:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__mnn__images__2013__10__winston-scar-1_0-3c974e97dcce448181147cf99111f4cb.jpg "human struck by lightning scars")
A broken bone should send a jarring blast of lightning into the brain if that bone is jostled or hit. A gunshot wound should burn and itch and ache as it heals. Most pain that matters in fiction isn’t a one-and-done kind of a deal. How Often Should We Remind Readers of a Character’s Pain? For instance, don’t mix stinging with searing when finding a metaphor to build. Metaphors, of course, are going to play somewhere on this spectrum, but I would suggest picking one level of pain and targeting it. Consider words like ripping, tearing, writhing. Obliterating: This is the kind of pain that prohibits anything else except being in pain (and doing anything to alleviate it). Consider words like agony, anguish, suffering, throes, torment, stabbing. It will stop them from doing much of anything. Severe: This is pain your character can’t ignore. Consider words like ache, throb, distress, flare. Moderate: This is pain that distracts your character but doesn’t truly stop them. Consider words like pinch, sting, smart, stiffness. Minor/Mild: This is pain that your character notices but doesn’t distract them. How Much Does It Hurt? A Pain Scale for Writers
Human struck by lightning scars how to#
So I’m here today to give you a pain scale to work with, and provide some pointers on how to keep in mind a character’s injuries without turning off your readers. There’s a fine line to walk between forgetting your character’s pain, elucidating it, and over-describing it. In another story, a character breaks his ribs in one scene, then has, uhhh, intimate moments with his Special Someone in the next. Let’s be honest, you gave up reading that paragraph by the third sentence. For your readers, though, it can become a grind. The pain was like needles that had been dipped in alcohol had been jammed through her skin, like her arm had been replaced with ice and electricity wired straight into her spine.įor your characters, at its worst the pain can be all-consuming. It exploded in her head with a blinding whiteness. So why can reading about pain be so boring? Consider the following (made-up) example: It heightens drama, raises the stakes, adds yet another hurdle for our hero to jump before they reach their glorious climax. In good writing, physical suffering often mirrors emotional suffering. Characters in fiction suffer, because their suffering mirrors our own.
It’s the root of some of our best metaphors, our most elegant writing. They are sometimes called "lightning flowers" or "skin feathering" but the medical terms are arborescent (tree-like) erythema or keraunographic markings.Pain is a fundamental part of the human experience, which means that it’s a fundamental part of storytelling.
Human struck by lightning scars skin#
This striking skin pattern, as pictured below, is likely caused by the rupture of capillaries beneath the skin from the electrical discharge. The marks disappeared just two days later. He was initially stuporous, but by the time he got to the emergency room he seemed well and upon further examination it was discovered that he had a fern-leaf pattern of painless cutaneous marks across his arm, back and leg. For example, a 2000 report from the New England Journal of Medicine described the case of a 54-year-old man who was struck by lightning. Interestingly, when lightning strikes some people they develop Lichtenberg figures across their skin.
Around 10% of lightning-stroke victims die, and 70% will suffer serious long-term problems such brain damage and personality changes. between 19, 3, 696 people died from being struck by lightning and although rates are falling around 30 people per year still die from this. Lightning, which is a huge discharge of static electricity resulting from an imbalance in electrically charged regions between the Earth's surface and a cloud, is one of the leading causes of weather-related death and injury in the U.S. So, we've established Lichtenberg figures are pretty damn cool, but what is perhaps more intriguing is that they can actually occur on people that are struck by lightning.
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