Jean Johnson, Author

Jean Johnson, bestselling author, discusses writing, the writer's life, & other absurdities. Pronouns are she & they, just be respectful, okay?

[rainbowgaez]

evil great lakes

lake inferior

lake normal

lake offtario

lake hurton

lake michigan

[blumineck]

The Bluminarmour project is trying to raise money for a set of fully fitted armour that I can use for testing historical and fantasy tropes and movement. If you want to see more content about armour, behind the scenes fitting and manufacturing info, or pose references, please consider chipping in if you can!

[jeanjauthor]

This young man is doing the lord's work. Just sayin'.

[porterdavis]

[porterdavis]

[pinnedwings]

one of the most difficult things about deciding you want to write a fictional doctor (of the non-who variety) is writing actual medical scenes. we all know that medical dramas are notoriously cliched, and i for one fully understand how unimportant factual accuracy can be to the emotional importance of a scene. sometimes you don’t have to get it write for your story to work. i have a disclaimer on my blog that i myself am just a layman, but i like to at least know what i’m writing about! in the interest of being as accurate as i can, i would like to spread that love around. here’s a list of medical fiction/fantasy writing resources i’ve found!

surgeonsblog

article i found this from^ (w/even more resources)

redwoods medical edge

^article where i found that

this article is short/basic/doesn’t link anywhere else, but i found it very helpful anyway

supposed to be good but to me, seemed difficult to navigate. (dp lyle)

this on the otherhand, is the jackpot (novelmalpractice)

tumblr blog centered around this topic

this is more about the common pitfalls/anachronisms of medical fiction but still helpful

writing medical scenes: useful links by paul anthony shortt

the last one im going to include is an article by a doctor about common mistakes in popular medical shows, i liked this one

tagging who liked the interest check on this @hesjustcarter @prodigiumamare @frankengeeks

[jeanjauthor]

Also, tourniquets DO work! You actually have up to about 4 hours before the damage to the limb becomes irreparable.

The US military decided (due to misunderstandings all over the place) that they wouldn't apply tourniquets, to try to prevent limb loss. But then they looked at the statistics and discovered that their service personnel in combat zones were actually dying a lot faster without the tourniquets, and that the fewer survivors were still losing limbs.

When they re-instituted the policy of applying tourniquets, they saved more lives, and saved a few more limbs.

...I learned about this at a lecture on what to do during "mass bleeding events."

The BEST way to write medical fiction is to do your research. Including asking medical professionals--more than one!!--about such-and-such scenario.

Remember, don't just ask about the "cool scene" you want to write. Ask about how to achieve your storytelling goal, because if you want to write a scene with splinting a broken limb, there are several different types of bone breaks, each with their own variation on what to do.

...And for godsake, understand just how long it takes for an injury (especially broken bones, even if it's just a fracture!!) to heal well enough for the character to resume normal activities.

[robertreich]

Just an evergreen reminder...

[depsidase]

[porterdavis]

[sgt-cookie-2]

Me (A time traveler visiting 20-year old Mozart): OK, so, this is called an electric guitar, basically instead of the body functioning as a resonance chamber, it produces music by harnessing the power of lightning. Do you have any other questions?

Mozart (Currently shredding Violin Concerto No. 1 on the guitar, having figured it out within 30 seconds): What other music can be made from harnessed lightning?

Me (Loading up some heavy dubstep): Oh, we're just getting started.

[jeanjauthor]

i was trying to double-major in English and Music, back in college in the early 1990s. In my musical composition class, we were analyzing the classical greats, Mozart obviously among them, when it suddenly hit me.

Mozart was using Jazz 7ths.

This is a trick of disharmony that creates tension in the listener before moving on to give them a sense of resolution. The composer (or improvising musician) uses the 7th note in a chord that otherwise would not have used it. That 7th note is a half-step below the 8th note/1st note (your "base" note that your melody is built upon / returns to), and so it sounds "off" when played in a chord, creating the auditory conflict and tension. When you move off the 7th chord, it's usually to "resolve" the melody with harmonious notes (such as finally using the 1st/8th note...and yes, there's a bit more to this than I've explained, but that's the short version).

The Jazz 7th became very popular in the early 20th century in the jazz movement, hence the name.

Very few of Mozart's contemporaries were using Jazz 7ths, but Mozart used them in several of his works.

Dude absolutely would riff on a guitar, and appreciate the beat drop in dubstep. He'd be confused for the first few minutes, but he absolutelyi would appreciate it once he'd listened to it.

And then he'd make us all feel like Salieri once he started mastering it.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Not sure why it's a new trend among fic readers to assume if the fic has not been posted within the week it's inappropriate to comment on it, like the fic has to be hot out of the oven to give feedback for.

I got a comment on a fic that is less than a year old and it was mostly an apology for being a comment on an "old fic" and how late they were in commenting.

Just comment on the fic. Doesn't matter how old it is.

[mysteryteacup]

Fandom is not social media.

Fandom is not trends.

Fandom is a cross between a library and having a slumber party with your friends.

"Old" means nothing to fic.

[jeanjauthor]

You have 1,000,000% the right to comment on old fanfics.

Ideally it'll be something good to say.

But you also have the right to comment, "This is problematic because of (x)."

Just remember that sometimes earlier times didn't quite grasp why it was problematic.

The old Looney Tunes cartoons from Warner Brothers, they now post a preamble statement that basically says, "We understand there are problematic (racist, bigoted, etc) issues with this cartoon. We have since learned better as a culture. But we are not going to pretend that these problematic things in our past never happened."

After all, if you erase history, you erase the lessons that still need to be learned from history by all the future generations to come.

So do comment on old fanfics! Say positive things! Point out the problematic things! Just remember that trying to get the old fics revised to be better isn't always the best thing to do...because to do better, we need to learn better, and to learn better, we need examples of what not to do.

[depsidase]

[porterdavis]

This would get my vote

[liberalsarecool]

I wish more reporters could/would fire back at their bullshit and feigned ignorance.

Like when a reporter gets asked "are you a stupid person? Is that why you're asking questions?" The response should be something like "No Mr. President, I'm asking questions because you're the stupid person, we're just trying to make sense of the stupid things you say"

[depsidase]

[depsidase]

[jeanjauthor]

If we give poor people money, they stop being poor, and the rich people in suits won't have anyone to look down upon.

[jeanjauthor]

...The reason why these books are recommended reading is that they are safe methods through which children can learn about tough subjects.

It's just a story, so they can walk away from it...but they will walk away from that story a little bit more prepared to handle real situations.

Grief, loss, horror, sadness, anxiety, depression, all of these things are emotions that need to be learned, in order to figure out how to handle them. It truly is safer to learn about the experiences that trigger these things from a make-believe story.

Children can discuss what they're reading with trusted adults. They can think about how they feel, and learn empathy for the characters in these stories...and learn to have empathy for real people going through tough times in the real world.

For a child, suffering through "the worst thing that's ever happened to me!!" happens fairly often in their first two decades, because it is their first two decades of life, and they literally have nothing else to compare ttheir current situation with...unless, of course, we use storytelling to help teach children about the awfulness of life as well as the wonderfulness of wlife.

Children who read a lot of different types of stories are going to come away from those books with a much stronger understanding of how the world works. And yes, some of that understanding will probably require a bit of counseling...or at least a bit of sympathy and a bit of help in acknowledging & learning from whatever happened.

But it'll be safely contained within the pages of a book, where the worst thing that could happen to the reader in real life is getting a papercut from that book...or dropping their electronic reader (tablet, phone, etc) on their foot.

Either way, for all that these stories will make us sad, it's still just a story. Each of us can learn from it, empathize with it, and become a better person by it, making the real world that much of a better place because of it.

[memories-of-ancients]

My top Five favorite "beat the shit out of people while getting the shit beaten out of you" fight scenes

#5 Pretty much all of Die Hard but the John McClane vs Karl Fight scene in particular

#4 The Saber Duel from The Duelists

#3 The Bus Fight Scene from Nobody

#2 Ser Duncan the Tall and the Trial of the Seven

#1 The Apartment Fight Scene from Atomic Blonde

I like my fight scenes brutal but no overly choreographed and over the top. I don't like it when the protagonist is an unstoppable force and John Wicks a dozen bad guys at a time (btw I don't really like John Wick movies). Rather what elevates a fight scene is when the protagonist takes punishment and suffers consequences. It's great to see the hero suffer injuries, become exhausted, slow down, and become less coordinated as fatigue and injuries compound. It gives the fight scene weight and it gives the hero stakes that must be overcome. The hero is not invincible, but rather is a flesh and blood human being who is physically vulnerable. Finally the hero's victory is so much better earned when they prevail against all odds despite the incredible punishment they have suffered. A fight scene should be more than just a fight scene, but an instrument of storytelling.

[jeanjauthor]

This is why I liked the Bourne movies a lot more than I'd thought I would. The protagonists get into fights, they get bloodied up, but they're clever, and they win because they're clever.