Writing Talk, No. 3 - Blood and Bone
I had to amputate a limb. Fictionally of course. It was an eye-opener. I was shaking while I wrote, that wasn't normal, neither was the adrenaline.
Easily the strangest thing about writing, and about writing fiction in particular, is the trauma of returning to the real world. I ate breakfast while a character considered where to cut an infected leg, and returned to the keyboard so she could perform the amputation with a sword and an ineffectual amount of anesthesia. Occupying two spaces at once, one fictional, one actual, is a headache and a head rush. I've killed people between lunch and dinner, without leaving the house, and without anyone dying. Several times, I've had to remember how to stop bleeding (which isn't that complex) so nobody would end up dead. All of it fictional.
The closer in detail that writing gets to reality, the more impact it has. I've taken a few first-aid classes, and they've made it much easier to write about injuries. They've also made my injuries much more detailed, and much more brutal, though not more extreme. You'd be surprised what a midline femur fracture might be capable of. The more research you do, the better.
That said, here are a ten things about injuries.
(Note: I'm not a doctor or an EMT, so none of this should be taken as actual medical advice. It's based on limited training and is purely for fictional usage.)
Easily the strangest thing about writing, and about writing fiction in particular, is the trauma of returning to the real world. I ate breakfast while a character considered where to cut an infected leg, and returned to the keyboard so she could perform the amputation with a sword and an ineffectual amount of anesthesia. Occupying two spaces at once, one fictional, one actual, is a headache and a head rush. I've killed people between lunch and dinner, without leaving the house, and without anyone dying. Several times, I've had to remember how to stop bleeding (which isn't that complex) so nobody would end up dead. All of it fictional.
The closer in detail that writing gets to reality, the more impact it has. I've taken a few first-aid classes, and they've made it much easier to write about injuries. They've also made my injuries much more detailed, and much more brutal, though not more extreme. You'd be surprised what a midline femur fracture might be capable of. The more research you do, the better.
That said, here are a ten things about injuries.
- First aid can be surprisingly simple.
- Injuries can be surprisingly complex.
- Blood is terrifying.
- If someone bleeds to death, they exsanguinate.
- The 'kill zone' is the head and torso.
- Knees are fragile.
- Tearing a muscle can be worse than breaking a bone.
- Breaking bones can be pretty bad, though.
- It's possible to survive being impaled.
- Never forget about shock.
(Note: I'm not a doctor or an EMT, so none of this should be taken as actual medical advice. It's based on limited training and is purely for fictional usage.)
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