knites

[knites]

The Structure of an Injury Plot

The Structure of an Injury Plot

An injury plot works on one very simple three-part platform:

A character gets hurt. (The Beginning)

That character gets treatment and begins to feel better, but must navigate the world in a state of partial disability. (The Middle)

Finally, the character settles into their new normal, whether that’s back to a healthy baseline, living with some partial disability, or suffering a total disability of one body part or another. (The End)

Congratulations! This book is done. Go forth and maim your characters!

If only…

The good news is that sticking to this simple structure will give you a perfectly reasonable injury tale. Observe:

While daydreaming about smashing a homer at the company softball game, Mary trips over the ottoman, falls, and breaks her wrist. She tries icing her wrist, but the pain just keeps getting worse. (The Beginning)

She goes to the ER and gets X-rays and a cast. Thoughts of the game are replaced with daily challenges: how to button her shirts, how to drive her stick shift, how to type her TPS reports at work. She solves these challenges by asking her wife for help with her shirt, swapping cars for a couple of weeks with a coworker who has an automatic, and using dictation software. (The Middle)

Eventually, Mary’s cast comes off. Her wrist still hurts when the weather changes, but mostly she can ignore it. The softball game is all but forgotten. (The End)

This progression certainly works, although it’s a little dull and, most importantly, it lacks meaning. At present, it’s a plot, but not really a story. Remember, Mary needs to change in some fundamental way for it to be a story with meaning (rather than a series of things that happen).

One way we could add some meaning is defining why the softball game is so important to her. Does she need to redeem herself for a mistake? Does she miss the glory days of her youth? Is she trying to impress her boss – or a potential side lover? (Scandal Alert! Or, a perfectly healthy polyamorous relationship.)

In short: this plot is good, or at least makes sense, but now let’s elevate this plot to the level of story.

In my experience, this is where most injury plots fall apart. There’s a very clear cause – a character is injured, usually shot – but there’s no effect on the person or on the story. It becomes simply a piece of texture, an element of “grit” that carries no weight of meaning behind it.

(If texture is something you’re interested in for your story – if you want the injury for the sake of having an injury, not as a mirror to hold up to your character – that’s okay too, as long as the injury is fairly minor. We’ll get to this in Part 8: Sweating the Small Stuff.)

So we’ve taken a look at the Beginning, Middle, and End of Mary’s broken wrist plot, and touched on why this might matter to her. All of which is great! But let’s break down those three components into smaller pieces that will help us understand the particular quirks of an injury plot.

There are six distinct phases of the injury portion of the injury plot.

Broken down by plot section, these are:

The Beginning

The Inciting Injury: the moment and manner in which the character gets hurt.

The Immediate Treatment: what the character does in the moment to feel better and avoid further injury.

The Middle

The Definitive Treatment: when the character receives care which ultimately begins their healing process.

The Rocky Road to Recovery: when the character faces challenges relating to their new disability and how they cope with those problems during healing.

The End

The Big Test: the moment when a character must overcome a greater challenge related to the global plot – while still recovering from their injury.

The New Normal: when your character’s final degree of disability becomes apparent. They can have No Disability, a Partial Disability, or be Totally Disabled (for the affected body part).

You can see places where the five fundamental elements of storytelling mesh into the injury plot. The Inciting Injury is the Inciting Incident, the Progressive Complications are in the Treatment stages and the Rocky Road to Recovery, the Crisis and Climax parallel nicely with the Big Test, and the Resolution is one and the same as the New Normal.

So why the relabeling? Because it’s easy to get distracted by vague terms. The labels that are injury-specific will help you remember the pieces you need to have in place in order to make sure your audiences find your arc believable.

Let’s take another look at Mary’s wrist fracture, through the lens of the Six Phases:

Inciting Injury: Mary trips over the ottoman and breaks her wrist.

Immediate Treatment: Mary tries to ice her wrist and hopes it gets better, but it doesn’t.

Definitive Treatment: Mary goes to the ER, gets X-rays and a cast.

The Rocky Road to Recovery: Mary’s everyday life becomes more challenging with her broken wrist! Driving a stick shift is out, she can’t even button her own shirt, and she can’t effectively type one-handed. She solves each of these problems.

Big Test: Mary doesn’t have one… yet.

New Normal: Eventually Mary’s cast comes off, and she has a very minor Partial Disability: some lingering wrist stiffness and some aching when the weather changes.

Hopefully the first three phases are pretty clear and straightforward. But I want to talk about the Rocky Road to Recovery for a little bit, because, at least at the moment, it’s the easiest way to touch on the third rail of the story: why the injury actually matters.

Why is it, exactly, that these three tasks are so important to Mary? Essentially, what parts of herself does this injury force her to face?

Buttoning Her Shirt: As it stands, this is just an inconvenience, one that will go away in a few weeks. But what if Mary is very independent, and hates anyone – even her wife – seeing her vulnerable and weak? Why would she feel this way? Maybe when she was younger, Mary had to take care of her aging grandmother, and she always hated buttoning her grandmother’s blouse. She always vowed that she would never get to that stage in her life – and yet here she is. Maybe she’s coming up on a birthday and fearing her older age.

(Note that these concepts are both very natural and very ablist. On the one hand, change is extremely hard, especially where it concerns things we take for granted, such as our ability to do anything we choose. On the other hand, the mindset that becoming disabled is an awful thing implies that the lives of disabled people are awful, which doesn’t necessarily follow. Be aware of what you’re writing as you write it!)

Swapping Cars: Again, this is an inconvenience – until we know why it’s a big deal for Mary. Is she super proud of her ability to drive a stick shift? Is she super proud of her car as a status symbol – and now she’s swapping her this-year’s Lexus for her coworker’s twelve-year-old Civic? What if she’s a neat freak, and the person she’s switching cars with is a total slob? Or, what if she just got her car – by inheritance, and she has conversations with her car as though it’s her lost parent?

In any of these cases, why does it matter?

Typing and Work: Why does it matter so much that Mary has difficulty typing? Is she on the verge of losing her job – hence her burning desire to impress at the softball game? Is it her dream job she’s at risk of losing, one she’s fought to get? Does she feel like an imposter, like she’s gotten someplace she doesn’t actually deserve, and maybe losing the job is some cosmic retribution for her masquerade? Or maybe she’s self-conscious about her voice (why? An utterly embarrassing failure at a school talent show when she was a teen?), and doesn’t want to use dictation software where other people can hear – but it’s the only way to keep doing her work?

As you can see, this is the single best place where an injury plot can teach us about Mary. With just three relatively small challenges, we learn about her grandmother’s illness, her connection with her lost parent, and her sense of being an imposter at a job she doesn’t deserve (even if she does). All of a sudden, Mary isn’t just a woman who tripped over an ottoman – she’s a person, with a story. Maybe we even feel like we know her. Maybe we identify with these pieces of her we’ve discovered through her struggle.

The magic of storytelling is that if what happens to the character matters to the character, and we know why that is, then what happens will matter to your audience as well.

In the next few sections, we’re going to break down each part of the injury plot more thoroughly, including the way some stories, great and small, have approached them. I’m also going to give you a rough sketch of a story made especially for this book that will illustrate the way each portion of the injury plot might work.

This post is an excerpt from the forthcoming Maim Your Characters, out September 4th, 2017 from Even Keel Press. If you’d like to read a 100-page sample of the book, click here. If you’d like to preorder signed print or digital copies of the book before 9/4/2017, or claim Executive Producer status of the upcoming Blood on the Page, click here.

xoxo, Samantha Keel

The Structure of an Injury Plot was originally published on ScriptMedicBlog.com

#writing ref #insp

[knites]

Hey, you're awesome, thanks for existing, basically ^_^ Anyway, I wanted to know if you have any tips on how to write different personalities? My characters (all of them) always end up with the same default personality that I fall back on. Thanks!

Thanks for your question, darling!  I think most of us have struggled with this – after all, we’re conditioned to one way of thinking, feeling, and acting for as long as we live.  That doesn’t necessarily mean we write characters like ourselves, though.  In fact, many of us have a “default character” that’s sassier than we are, sweeter than we are, or in some way different enough from us that we still feel like we’re writing a character.

The problem, then, isn’t that we can’t visualize a different personality than ours.  On the whole, we can.  What we’re missing are the small details that make it feel whole – otherwise, it’s like painting the same room six different colors and trying to pass it off as six different rooms.  Different dominant traits can’t hide the fact that you’re working with one template!

So the question we’re left with: what are the traits we’re missing?  And how can we change them to create a unique and whole personality?

Three Types of Character Traits

There are, as the title suggests, three major categories of personality traits as I see it: fundamental traits, acquired traits, and detrimental traits.  A well-rounded character needs some of each to be three-dimensional and realistic.

Fundamental Traits

The fundamental traits of a person’s character are not as simple as interests and preferences; they are the very base of all decisions and desires.  They are either learned in early life or developed over a long period of time, rooting deeply into the personality.  A few examples of fundamental personality traits include:

Upbringing – The word choice here is conscious, as upbringing encompasses many different aspects of a person’s development.  Consider who raised them, and with what morals and practices they were raised to adulthood.  Consider their influences, both familial, social, and in media; consider the relationships that were normalized during their development, as well as the living conditions (financially, emotionally, environmentally, etc.).  The people, places, emotions, and conflicts made common during a person’s developmental period are essential to their personality in adulthood.  This is why psychologists often draw present-day problems back to a person’s childhood memories – because those formative years can subconsciously dictate so much of a person’s future!

Values – These may not coincide with the values a person is raised to hold, but upbringing certainly has an influence on this. A person’s values will direct the course of their life through every decision, large and small.  You don’t need to outline everything your character believes is important – every moral and every law they agree/disagree with. But those values which stand above others will give your character purpose.  A few of my favorite examples are: Jane from Jane the Virgin (whose initial storyline is heavily based on her religion and desire for a beautiful love story, as well as her childhood influences who inspired these values) and Han Solo from Star Wars (whose character development rested upon his values shifting from money and gratification to more honorable things).

Beliefs – Different from values, beliefs are a more general set of guidelines for how a person believes things are supposed to be.  Beliefs can also be a source of great conflict, as a character tries to stay aligned with their beliefs despite other values or desires.  These beliefs can be established systems, like religion or politics; they can also include more personal belief systems, like nihilism or veganism.  A characters beliefs, like their values, can change over the course of the story – but even if a character is questioning one system of belief, like religion or pacifism, they should have other belief systems in place to govern some of their activity.

Reputation – A lot of human activity, whether consciously or not, is dictated by how others perceive them (or how they believe others perceive them).  There are two types of reputation: personal and passing.  For instance, a woman named Sally who gains a personal reputation of sleeping around will behave in reaction to this reputation – either sleeping around because everyone already expects it of her, or specifically not hooking up because she wants to shake this reputation, or developing a thicker skin to deal with the rumors until it passes.  A man named Billy who, because of his tattoos, bears a passing reputation as an intimidating man will either try to soften his demeanor with strangers, own up to the image, or at least learn to expect judgment from strangers as a consequence.

Self-Image – Also relevant to a person’s behavior is the way they perceive themselves, which can often have little to do with their reputation.  A lot of self-image is based on definitive moments or phases in the past.  For instance: for several years after I started wearing contacts and cutting my hair, I still saw myself, in dreams at night, with long hair and glasses.  One of my friends, similarly, could not seem to notice when boys would flirt with her during sophomore year – because she still saw herself as an awkward middle schooler with braces, and not as the charming cheerleader with the great smile.Inversely, self-image can be inflated, causing character to behave as though they are funnier, smarter, or more prepared than they truly are (see: the rest of my sophomore acquaintances).  This can be an overlooked character flaw opportunity – or flawportunity…

Acquired Traits

Now we move on to the acquired traits of personality, which are the ones you’re more likely to find on a character sheet or a list of “10 Questions for Character Development”, alongside a million other things like their zodiac sign and their spirit animal.  But the traits I’m about to outline are a little more relevant to a character’s behavior, and more importantly, how to make this behavior unique from other characters’ behavior.  The following traits will be learned by your characters throughout their life (and their story), and are more likely to shift and grow with time:

Interests – I know, I had to reach deep down into my soul to think of this one.  But it’s true!  Interests, both in childhood/adolescence and in adulthood, are an important part of a character’s personality and lifestyle.  Childhood interests both reveal something about the character (for instance: my nephew loves trains, Legos, and building, suggesting a future interest in construction or engineering) and create values that can last for a lifetime.  Current interests affect career choice, social circles, and daily activity for everyone.  Forgotten or rejected interests can be the source of pet peeves, fears, or bad memories. There’s a reason I’ll never play with Polly Pockets again, and it 100% has to do with bloody fingertips and a purse that wouldn’t open.

Sense of Humor – This can be a little hard to define, understandably.  If you were to ask me what my sense of humor is, I’d probably start with a few stupid memes, pass by Drake & Josh on the way, and somehow wind up telling you bad puns or quoting Chelsea Peretti’s standup comedy. A person’s sense of humor can be complex and contradictory!  Sometimes we just laugh at stuff because someone said it in a funny way.  But anyway, to help you boil this down to something useful: take a look at a few kinds of comedy and relate it to your character’s maturity level.  Do they laugh when someone lets out a toot?  Are they the kind of person to mutter, “That’s what she said,” or simply try not to laugh when something sounds dirty?  Can puns make them crack a smile?  Do they like political humor?  Do cat videos kill them?  Is their humor particularly dark?  Can the mere sound of someone else laughing make them laugh?  Figure out where your character’s sense of humor is, and you’ll feel closer to them already.

Pet Peeves – For every interest a person may have, and everything that makes them laugh, there’s something else that can piss them off, large- or small-scale.  Are they finnicky about their living space and neatness? Do they require a lot of privacy? Do certain sounds or behaviors drive them crazy?  What qualities are intolerable in a romantic interest for them? What kind of comments or beliefs make them roll their eyes?  If you need help, just try imagining their worst enemy – someone whose every word or action elicits the best eye-rolls and sarcastic remarks and even a middle finger or two – and ask yourself, what about this person makes them that mortal enemy?  What behaviors or standards make them despicable to your character?  That’s all it takes.

Skills – Everybody has them, and they’re not just something we’re born with.  Skills can be natural talent, sure, but they’re also cultivated from time, values, and interests.  What is your character okay at?  What are they good at?  What are they fantastic at?  Maybe they can cook.  Maybe they have a beautiful eye for colors.  Maybe they have an inherent sense of right and wrong that others admire. Maybe they’re super-athletic or incredibly patient or sharp as a tack or sweet as a cupcake.  Maybe they know how to juggle, or maybe they’re secretly the most likely of all their friends to survive a zombie apocalypse.  Where do they shine?  What would make someone look at them and think, “Wow, I wish I were them right now”?

Desires – A good way to “separate” one character from the next is to define what it is they want, and then use every other detail to dictate how they pursue that goal.  Every real person has a desire, whether they’ve defined it or not – whether it’s something huge, like fame or a family of five with triplet girls and a beach house on an island, or something small, like good grades for the semester.  These desires can cause a person to revise their values or forsake their morals; and these desires can conflict with other people’s desires, influencing how people interact with each other.  Remember that every character is living their own story, even if it’s not the story you’re telling.

Communication Style – A majorly overlooked character trait in pop fiction is unique communication styles.  Having every character feel comfortable arguing, or bursting out with the words, “I love you,” is unrealistic.  Having every character feel paralyzed at the idea of confronting a bully or being honest to their spouse is also unrealistic.  There should be a healthy mix of communicators in a group of characters. Some people are too softspoken to mouth off at their racist lab partner.  Some people wouldn’t see their girlfriend kissing another guy and just walk away without saying something.  Some people just don’t react to conflict by raising their voice; some people enjoy sharing their opinions or giving the correct answer in class.  Boldness, social skills, and emotional health all have a part to play in how people communicate their thoughts – so keep this in mind to create a more realistic, consistent character.

Emotional Expression – Along the same lines but not the same, emotional expression is more focal on feelings than thoughts.  If you’ve ever heard of the fight-or-flight response, the different types of anger, the stages of grief, or the five love languages, then you’re aware of different “classifications” of emotional expression and management.  Read up on some of those things, and think about how your character handles emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, loneliness, paranoia, and so forth.

Detrimental Traits

While acquired traits are certainly more enjoyable to brainstorm during the creation process, detrimental traits are as important – or even more important – to the character’s wholeness as well as their role in the story.  Not only do these negative or limiting traits make your character realistic, relatable, and conflicted – they create a need for other characters and their strengths to move the plot forward.  A few examples of detrimental traits include:

Flaws – Character flaws are probably the first thing that came to your mind while reading this, but they’re the essence of the category.  Flaws in a character’s personality, morality, or behavior can be a source of character development; they set an individual on their own path and provide a unique motivation for them.  Having Character A struggle with sobriety while Character B learns to be a more patient mother can do a lot to separate their stories and personalities from each other.  Even if certain flaws don’t reach a point of growth, they create a third aspect to personality and force us, as writers, to be more creative with how our characters get from Point A to Point B, and what they screw up along the way.

Fears – Everyone has fears, whether we’re conscious of them or not – and I’m not talking about phobias or “things that give you shivers”.  Just like everyone has a primary motivation throughout life (romance, family, success, meaning, peace of mind, etc.), everyone has a fear behind that motivation (loneliness, failure, emptiness, anxiety).  We all have something we don’t want to happen – places we never want to be and things we never want to do.  We’ve all been in situations that mildly bothered others but wildly affected us at the same time.  For me, it’s a lack of autonomy, or in any way being forced to do something or be somewhere against my will.What does this mean for me?  It means that when other people have nightmares about being chased by an axe murderer, I have nightmares about being kidnapped and locked up.  It means that I’m continually aware of my “escape plan” if something goes wrong in my living situation, and I’m hypersensitive to someone telling me, “You have to do this.”  It means I struggle to follow rules and usually don’t get along with authority figures because I have to assert my independence to them.  It’s irrational and continual and doesn’t just affect me in one situation; it subconsciously directs my steps if I let it.  That’s how real, guttural fears work. Phobias are only skin deep, and they don’t make you feel any closer to the character.

Secrets – Even goody two-shoes Amber from the swim team, with her blonde blonde hair and her good good grades, has a secret.  Everybody does, even if it’s not a purposeful, “I have a deep, dark secret,” sort of secret. We have things we don’t tell people, just because they’re embarrassing, or painful, or too deep to get into, or they don’t paint us in a good light.  While the secrets themselves tell a lot about a person, so do the reasons a person keeps a secret.  Hiding something out of shame suggests a person is prideful, or critical of themselves, or holds themselves to a higher standard than they hold others.  Hiding something painful suggests that the person struggles to handle sadness or regret, or that they feel uncomfortable showing raw emotion in front of loved ones. And so on and so forth.

Conflict – Whether internal, interpersonal, legal, moral, societal, or what have you, conflict will limit your character’s actions at every turn.  A story is nothing without conflict driving the plot in different directions and causing your character to rethink both their plans and their lifestyle.  Without Katniss’s moral conflict over killing other tributes, The Hunger Games would be the story of a girl who entered an arena, killed a lot of people, and lived the rest of her life rich and comfortable.  If Luke Skywalker didn’t have interpersonal conflict with Darth Vader, Star Wars would be the war-story of a guy who joined a rebellion and then… yeah.

Health – Physical, mental, and emotional health is a huge limiting factor for characters that often goes untouched, but it’s valuable nonetheless.  Not everyone has a clean bill of health and can jump off trains without pulling a muscle, go through a traumatic life experience without any hint of depression or anxiety, or watch a loved one die in gunfire and shove right on without emotional repercussions. Consider creating a character who’s not perfect – who isn’t perfectly in-shape or abled, or neurotypical or stable day-to-day, or completely clean and clear of residual heartache, unhealthy relationships, or bad emotional habits.  Don’t define them by these traits, of course – but don’t feel that you can’t write a character with health issues without writing a “sick character.”

So this post got ridiculously long, but I hope it works as a reference for you when creating unique characters.  Remember that you don’t need to outline all of this information to create an individual, realistic character.  These are just some relevant ideas to get you started!  It’s up to you, as the writer, to decide what’s necessary and what’s excessive for your creative process.

Still, I hope a majority of this is helpful to you!  If you have any more questions, be sure to send them in and we’ll get back to you :)  Good luck!

- Mod Joanna ♥️

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

[knites]

Injury angst for writing dummies.

Hospitals and injury are always such a staple of angst fics, but 9 times out of 10 the author has clearly never been in an emergency situation and the scenes always come off as over-dramatized and completely unbelievable. So here’s a crash course on hospital life and emergencies for people who want authenticity. By someone who spends 85% of her time in a hospital. 

Emergency Departments/Ambulances.

Lights and sirens are usually reserved for the actively dying. Unless the person is receiving CPR, having a prolonged seizure or has an obstructed airway, the ambulance is not going to have lights and sirens blaring. I have, however, seen an ambulance throw their lights on just so they can get back to the station faster once. Fuckers made me late for work.

Defibrillators don’t do that. You know, that. People don’t go flying off the bed when they get shocked. But we do scream “CLEAR!!” before we shock the patient. Makes it fun.

A broken limb, surprisingly, is not a high priority for emergency personnel. Not unless said break is open and displaced enough that blood isn’t reaching a limb. And usually when it’s that bad, the person will have other injuries to go with it.

Visitors are not generally allowed to visit a patient who is unstable. Not even family. It’s far more likely that the family will be stuck outside settling in for a good long wait until they get the bad news or the marginally better news. Unless it’s a child. But if you’re writing dying children in your fics for the angst factor, I question you sir. 

Unstable means ‘not quite actively dying, but getting there’. A broken limb, again, is not unstable. Someone who came off their motorbike at 40mph and threw themselves across the bitumen is. 

CPR is rarely successful if someone needs it outside of hospital. And it is hard fucking work. Unless someone nearby is certified in advanced life support, someone who needs CPR is probably halfway down the golden tunnel moving towards the light. 

Emergency personnel ask questions. A lot of questions. So many fucking questions. They don’t just take their next victim and rush off behind the big white doors into the unknown with just a vague ‘WHAT HAPPENED? SHE HIT HER HEAD?? DON’T WORRY SIR!!!’ They’re going to get the sir and ask him so many questions about what happened that he’s going to go cross eyed. And then he’s going to have to repeat it to the doctor. And then the ICU consultant. And the police probably. 

In a trauma situation (aka multiple injuries (aka car accident, motorbike accident, falling off a cliff, falling off a horse, having a piano land on their head idfk you get the idea)) there are a lot of people involved. A lot. I can’t be fucked to go through them all, but there’s at least four doctors, the paramedics, five or six nurses, radiographers, surgeons, ICU consultants, students, and any other specialities that might be needed (midwives, neonatal transport, critical retrieval teams etc etc etc). There ain’t gonna be room to breathe almost when it comes to keeping someone alive.

Emergency departments are a life of their own so you should probably do a bit of research into what might happen to your character if they present there with some kind of illness or injury before you go ahead and scribble it down.

Wards

Nurses run them. No seriously. The patient will see the doctor for five minutes in their day. The nurse will do the rest. Unless the patient codes.

There is never a defibrillator just sitting nearby if a patient codes. 

And we don’t defibrillate every single code. 

If the code does need a defibrillator, they need CPR.

And ICU. 

They shouldn’t be on a ward. 

There are other people who work there too. Physiotherapists will always see patients who need rehab after breaking a limb. Usually legs, because they need to be shown how to use crutches properly.

Wards are separated depending on what the patient’s needs are. Hospitals aren’t separated into ICU, ER and Ward. It’s usually orthopaedic, cardiac, neuro, paediatric, maternity, neonatal ICU, gen surg, short stay surg, geriatric, palliative…figure out where your patient is gonna be. The care they get is different depending on where they are.

ICU.

A patient is only in ICU if they’re at risk of active dying. I swear to god if I see one more broken limb going into ICU in a fic to rank up the angst factor I’m gonna shit. It doesn’t happen. Stop being lazy. 

Tubed patients can be awake. True story. They can communicate too. Usually by writing, since having a dirty great tube down the windpipe tends to impede ones ability to talk. 

The nursing care is 1:1 on an intubated patient. Awake or not, the nurse is not gonna leave that room. No, not even to give your stricken lover a chance to say goodbye in private. There is no privacy. Honestly, that nurse has probably seen it all before anyway. 

ICU isn’t just reserved for intubated patients either. Major surgeries sometimes go here post-op to get intensive care before they’re stepped down. And by major I mean like, grandpa joe is getting his bladder removed because it’s full of cancer. 

Palliative patients and patients who are terminal will not go to ICU. Not unless they became terminally ill after hitting ICU. Usually those ones are unexpected deaths. Someone suffering from a long, slow, gradually life draining illness will probably go to a general ward for end of life care. They don’t need the kind of intensive care an ICU provides because…well..they’re not going to get it??

Operations.

No one gets rushed to theatre for a broken limb. Please stop. They can wait for several days before they get surgery on it. 

Honestly? No one gets ‘rushed’ to theatre at all. Not unless they are, again, actively dying, and surgery is needed to stop them from actively dying. 

Except emergency caesarians. Them babies will always get priority over old mate with the broken hip. A kid stuck in a birth canal and at risk of death by pelvis is a tad more urgent than a gall stone. And the midwives will run. I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as a midwife with a labouring woman on the bed heading to theatres for an emergency caesar.

Surgery doesn’t take as long as you think it does. Repairing a broken limb? Two hours, maybe three tops. Including time spent in recovery. Burst appendix? Half an hour on the table max, maybe an hour in recovery. Caesarian? Forty minutes or so. Major surgeries (organs like kidneys, liver and heart transplants, and major bowel surgeries) take longer. 

You’re never going to see the theatre nurses. Ever. They’re like their own little community of fabled myth who get to come to work in their sweatpants and only deal with unconscious people. It’s the ward nurse who does the pick up and drop offs. 

Anyway there’s probably way, way more that I’m forgetting to add but this is getting too long to keep writing shit. The moral of the story is do some research so you don’t look like an idiot when you’re writing your characters getting injured or having to be in hospital. It’s not Greys Anatomy in the real world and the angst isn’t going to be any more intense just because you’re writing shit like it is. 

Peace up.

#writing ref

[knites]

Love the Fool: An Academic Snafu

Read it on my ao3 here!

Summary: Gotham’s most eligible bachelor is Bruce Wayne: an aspiring concept artist born into old money. Despite his status, Bruce has some trouble breaking into the industry and starts working at the highly regarded Gotham Institute of the Arts to give his resume a bit more of an edge. It seems like a smooth plan until Bruce finds out that his old college “ex-not-ex” Jack Napier is also teaching at the Gotham Institute and seems to go out of his way just to get under his skin.

Meanwhile, ex-therapist now GIA art professor, Harleen Quinzel, is hopelessly in love with her best friend, Pam Isley, which she wouldn’t usually find much of a problem except for the fact that Pam’s currently in a shitty relationship with some asshole not worth her time. Harley does a good job of keeping quiet about it, but every time she hears another one of Pam’s stories about her shitty boyfriend’s shenanigans, she feels her confession press on the tip of her tongue. Rating: M Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Relationship: Joker/Bruce Wayne, Pamela Isely/Harley Quinn Characters: Bruce Wayne, Joker, Pamela Isely, Harley Quinn, OCs Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art Professors AU, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Secret Relationship, Affairs, Unhealthy Relationships, personal issues, Everyone's got boatloads of them, A Plot/B Plot, Team Up

#batjokes #my writing #batman #joker #fanfiction

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Gotham Central #33 (2005)

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Writing with Color: Description Guide - Words for Skin Tone

We discussed the issues describing People of Color by means of food in Part I of this guide, which brought rise to even more questions, mostly along the lines of “So, if food’s not an option, what can I use?” Well, I was just getting to that!

This final portion focuses on describing skin tone, with photo and passage examples provided throughout. I hope to cover everything from the use of straight-forward description to the more creatively-inclined, keeping in mind the questions we’ve received on this topic.

So let’s get to it.

S T A N D A R D  D E S C R I P T I O N

B a s i c  C o l o r s

Pictured above: Black, Brown, Beige, White, Pink.

“She had brown skin.”

This is a perfectly fine description that, while not providing the most detail, works well and will never become cliché.

Describing characters’ skin as simply brown or beige works on its own, though it’s not particularly telling just from the range in brown alone.

C o m p l e x  C o l o r s

These are more rarely used words that actually “mean” their color. Some of these have multiple meanings, so you’ll want to look into those to determine what other associations a word might have.

Pictured above: Umber, Sepia, Ochre, Russet, Terra-cotta, Gold, Tawny, Taupe, Khaki, Fawn.

Complex colors work well alone, though often pair well with a basic color in regards to narrowing down shade/tone.

For example: Golden brown, russet brown, tawny beige…

As some of these are on the “rare” side, sliding in a definition of the word within the sentence itself may help readers who are unfamiliar with the term visualize the color without seeking a dictionary.

“He was tall and slim, his skin a russet, reddish-brown.”

Comparisons to familiar colors or visuals are also helpful:

“His skin was an ochre color, much like the mellow-brown light that bathed the forest.”

M o d i f i e r s 

Modifiers, often adjectives, make partial changes to a word.The following words are descriptors in reference to skin tone.

D a r k - D e e p - R i c h - C o o l

W a r m - M e d i u m - T a n

F a i r - L i g h t - P a l e

Rich Black, Dark brown, Warm beige, Pale pink…

If you’re looking to get more specific than “brown,” modifiers narrow down shade further.

Keep in mind that these modifiers are not exactly colors.

As an already brown-skinned person, I get tan from a lot of sun and resultingly become a darker, deeper brown. I turn a pale, more yellow-brown in the winter.

While best used in combination with a color, I suppose words like “tan” “fair” and “light” do work alone; just note that tan is less likely to be taken for “naturally tan” and much more likely a tanned White person.

Calling someone “dark” as description on its own is offensive to some and also ambiguous. (See: Describing Skin as Dark)

U n d e r t o n e s

Undertones are the colors beneath the skin, seeing as skin isn’t just one even color but has more subdued tones within the dominating palette.

Mentioning the undertones within a character’s skin is an even more precise way to denote skin tone.

As shown, there’s a difference between say, brown skin with warm orange-red undertones (Kelly Rowland) and brown skin with cool, jewel undertones (Rutina Wesley).

“A dazzling smile revealed the bronze glow at her cheeks.”

“He always looked as if he’d ran a mile, a constant tinge of pink under his tawny skin.”

Standard Description Passage

“Farah’s skin, always fawn, had burned and freckled under the summer’s sun. Even at the cusp of autumn, an uneven tan clung to her skin like burrs. So unlike the smooth, red-brown ochre of her mother, which the sun had richened to a blessing.”

-From my story “Where Summer Ends” featured in Strange Little Girls

Here the state of skin also gives insight on character.

Note my use of “fawn” in regards to multiple meaning and association. While fawn is a color, it’s also a small, timid deer, which describes this very traumatized character of mine perfectly.

Though I use standard descriptions of skin tone more in my writing, at the same time I’m no stranger to creative descriptions, and do enjoy the occasional artsy detail of a character.

C R E A T I V E  D E S C R I P T I O N

Whether compared to night-cast rivers or day’s first light…I actually enjoy seeing Characters of Colors dressed in artful detail.

I’ve read loads of descriptions in my day of white characters and their “smooth rose-tinged ivory skin”, while the PoC, if there, are reduced to something from a candy bowl or a Starbucks drink, so to actually read of PoC described in lavish detail can be somewhat of a treat.

Still, be mindful when you get creative with your character descriptions. Too many frills can become purple-prose-like, so do what feels right for your writing when and where. Not every character or scene warrants a creative description, either. Especially if they’re not even a secondary character.

Using a combination of color descriptions from standard to creative is probably a better method than straight creative. But again, do what’s good for your tale.

N A T U R AL  S E T T I N G S - S K Y

Pictured above: Harvest Moon -Twilight, Fall/Autumn Leaves, Clay, Desert/Sahara, Sunlight - Sunrise - Sunset - Afterglow - Dawn- Day- Daybreak, Field - Prairie - Wheat, Mountain/Cliff, Beach/Sand/Straw/Hay.

Now before you run off to compare your heroine’s skin to the harvest moon or a cliff side, think about the associations to your words.

When I think cliff, I think of jagged, perilous, rough. I hear sand and picture grainy, yet smooth. Calm. mellow.

So consider your character and what you see fit to compare them to.

Also consider whose perspective you’re describing them from. Someone describing a person they revere or admire may have a more pleasant, loftier description than someone who can’t stand the person.

“Her face was like the fire-gold glow of dawn, lifting my gaze, drawing me in.”

“She had a sandy complexion, smooth and tawny.”

Even creative descriptions tend to draw help from your standard words.

F L O W E R S

Pictured above: Calla lilies, Western Coneflower, Hazel Fay, Hibiscus, Freesia, Rose

It was a bit difficult to find flowers to my liking that didn’t have a 20 character name or wasn’t called something like “chocolate silk” so these are the finalists. 

You’ll definitely want to avoid purple-prose here.

Also be aware of flowers that most might’ve never heard of. Roses are easy, as most know the look and coloring(s) of this plant. But Western coneflowers? Calla lilies? Maybe not so much.

“He entered the cottage in a huff, cheeks a blushing brown like the flowers Nana planted right under my window. Hazel Fay she called them, was it?”

A S S O R T E D  P L A N T S &  N A T U R E

Pictured above: Cattails, Seashell, Driftwood, Pinecone, Acorn, Amber

These ones are kinda odd. Perhaps because I’ve never seen these in comparison to skin tone, With the exception of amber.

At least they’re common enough that most may have an idea what you’re talking about at the mention of “pinecone.“ 

I suggest reading out your sentences aloud to get a better feel of how it’ll sounds.

“Auburn hair swept past pointed ears, set around a face like an acorn both in shape and shade.”

I pictured some tree-dwelling being or person from a fantasy world in this example, which makes the comparison more appropriate.

I don’t suggest using a comparison just “cuz you can” but actually being thoughtful about what you’re comparing your character to and how it applies to your character and/or setting.

W O O D

Pictured above: Mahogany, Walnut, Chestnut, Golden Oak, Ash

Wood can be an iffy description for skin tone. Not only due to several of them having “foody” terminology within their names, but again, associations.

Some people would prefer not to compare/be compared to wood at all, so get opinions, try it aloud, and make sure it’s appropriate to the character if you do use it.

“The old warlock’s skin was a deep shade of mahogany, his stare serious and firm as it held mine.”

M E T A L S

Pictured above: Platinum, Copper, Brass, Gold, Bronze

Copper skin, brass-colored skin, golden skin…

I’ve even heard variations of these used before by comparison to an object of the same properties/coloring, such as penny for copper.

These also work well with modifiers.

“The dress of fine white silks popped against the deep bronze of her skin.”

G E M S T O N E S - M I N E R A LS

Pictured above: Onyx, Obsidian, Sard, Topaz, Carnelian, Smoky Quartz, Rutile, Pyrite, Citrine, Gypsum

These are trickier to use. As with some complex colors, the writer will have to get us to understand what most of these look like.

If you use these, or any more rare description, consider if it actually “fits” the book or scene.

Even if you’re able to get us to picture what “rutile” looks like, why are you using this description as opposed to something else? Have that answer for yourself.

“His skin reminded her of the topaz ring her father wore at his finger, a gleaming stone of brown, mellow facades.” 

P H Y S I C A L  D E S C R I P T I ON

Physical character description can be more than skin tone.

Show us hair, eyes, noses, mouth, hands…body posture, body shape, skin texture… though not necessarily all of those nor at once.

Describing features also helps indicate race, especially if your character has some traits common within the race they are, such as afro hair to a Black character.

How comprehensive you decide to get is up to you. I wouldn’t overdo it and get specific to every mole and birthmark. Noting defining characteristics is good, though, like slightly spaced front teeth, curls that stay flopping in their face, hands freckled with sunspots…

G E N E R A L  T I P S

Indicate Race Early: I suggest indicators of race be made at the earliest convenience within the writing, with more hints threaded throughout here and there.

Get Creative On Your Own: Obviously, I couldn’t cover every proper color or comparison in which has been “approved” to use for your characters’ skin color, so it’s up to you to use discretion when seeking other ways and shades to describe skin tone.

Skin Color May Not Be Enough: Describing skin tone isn’t always enough to indicate someone’s ethnicity. As timeless cases with readers equating brown to “dark white” or something, more indicators of race may be needed.

Describe White characters and PoC Alike: You should describe the race and/or skin tone of your white characters just as you do your Characters of Color. If you don’t, you risk implying that White is the default human being and PoC are the “Other”).

PSA: Don’t use “Colored.” Based on some asks we’ve received using this word, I’d like to say that unless you or your character is a racist grandmama from the 1960s, do not call People of Color “colored” please. 

Not Sure Where to Start? You really can’t go wrong using basic colors for your skin descriptions. It’s actually what many people prefer and works best for most writing. Personally, I tend to describe my characters using a combo of basic colors + modifiers, with mentions of undertones at times. I do like to veer into more creative descriptions on occasion.

Want some alternatives to “skin” or “skin color”? Try: Appearance, blend, blush, cast, coloring, complexion, flush, glow, hue, overtone, palette, pigmentation, rinse, shade, sheen, spectrum, tinge, tint, tone, undertone, value, wash.

Skin Tone Resources

List of Color Names

The Color Thesaurus

Things that are Brown (blog)

Skin Undertone & Color Matching

Tips and Words on Describing Skin

Photos: Undertones Described (Modifiers included)

Online Thesaurus (try colors, such as “red” & “brown”)

Don’t Call me Pastries: Creative Skin Tones w/ pics 3 2 1

Writing & Description Guides

WWC Featured Description Posts

WWC Guide: Words to Describe Hair

Writing with Color: Description & Skin Color Tags

7 Offensive Mistakes Well-intentioned Writers Make

I tried to be as comprehensive as possible with this guide, but if you have a question regarding describing skin color that hasn’t been answered within part I or II of this guide, or have more questions after reading this post, feel free to ask!

~ Mod Colette

#writing ref #insp

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@ other writers: how the hell do you write short things????

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The three horsemen of the apocalypse coming to get me, oh boy

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Remember, you will always be growing as a writer. There is no peak, only improvement. It’s a continual learning curve and you can only go up from here. So keep writing lovelies.

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me: alright im gonna start writing this huge ass fic!

me: writes 1 page

me: i change my mind someone else write it for me

#someone cast a spell and charm me into writing this and making it the hottest shit on the block #text

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reading ur old writing

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do u guys ever look back at a piece of half-done writing and think ‘this could be brilliant. this could be my mona lisa. my starry night. my idris elba’ but you have absolutely no drive to finish it despite an unfaltering desire to see it finished

#my art prof au is my idris elba

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i’d love to write more about the batfam but idk anything abt the robins ;-; anyone wanna rec me some comics/shows showcasing the relationships in the batfam?

#text #batfam #batman #robins #dc

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Basically, Bruce’s entire time with Jason as Robin went along the lines of:

Bruce: Jason Peter Todd you are in so much trouble! You’re grounded! Bruce: Okay, maybe not grounded. Maybe no dinner! Bruce: Okay, definitely dinner, but no dessert. Bruce: Actually, Alfred left cookies on the counter for you to have after dinner. Be suited up and ready for patrol in an hour, son. I love you, finish your homework.

#CRIES

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poison ivy’s relationships with men are so hollow:

jason woodrue emotionally abused ivy and manipulated her until finally turning her into poison ivy against her will

the only reason she dated harvey dent in btas was so she could get close enough to kill him

she’s been written as falling in love with batman but this is by other straight male authors who use batman as a male power fantasy. seriously, think about all the other female characters that have been written as falling in love with batman/bruce wayne: selina kyle, talia al ghul, zatanna zatara, vicki vale, wonder woman, i could go on forever. does this mean they were all suited for batman or would realistically have interest in him? no.

her only meaningful romantic relationship has been with a woman: harley quinn. 

in conclusion poison ivy is a lesbian

#writing ref #insp

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The Thing, a study of Bruce's children

Bruce “I am the head of this household, and while that status is rather antiquated, I really must insist as your father/mentor that you do not do the thing”

Dick “UGH shut up go away let me live my liiiiiife I’ll do the thing if I want to!”

“Barbara, do not do the thing”

“This is interesting, I do not recall you ever being in charge of my life or decisions. Now, ONE of us has photographic memory, so…oh! That person is me! BYE BRUCE”

“Jason, do not–”

“FLING YOURSELF INTO A THOUSAND BURNING SUNS, PISSWAD”

“Ah. Well then. Tim, you know that I care for you. So do not do the thing.”

Tim “I’m not going to do the thing” *looks at the audience* “technically because I already did it”

“Damian, you are ten years old and I am your father, now understand this: you are not allowed to do the thing.”

“IS THAT A DARE”

“No, it’s not. Do not. Damian, I mean it. DAMIAN–”

Bruce approaches Cassandra “Cassandra…my sweet obedient child…my only daughter…the shining hope of my heart…please…do not do the thing”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…I am going to do the thing”

Bruce is distraught “All these children, and not ONE who listens!”

Stephanie pipes up “Hey, I actually didn’t do the thing. Do I get a prize? A card or a ribbon or something?”

Bruce is dead inside. “Fine. Sure. Go ahead. Make yourself a prize. I don’t care anymore”

“Awesome! I’m going to make one in your craft room”

“It’s not a craft room, it’s a cave”

“Craft room, cave, brooding place of solitude, whatever. Hey, do you have any glitter?”

#go d i love it #dc #batfam

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A Close One

Read it on my ao3 here!

Summary: Twenty-three year old Bruce is new at being a dad and is learning how to balance parenting and being a billionaire philanthropist playboy. He ends up taking his six year old to a cocktail party despite Alfred's protests, and runs into some trouble. Naturally. Rating: G Warnings: None Category: G Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Relationship: Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth Characters: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennysworth, OCs Additional Tags: Dad Bruce Wayne, Younger Bruce, Little Grayson, Young dad Bruce does his best to raise Dick, Some angst, batfam, good ol’ grandpa Alfred Language: English

“Master Bruce, are you sure that this is a good idea?” Alfred covers his mouth to cough into his hand, his voice barely above a raspy whisper. “Really, taking master Dick to an adult cocktail party? At this age?”

“It’ll be fine, Al,” Bruce says as he smooths some wrinkles out of Alfred’s comforter, trying to make sure that he’s comfortable. “Really, I won’t be there long. The party starts at 8, we’ll leave at 10 –his bedtime. It’s hosted by Jacob Rulk, I thought I told you about him. He’d be a really good business partner to have, so I’m hoping to rub elbows with him tonight and talk more about it.”

“You’re hoping to talk business at a party hosting this year’s Vanity Fair model lineup and a wet bar?” Alfred demands. He knows Bruce is 23, but he expects more maturity out of him at this age.

“Yeah! Why not? Dick will be a hit with the ladies,” Bruce says with a smirk.

Alfred rolls his eyes just as Dick pokes his head into Alfred’s bedroom. “Are we going now?” Dick excitedly jumps up and down in the tiny tailored and pressed suit Bruce dressed him in for the night.

“Yes, yes, we’re going now,” Bruce gets up to pick up Dick as he runs into his arms. “Don’t you look dashing tonight? Huh, Al?”

“Absolutely charming,” Alfred sighs, not wanting to cave, but it’s true. The child is absolutely adorable. “You had better keep an eye on him. If I find out he’s had even a sip of scotch…”

“God Al, what kind of guardian do you think I am?” Bruce says as he tosses Dick up in the air, making him squeal.

“The kind who just got his bachelors a year ago,” Alfred says, but Bruce doesn’t hear. Or if he does, he doesn’t act like it.

“I’ll catch ya later, Alfred,” Bruce holds Dick under an arm in a way that makes Alfred’s blood pressure rise with worry. “We gotta leave now if we’re gonna make it by 8. I’ll text you on the way back, but really, try and sleep. We’ll be fine.”

Dick waves at Alfred from over Bruce’s shoulder and Alfred sighs again, feeling the Nyquil start to take effect.

“I want cookies!” Dick shrieks from his car seat.

“Dick, for the last time, I don’t have cookies. You can have some tomorrow, baby.” Bruce says, already thinking of Alfred.

“But Alfred, Alfred said that I could have some today!” Dick protests. Bruce looks in the rearview mirror and sees tears forming in the kid’s eyes. His heart twists; he considers Dick’s tears his only weakness as Bruce and as Batman.

Dick’s protesting devolves to wordless crying and Bruce wracks his brain for any way to get him to stop. “There might be cookies at the party, Dick! There’s no need to cry.”

“Really?” Dick sniffles and wipes his cheeks.

“Yeah,” Bruce hopes to God that he isn’t lying to Dick. “There’ll be cookies and juice. But they only give it to kids who don’t cry, alright?”

“O-Okay…” Dick says, calming down.

Bruce sighs and puts on The Lion King soundtrack for the rest of the ride to ensure that Dick wouldn’t start another tantrum. He’s heard the entire soundtrack at least a million times, but he doesn’t really mind. It’s catchy.

The valet takes Bruce’s bugatti after Bruce takes Dick out of the backseat, still humming I Just Can’t Wait to Be King to himself. He’s relieved to see that Dick is in a much better mood and holds his hand as they walk into a rented conference hall. Bruce hears the music before the doors open and Alfred’s words of protest revisit him. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea…

Dick clings to Bruce’s leg as they move through seas of people. Bruce pats his head to comfort him and walks toward a table with different horderves to get Dick’s promised dessert. Bruce picks up Dick and holds him on his hip so the kid can get a better look at the food. He smiles as he watches Dick’s expression brighten. “Look, see? They have cookies. Which do you want?”

“Chocolate chip!” Dick sings, enjoying the fact that he’s allowed to be loud with so much commotion around him.

“Alright, here,” Bruce hands him the cookie just as Jacob Rulk comes up to the table to nab something from the chocolate fountain. Bruce quickly puts Dick back on the floor again before he takes a few steps forward and introduces himself. “Mr. Rulk! Hi, I’m Bruce Wayne, pleasure to see you again,” he extends a hand out to the suited man.

“Bruce Wayne! Hello, good to see you,” Jacob gives Bruce a firm handshake and sees the child standing next to him. “Is this your son?” He asks, seeming a bit perplexed.

“Uh, yes, my babysitter got sick at the last minute.” Bruce says. Dick looks at Jacob with wide eyes and a mouth covered in crumbs.

“Cute little thing, isn’t he? Planning to have a drink tonight too, little guy?” Jacob tries to pinch Dick’s cheek but he deftly dodges the older man’s fingers and moves closer to Bruce.

Bruce chuckles politely at Jacob’s joke which he doesn’t really find all that funny. “No, but I’m sure he’d love some orange juice.”

“They might have some at the bar. They might use some as a mixer.”

“Thanks for the heads up. Actually, we’re probably not going to stay that long anyway. I just wanted to swing by and talk to you about that offer you were telling me about a couple weeks ago, if you remember.”

Jacob takes a moment to remember. “Ohhh, yes, yes. The one about making real ‘ideal’ transformers.”

“Yes, exactly,” Bruce smiles, relieved that Jacob remembered. “I’m really impressed with your prototypes. Normally you’d expect some sort of energy loss with any transformer, but these are pretty close to ideal draw ups.”

After a few more minutes of talking, Dick is finished with his cookie and feeling thirsty. Not to mention bored with all this boring stuff the adults are talking about. He grabs a fistful of Bruce’s jacket and pulls. “I’m thirsty.”

“Yes and– hold on a minute, Dick. I’m talking right now.” Bruce taps Dicks hand to make him let go.

Dick growls to himself and crosses his arms, disliking the dismissal. It isn’t fair that orange juice was just mentioned and he doesn’t get to have any. He remembers hearing something about a bar and looks around. He can barely see anything through the forest of legs, but Bruce is busy ignoring him. He can find his own way. Dick makes his way around the adults and looks over his shoulder; Bruce and Jacob are still talking and neither had noticed him walk away. This only makes Dick more annoyed, and he continues his trek.

A model at the bar is surprised (understandably) when a six year old child climbs up on a barstool next to her. She looks around, wondering how a kid got into this party and impressed with the fact that he’s wearing a suit.

“Do you have orange juice?” Dick asks the bartender over the music.

The bartender freezes and shares a bewildered look with the model next to the kid. She puts a hand up and shrugs. She doesn’t know him. Nevertheless, she decides to keep her eye on him while the bartender puts a big glass of orange juice in front of him. “You can put it on my tab,” the model tells her. The bartender raises her brows, but doesn’t protest. Dick smiles at the model while he takes a big sip of his juice through his straw.

“What’s your name, buddy?” The model leans closer to Dick so she can hear him better.

“Dick Grayson,” he tells her, unreserved. “What’s your name?”

“Esperanza Martinez,” the model responds. “Are your parents here?”

“Esperanza? That’s a cool name,” Dick says and keeps sipping on his juice. “And yeah, I came with my dad.”

“Thank you,” Esperanza smiles and looks around for someone who looks like they’ve just lost a child. Who the hell would bring their kid to a private cocktail party? “Do you know where your dad is?”

Dick shakes his head. “He was talking to some other guy but I got thirsty, so I went to go find some juice. He said they had orange juice at the bar. I know what a bar is because my dad has one in his house and he told me what it was before. He has a million cups in it. Alfred cleans them. He’s our butler.”

“Oh, wow…” Esperanza chuckles, sounding impressed. This kid’s cute. She figures she’ll just sit with him until she’s able to help find his dad. Her eyes scan the crowd again but she doesn’t see anyone who could be a lost parent.

“Um, did you know, that my dad, Bruce Wayne, he sings all The Lion King songs for me?” Dick starts talking again after he’s finished most of his juice.

“Does he?” Esperanza giggles. This kid is Bruce Wayne’s son? She starts to wonder how responsible of a dad the young billionaire is if he’s letting his child run wild at a cocktail party.

“Yeah! And he lets me call him Bruce Wayne. Sometimes I call him papa, but I think that Bruce sounds better. Everyone else calls him Bruce.” Dick chatters away.

“He does?” Esperanza keeps up a positive attitude for the kid; he doesn’t know any better and seems sweet. “You got some chocolate on your face, baby,” she wets her napkin and wipes Dick’s face for him.

Dick tolerates it because he’s decided that he likes Esperanza. “Sorry,” he says. “It’s because Bruce gave me a cookie earlier.”

“No need to apologize, honey,” Esperanza says. Her heart’s been stolen by this little kid in under 10 minutes. “It’s okay. How’s your juice?”

“Good,” Dick says with a yawn. He’s finished with it now.

Esperanza ignores a man who tries to chat her up and checks her watch. 10 o'clock. “Are you tired, honey?”

Dick nods and leans his head down on the counter. Suddenly everything sounds too loud and all the lights are too bright.

“Oh, don’t put your head on that, it’s dirty. If you’re tired, I’ll take you back to my table. I left my jacket with some friends. You can use it as a blanket.” Esperanza rubs his back comfortingly.

Dick feels comfortable enough with Esperanza that he decides to trust her. She bought his drink for him and sat with him. She’s nice. “I want my dad…”

“Ay, I know, baby. We’ll find him.” Esperanza stands and holds her arms out for Dick. “I can carry you if you like.”

Dick leans into her arms and puts his head on her shoulder. He closes his eyes and remembers how his mom used to hold him before he lost his parents.

Esperanza rubs Dicks back as she carries him back to her table, which wasn’t too far away from where she had found Dick. She looks around while she walks, starting to worry. What if this larger-than-life Mr. Wayne fucking forgot about his kid? She can’t take care of him forever, as much as she would secretly like to. She reminds him of her daughter. Esperanza can’t stop thinking about how she’d lose her goddamn mind if she ever lost her daughter at a club. Though, she’d never in a million years bring her daughter to a club. She lets Dick sleep on her chest and puts her jacket over him, explaining the situation to her friends and keeping watch at the table.

After half an hour passes, a man pushing through the walls of people catches Esperanza’s attention, and she stands.

“Excuse me, sorry, have you seen a kid about yea high? He’s six. He’s wearing a suit. He’s got brown hair and blue eyes. He’s the sweetest kid in the whole world.” Bruce frantically tells anyone who’ll listen. He’s given up trying to keep calm. He’s been looking for Dick for an hour, running up flights of stairs and different rooms, trying to hold off a panic attack all the while. Alfred was right. He was being irresponsible by taking Dick to this party, he should’ve listened to him. Alfred was always right. And now who knows what happened to Dick. Someone could’ve taken him away and stolen him from right under his nose, just like his parents all those years ago. His parents hadn’t been his fault, but Dick’s disappearance was completely preventable. Bruce’s chest feels tight and he’s breathing too hard. Adrenaline is making his hands shake.

Dick’s gone. It’s all his fault.

“Are you looking for someone?” A beautiful model with brown skin approaches Bruce holding a peacefully sleeping child in her arms.

Bruce’s eyes lock onto the child and he immediately recognizes Dick’s sleeping face. “Yes, yes! That’s my son! Oh, Dick. Thank God.” Bruce finally feels like he can breathe again as he takes Dick from the model’s hands. She looks him over with a critical eye at first, but then her expression softens.

“I found him at the bar. He was ordering orange juice.” She says with a smirk.

“Orange…? Oh my God…” Bruce sniffles and wipes the tears out of his eyes. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I looked away for a second while I was talking and he was gone. I thought…”

“It’s okay,” Esperanza says, glad to see that Bruce upset over losing his child, even if bringing him to a party was a dumb idea, in her opinion. “I’m just glad we found you. He said he was missing you.”

Bruce squeezes Dick tightly, never wanting to let him out of his sight again. Dick groans in protest at Bruce’s too-tight hug. “Stop squeezing me…” he says sleepily.

“Dick, why did you run off? I was so worried.” Bruce huffs and tries to level his breathing again.

“You wouldn’t get me juice! Esperanza got some for me.”

“Esperanza? Is that your name?” Bruce asks her while Dick puts his head back down on Bruce’s shoulder. “I’ll thank you properly, Esperanza. I’ll send you a check. I’m Bruce Wayne, by the way.”

“Martinez,” Esperanza nods. “Oh, it’s alright, really. I’m just glad your boy’s okay. I have a daughter too, her name’s Nicole. I’d be feeling the same way you are if I ever lost her.”

Bruce smiles. He doubts Esperanza will take a check off him at the moment, but he’ll ask Jacob about her later and find some way to send her some money. There’s no way he can’t now that he knows she has a kid too. “How old is she?”

“She’s turning seven this week,” Esperanza says with a camera-worthy smile.

“Aw, that’s great. If you like, we can set up a playdate for them some time. Dick needs more friends. He can be a bit shy.” Bruce rubs Dick’s back lovingly.

“Really? Him? I wouldn’t have guessed. He was just chatting away before he got tired and wanted to sleep,” Esperanza chuckles. “And sure, a playdate sounds great. If you want, you both can just swing by the party we’re having this weekend. It’s just a simple pool party for kids, nothing fancy like this.” She looks around the place for emphasis.

“We’ll definitely be there,” Bruce assures her and readjusts Dick on his shoulder. Though he could lift much heavier things than his son, he was feeling exhausted after all the adrenaline that had ripped through his veins an hour ago. And it was way past Dick’s bedtime, the poor kid. “Here, I’ll give you my number and we can talk more about it later. I need to go and tuck this kid into bed.”

“Oh, alright!” Esperanza gets out her phone to exchange numbers. She can’t wait to brag to her friends that she nabbed Bruce Wayne’s number at a party. Ironic really, considering the fact that she’s gay. But bragging rights are bragging rights. “Have a safe drive back home, Mr. Wayne.”

“Call me Bruce,” he says with a wave. “And thanks again.”

“Bruce Wayne that has got to be the most stupid, irresponsible, and neglectful thing you have done to this boy yet!” Alfred yells from his bed the next morning. Or, he tries, but his voice is so shot that it’s a miracle he’s making a sound at all. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you take him to that party, I should’ve tried harder to stop you, so that was my fault, but this! You lose your gloves, Bruce, not a child!”

Bruce shrinks away from Alfred, still holding a tray of breakfast for the man. Alfred rarely ever calls him by his full name and it’s usually not a good thing whenever he does. “Look, Al, you’re right, I should’ve listened to you. I won’t do it again, it was stressful for both of us, and completely inappropriate on my part.”

Alfred snorts and rubs his forehead. Getting so angry in the morning while he’s sick only gives him a headache. “Thank God Esperanza found him, bless her soul. Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on him? I told you to keep an eye on him, Bruce. And what do you do? You let him run off to a bar by himself!”

“It was an accident!” Bruce winces. The guilt he felt last night rushes back, and he starts to think of his parents again. “Alfred, I know, you don’t have to tell me. This’ll never happen again. I… I couldn’t stand losing any part of my family again.”

The mention of Bruce’s late parents makes Alfred quiet, though he holds a hard look on Bruce. Dick pokes his head into the room, knowing that his guardians are talking about him. He runs to Alfred’s bed and jumps on it, luckily nowhere near Alfred’s legs. “Good morning Alfred! We made you breakfast! I poured the cereal.” He tells him proudly.

“Did you? You are the sweetest thing, do you know that master Dick?” Alfred says without a trace of anger in his voice to show Dick. He sits up to kiss the boy’s forehead tenderly.

Dick nods, grinning ear to ear from Alfred’s kiss. “Bruce made the eggs! I wanted to make the eggs but he wouldn’t let me because he said the fire was too hot and I was too short to reach, but I can reach. I got down the strawberry gummies all by myself from the top cupboard last week. It’s not hard to climb up there. That’s what I tried to tell him, that I could climb up there, but he still wouldn’t let me.”

“You climbed on the counter? Master Dick, you know you’re not supposed to do that,” Alfred tuts.

“Yeah, we’re gonna have to talk about climbing rules in this house,” Bruce says, setting the food tray on Alfred’s lap. He sees Dick frown and he can’t help but smile. He’s thankful beyond words that he’s here with him.

“And we’re going to have another parenting talk later,” Alfred tells Bruce as he starts on his eggs.

Bruce sighs and runs a hand through his hair. He’s definitely not looking forward to that talk. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s leave Alfred alone so he can eat in peace. We still have to make our own breakfast.”

“I want pancakes!” Dick says and leaps from the bed into Bruce’s arms, who was completely unprepared for the surprise attack.

Bruce catches him deftly as a test of his reflexes and walks back to the kitchen. “I’ll see if we have any.”

#batfam #batman #fanfic #young dad bruce wayne #alfred getting on his case abt how to be a good parent #my writing