Sara Ann O'Sullivan

Writing Injuries/fight scenes as a Medical Student

Learning Medicine while writing, I have discovered a lot about how to write a fight scene. Nerve endings injuries can presented in the lost of ability to form a fist or the wasting of the deltoid muscle could cause the lost of the ability to hold a sword.

Of course, there always the magical excuse for fantasy novels. A spell that can heal wounds that would be life threating in reality or different races like Elves that can defy the logic of human’s substantiality. We as authors will write what fits into our world building whether that be fiction or non-fiction. I know I am guilty of adding in details that I know will fix the logic of my fantasy world to fit a certain scene into the book but I am learning to apply the logic of the world around us. Just with flares.

These past few weeks at school have been about muscles and their nerves. We have covered many injuries that sometimes are life threating and sometimes can be a simple fix. The shoulder itself is a complex area of muscles that all work together to be able to do almost all the movements that the human body is capable of. The rotator cuff is the set of muscles that come to mind when talking about the shoulder and before Medical school, I could not tell you much about it. But now? I could tell just how it would impact and how it would change my character.

Forget muscles for a moment and let’s talk about joints. The way the body can bend and twist. How does injuries impact that? What exactly causes a limp and how would that impact a character who fights using a sword. A character who uses a bow but has a weaken glenohumeral joint (Shoulder joint) may have a harder time in a longer battle. The goal in writing is to bring these characters to life and to do that, showing these little ticks of the characters. I can tell my readers that my character has a weaken glenohumeral joint but instead of just telling them, I could show them. My character can be seen icing the shoulder after a battle, wincing when trying to raise their arms, and so on. These little details bring the world to life. I am learning that I can combine the love of my learning with my writing and it only makes it more real.

In class, we learn about what hand bones are more likely to be broken in a fall and what it would take for that to heal. While sometimes, especially in Fantasy, I need my characters to be at their fullest strength. I personally feel like sometimes the magic excuse of healing can get overused. So instead, I have been trying to apply my knowledge that I am learning. How to fight with a broken arm or how a character can compensate for a rolled ankle. All these little details to bring my world to life so my readers can feel like they are right there beside the characters.

The best way to learn is to apply knowledge and what better way to apply it then doing something you love? Life is an adventure after all!