“Do you think a severe electrical burn would be gooey beneath the crispy flesh?”
That was how I started our conversation. Of course my husband gives me a perplexed look. And then he starts to chuckle.
I was writing a scene where the character gets hit with an electrical bolt which mangles up the left side of his face/neck/shoulder. My story is fantasy, by the way. And my husband knows this. This is how our conversation went.
Me: Do you think a severe electrical burn would be gooey beneath the crispy flesh?
Him: Is he wearing an earring?
Me: Uh…I hadn’t planned on it.
Him: Then it isn’t going to hit him.
Me: But the guy throws the bolt at him.
Him: No.
Me: What?
Him: Electricity doesn’t work that way.
Me: This is a fantasy.
Him: Maybe he has a pencil behind his ear?
Me: He’s a prisoner.
Him: It’s like lightning. It needs something to connect to.
Me: I suppose he could be wearing an earring.
Him: And it’d screw up his foot too.
Me: Huh?
Him: It needs to ground out somewhere.
Me: But he’s lying down.
Him: What’s he laying on?
Me: A stone floor.
Him: What kind of stone.
Me: Uh…red?
Him: That might work.
Me: Okay…
Him: The stone probably has iron in it. He’d be damaged more by the stone exploding than the bolt.
Me: *scrolls up and makes rock explode* Okay.
Him: Ooh, yeah, and he can have jagged rock formations embedded and sticking out of his face–That’d leave some nasty scars.
Me: True.
Him: But that’d probably kill him.
Me: He isn’t human.
Him: Does he have anything protecting his throat?
Me: No.
Him: Yeah, he’s going to die.
Me: *long pause* So do you think the flesh would be gooey beneath the crispy burned parts?
You know, I’m still not sure.
I’m behind on my NaNo word count, but I’m quite certain I’ll catch up. If you stopped by the blog today and notice the site looks different, please excuse my dust. I’m playing around with themes again, updating widgets, and changing styles. The font that’s going on right now will be changing (it’s too small!). And I’ll be crafting a new background image and possibly a new header image sometime soon. If anyone has a suggestion for either, I’d love to hear them!
I have conversations like this with my love-of-my-life while I work on NaNoWriMo. Often it will go to extremes as he helps me try to find the most logical explanation/interpretation to make my story be realistic.
Which I then have to say, “Adam, sweetie. Zombies. Realistic isn’t happening.” 🙂
Zombies? Awesome!
I tend to get ‘why?’ as an answer more often than not. Which leads to me rambling, which leads to another ‘why?’ …
Answers may or may not be reached.
And I’m way behind on my Nano count, too. Just hoping my head can stay unfogged for a bit so I can catch up.
‘Why?’ That question got me in a lot of trouble in Thanmir War. But it is a fabulous question to ask. Makes for some good stories, as demonstrated with your writing.
Yeah, but when the question is what to do about one character and their “relationship problems” I’m not generally looking for some thirty-minute discussion leading me through the intricacies of the link they’ve got with their bond mates.
Especially when it’s the third time I’ve explained it. -_-
And through all of this, he read my story once: the horrible first person version about nine years ago. He still thinks my characters did things I’ve no longer got them doing.
He better read the published copy. I’m just saying…
Hilarious. Love this snippet. It’s so familiar….
Hehe, thanks!