And then the ceiling fell.
But that was after the water came in.
Some of the exercises I’ve been developing for Fictionsmith Family center around imagining what crazy thing happens next in a story (usually around the Inciting Incident moment in the structure).
This past month, I haven’t had to do much imagining.
After the Kickstarter concluded, I was well on my way to developing the Summer Writing Project. I scripted and filmed all of the Prologue content to help parents and kids brainstorm in fun ways to connect over story…
…and then storms hit Nashville.
Water seeped up through the floorboards, shooting up between slats when I stepped on them. Water came down the walls, soaking them to the point that when my wife pressed her hand to test how squishy they were, her hand went through the sheetrock.
Then we found mold.
Everywhere.
Long story short, the bottom half of my home has been stripped down to concrete, removing walls and studs. We’ve moved almost everything out of the basement into a storage container and our garage, trying to sell and give away as much as we could manage.
In the process of removing the walls, the ceiling of the Fictionsmith Family Workshop fell. Only minor injuries were suffered, and the trusty typewriter that we wrote The Invisible House’s first draft on received a battle scar.
This week the foundation is being jackhammered (for a water mitigation system) and repaired. This is where things stand as of this morning:
Suffice it to say I haven’t been able to get past the Prologue section of Fictionsmith Family.
Am I giving up on Fictionsmith Family?
No.
But this is a season where I have to make sure the time that isn’t being taken away by all of the things we have to do to fix up the house gets put toward keeping the wheels on the work projects that put food on the family’s table.
It’s going to be a while before I have a place where I can record videos again. I’m still not sure on the timeline. Suffice it to say that the Prologue videos are going to look completely different than the rest of the videos when I finish everything.
I appreciate the patience and support I’ve received so far.
Insurance is covering absolutely nothing and it’s going to be a long road to getting everything back to where we want it, but hopefully in the end this will all make a good story and lesson.
All the best,
-Ryan (half of C.W. Task)