Monday, March 28, 2011

Can You Live Without Electricity For a Month?

We live a cushy life.  Hot water at our finger tips, TV/Internet, stove to cook our food, refrigerator to store it. Dishwasher. Washing machine. Curling iron.
Must I say more?
My current WIP sends my heroine to a place without modern technology or electricity. I didn’t think too much on the premise until she needed to wash the dishes. I mean, it’s not like she could run to Price Chopper to get some dish soap.
I actually had to research how they washed dishes before Dawn was invented.  Very sad.  Cooking is another issue we (my heroine and I) are exploring. How did they bake bread? Where did they get the yeast?

Odd where our writing takes us.
I’m happy living with technology. I’d be lost without it and these feelings are overflowing into my heroine. She’s miserable, lost, and willing to make any deals to save her from the wilderness.
Have you ever had to do without electricity?

Annie Nicholas

Don't forget the voting for The Romance Reviews Best Books of 2010 ends this week on March 31st! Catch is up for best Erotic Paranormal/Fantasy Romance.

I am also discussing Novel Structures at my blog. It's part of my Writing 101 series.

5 comments:

D L Jackson said...

Oh yes. In the US Army I'd spend weeks in the field. No plumbing, no showers and most the time, no hot food. MREs are not improved when cold. Kept mine in my sleeping bag to keep it somewhat warm. I can also tell you cocoa powder and racoon slobber could double as concrete. My entrenching tool was my toilet and my Kevlar helmet and washcloth my shower. You take a lot for granted, until you don't have it anymore.

Kristen Painter said...

We went a week once due to a hurricane. Wouldn't be my choice tho.

Anonymous said...

We did it for a week once during a blizzard about 10 years back. Not fun.

I don't even like to camp. I like modern conveniences like hot water and heat. City girl here much to the great sadness of DH who adores living like a cave man for a week in the wilds.

Jeannene Walker said...

We lived without it for 6 months while building our house. Granted we had a generator for some things, but the whole mindset is entirely different when you don't have a wall plug available. The experience showed our kids that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Kristabel Reed said...

I can't live without electricity for a day, forget a month! And frankly, I don't want to. I don't like camping and there's the safety issue. Alarm, phone to call cops, etc. Of course writing this I see that I can be a tad more paranoid than I think I am. Hmm.

Still, I'm sure that 200 years ago if they had electricity they'd use it all the time to. Just the era we live in! THANK GOD! :)

So...do you have her using sand to wash them? Or something else? The bread would be left in the coals of the fire, depending on the time you're writing in.