Hello,
my name is Dellani and I'm an author. I'm here today because I have a
writing crutch. Admit it. Be honest with yourself – we all have
them. They differ from one to the next, but we all have our little
things that we do. It's our safety net.
I
don't know about the rest of you, but mine is the hospital. Just when
things seem to be going well, someone breaks a leg, has an asthma
attack, gives birth, has a heart attack, gets beaten up, nearly
drowns or has a car accident.
Looking
through my finished (and unfinished) books, I took a count of how
many of my stories involve someone being in the hospital or receiving
medical attention. Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I counted them
up. Of the 137 novels and novellas (finished and unfinished) polled:
90 involved someone receiving medical attention. 52 do not. These
numbers are slightly mutable. If I couldn't remember specifically if
there were medical issues, I counted them in the not medical
attention category.
That's
a lot of broken bones, babies, accidents, shootings, stabbings,
amputations, near drownings, head injuries, heart attacks, beatings,
surgeries or asthma attacks! I have a high number of very unfortunate
characters.
I
guess this is my version of Raymond Chandler's plot crutch. “When
in doubt, make a guy come through the door with a gun in his hand.”
Only mine would be, “When in doubt, send someone to the hospital.”
I
try to get away from it. Really, I do! I have rewritten more than one
story to avoid it, but they keep coming back again and again. Of
course, it doesn't help that several of my stories involve medical
people. Then there are the ones that involve the every day Joe
becoming a hero. Of course, he's going to get hurt. That's a given.
Just
ask any of my heroes. They will tell you that the movies have it
wrong. You can't crawl through an attic, kick out a wall, hop down
onto a water fountain and not end up in a heap on the floor with a
bone protruding through the skin.
Or
they can tell you that you when you tackle an intruder on the stairs,
one of you is gonna end up with a concussion. Not always the bad guy,
either.
Crawl
through broken glass and get cut up – check. Get in a fight to the
death with psychopaths – check. Knife fight followed by a shootout
with sadistic bikers – check. Gunfights, sword fights, fist fights,
chick fights – check.
Sorry,
y'all. Someone is gonna end up bleeding. It's inevitable.
©
2016 Dellani Oakes
1 comment:
How true Laura and company have ended up there many times. Hospitals are great places for drama and action. I can open any book and there is more than likely going too be a scene in the ER or ICU.
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