And by "this" I mean the Disappearing Wound Syndrome. There are times, as I'm reading a book, I'll notice a character running from Ze Bad Guy and I'll do a double take. Because, wait, didn't he/she just get in a knife fight two pages ago? I feel like the gash across his/her thigh would not be conducive to the current chase scene. And then the injury that two pages ago was so grievous is given a small "the cut throbbed" mention, or, more likely, no mention at all.
I'm not talking about action scenes in which a character hardly notices/doesn't notice an injury until later--that's called adrenaline and is within the realm of possibility. The Disappearing Wound Syndrome is more like when a wound has served its purpose and discarded. Unfortunately, this is not how wounds work. They hurt and bleed and scab and form scars.
I say, as a writer, be careful about the Disappearing Wound Syndrome. Our goal in telling stories is to transport a reader to a world as realistic as possible. And yes, even if it's a fantasy or scifi or paranormal it needs to be realistic and follow the rules you have constructed for your world. So if a world has a special property in which all of its inhabitants heal super duper quickly, make sure to say that. If not, follow up on the wounds.
What are your thoughts on the Disappearing Wound Syndrome?
Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com
My first thought is that one of my characters gets a gash on her arm in one action scene, and I think I forgot to ever mention it again later on.
ReplyDeleteThank heavens for revision. :)
But yeah, this is something that can be very distracting. It also makes me think of something that Kristin Cashore, I think, said over on her blog at some point when talking about this.
She'd planned a make-out scene, it had been in her head for ages, and then she got there and remembered the main character had a broken nose. Not ideal for making out. XD
And that's all I've got on this topic. XD
I definitely try not to make my character's wounds disappear (i have a war in my book).
ReplyDeleteI guess for this revision I should make sure I don't have any!
My characters are WHINY little things. I have a couple characters with chronic pain/injuries and they let me know.
ReplyDeleteThen I have one that, at the end of the book, gets a gash in her leg and COMPLAINS about it for the rest of the book. Mostly I'm still making her walk around on it XD
My problem is that usually I don't let anyone forget about a wound. Or the memory of a wound. And it mostly comes from my hatred of the Disappearing Wound.
ReplyDelete