They say misery loves company…maybe that’s why we all love a good fish-out-of-water story. Not because we’re all miserable, but it’s comforting, reassuring even, to see someone else struggling. And who struggles more than the person who finds themselves in a world foreign to the one they’re used to? It’s a great jumping off point for epic adventures. Think: Back to the Future, Crocodile Dundee, Elf—frick, Splash is one of the best and it’s literally a fish-out-of-water tale.
I, myself, stick pretty close to home, avoid as many possibilities as I can for landing in an uncomfortable position. So maybe that’s why I’m happy to speculate about what it would be like to pluck someone from their contented, safe life and drop them square into a place they’d normally avoid. Tempting my own fate? Maybe. But it’s entertaining to imagine someone like Jessica Hayes, who’s lived her entire life in the lap of luxury, picturing herself at the helm of her father’s multi-million dollar corporation, find herself stranded in a convenience store parking lot along a rural highway with no credit cards and no cell phone. That situation would be bad enough for most people, but it’s extra-especially horrifying for our heroine. Add in a stint doing manual labor on a ranch and a goat attack and it’s safe to say she’s out of her element more than a little.
In novels, though, fishes out of water tend to be survivors and maybe that’s what we really love about them. They don’t typically lie there, flopping in the sun and gasping their last breath. What is just as entertaining as their struggles is watching as they pull themselves up by the bootstraps and find a way to survive in their new surroundings. They may not start out resourceful, and they might hate where they’re at but, soon enough, their natural resilience starts shining through. They grow into the person they were always meant to be, even if—especially if—they never knew they had it in them.
Ever found yourself out of your element? Odds are, it wasn’t that funny, at least at the time. Look back, though, and imagine it happening to someone else. That can help you see the funny. Like I said a few weeks back, life can be quite ridiculous. You may never find yourself in a different time or on the other side of the gumdrop forest, or even the victim of a goat attack, but the surprising and weird will happen when you least expect it. You’ll never be prepared, but it’s all easier to deal with if you can laugh it off.
