour in tons of stuff and hope you've got a great filtering system or the book ends up like... well... you know... bad. And specifically when it comes to the conclusion, you can only build from and pay off what's already in the pipes.

Sure, some people refer to this as planting seeds, and I might, too... except that I wasn't gardening the past 24 hours. The upside here is that I've realized that I've actually laid enough pipe as I wrote. And, while there are some clogs in a few places that I've been fixing, I know now that there is a whole faucet I haven't turned on, if I may continue the metaphor.

I am sure this is the same process Carl Hiaasen went through to yield Flush, so I'm confident that the "Greatly Minor, Stinky Flood of 2006" will prove to be more than just an annoying timesuck. I don't know that for a fact, though, because once again, I GottaSwab.