Whump Fic Question

[kristen999]

I'm stuck on a road block in this one chapter I'm writing so while I wait for the magic muse to come up with an answer, I thought. Hey let's have a poll. This is just for my personal interest in future projects.



[Poll #1098735]

Comments

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

My answers are a trifle paradoxical, so I figured I'd explain. *g*

I love to read anything once. I love well-researched and detailed descriptions of any subject ... the first time. Subsequently, it becomes "same old, same old".

At this point, I feel like I've read enough detailed infirmary/intubation/post-surgery scenes to last me a lifetime. I'm much more interested in reading about the characters' emotional reactions than the nitty-gritty of what the injured character is going through. Worry and angst and character-bonding doesn't get old for me the way that reading about a gazillion ways of feeding someone ice chips does. For example, I'd rather see a scene with the injured characters' friends playing cards and bickering while waiting for them to come out of recovery than see the same time period from the viewpoint of the injured character waking up from anesthesia, getting sick all over a nurse and having a catheter inserted ... if you know what I mean!

On the other hand, I checked yes to both of the last two because I don't think I've yet read a detailed, well-researched surgery scene, and that sounds interesting. (Field or battlefield surgery especially!) And, while I'd generally prefer NOT to read a story of the cyclical, never-going-anywhere type in which a character gets hurt and hurt again and suffers setbacks and so on and so on and SO ON ... I've been very interested in the all-too-rare stories that address consequences in a way that h/c usually doesn't; I would love to read a story that dealt with a character learning to live with a physical or mental disability (with no magic Ancient tech fixes), and things along those lines.

[alipeeps.livejournal.com]

I try to make the medical stuff in my fics as realistic as possible. I'm not medically-trained but I worked for a couple of years in admin in a major hospital so I'm familiar with terminology and I understand a lot of the basic concepts etc.. the rest comes from internet research. I do like reading well-written ER/infirmary scenes and I would be very interested to a read a detailed/accurate surgery/ER/infirmary scene - so many writers gloss over this aspect (because of the level of detail required, no doubt) and go straight to, as Sholio said, the somewhat overdone waking up/intubated/ice-chip scene etc. I tend to be very detailed in my writing and find it hard to skip over stuff and be brief/concise - :lol: - and the medical stuff very much interests me.

I enjoy medical scenes in TV shows and would love to see something similar in a good SGA whump fic. For example.. in the episode Beyond the Sea of The X-Files, Mulder is shot and instead of jumping straight to him recovering/waking up in a hospital bed with Scully by his side etc, we had a wonderful scene of him arriving at ER and being rushed into theatre, with Scully watching, her face a picture of misery and fear. That short scene added so much tension to the episode and from the medical details (the EMTs and Drs calling out his condition and mentioning how much blood he'd lost etc) we really got a feel for the urgency of the situation and how critical his condition was. It made my whump meter go practically off the scale! :D

Anyhooo... lot of waffle to basically say that yes, I'd love to read medically detailed whump fic. :)

[parisntripfan.livejournal.com]

For me the biggest thing a writer needs to keep in mind is how well versed the point-of-view character would be in medical-babble. All to often I get the impression the writer is trying to show-off how much s/he knows/has researched.

For example, John Sheppard should not have the same medical knowledge as Carson Beckett or Jennifer Keller. If he were watching Carson/Keller try to save a member of his team view of it should not include the techo-babble that we would see if the scene were written from Carson's/Keller's POV.

[rednz.livejournal.com]

stuff the whump, write me some SEX, woman! Shep is having a pants emergency. they need to come off, STAT.
please. puhleeeeeessssssseeeeeeeeee.
*takes deep breath*
puuuuuuuuhhhhhhhlllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeee

*grin*

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I'm with Friendshipper - infirmary scenes are fun for a time but do get old fast. And I cannot stand it when a writer immerses the scene into techno-babble. Yes, techno babble is necessary, but as someone else said, some seem to write it for the sake of "hey, look at how much medical stuff I know!"

Personally, I'm more for the aftermath, the comfort - and not the aftermath where the character is unconscious and every is angsting. I mean the aftermath where the character is awake and able to talk with his friends.