No Texting, Email, or Babies

-
Picture from:  http://romain-levesque.com/page/12/
I have a ground rule for my training classes that I call Electronic Etiquette.  I ask participants to turn their phones off or put them on vibrate or silent mode. Any calls must be taken out of the room. About a year ago, I had to expand this rule to include texting, email, and the internet. Sometimes, I just have to shake my head at the inability of people to recognize what is or isn’t acceptable.

Not all training disruptions involve a lack of courtesy. Sometimes, people show up without pen or pencil. Really? You’re going to spend all day in class, and it didn’t occur to you that you might need to write something down? I carry extra pens and pencils, now. It’s just easier that way.

But, sometimes, an unexpected challenge comes along that you just can’t anticipate.

This week, a woman in my class kept shifting in her seat, taking deep breaths, and rubbing her very pregnant belly, I asked her when she was due.

She smiled and said, “Three weeks.”

I nodded and asked the obvious question, “Are you OK?”

Her hand paused on her belly, and she gave me a sideways glance. “I might be in labor.”

I immediately suggested she head for the hospital, but she told me she’d been having contractions off and on for months.  She did admit these pains felt different. She was waiting for a call from her husband.

I asked how long she’d been having contractions. She told me since 4 a.m. In other words, seven hours!

Not long after that, she left and did not return. I’ve never been so glad to see a student go!

During the mid-afternoon break, we learned the doctor sent her home. She planned to return to work the next day.

Wow! I guess I need a new ground rule.  What should I call it?  Gestational Etiquette?

Comments

Valerie Norris said…
Poor girl! With my last one, doctors told me for three weeks it could be ANY MINUTE! Do you know how many minutes there are in three weeks, with two preschoolers already in the house? I'd have taken a class if I'd had the opportunity!

Keep rolling with the punches, Barbara!
October 20, 2010 at 10:33 PM
Susan M. Boyer said…
I'm not sure you can regulate this one unless you just don't let pregnanat women sign up for class. :)

Pens, really? They come to class without pens? This is sad...and disturbing.
October 21, 2010 at 10:39 AM
Barbara V. Evers said…
Susan, I know, but it's fun to think about it.
October 21, 2010 at 9:09 PM
Henry said…
I always brought pens to the training classes I was taking. After all, you just never know when a great story idea is going to pop into your head and you need to be prepared to write it down!

Oh, and I guess you could take notes with the pen, too.
October 27, 2010 at 9:18 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Tone: Describing Your Characters

-
Image
When you write about character's of different races, how do you describe their skin tone? If you've never thought about this, then consider this question: How do the authors you read described persons of color? A few months ago, I attended a webinar about writing diverse characters. The guest was Eliana West of Writers for Diversity . The information she shared felt fresh and valuable, especially related to describing a character's skin tone. I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive the slave trade--coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There's some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.    -- N. K. Jemisin As this quote from author, N. K . Jemisin , indicates, historically, writers have described people of color using food-related descriptors. Many people of color find this offensive. This surprised me, at first, but she has a point, especially when you view it through the quote above. My fir...
Read more

Character Development: Using the Johari Window

-
Image
In my last post, Character Development: the Johari Window , I introduced the Johari Window as a tool for developing your characters. It's important that your character not know everything about their situation. These unknowns can lead to an intriguing story and create possibilities for conflict within the story. How do you use the Johari Window? In this post, I thought I'd provide a simple example of the Johari Window with a character most people know:  Harry Potter. Below, I have filled out the Johari Window as it might appear within the first few pages of book 1, Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone . The Johari Window based on Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone Three of the quadrants in this window reveal what Harry doesn't know about who he truly is and what happened to his parents. I could add a lot to the quadrants representing what he doesn't know, but I hope this gives you an idea on how a Johari Window might be used. What do you d...
Read more

He Said, She Said, Who Said? Punctuating Dialogue

-
Image
Courtesy of Morguefile.com I've been focusing my posts on workshops and panels I taught or participated on at the Imaginarium Convention. Although this serves as a poor substitute for the real thing, I can share some highlights. This week, we're going to explore dialogue punctuation. The first thing writers need to learn is how to properly punctuate dialogue. I've discovered, over the years, that many don't know how. Notice in the first example below, the dialogue starts at the beginning of the sentence, and the speaking tag (he said, she said, Paul said, etc.) follows it.  A few points to notice: The first letter of the quotation is capitalized. What the person says is a sentence, so it must be capitalized. A comma comes directly after the quote and INSIDE the quotation marks. You can, also, have a question mark or exclamation point here. There is a space AFTER the closing quotation mark followed by the speaking tag and a period at the end of the sentence. In the next ...
Read more