Another plausibility check!
Sep. 17th, 2004 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAgain, putting this outside the Writing filter so as to maximize my pool of people with clues--and hopefully this will be easy enough to answer even if you haven't read any prior drafts of Chapter 3 of Faerie Blood. For those of you who haven't, most of this chapter is about my heroine Kendis, with the aid of her housemates Jake and Carson, getting wounded hero Christopher off to the hospital. There are two lesser details in the latter half of this scene that are niggling at me, and I need them double-checked. This is particularly directed to anyone on my Friends list with medical clues!
1) I have an NPC named Nathan helping the doctor who treats Christopher in the ER. Is it appropriate to refer to Nathan as an orderly, given the functions he is fulfilling in the scene? (I.e., holding Christopher steady while the doctor stitches his head, running off to check on making sure there's a bed ready to stick Christopher in for the night.) Or should he be a nurse?
2) In previous drafts of this chapter I have the doctor administering an analgesic to Christopher while Nathan runs off to check on the status of a bed for Christopher, since they plan to keep him overnight for observation. I have been advised of two things (though I can't currently find the email or LJ comments referencing this): #1, Nathan, not the doctor, is more likely to administer the shot, and #2, said shot may well be delivered to a less than public portion of Christopher's anatomy. First, can anyone verify either point #1 or point #2 or both for me?
I do plan to go ahead and revise the chapter so that Nathan comes back to report on the status of the bed and give Christopher his shot, while the doctor delivers a line to my heroine explaining that it's just an analgesic, she's not really sedating him (as Kendis fears). But I'm trying to figure out if Kendis should be shooed off at that point, so as to give them a modicum of privacy to deliver said shot and to start moving Christopher to wherever they're going to put him for the night (and it also occurs to me that they may hold off delivering the shot until he's settled?). This is very close to the end of the chapter anyway--and Kendis only needs to be there long enough for Christopher to deliver a final line to her about needing to watch her back. So I don't have a particular need for the NPCs to be doing one thing or another in terms of tending my wounded hero.
But I do want to make sure that they're doing the right thing! Every little bit I can do to lessen the grade of cables needed for disbelief suspension is a good thing. ;)
1) I have an NPC named Nathan helping the doctor who treats Christopher in the ER. Is it appropriate to refer to Nathan as an orderly, given the functions he is fulfilling in the scene? (I.e., holding Christopher steady while the doctor stitches his head, running off to check on making sure there's a bed ready to stick Christopher in for the night.) Or should he be a nurse?
2) In previous drafts of this chapter I have the doctor administering an analgesic to Christopher while Nathan runs off to check on the status of a bed for Christopher, since they plan to keep him overnight for observation. I have been advised of two things (though I can't currently find the email or LJ comments referencing this): #1, Nathan, not the doctor, is more likely to administer the shot, and #2, said shot may well be delivered to a less than public portion of Christopher's anatomy. First, can anyone verify either point #1 or point #2 or both for me?
I do plan to go ahead and revise the chapter so that Nathan comes back to report on the status of the bed and give Christopher his shot, while the doctor delivers a line to my heroine explaining that it's just an analgesic, she's not really sedating him (as Kendis fears). But I'm trying to figure out if Kendis should be shooed off at that point, so as to give them a modicum of privacy to deliver said shot and to start moving Christopher to wherever they're going to put him for the night (and it also occurs to me that they may hold off delivering the shot until he's settled?). This is very close to the end of the chapter anyway--and Kendis only needs to be there long enough for Christopher to deliver a final line to her about needing to watch her back. So I don't have a particular need for the NPCs to be doing one thing or another in terms of tending my wounded hero.
But I do want to make sure that they're doing the right thing! Every little bit I can do to lessen the grade of cables needed for disbelief suspension is a good thing. ;)