˙⋆✮ Weave thought into action instead of stopping the scene to explain it. Let your character think mid-motion, not instead of motion. She doesn't need to stand still for a paragraph to process something, she can be pulling her jacket on, still fumbling with the zipper, while the thought is happening. The scene keeps moving EVEN while the internal stuff is happening underneath it.
˙⋆✮ Keep introspection specific, not vague. "She felt sad" tells the reader almost nothing and kind of just sits there. "She kept waiting for the ache to make sense, and it never did" gives the reader something concrete to actually feel alongside her. Specific, sensory thoughts land so much harder than a generic emotion word ever will, bc they're doing the work of showing instead of just labeling.
˙⋆✮ Use internal monologue to contradict what's being said out loud. that gap between what a character says and what they're actually thinking is genuinely where all the good tension lives. She says "i'm fine" out loud while internally thinking "i am so far from fine i don't even know where fine went," and that contrast tells the reader more about her than either line would alone.
˙⋆✮ Don't over-explain emotions the scene is already showing you. If you've already shown your character's hands shaking and their voice cracking, you don't also need three sentences of internal monologue confirming "she was nervous." Trust your reader to connect what the character's doing with what they're feeling, bc over-explaining it on top just slows everything down and insults their intelligence a little.
˙⋆✮ break up long internal passages with small physical beats. A held breath. A clenched hand. Picking at a loose thread on a sleeve. These tiny grounding actions keep the reader anchored in the actual physical scene, even while a lot of internal stuff is happening, so the passage doesn't start feeling like it's floating untethered in pure headspace.
☆ Looking at her felt like finding a glacier in the middle of a desert. Wrong by every rule. Breathtaking for exactly that reason.
☆ She had an eye the color of fog over cold water, surrounded by skin the shade of late afternoon sun on red clay. The kind of face that made you understand why people used to think beauty was magic.
☆ His iris was the exact blue of something you see once and spend years trying to describe to people who weren't there.
☆ His iris was the color of the sky at the edge of a snowstorm. That particular white-blue that means the world is about to go completely quiet.
☆ His irises were wildfire at the center and first snowfall at the rim. Two seasons that should never touch, sharing the same impossible space.
☆ Her eyes looked like someone had dropped honey into glacier water and watched it sink slowly, still glowing, not quite dissolved.
⤷ affliction .✦ ݁˖ ongoing and worsening over time, and it usually needs active intervention to stop it from getting worse. this creates a natural ticking clock for your plot, bc doing nothing is never actually neutral, every day your character delays looking for a cure is a day the affliction gets stronger.
⤷ blight .✦ ݁˖ affects land, crops, or the general health of a place rather than targeting a person directly. this one's great for raising stakes beyond just your protagonist, a whole village or region suffering makes the consequences of a curse feel bigger than one character's personal problem.
⤷ mark .✦ ݁˖ a visible sign of a curse or bargain, and it can't be hidden by normal means. this is genuinely great for tension in social scenes, a character can't just quietly deal with their curse in private, everyone around them can see something is wrong, which forces conversations the character would rather avoid.
⤷ bind-curse .✦ ݁˖ restricts action or speech, often tied to a specific condition, like "cannot lie" or "cannot leave this house." this one's a fantastic constraint to write dialogue around, bc the character has to find creative, technically-true ways to say what they mean without triggering the curse's actual restriction.
⤷ wasting hex .✦ ݁˖ slow-draining, saps strength or magic gradually over time rather than all at once. great for a character who's visibly weakening across the whole book, bc it forces them to make harder and harder choices about what they can still afford to do with the power or strength they have left.
⤷ echo curse .✦ ݁˖ repeats an event or emotion on a cycle, an anniversary, a moon phase, some recurring trigger. this is such a good device for a character who has to relive something painful on a schedule, bc it turns a single trauma into a structural element of the plot itself, something the reader can anticipate dread alongside the character.
⤷ soul debt .✦ ݁˖ a cost owed for magic already used, and it comes due eventually regardless of the caster's original intent. this one's great for a character who cast something desperate and good-intentioned long ago and is now facing consequences that have nothing to do with whether the original spell was justified.
⤷ silence .✦ ݁˖ removes a caster's ability to speak spells at all, and it's often self-inflicted or used as punishment. genuinely devastating for a character whose whole identity is built around their magic, bc it doesn't just weaken them, it takes away the specific thing that made them who they were.
Delirium - sudden severe confusion due to rapid changes in brain function that can occur with physical or mental illness.
It involves a quick change between mental states.
E.g., from lethargy to agitation and back to lethargy.
Symptoms
Changes in alertness (usually more alert in the morning, less alert at night)
Changes in feeling (sensation) and perception
Changes in level of consciousness or awareness
Changes in movement (for example, may be slow moving or hyperactive)
Changes in sleep patterns, drowsiness
Confusion (disorientation) about time or place
Decrease in short-term memory and recall
Disorganized thinking, such as talking in a way that doesn't make sense
Emotional or personality changes, such as anger, agitation, depression, irritability, and overly happy
Incontinence
Movements triggered by changes in the nervous system
Problem concentrating
Causes
Delirium is most often caused by physical or mental illness and is usually temporary and reversible. Many disorders may cause delirium. Often, these disorders do not allow the brain to get oxygen or other substances. They may also cause dangerous chemicals (toxins) to build up in the brain. Delirium is common in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially in older adults.
Causes include:
Alcohol or medicine overdose or withdrawal
Drug use or overdose, including being sedated in the ICU
Electrolyte or other body chemical disturbances
Infections such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia, or meningitis
Certain medicines such as pain medicines, sedatives, or anticholinergic medicines
Severe lack of sleep
Poisons
General anesthesia and surgery
Autoimmune disease
Treatment
The goal of treatment is to control or reverse the cause of the symptoms.
Treatment depends on the condition causing delirium.
The person may need to stay in the hospital for a short time.
Stopping or changing medicines that may worsen confusion, or that are no longer needed, may improve mental function.
Disorders that contribute to confusion should be treated. These may include:
Anemia
Decreased oxygen (hypoxia)
Heart failure
High carbon dioxide levels (hypercapnia)
Infections
Kidney failure
Liver failure
Metabolic disorders
Nutritional disorders
Psychiatric conditions (such as depression or psychosis)
Thyroid disorders
Treating medical and mental disorders often greatly improves mental function.
Medicines may be needed to control aggressive or agitated behaviors.
These are usually started at very low dosages and adjusted as needed.
Some people with delirium may benefit from hearing aids, glasses, or cataract surgery.
Other treatments that may be helpful are:
Behavior modification to control unacceptable or dangerous behaviors.
Reality orientation to reduce disorientation.
Modifying the environment to help with orientation. This includes adjusting lights so one can keep track of day and night, clocks, and calendars.
Prognosis
Acute conditions that cause delirium may occur with long-term (chronic) disorders that cause dementia. Acute brain syndromes may be reversible by treating the cause.
Delirium often lasts about 1 week.
It may take several weeks for mental function to return to normal.
Full recovery is usually expected, but depends on the underlying cause of the delirium.
POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS. Problems that may result from delirium include:
Loss of ability to function or care for self
Loss of ability to interact
Progression to stupor or coma
Side effects of medicines used to treat the disorder
PREVENTION. Treating the conditions that cause delirium can reduce its risk. In hospitalized people, avoiding or using a low dosage of sedatives, prompt treatment of metabolic disorders and infections, and using reality orientation programs will reduce the risk of delirium in those at high risk.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES. Acute confusional state. Acute brain syndrome.
☆ I had never wanted to be looked at until she looked at me with those dark red eyes like I was something worth finding.
☆ His eyes were the color of a wound I would have walked into willingly.
☆ She had red irises and pale hands and when she touched my face I felt chosen in a way I couldn't explain to anyone who hadn't seen her eyes.
☆ Her eyes were the color of a bruised heart that had healed into something more beautiful than it was before. I wanted to be careful with her. I wanted her to know I would be careful with her.
☆ He looked at me across the room and his eyes were so red and so calm and I thought--I would follow that color anywhere.
☆ He had eyes the color of old roses pressed between the pages of a book someone loved. I wanted to be that book.
If your characters have specific skillsets, consider how you could apply them in other ways. It could make for an unexpected resolution to a conflict but also just a comedic scene.
Some examples:
knife expert -> cutting vegetables for dinner (very fast but the sizes may be all screwed up the first time)
investigator -> finding out who keeps leaving dirty dishes in the sink (and other domestic controversies)
physical strength -> designated jar opener
acrobat -> changing lightbulbs, hanging up paintings, ... anything where you would otherwise need a ladder
necromancer -> gardening. plant died? no problem.
charismatic and persuasive -> on duty for handling difficult dinner guests
Also consider playing with the exact opposite: you're good at x, so everyone expects you to be good at y, but for some reason you aren't and it is hilarious.
~Hello~
Do you think you can provide tips on how to naturally write a character with mental health issues/disabilities for your story.
20 Tips for Writing a Character With Mental Health Issues or a Disability
I have previously written a thorough guide on how to write and research mental illnesses but if you want a quicker dos-and-don'ts list here you go:
1. Research the Illness Thoroughly: Not a five-minute skim. Actual research, symptoms, variation, how it's diagnosed, how it's treated, what myths surround it. When I had to write PTSD for a character I made a whole google docs on: the illness itself, the illness in regards to my character’s situation, the symptoms/side effects my character would likely have, ways to incorporate them in my writing, etc.
2. Talk to People Who Actually Have It: If you don't know anyone in real life, spaces like Reddit and Quora can be genuinely useful. Nothing replaces hearing it directly from someone living with the illness.
3. Find Media Praised for Depicting It Accurately: Don’t just look for movies/shows with characters who have that mental illness, specifically research media praised for their accurate depiction of it. It's usually more instructive than any single article on the condition itself.
4. Find Media Criticized for Depicting It Inaccurately, and Figure Out Why: This is just as valuable as the praised examples. Knowing exactly what to avoid, and why it landed wrong, saves you from repeating the same mistake.
5. Remember No Two People Experience It Identically: Research gives you the general shape, but your character still needs their own specific relationship with their condition.
6. Don't Make the Condition Their Entire Personality: They still need hobbies, opinions, a sense of humor, flaws unrelated to the condition entirely. A diagnosis isn't a whole character.
7. Show It in Small, Unglamorous Moments Too: Not just the dramatic crisis scenes like panic attacks or hallucinations. The mundane, everyday impact is often more honest and more overlooked in fiction.
8. Avoid the "Cured by Love" Narrative: Unless you're specifically critiquing that trope, a romantic partner isn't a treatment plan. This one shows up constantly and it's worth actively avoiding.
9. Give Them Agency Over Their Own Condition: They shouldn't exist purely as a burden on other characters or a lesson for someone else's growth. Let them make their own decisions about their own life. Also, if this is someone who’s lived with the condition their entire life, avoid using the typical ‘they don’t know what to do when symptoms kick in and a side character has to help’ scene.
10. Research Realistic Coping Mechanisms or Treatment: Not just the symptoms. How someone actually manages day to day medication, therapy, routines, matters just as much as how the condition presents.
11. Be Careful Using the Condition as Shorthand for "Dangerous": Unless you're deliberately examining that stigma, this is one of the more damaging tropes in fiction and it's worth actively working against. This also applies for portraying a character as “damaged” or “unstable” solely because they have a mental illness.
12. Give Them Flaws That Have Nothing to Do With the Condition: A character can be stubborn, petty, or messy in ways completely unrelated to their diagnosis. That separation matters.
13. Consider How It Intersects With the Rest of Their Identity: Culture, family, access to healthcare, and financial situation all change how a condition is experienced and treated.
14. Read Own-Voices Essays and Memoirs, Not Just Clinical Descriptions: Clinical sources tell you the facts. Personal accounts tell you what it actually feels like to live inside them.
15. Avoid Writing It as a Checklist of Symptoms: Show it through behavior, internal narration, and small decisions instead of naming every symptom like a diagnostic manual.
16. Be Mindful of Language: Terms people use to describe themselves and outdated or clinical terms aren't always the same thing. Follow the community's own language where you can.
17. Think About Their Support System: Do they have one? How do they feel about needing help, and how do they navigate asking for it, or refusing to?
18. Don't Rush an Unrealistic "Fix" by the End: Some conditions aren't cured, they're managed. A tidy resolution can undercut everything honest you built earlier in the story.
19. Get a Sensitivity Reader Before Publishing, If You Can: Someone who actually lives with the condition will catch things research alone won't.
20. Write for the People Who Actually Live It First: Not for how "relatable" or "palatable" it feels to readers who don't share the experience. Accuracy matters more than universal comfort.
21. Don’t Make Their Story Revolve Around The Mental Illness: Please remember that there are millions of people around the globe with thousands of different mental illnesses who live with those illnesses day in and day out. It doesn’t define them, it doesn’t become their entire life, and it shouldn’t be the main aspect of your character’s storyline.
This isn't a list you follow rigidly, it's a starting point for actually caring enough to get it right. Happy writing! :)
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
Tropes You Can Use Instead Of Killing Your MC’s Parents
Dead parents aren't a bad trope. However, if you’re looking for something different, here are some suggestions:
1. Neglect
Not every uninvolved parent is cruel about it. Plenty genuinely love their kid and still manage to be absent in every way that matters; distracted by another family member, buried in work, or just not paying attention. The tragedy here isn't hatred, it's how invisible a kid can feel to someone who technically loves them.
2. Abuse
This one's more direct, physical, verbal, or both, and it does real damage to a kid's sense of self-worth even when it's "just" one kind. What makes this more interesting than dead parents is the complexity it forces into a character: love and fear can exist toward the same person at once.
3. Constant Conflict
Growing up in a house where your parents never stop fighting does something terrible and very specific to a kid. It’s something hard to explain to people who have never experienced it. It sticks with kids even when they’re adults. They learn to read a room before they even understand why, they always tense up or anticipate conflict over little things, and they often end up feeling responsible for a fight that was never theirs to fix.
4. Career-Driven Absence
The parent isn't dead, isn't neglectful out of spite, they’re just never actually there and a demanding career is the culprit. Technically, you can’t ‘hate them’ because their career is all for the kid, but that also means the kid ends up raising themselves by default.
5. Controlling Parents
This one shows up more in "successful" households than people expect. A kid gets pushed toward a specific path, a business, a legacy, a reputation, whether they want it or not, and pushing back gets them held even tighter.
6. Toxic Dynamics
Gaslighting, constant comparison, backhanded criticism dressed up as concern. The cruelest part of this one is that the kid usually doesn't clock it as toxic for years, because it's the only normal they've ever known.
7. Quiet Estrangement
Sometimes there's no dramatic reason at all. A family was close once and just drifted, slowly, without either side really choosing it. This one hits differently because there's no villain to blame, just distance that crept in.
8. Parentification
The kid becomes the parent in every way that matters, raising siblings, managing money, holding the household together, while the actual parent is out of commission somehow. This gives you built-in maturity and resentment in the same character without needing a single death in the backstory.
9. Addiction in the Family
A parent struggling with addiction creates a specific kind of instability, love that's real but unreliable, promises that don't hold, a kid who learns not to count on anyone too soon. It's a different flavor of loss than death or any other type of neglect you can make excuses for.
10. Incarceration
A parent who's physically gone but very much alive changes the shape of a kid's grief entirely. There's no closure, no funeral, just an absence with a return date attached that may or may not actually happen.
None of these need to replace dead parents completely. Sometimes death really is the right call for your story. But if you're reaching for it out of habit rather than because it's actually what your character's arc needs, one of these will probably hit harder simply because readers haven't seen it a thousand times already. Happy writing! :)
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
15 Signs of Jealousy to Write Into Your Characters
Jealousy isn't just a rival-for-your-crush thing. It shows up over promotions, friendships, attention, talent, anything someone else has that a character quietly wants. Here's what it looks like across the board, no love triangle required.
1. Minimizing Someone Else's Achievement "That's not that big a deal" said about something that clearly is. The dismissal is doing a lot of work to make someone else's win feel smaller.
2. Picking Apart How They Got There "They only got it because of who they know" or "they got lucky." Explaining away someone's success is often easier than sitting with the fact that they earned it.
3. Backhanded Compliments "Good for you, I guess I just never had that kind of luck" lands the praise and the resentment in the same sentence.
4. Silent Comparison Measuring their own life, talent, or circumstances against someone else's, entirely in their own head. This one's great in internal narration, especially if the character hates that they're doing it.
5. Changing the Subject Fast The second someone brings up the other person's success, the topic shifts. Too quickly to be casual.
6. Lukewarm Congratulations Saying the right words without any of the actual warmth behind them. Readers pick up on the gap between what's said and how it's said faster than you'd think.
7. Sudden Competitiveness Over Something Small Turning an unrelated conversation into a contest nobody else realized was happening. It's rarely about the actual thing being competed over.
8. Overexplaining Their Own Worth Listing their own accomplishments unprompted, right after hearing about someone else's. It reads less like confidence and more like a character trying to convince themselves.
9. Physical Tension at the News A tight jaw, a forced smile that doesn't reach the eyes, shoulders that don't relax until the topic moves on.
10. Obsessively Tracking Someone's Progress Checking in on someone's success more than makes sense for how the character claims to feel about them, refreshing a page, asking around, keeping tabs.
11. Fishing for Reassurance Not asking directly, just steering the conversation toward "but I'm still good at this too, right?"
12. Avoiding the Person Entirely Some characters don't compete or comment, they just quietly disappear from someone's life right when that person starts succeeding.
13. A Flash of Relief at Someone Else's Failure Followed by guilt, usually. That gap between the reaction and the shame over having it says everything.
14. Bringing Them Up Unprompted, With an Edge If nobody asked and the character still finds a reason to mention someone, with a slight bite to it, that's not neutral small talk.
15. Redirecting Praise Away From Them Quickly changing the subject when someone else is being complimented in the room, or subtly steering credit back toward themselves.
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
20 Small Flaws That Make Your Characters Feel More Real
No real person is cool and composed 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, gets too excited about something dumb, or has a fear that makes zero logical sense.
Being a bit of a loser is basically part of the human condition, and leaning into that is what makes a character feel like a person instead of a concept. Here's 20 small flaws to work in.
1. Being Bad at Something They're "Supposed" to Be Good At: A great cook who can't bake. A doctor who faints at the sight of their own blood. The mismatch is more memorable than if they were just good at everything.
2. A Genuinely Silly, Specific Fear: Not spiders, something weirder and more specific, the texture of wet paper, a particular sound, mannequins. Specificity is what sells it.
3. Laughing at Their Own Jokes: Before anyone else does, sometimes before the joke's even finished. It's a small thing, and it makes a character feel instantly more human.
4. Being Weirdly Competitive Over Something That Doesn't Matter: Board games, trivia, who can parallel park better. The stakes being embarrassingly low is exactly what makes it funny and real.
5. Holding a Grudge Over Something Petty: Still annoyed about a comment from three years ago that nobody else remembers. It says something honest about how their brain actually works.
6. Being Terrible at Taking a Compliment: Deflecting, downplaying, immediately changing the subject. Tip: this one's a great way to show insecurity without ever having the character say they're insecure out loud.
7. A Guilty Pleasure They're Embarrassed About: A trashy show, a boy band, a food combination nobody else understands. The embarrassment matters more than the thing itself.
8. Getting Overly Attached to an Object: A specific mug, a childhood blanket, a pen that "just writes better." Irrational, a little silly, and completely believable.
9. Chronic Procrastination: Not because they're lazy, because starting feels harder than it should. They'll do genuinely anything else first, and somehow it still gets done at 2am.
10. Talking Too Much When They're Nervous: Rambling, over-explaining, filling silence that didn't need filling. It's the opposite of the composed, quippy character, and it's usually more endearing.
11. Being Chronically Late: Not out of disrespect, just a genuinely broken internal clock. Great for a character who means well and still somehow makes everyone wait every single time.
12. Interrupting People Without Meaning To: Excitement gets ahead of them before they can stop it. It's a flaw that reads as enthusiasm more than rudeness, if you write it right.
13. Overpacking or Over-Preparing for Everything: Bringing five contingency plans to a simple errand. Usually rooted in a deeper need for control that the character probably hasn't examined too closely.
14. Struggling to Apologize Properly: "I'm sorry you feel that way" instead of an actual apology. Not malicious, just genuinely bad at the specific skill of admitting fault out loud.
15. A Weirdly Specific Food Aversion: Won't eat anything that touches on the plate. Refuses a food purely because of the texture. Small, harmless, and instantly humanizing.
16. Being Nosy: Can't help asking questions that aren't really their business, and can't quite explain why they need to know either.
17. Hoarding Things They Don't Need: Receipts, old birthday cards, a drawer of cables to nothing. A small, physical way to show a character who struggles to let go of things in general.
18. Being Bad With Names: Meets someone five times and still blanks. Endearing on a stranger, mortifying when it happens to someone they're supposed to know well.
19. Overthinking Simple Decisions: Standing in front of a menu for ten minutes over what to order. The stakes are nonexistent and the anxiety is real anyway.
20. A Terrible Sense of Direction: Gets lost in buildings they've been in a hundred times. Small, low-stakes, and a nice way to let other characters tease them without it turning mean.
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Not just holding hands, actually interlacing them. It's a small physical detail that reads as far more deliberate and possessive than a loose hand-hold.
2. Nuzzling Into Their Neck or Hair
Face pressed in, breathing them in for a second. Works especially well in a quiet moment after something stressful, when a character needs to physically ground themselves in the other person.
3. A Gentle Bite or Nip
Lip, shoulder, ear, wherever fits the scene. Playful if the tone's light, charged if it's not.
4. Massaging Their Hands or Shoulders
Practical and intimate at the same time. Great for a character who shows affection through action instead of words, since this lets them do something instead of saying it.
5. Tracing Idle Patterns on Their Skin
Fingertips moving without any real purpose, along an arm, a palm, a shoulder. It signals comfort and closeness better than almost anything verbal could.
6. Running Fingers Through Their Hair
This is the absent-minded kind of thing a character does without fully realizing it. Tip: this one's especially good for a scene where someone's comforting the other after a nightmare or a bad day.
7. Gripping Their Waist or Hip to Pull Them Closer
Direct, a little urgent, and it closes distance fast in a way that reads as wanting rather than just affectionate. Could also substitute with belts, capes/cloaks, pockets, ties, collars and more.
8. Trailing Fingertips Down an Arm or Spine
The key is to make this deliberately slow. This is a good one for tension-building specifically, since the anticipation of where the hand's going matters more than the touch itself.
9. Scratching Nails Lightly Down Their Back or Scalp
Small, physical, and surprisingly underused given how much sensory detail it gives you to work with.
10. Pressing a Palm Flat Against Their Chest
Feeling the heartbeat under their hand, whether from adrenaline or nerves. It's a small gesture that gives you a built-in excuse to describe how fast someone's heart is racing. Also works with the wrist or side of the neck for a more possessive scene.
11. Brushing a Thumb Across Their Cheekbone
Slow and deliberate, usually paired with a character just looking at the other for a beat too long.
12. Wiping Something Off Their FaceBlood, dirt, tears, doesn't matter. The act of gently cleaning someone up says care in a way dialogue rarely manages.
13. Tucking Hair Behind Their EarSmall, almost automatic, and very cute if the character doing it doesn't even seem to notice they're doing it. Similar actions would be holding back their open hair, or tying/braiding their hair when it keeps getting in the way.
14. Holding Their Face Without Kissing ThemThe almost-kiss that doesn't happen. Use this when you want the reader leaning forward in their seat, desperate for something that isn't coming yet. Pair it with their foreheads resting against each other, their eyes fluttering shut as they just breathe each other in. Works pretty well for goodbyes, or if they’re trying to steal a moment in public without too much PDA.
15. Holding Eye Contact a Beat Too LongThe simplest one on this list and still one of the hardest to write well. It's all in the extra second that shouldn't be there but is.
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
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If more pressure is put on a bone than it can stand, it will split or break.
A break of any size is called a fracture.
If the broken bone punctures the skin, it is called an open fracture (also sometimes called a compound fracture).
A stress fracture is a break in the bone that develops because of repeated or prolonged forces against the bone. The repeated stress weakens the bone until it finally breaks.
Symptoms
A visibly out-of-place or misshapen limb or joint
Swelling, bruising, or bleeding
Pain that may be severe
Numbness and tingling
Broken skin with bone protruding
Limited mobility or inability to move a limb or put weight on the leg
Common Causes
Fall from a height
Trauma
Motor vehicle accidents
Direct blow
Child abuse
Repetitive forces, such as those caused by running, can cause stress fractures of the foot, ankle, tibia, or hip
DO NOT
DO NOT move the person unless the broken bone is stable.
DO NOT move a person with an injured hip, pelvis, or upper leg unless it is absolutely necessary. If you must move the person, pull the person to safety by their clothes (such as by the shoulders of a shirt, a belt, or pant legs).
DO NOT move a person who has a possible spine injury.
DO NOT attempt to straighten a bone or change its position unless blood circulation appears hampered and no medically trained personnel are nearby.
DO NOT try to reposition a suspected spine injury.
DO NOT test a bone's ability to move.
FRACTURES
A fracture is a partial or complete break in the bone. When a fracture happens, it’s classified as either open or closed:
Open fracture (compound fracture): The bone pokes through the skin and can be seen. Or a deep wound exposes the bone through the skin.
Closed fracture (simple fracture). The bone is broken, but the skin is intact.
Fractures have a variety of names. Here is a list of types that may happen:
Greenstick. This is an incomplete break. A part of the bone is broken, causing the other side to bend.
Transverse. The break is in a straight line across the bone.
Spiral. The break spirals around the bone. This is common in a twisting injury.
Oblique. The break is diagonal across the bone.
Compression. The bone is crushed. This causes the broken bone to be wider or flatter in appearance.
Comminuted. The bone has broken into 3 or more pieces. Fragments are present at the fracture site.
Segmental. The same bone is broken in 2 places, so there is a "floating" piece of bone.
Avulsion. The bone is broken near a tendon or ligament. A tendon or ligament pulls off a small piece of bone.
Symptoms may be a bit different for each person. Symptoms of a broken or fractured bone may include:
Sudden pain
Trouble using or moving the injured area or nearby joints
Unable to bear weight
Swelling
Obvious deformity
Warmth, bruising, or redness
The symptoms of a broken bone may seem like other health conditions or problems. Always see a healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
Treatment of Fractures
The goal of treatment is:
to put the pieces of bone back in place,
control the pain,
give the bone time to heal,
prevent complications, and
restore normal use of the fractured area.
Treatment may include:
Splint or cast. This immobilizes the injured area to keep the bone in alignment. It protects the injured area from motion or use while the bone heals.
Medicine. This may be needed to control pain.
Traction. This is the use of a steady pulling action to stretch certain parts of the body in a certain direction. Traction often uses pulleys, strings, weights, and a metal frame attached over or on the bed. The purpose of traction is to stretch the muscles and tendons around the broken bone. This helps the bone ends to align and heal.
Surgery. Surgery may be needed to put certain types of broken bones back into place. Sometimes internal fixation devices (metal rods or pins located inside the bone) or external fixation devices (metal rods or pins located outside of the body) are used to hold the bone fragments in place while they heal.
Fractures can take months to heal as broken bones “knit” back together when new bone is formed between the broken parts.
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