As her ears filled with white noise, Naomi stared at the ocean 30,000 feet beneath her and wished she had packed a parachute. Around her, clouds tumbled past in a blur of wind and white ozone. Far, far below, she could see the shimmering surface of the water – if she were to hit it at terminal velocity, she knew it would break every bone in her body. Of course, she would have passed out long before then, her vision narrowing to a bright dot, then shutting off completely as the blood rushed to her brain.
The roar of white noise grew louder. She had been in danger plenty of times over the last few months and near-death experiences had become a way of life, but nothing terrified her more than the prospect of plunging to her certain death in the unknowable emptiness of the mid-Pacific, thousands of miles from home.
Phew, she thought, removing her faulty headphones. It’s a good job I’m on a plane.
Actually, I thought this more a flash fic with a twist!
ReplyDeleteIt's really good! More written well and not too badly. Goes to show what I know!!
:-)
I agree. Maybe this is a tactic than can be good if used right, but really grating if overused.
ReplyDeleteI actually groaned when I read the last line. I agree with C12VT - sometimes it can be a good tactic, but this time it was not.
ReplyDeleteFrom the 15th word I already knew the punchline. The title had something to do with that, though :-)
ReplyDelete"It's a good job I'm on a plane" -- I've never heard that expression before. "A good *thing*" perhaps... is this a britishism? Is Joel british?
I don't know if Joel is British, but Naomi seems to be!
ReplyDeleteSo you guys don't use "it's a good job" to mean "it's fortunate"? Well, that's worth knowing. It's a good... thing... you mentioned it.
ReplyDeleteOh, this helps the bad writing of your American readers immensely. We are all pondering how clever we will seem when we put, "it's a good job..." into the dialogue of a British(Scottish?) character ;)
ReplyDeleteIn fact, you could do a post on the use/misuse of catch phrases to indicate characters' nationality or culture.
That's a good idea, Anon. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAnd "it's a good job" will work for English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish characters. I don't know about Canadians or Australians. Knock yourself out using it; I'll be on the lookout for the phrase appearing in fiction by American writers.
Works for New Zealanders as well. Love the blog, Joel!
ReplyDeleteThe phrase probably wouldn't work for Canadians; at the very least I've never heard it in the Western part of the country.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard the phrase in Australia, either, but then again Australian English is currently undergoing rapid evolution from British English to a combination of American English and ethnic screw-ups (not being racist, it just happens when people who aren't proficient in a language form a large percentage of a society). Come to think of it, I do believe I read the phrase in a relatively old (compared to my age) Australian book, so perhaps it was once used here.
ReplyDeleteI'm Australian and I use a delightful mixture of American- and British-isms. It's a good job (hehe) people still understand me, though.
ReplyDeleteI am so going to use the witholding technique sometime, just to annoy people >:)
i didnt think this one was so bad. it was cute...it an edward b. lytton kind of style...
ReplyDelete'good job' - hear it all the time in my country.
us ex-colonials have a Very different approach to english...and grammar... and punctuation...
(as you no doubt can see. let's just call it delusions of e.e.cummings for the moment. or laziness...)
is the phrasing of this sentence common in anyone else's country?
'i feel her so sorry...'
I actually read it as "a good thing" until I looked at the comments, lol.
ReplyDeleteI think the method is fine as long as it's the start of a story or at least introducing us to a neurotic character.
ReplyDelete