Page 3 of 38 Cohen/Pain, Pain Perception, and Healing
I.IntroductionOne of the challenges a writer faces is how to introduce the right amount ofdetail to make a story feel real and engaging. Too much detail and the story risksbecoming encyclopedic. Too little or poorly researched detail, and the reader may notbe willing to suspend the necessary disbelief to engage in the story. Perhaps as aconsequence of working as a physical therapist for more than twenty years, I find theliterary treatment of pain, injury, and healing problematic in this regard. In thefantasy genre, for example, the hero who singlehandedly defeats a horde of enemysoldiers without breaking a sweat is almost as much of a cliche´as the horse that cangallop twelve hours straight and not tire and the never-emptying elf quiver. Aperfect character is a boring characters and using injury or pain to complicate yourcharacter's progress can make for a richer story.This primer was originally written as an on-line class for Forward Motion forWriters (http://www.fmwriters.com) as part of their series "Back to School for BusyWriters.” The information presented can be helpful when writing about a characterwho sustains an injury and is relevant to many genres, from literary fiction tomysteries, to science fiction and fantasy and anything in between.
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I am definitely going to favorite this