Creating characters is one of the most important things to do while writing. Characters can make or break a story. No matter how good the idea, if the characters are flat, people are not going to keep reading. Here are some posts to help you create interesting and memorable characters.
Well-written relationships between characters are what makes a story beloved. And while writing romance has it’s own difficulties, it’s even more tricky to write good and believable friendships.
What role do friends play in a story?
It depends a bit on if the friendship is between MCs or if the MC is friends with side-characters. The friendship with another MC could be the focus of the story and driving point for the plot. But the friendship with a side-character could help your MC to rant about their problems, to get a second opinion, to get an honest truth, to see a situation from another perspective and to realize that they are not alone in this. They can also be helpful to show your MCs regular life outside of whatever special happens to them in the story and helps to show why your MC is the way they are.
Types of friends
the best friend
the friend group
the situational friend
the old friend
The best friend - they share almost anything with each other, their opinions matter, able to tell them off if they are wrong, closest thing to a sibling, people know them as a duo
The friend group - in on all the tea, give honest opinions, help out where they can, can have deep, but also very casual scenes
The situational friend - friends because of circumstances (having classes together, being on the same sports team, having mutual friends), are friends when they see each other, don’t really seek each other out outside of that situation, knowing about specific parts of each other’s life, but not other parts and wouldn’t share deep conversations
The old friend - think about childhood friend vs. college friend - the friends have met in completely different parts of each other’s lives, know each other in different ways and probably have a different understanding of each other, the old friend would probably not know everything about their life right now, but they still fall back into old patterns with each other (good and bad)
Give them something in common & some differences
Humans like to flock together with people with similar interests, personalities and lives. So give your fictional friends things they have in common. Sharing the same goal, liking the same things, having compatible personalities, having the same outlook on life,…
But friends are not a carbon copy of each other. Give them some differences that don’t hurt their friendship in the long run, but rather some that can the characters can build off of these differences. Taking advice from a friend who has more experience with something, a friend who sees things a bit different, or becoming more confident because of their friend’s confidence.
More tips
Make sure to give the friends their own life. They are not just there to bounce ideas off with your MC. They should have their own goals and personalities. Make sure they could be their own character without the MC.
To have a friendship that the reader likes and roots for, you have to make sure that the reader can see why they are friends. The quite, nerdy kid is not going to be best friends with the loud, edgy, popular kid without a believable reason. Why would they hang out if they have nothing in common? Having been friends since kindergarten is not enough of a reason to still be best friends in high school if they have nothing to talk about and don’t like to do the same things and if their personalities just don’t match at all.
I’m putting it out there that using round wide eyes to implicitly state innocence and purity in a character; and small “slanty” eyes to convey dishonesty and deceit in your antagonist is actually racist lmfao.
I see some of you bring out this concept in you character designs over and over and yeah it’s not a conscious thought process but thinking “this is the evil character who is morally decrepit - how should I really bring that out in their image?” And then linking that immediately to drawing smaller eyes is racist yellow peril derived stereotyping.
I’m sure most of us have been guilty of this at some stage including myself so can we all just grow up and leave this bullshit behind in this year? 谢谢
Other “evil” looks based in bigotry:
- dark/heavy/thick eyebrows (racism/antisemitism)
- hooked noses vs “cute”/button/patrician (ditto)
- faces described as angular (as opposed to like strong-boned or whatever)
- “swarthy” complexion (thanks tolkien)
- blonde hair/blue eyes = hero/ine
- accents.
- “shifty eyes” iirc, I remember learning they just indicate a lot of thinking, which could be lying, yes, orrr dealing with a second language/unfamiliar dialect, or dealing with NTs as someone who’s not, or trying to figure out if the authority figure is trying to get you to agree to something they can use against you, or…
Bigotry around disability that often intersects with racism includes making villains or “shifty” characters dramatically scarred and/or having acne/acne scars, missing eyes or limbs/digits, walking with a limp and/or cane, missing and/or crooked teeth (this one can also be pretty classist, and “buck teeth” and a gap between the front teeth have a history of anti-Asian and anti-Black caricature behind them, respectively), overweight in a way that’s portrayed as “disgusting” proof of their “greed” or like moral decay or whatever, etc!
These visual markers often get layered on top of the above racist stereotypes to make a character’s design seem more “untrustworthy” or “creepy” or “unsettling,” hypersexualized/fetishized/desexualized, “aggressive” or “passive”, “mean and “scary” or “cowardly and despicable”, and so on and so on - always ask yourself and your subconscious WHY they do these things! And ABSOLUTELY hold yourself accountable for this, (my fellow white artists especially!!!)! Fighting the racist messages we’ve taken in our entire lives takes work, and it takes time, and it’s always worth doing.
military fantasy is GODTIER. BEST GENRE. i love it with all my heart and soul and its my current obsession so. you get a post about it.
i love both military fantasy and scifi, so this post applies to both in general!
#1. Weapons.
If you’re leaning to a more fantasy-based military story, maybe with magic and all, you might want to choose more midevalish weapons, all of which is freely available to be researched! You don’t have to stick to swords and spears; there are a variety of weapons that can be used! You can make up some of your own too :))
If you’re going more towards scifi/modern warfare, you’ll want to know more about modern weaponry like tanks, guns, etc! Once again, try to make up your own, especially in scifi where it doesnt need to be “realistic.” For example, in the 86 novel series, there is a “railgun” that’s a gigantic weapon with a 400km range movable on train tracks. So really, go wild.
#2. Strategy
Strategy is complicated. Depending on whether you’re going to have a traditional military structure, you’ll have and infantry (foot soldiers who participate in close combat) and a cavalry (in the past, referring to soldiers who rode on animals like horses, and in the present those who fight in armoured vehicles)
I’d recommend checking out the wikipedia page on military strategies. It’s a bit complex if you’ve never studied it/read about it before, but try to understand it. You don’t need to be an expert on it - just make sure that whatever the situation is in your story (a siege, outnumbered by enemies, holding the battle frontiers) has a strategy that makes sense. It shouldn’t be stupid. Some great books with great strategies are the Poppy War series (ensure you check trigger warnings!) if you want an example of good, written, believable military strategy.
The 36 stratagems is an excellent resource too! A lot of websites simplify it and its a goldmine for understanding strategy.
#3. Understand the importance of supply routes, forests and rivers
Easiest way to screw over a city? Cut off their supply routes. How long will a city survive without an income of trade and materials, bonus points if its a small city with very little farming capabilities. It’s like starving them out. Secondly, rivers. Controlling a river means that a) supply routes are controlled. b) its easy to make an offensive over water than on land, and provides a quick escape route too. Forests? They’re excellent for snipers and picking off travellers and soldiers. Also great hiding places for guerilla warfare (do understand what that is!)
#4. Use actual historical references
If you want to really understand the CRUX of military writing, then look at history. Understand the strategies and techniques of past wars that could apply to your fictional ones! It’s a smart technique - but remember that no-one wants to reread a step-by-step repeat of an actual historical event. Writing military stories means that the writing HAS to be fast-paced, and only important moments/beats of the story can be shown rather than the entire tale.
#5. Recommendations of militaristic stories!
I haven’t READ a lot of books about military fantasy/scifi, but here are some manga/anime/light novel series I really love that are related to this genre!
The Poppy War Series (book series) - The Poppy War is the story of passionate yet ruthless Fang Runin, also known as Rin, who grows up poor, orphaned by a previous war. But she studies and gets into an elite military academy, and develops a gift for shamanism that lets her call upon the fire powers of a vengeful Phoenix god.
Eighty-Six (anime, manga, and originally light novel series) - According to the Republic of San Magnolia, their ongoing war against the Giadian Empire has no casualties—however, that is mere propaganda. While the silver-haired Alba of the Republic’s eighty-five sectors live safely behind protective walls, those of different appearances are interned in a secret eighty-sixth faction. Known within the military as the Eighty-Six, they are forced to fight against the Empire’s autonomous Legion under the command of the Republican “Handlers.”
Vladilena Milizé is assigned to the Spearhead squadron to replace their previous Handler. Shunned by her peers for being a fellow Eighty-Six supporter, she continues to fight against their inhumane discrimination. Shinei Nouzen is the captain of the Spearhead squadron. Infamous for being the sole survivor of every squadron he’s been in, he insists on shouldering the names and wishes of his fallen comrades. When the fates of these young souls from two different worlds collide, will it ignite the spark that lights their path to salvation, or will they burn themselves in the flames of despair?
Yona of the Dawn (anime & manga series) - Yona’s perfect world comes crashing down when a heinous act of treason threatens to erase all that she holds dear, including her birthright as the princess of Kouka. Left with no one to trust but her childhood friend and loyal bodyguard Son Hak, she is forced to flee the palace. Faced with the perils of surviving in the wild with a target on her back, Yona realizes that her kingdom is no longer the safe haven it once was.
Free from the shackles of naivety, Yona vows to do everything in her power to become strong enough to crush her enemies. With Hak by her side, she must piece together the remains of an ancient legend that might be the key to reclaiming her kingdom from those who conspired to steal it from her.
What place is being looted? What are they trying to steal? What’s the layout? What’s the path they are going to take? All of these are super essential questions if you want to have a fully-fleshed out heist. Know the barebones of your setting, make a map if you want to - and figure out how your character’s are going to break in.
#2. Whose coming along, and what are their roles?
Everyone should have a role - the sniper, the fighter, the strategist, etc. It gives a good division of their strengths and weaknesses, and also some kind of structure to your heist. Some possible roles could include:
Distraction/Bait Spy Weapons expert Strategist/Strategy expert Healer/Medic Sniper Base operations
#3. What goes wrong?
How do your characters screw up? It is extremely important to know what goes wrong andhow your characters overcome it. If everything goes to plan, its boring - there need to be surprises and mishaps that happen along the way. Some ideas could be:
An additional defence line that wasnt accounted for
Having to go to a “last resort”
Someone dying
The “thing” they were looking for wasn’t there after all
#4. The character development shouldn’t stop
The character’s should keep developing - their personal stories for why they chose to come on the heist should come to a head for at least a FEW characters, particularly the main characters. Their stories and arcs should progress significantly as you get closer and closer to the climax. The plot and character arcs should NOT be seperate.
It was an interview with Rick Rubin on the Lex Fridman podcast. I don’t normally listen to that one. The episodes run for hours. But I grew up listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rick Rubin produced pretty much all their albums.
I wasn’t disappointed. It was a great conversation — I recommend listening to it in full. While Rick may look like he’s sleeping on a bench outside your house, he very likely produced one of your favourite songs (and is worth like 250 million).
Midway through the conversation, Lex asked Rick whether he ever wants to go back to change something in music that he produced and released many years ago. Would he make different choices on songs from 20 years ago with all that experience that he gained since then?
The answer was not what I expected.
I struggle with this all the time. Every time I look back at something I wrote in the past, I’m embarrassed. I could make it so much better now!
Rick doesn’t feel like that at all. He said that he always works hard to make everything the best he can. Once it’s the best he can make it, it’s finished. It’s time to move on.
Any piece of art — a song, story, painting — is a reflection of a moment in time — the inspiration and your artistic ability at the time.
For him, each thing he creates is like a journal entry: it reflects what he did and thought about at that time. You wouldn’t go back to revise what you wrote in your journal two years ago. A journal entry can’t be wrong.
Honestly, I’m still recovering from the shock. It makes so much sense.
Make your art as good as you can, but no better. As you look back, you will inevitably find mistakes in your previous work. Those are a part of the journey. Nothing you create is ever wrong.
A piece of art is like a journal entry in the life of the person who made it.
You can only make one mistake: fail to write anything in your journal.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Radek . I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.
I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.
Focusing on my creative projects has been a real struggle for me recently. It’s not that I don’t have the time — I can find 15 or more minutes a day every day. The problem is that I absolutely cannot get going with anything. I’ve been wondering why.
First, I put this to fatigue, but that doesn’t quite explain what’s going on. I sleep more than I usually do.
The current suspect is headspace. I have a few projects going on at the moment which are causing me this very mild but constant stress. It’s nothing too dramatic, but I find myself thinking about these often. It’s as if these things implanted themselves into my brain. Even though I can’t resolve them now (there’s a fixed deadline in the future), these things are taking space that I can’t use to work on other things.
Some people are great at compartmentalising their lives so that no single aspect affects the other. I’m not one of them. I wish I was better at it.
Headspace is one of those insidious things. There isn’t any clear indicator to tell you that you don’t have enough. You’re not getting anywhere, beating yourself up about not being productive.
Sometimes, the lack of headspace prevents you from even seeing all the opportunities that are available to you. And you remain stuck. My theory is that the pandemic and the lockdowns caused many to reconsider their situation because it was the first time in years that they had some headspace.
I don’t have any evidence for it, but I feel like meditation helps you to train yourself to let go of certain things when they aren’t important — to get more headspace.
Excuse me while I go sit with my eyes closed for ten minutes, trying not to think about anything.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Radek . I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.
I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.
I hate writing terrible first drafts. Just piling words onto the page without thinking about the consequences too much. I know that terrible first drafts should have flaws — that’s the whole point. If it doesn’t suck then it isn’t a terrible first draft. But knowing about those issues and moving on makes my brain hurt.
I’m not entirely sure why this happens. I am aware of all the advice. You can always fix it later. You can’t edit a blank page. Anything is better than nothing. Sure.
Knowing something and being able to act on it are two very different things.
It could be a case of simple risk aversion. Perhaps I’m worried that by moving fast without taking time to thoroughly think about every twist and turn in the story, it’ll end up being a giant mess.
Cooking is a good analogy for this. Some people clean up as they prepare their meals. It takes longer, but you don’t have to do all the cleaning after you eat. I do this pretty often.
People on the other end of the spectrum pretty much trash their kitchen every time they cook. They use as many pots, pans and plates as they need and leave them dirty all over the place. Whatever it takes to make their meal faster.
The difference between writing and cooking is that cooking is a lot more predictable. You’re either following a recipe or doing something you’ve done many times before. You know all the steps ahead of time so a little detour here and there won’t affect you too much.
When writing, nothing is truly certain. You may have an outline, but that isn’t set in stone. You could wake up tomorrow and change your mind if you come up with a better idea. Getting to the finished product as fast as possible is crucial because that’s the only way to find out whether it’ll work.
And so I’m here, learning how to make a mess, trying to convince my brain to let me write terrible first drafts. It’s harder than it looks.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Radek . I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.
I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.
The moment is tense. The character is looking at something that makes them so angry. And the reader can feel that anger, can feelthe tension building. And then…
“He doesn’t realize how hard he’s clenching his fist until he looks down and sees bloody half-moons pressed into his palm.”
Aaaaannndd it’s gone.
All that tension and build-up just deflates in a single moment due to this line, only to be replaced by a heavy sigh, or worse, a physical eye-roll.
There’s 3 reasons why this scene (played out in so many books) garners this reaction from readers.
1. It’s overdone
It happens so often it’s become cliche. Like…really cliche. If you think your character is the first character to have this reaction, I’m sorry to inform you that this is very much not the case. And if you’re thinking “well I don’t mind if it’s original, because it fits the scene,” well…continue to reason #2
2. It’s melodramatic
It’s way too over-the-top. No one does this in real life. Especially for like…contemporary fiction? Like at least if the fate of the universe is at stake it’s easy to see how the author could have gone there. But I’ve seen so many times where it’s “average school boy is jealous” or “average school girl is mad at bully” type scenarios, which…no. No one gets so jealous they don’t realize they’re carving into their hands. Or even the ones where they donotice but they “like the pain because it grounds them”? But if your think it’s not melodramatic, well…continue to reason #3
3. It’s actually pretty much impossible.
Most of the time I see this, it’s a male character who doesn’t defy gender norms, or a female character that does. (And the “I’m not like other girls” trope is a whole other discussion) Meaning that 95% of the characters who do this have short or medium-length nails.
And here’s the thing: human skin is incredibly elastic. This means that it can stretch a LOT before it actually breaks. If the skin were pulled taut, you could discount some of this elasticity, however when the hand is curled into a fist, the skin of the palm is the most relaxed it can be. (Just take a look at all those wrinkles and folds!) Not to mention that the human fingernail is relatively blunt and spreads the force out over a larger surface area. And fortunately (unfortunately?) our grip strength just isn’t enough to break the skin of our palms with short-to-moderate length nails just by making a fist and squeezing.
I mean…just try it. I have short-ish nails and I couldn’t break skin even while squeezing it even tighter with my other hand. It wasn’t pain that stopped me from squeezing harder, it was just that the max force I could apply wasn’t enough.
If you need more proof, just look at punching. Professional fighters always keep their nails short-to-moderate length because if they punched someone with long nails, they risk cutting their own palm. But if landing repeated punches with short-to-moderate nails doesn’t cut someone’s palm, there’s no way that squeezing the fist alone would accomplish that.
Theycan leave little indentation marks, and those marks can hurt quite a bit and linger for a while. But don’t have the character clench their fist until their nails break skin or draw blood from their palms. It’s just not realistic.
When this rule doesn’t apply:
Now, of course, if your character is Lady Deathstrike or some kind of wolfman or something and has claws or talons instead of fingernails, this might be different. In fact, if your character is new to these claws, and underestimates the force they can apply to their fist-clenching, then it might actually happen! However, (and this is a big however) they would notice. They would react the same way they would if they stepped on a nail or piece of scrap metal and cut their foot. Don’t just have them staring broodily at their enemy as their claws slowly carve into their palms and have them not even wince. That’s back to reason #2
Other tropes along the same line
Reasons #1 and #2 can also be said for the “character bites lip until it bleeds” trope. However, this one is technically 100% possible, as humans have more than enough bite strength to puncture our delicate lip tissue. Except that our brains won’t let us just do that willy-nilly. It hurts too much and our reflex (even while distracted with anger/jealousy/frustration) is to stop biting down once that pain fires off.
This one is at least able to be modulated easily for the same general effect. For example, the character could chew at a little bit of dry skin on their lip and, in their distracted anger/jealousy/frustration, cause that bit of skin to tear too deeply (we’ve all been there, amirite?). This would hurt, potentially bleed, and almost certainly give them that metallic taste in their mouth we know you were looking for.
Keep in mind! Either way, unless the person just permanently maimed their lip, the blood should be kept minimal. I’ve read books where the blood “gushes into their mouth” from a frustratedly-bitten lip, and…no. There’s no way that should do that.
Hope this helps some of you with your writing journey!
You’ve seen it in movies. You’ve read it in books. Someone gets tased, their eyes roll back in their head, and then they’re out like a light. Usually for several minutes.
Thing is, that’s not really how tasers or stun guns work.
Lets pull back a bit.
What are tasers and stun guns?
Unfortunately, the terminology surrounding these devices can get a bit screwy, so bear with me. (TLDR below)
“Stun gun" is a very broad term and essentially encompasses any weapon that shocks someone in order to “stun or immobilize” them. This can be anything from the typical self-defense tool, to cattle prods, to even tasers. However most of the time, they are referring to compact stun guns, which fit in the hand.
“Taser” is a actually just a brand name for a company that makes products that stun people. They’re most known for a type of long-range Electronic Control Device (ECD). This is the type of thing you would see a police officer carrying that looks sort of like a gun, although they make ones for civilian use as well [x]. However, since they’re one of the only companies that makes a long-range ECD, it’s not uncommon to simply refer to these types of devices as ‘tasers’. This is despite the fact that the company also make compact stun guns, such as the Taser Bolt [x].
The main ways compact stun guns (which I’ll be referring to as just stun guns from now on) and long-range ECD’s (which I’ll be referring to as tasers from now on) differ are in the range and method of immobilization.
Stun guns require you to be within arm’s distance of the person being shocked, since you need to touch the two conductive prongs directly to their skin to shock them. Tasers, on the other hand, shoot out projectiles connected to the main device by thin, conductive wires. Those projectiles deliver a shock into the subject in a pulse (usually around 5-30 seconds, depending on the model) each time the trigger is pulled. Tasers can also be used just like compact stun guns if the cartridge is removed (especially useful if you’ve already shot it and don’t have a spare cartridge).
Taser projectiles:
When a taser delivers its shock, it causes something called Neuromuscular Incapacitation (NMI). This means that the actual muscles themselves lock up and are incapable of moving for the entire duration of the shock. Stun guns on the other hand, do NOT utilize NMI. They instead rely on “pain compliance”, which is a fancy way of saying that it will hurt so bad, they should really want to stop, but that it doesn’t actually stop the muscles from being able to move.
This can be especially problematic if the subject you are shocking with a stun gun is on heavy drugs, has a neuromuscular disease or pain disorder, or even just has an extremely high pain tolerance. (Or, if you’re writing in any kind of fantasy story, if your character is possessed, being mind controlled, or under a spell.) With a taser, there is no way to “power through the pain”, however it’s possible with a stun gun.
TLDR
Taser:
Brand name, but generally:
Shaped like a gun
Long/medium range (shoots wired projectiles)
Utilizes Neuromuscular Incapacitation (NMI)
Physically locks up the muscles
Stun Gun:
Very broad term, but generally:
Shaped like an electric razor
Extremely short range (direct contact)
Utilizes pain compliance only
Does NOT lock up the muscles
How long do the effects last?
The NMI caused by a taser shock only lasts as long as the pulse. It’s completely possible to get tased and then get up and run off the second the pulse stops.
It’s possible, however, that hitting the ground could cause concussions, abrasions, broken bones, etc that would last for much longer.
There’s also the fact that getting shocked with a taser means you’ll have to get the barbed projectiles removed, which hurts about as much as you’d expect, and could be subject to infection just like any puncture wound.
Will getting tased or shocked with a stun gun render a person unconscious?
No.
At least, not the shock itself.
If the character falls and hits their head while being shocked, they might be rendered unconscious, and if the character has a really low pain tolerance, they might faint from the pain.
HOWEVER, don’t expect it! Don’t make step 3 of your characters’ daring escape plan “tase the guard, and while he’s unconscious, steal his keys.” This happens so often in books an movies and it’s so unrealistic. It’s so few and far between that it will actually happen, especially with a character that has any sort of pain tolerance.
Seriously, I mean people get tased all the time and don’t faint. If you think your dastardly villain’s elite guards are going to faint from something your friendly neighborhood weed dealer got hit with 3 times in a row in the middle of a Denny’s and was fine with, then…your dastardly villain needs new guards.
Taking the bullet out does nothing to help the person, and if your characters are in the field instead of a hospital, may actually cause more harm than good.
Imagine for a moment that you (for reasons unknown to all) decided to turn your sink on wide open, pick up a handgun, and shoot the pipes under your sink.
Maybe it hit the drain pipe, which would be bad, since all the water coming through the faucet is now dribbling out all over the floor. But even worse would be if it hit the water intake pipe, right? In that case, water under high pressure would be spraying everywhere!
Two bad options if you for some reason shoot your sink:
The vascular system of the human body is essentially one big set of pipes. The drain pipe? Those would be veins—under low pressure, but still very bad to leak from. The water intake pipe? Those would be the arteries—under high pressure and VERY dangerous to puncture.
But back to the sink example. Say you shot the pipes and hit the drain pipe (vein). Now there’s water pouring out onto the floor. Your roommate says “Quick! Wrap your hand around the pipe to hold the water in!” (“Put pressure on the wound!”) And you do! Water is still slipping out from under your hand, but it’s leaking a lot less than before! Right now, you COULD find some duct tape (bandages) and secure the pipe further so you don’t have to keep holding it.
Instead, however, you say to your roommate: “Hold on! I’ve got to find the bullet!” You let go of the pipe (stop putting pressure on the wound) to dig around in the cabinet (body) for the bullet. Seconds, maybe even minutes pass, and that pipe is freely gushing out water the whole time.
Finally, you find it! You pry the bullet out of the wood, hold it up to your roommate, and drop it in a little metal dish with a ‘clink’.
“Job well done,” you tell yourself. “We’re out of the woods now.”
Except that, you know, the pipe is still damaged and gushing water out onto the floor, and the bullet wasn’t actually doing anything harmful inside the cabinet. Also, while you were rummaging around for little Houdini, you weren’t putting pressure on the pipe, so that sink (patient) lost a whole lot of water (blood) that it didn’t need to. Can you imagine how much more it would have been if you’d hit the water intake pipe (artery) instead?
I know what you’re thinking. “But in movies—!!” And I know. But here’s the thing: Hollywood? It’s a bouquet of lies. I’m sorry. I really am.
In fact, even that distinctly bullet-shaped thing you usually see pulled out of people in movies may not always be true. Many times the bullet mushrooms out or becomes malformed. Depending on what that bullet ran into (like bone) it might have even broken into a dozen pieces. Try digging those out of your protagonist!
Now sometimes, but not always, doctors WILL remove the bullet (or fragments of bullet). For example, if they’ve already got the patient in surgery, and AFTER they’ve already repaired any veins, arteries, and organs to the best of their ability. Or if the patient doesn’t need surgery (if it didn’t hit anything major and is just lodged in the muscle or fat) but doctors notice that the bullet or fragment is likely to cause damage if left inside the patient.
More often than not, however, the bullet isn’t doing anything actively damaging while inside the patient, or the removal of the bullet would be more dangerous than leaving it where it is. This is why most bullets don’t get removed at all.
This is true if your characters are at a hospital, but ESPECIALLY if this is a field job. If trained physicians with all the tools at their disposal, blood transfusions, and a sterile environment most likely won’t take the bullet out, then Dave McSide-Character should DEFINITELY not be sticking his filthy, 5-straight-chapters-of-parkour fingers or his I-just-stabbed-a-guy-but-I-wiped-the-blood-off-on-my-pants knife inside the protagonist to fish around for some bullet that isn’t even causing harm. The recommended way to deal with a gunshot wound in the field? Pack it with gauze (or yes, even a filthy we’ve-been-on-the-run-for-two-weeks-in-the-same-clothes t-shirt if that’s all you have. Wound infection is a different post) and keep constant pressure on it.
Remember: stopping the leak in the sink is the most important thing. Not rummaging around in the cabinet for the bullet. Taking it out does literally nothing.
Two perfectly realistic reasons why you might have a character take the bullet out:
Now, sometimes, depending on the characters or the world you’re writing in, this might be different. In some instances, you might want to write the lead-scavenger-hunt scene in!
The first reason is if they just don’t know
And that’s really important when writing realistically. Not everyone is a professional in emergency wound care. Most people get all their knowledge of emergency medicine from Grey’s Anatomy and House M.D.
If your character has any medical training? Probably don’t do it
If your character has any military or police training? Some know, some don’t, so writing it either way is believable. It’s a toss-up, but they DO have more experience with gunshot wounds (either personally, witnessed, or in training videos and word of mouth)
If your character is a 17-year-old art student who saw blood for the very first time two chapters ago? Well now that character might just try digging for the bullet
And hey, maybe they’re like “I’m gonna get the bullet out!” but another character (the one who was shot, another character in the room, maybe even a 911 operator) steps in and says “No, no, no! Just put pressure on it!”
But regardless, injured characters in movies are always suddenly on the mend after the bullet is taken out. The vitals start to rise, they aren’t gasping for breath, their hand closes firmly around the love-interest’s hand, etc. And this doesn’t happen. Regardless of what your characterdoes, the rules of biology are still in play.
In the end, though, that bullet’s just minding its own business in there. The #1 priority is fixing the damage it caused on the way in.
The second reason is if the bullet is special
This is more for the SciFi/Fantasy writers.
If your character is a werewolf and was just shot by a silver bullet which is stopping their healing process and is slowly killing them? Yeah, take it out
If the bullet is actually some sort of tiny robot designed to burrow into their organs one by one? Yeah, take it out.
If the bullet had a spell or curse placed on it? Yeah, take it out.
If they need to get transported up to the med bay, but the bullet would cause some kind of issue with the transporters? Yeah, take it out.
But in all of these examples, the bullet has to be inherently dangerous. For normal humans with normal bullets, its just a hunk of lead.
Hope this helped some of you action writers out there!
Good luck and good writing!
Disclaimer: In the event that you or someone you know has been shot, the best thing to do for them is call for an ambulance and follow the instructions provided by the operator. This post is intended to give accurate writing advice to authors and script writers, but I am not a medical professional. While I do believe that the research that I’ve done on this topic is factually accurate, it should not be taken as actual medical advice.
When it comes to outlining, I think what should be focused on the most is not plot, setting or theme (though those do serve a role in outlining), but characters. Characters are the foundation of your story, and they will drive the events throughout your plot, influence the setting, and form the theme.
You don’t need to map out whole character arcs—in fact, I encourage you notto do that because you can probably create a more natural, satisfying, and consistent arc while writing your first draft that by planning it out beforehand. You can create a point A and a point B, but I would leave the rest of the specifics up to plot planning and then write out how the character develops alongside the plot in the first draft.
Instead, I encourage writers, especially those who need to outline in order to create a successful story (like myself), to write character essays.
Essays?!?! Like…. English class? That might appeal some of you and disgust others. I know myself that writing a bunch of essays in 12pt Times New Roman, 5 paragraphs with MLA citations would not be fun and not get me anywhere.
What I mean by character essays is notthe traditional English essay. I mean, if that’s how you want to do it, then power to you. But you should write these in the manner you feel will be most effective and comfortable down the line because you’ll hopefully be referencing these character essays while working on your first draft and maybe even while editing. That means they can be five paragraphs or they can be two sentences. They can include any relevant information: backstory, motivations, physical traits, relationships, etc. A character essay is not a biography. Don’t try to fit a character’s whole life into the essay. Only focus on what should be relevant to the story.
I recommend doing this for as many characters as you can. Obviously the main character, as well as prominent side characters, antagonists, love interests, mentors, etc. But try writing them for those random side characters too! Often, you’ll never directly use that information, but coming up with lives of those random people can add to world building and make your character live in a more 3D world. In real life, everybody sees themselves as the main character of their own story. Reflect that in your writing.
Writing character essays are beneficial for all the obvious reasons. You can get a better idea of what a character is like, leading to a more consistent first draft. You can develop a character while writing it, and fix character holes before they arise. But they also can lead to a bunch of good side effects. As aforementioned, they can help increase world building. For example, asking about a character’s hometown can flesh out the setting of the world as a whole.
They can also get you hyped! A lot of times, both writing and reading over these character essays can remind you why you fell in love with them and why their story deserves to be told.
With that being said, character essays are a tool, not a chore. You shouldn’t have to worry about editing them because they will never see the light of publication, and they are for yourself only. If they feel like an inconvenience, they can be done for some characters and not for others, or be in list format, or maybe just consist of a bunch of words associated with that character.
You can also try doing this essay technique with the story’s setting, plot, and theme. You’re a writer—you should write it out and use both the process and result to further develop your story.
A lot of times, writers worry about transitional scenes in their stories. And it is important to know how characters move from place to place, or how time passes. But a lot of that can be just be written into the necessary scenes (the ones that advance the plot and the characters), rendering transitional scenes to just be sort of… filler. My advice is to try to make your story more fast paced and concise by cutting as many scenes as you can where characters are just “moving” through either time or space. Instead, trust the reader to understand how we got here through the context of what is already written.
I encourage all writers to make weird metaphors. Normal, typical metaphors are boring. They’ve been done before, they say nothing unique about your character/description, and readers will likely skim over them and not gain anything from them.
For example, saying “she was as fast as a cheetah” or “her legs turned to jelly.” There isn’t anything wrong with using these, per se, but they certainly aren’t specific or interesting. I could apply those metaphors to anything, and it would work the same. It doesn’t add to a character or theme. At that point you might as well say “she was fast” or “her legs felt weak” because they lead to essentially the same visualization. While this sort of mundane description is sometimes needed just to move the story along, I think writers should try to create weird metaphors.
Weird metaphors are original, but they don’t try to be. Original doesn’t mean they have never been done before. In fact, in the history of humankind, I bet that no matter what metaphor you make, somebody, maybe in a country across the world, maybe in a foreign language, maybe 200 years ago, has made the same metaphor. So there’s no use in trying to make the strangest, most unheard-of metaphor that could ever exist. You’ll probably just end up confusing the reader.
Opt not to be original with your metaphors, then: opt to be specific. Use metaphors as a chance to add to characters or theme. Create a vibe: it sounds kind of silly, but using metaphors and other figurative language is actually the best opportunity for a lot of writers where they can really create a certain feeling invoked in their work.
One idea is to compare a certain sense to something in another sense. For example, you could say “the walls were sour” or “the candy tasted pink in my mouth.” Even though this doesn’t make much technical sense (how can something taste pink?), I think the intention is clear. Pink has the connotation here of sweet, maybe artificial or maybe romantic or funny. What’s nice is that these types of metaphors are left up to a perfect amount of interpretation from the reader.
Of course, there are other ideas for how to make strange metaphors. You can use weirdly scientific terms, or use morbid terms for a nice thing. You can use a recurring theme in your metaphors, or maybe compare everything to a trait you want to accentuate in a character. Let yourself go out of the box and explore the beautiful, intimidating, and straight-up weird world of language!
When it comes to solving plot holes, or advancing character motivations, or tightening the plot of your story, you want to fix those problems inthe story, not outside of the story. What that means is that you shouldn’t add outside elements to solve a problem: instead, combine or separate elements already in your story from your first draft to solve the problems in your story. This reduces overall inconsistencies in your story and gives more parts of your story a purpose.
