Shouts From Down Under

Have you ever got plastered...three sheets to the wall?

This DOES have a point...

There are these things called noggins. Sometimes the word refers to people's skulls when they crack them on something, while standing up suddenly without checking for hazardous protrusions or obstacles.

But the other noggin is well known to builders, and probably fretted over by apprentices for the first few weeks on the building site. The apprentice has to learn what they are, and how to measure and cut, or be shouted at with measurements and to cut them rapid-fire, with cabinetmaker accuracy.

I've not developed this skill to any degree, and now with our son relocated north, I don't even have a decent saw to cut them by hand.

A noggin is a length of timber, most likely 90mm x 35mm here in Australia, inches for the USA (and I'm not sure what for other localities) that is cut to fit snuggly between wall studs BEFORE you "hang" plaster on said studs.
Wall studs are vertical lengths of timber who's purpose is to team up with other studs, and cross bracing, and bottom / top wall plates, to create a sturdy structure for a building.

Some noggins are there to strengthen the building frame and, I suppose, leave a surface as a backing for the join of the plaster.

But extra noggins are nailed horizontally between the studs, sometimes on their flat face, flush with the closest edge of the stud, so that after the plaster is applied, anything such as towel rails, toilet roll holders, towel / accessory hooks, shelves, soap holders and whatever else you see can be screwed solidly to the walls in houses, offices and such.

Sometimes you see where a shoddy builder, or more likely a dodgy "backyarder", or disreputable shonk, a ripoff merchant, try to fit something on a plaster wall without any backing or noggin installed. And it might look ok for a short time, until someone decides to swing off said attachment, whatever it may consist of, and it rips clean out of the wall, or just leaves it all loose and sad looking.
This abomination to any decent tradesman then has to be repaired, the plaster replaced WITH a noggin behind it. Why not just put one in there in the first place.

And so it was, that I found myself nailing some into our wall, so that the toilet roll holder, and a grab rail or two for older, less able, persons could be installed after plastering.



Now what the Harry Houdini, I hear you ask, more like shout, has this got to do with writing?

Well think about the future. Look into the chrystal ball of your plot and SEE. What will you be sticking in later? Yes, you aren't stupid. But it's so easy to forget those linking bits and pieces. Preparation IS the name of the game here fellow writer.
NO, you can't just tack it on later. It will last about half way down the next page if you're lucky, and the reader will see your large pile of crap, and go nah. Noway. This novelist is a knob. A total tweaking twat. A goober head.

Because you didn't stick something solid behind that extra bit of situation much earlier in your story. You thought it would be ok to fudge it in sometime later and the reader would be so thick they'd buy it.

So in this case, use your noggin and get those links in early. Then it will all fall into place and you'll be the stud adhesive guy. Or gal.

Sparky