The story of two speakers without purpose.
You would think that there is little in common between writing and owning a sailboat, but as we make improvements on our 27-foot boat, I begin to realize there are many commonalities.
For example, we have a quarter berth which is below the seat on the port side (left) in the cockpit. The berth is a cozy place were someone can sleep and is tucked under the long seat overhead in the cockpit. A flaw the space had was a speaker that had been mounted on the wall. There was a matching speaker on the starboard side as well.
They both had overly long screws that could catch one’s arm easily when accessing the storage locker or your head if you sat up in the berth.
In fact, my husband did catch his forearm on one of those screws while crawling in the cockpit storage when we were installing the new mount for the outboard motor. Proof in the pudding.
What does this have to do with writing? A book is a compact world. So is a boat. You can’t afford to have snags and wasted space or poorly constructed containment spaces.
As a result, we discussed what was the best way to deal with these issues. Of course, changing out the screws is the easiest choice, but neither my husband nor I think we’ll spend much time blasting music out to the neighboring boats. And the system was rather aged.
That leaves two unnecessary holes in the boat. One should never leave holes in a boat any more than I would be comfortable leaving holes in a plot. So we sat down and discussed what could be done.
First option was put some sort of patch in or false cover. Really not a good option.
Second option: for the berth, we would put in a porthole so there could be some outside light coming in as well as a means to increase air circulation and get rid of a worthless item that stuck out several inches. That option suited us.
My husband re-cut the hole, shaping it into a long oval and installed an aluminum port which could be opened from the inside and have a screen inserted. It is a very smooth surface on the outside.
Thus, we have a little porthole in the quarter berth (which I am secretly working to have as my own sleeping area since the v-berth is not quite large enough for two people).
As for the matching hole on the starboard side, we decided on a removable cover which would hide a bag great for keeping small important items that need to be easy to access but are also easy to lose if left loose in the cockpit.
That came in the form of a plastic twist off cover and removable bag that hangs flat when not in use. It takes up zero room in the storage locker while offering a handy place to stow a phone, the lock to the companionway door (door to the inside of the boat) or other small item.
Writing connection: what may initially seem like a great idea, something that fits with the plot and adds to the overall story, may turn out to be less significant than thought or even unnecessary.
For example, in The Dragon Question (a romantic fantasy with Beauty and the Beast underpinnings), I described a collapsible desk in detail. I later cut out much of it. It turned out to be insignificant to the story. The main character still used it, but it’s construction details didn’t matter (except to me as it kept me consistent in how she used it when it did show up in the narrative.)
That is the story of two speakers without purpose becoming useful to our long-term activities on the sailboat.
