My Not Making Arse Of Self Unnecessarily thread, all welcome.

[SpringchickenGoldBrass]

What I want is to avoid classic belters like the one in Louise Bagshawe's Passion - the hero is in the process of rescuing the heroine from Bad Guys and hauls her into a tube station to make their getaway. Whereupon he pulls out one Oystercard and swipes it twice.
Which doesn't work and would have the revenue men up his arse like a rocket. Bagshawe obviously is too rich to use the underground, and too famous to be copy-edited, because that did make it into the published edition.
Having comitted sins of my own in the past (book of mine written in the 90s contains about a page describing the heroine's undertaking of the complex task of Sending An E-mail. And gets it fairly wrong, too.)

Anyway, what I want to know at the moment is: if you have no power in your home because the electricity is off, will your phone still ring? I can't test this myself as my phone is cordless so is dependent on having power to charge the handset up.

If the phone has been sitting on the cradle charging up prior to electricity going off, surely it would still ring as would have some power, non??

Yeah but cordless will only last 3 days without recharge, if that. Do ordinary landlines still ring ie (because I don't have one I don't know) are they plugged into the mains electricity or does the power for them come through the phone socket lead whatnot?

Oh I see! Doh....

No idea. I'll cut my electricity off and check......

well, about 10 years ago i remember using the phone at home by candlelight as we had had a power cut lasting secveral hours, the phone still worked. we still have the same phone now. it's a not cordless, not rotary dial type phone. Therefore I am assuming the power comes from some mystical place that is not mains electricity. neither of the non-cordless phones in my parents house are plugged into anything other than the BT socket, my cordless is plugged into the mains and only works when plugged in

My phone doesn't work in a power cut - it's cable.

Hmm. I think my protagonist might not be able to recieve phone calls in Chapter 1 then. It won't harm the plot. (Though will check with Brother-Out-Law who used to work for BT, too). ONe of the things I hate in books is the use of speshul gadgetry that needs a page or so to explain it when there is a simpler way of getting the same plot point across...

BTW anyone got any more good examples of published arseholery to keep me on my toes? One of my own that I will put my hand up to was a spot of brand name confusion when I referred to a character playing Sonic The Hedgehog on a Gameboy when apparently you only play it on a Game Gear or that was the case then. I was very put out when informed of this error by a propellorhead mate...

I'd just get on with the writing sgb.

Yep, old fashioned phone still works in a power cut, as residual charge from phone line is sufficient (or something).

Cordless don't work without mains as the base station needs power to transmit to the handsets (have just checked this by switching mine off and dialling from mobile).

And for this reason, you should always have at least one old-style phone plugged into a BT socket. Cos the time you're really going to need it is in a flood or crisis when the leccy's off.

(Not sure that helps with novel, mind.)

I'll have you know I have done another 2500 words tonight anyway.

bloody hell! ok I take it back

I think the NaNoWriMo boards are good for questions like this. Not sure how active they are all year round though.

why keep a landline at all? hasn't everyone got a mobile now? why bother with the expense of a fixed line?