Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My Productive Black Eye

Okay, so it's not a full on black eye, but I did give myself a nice little bruise on my upper right cheek just under my eye. I feel like such an ass. Picutre it...there I am, reaching down into the shelves of the refrigerator door to grab the ketchup (which I've only done several thousand times in my life) and I smash my eye into the rounded clear tray that holds the butter. I screamed something to the affect of "Owwww $%^#$%%$%" to which my husband and one of my daughters casually asked, "what happened?" to which I said "Owwww" followed by a whine, whine.  No one came running in to check on me hahaha. Geesh. Thanks guys. Don't worry ya'll. Mommy has another eye should this one shut to a closed position.

Anyway, after the stars I was seeing drifted away, I finished getting dinner on the table and then checked my eye and saw my upper right cheek swelling. It's not as bad today. Just a small bruise, but believe it or not, I found this experience to be productive. I hadn't been hit in the face since my days of studying Kyokushin (where I took several shots to the head, thighs, calves, arms, stomach, etc...).

 So you are probably thinking right about now that I'm a nut job, heh? Smashing your face and bruising your eye is productive? Yes it is. Especially when you are writing a scene in your novel where one of your characters gets punched in the face and you need to describe the pain so someone who has never been hit in the face can at least imagine what it feels like.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should go out and smash their face or ask someone to punch them so they can know what it feels like, but believe me, once you get hit like that (or anywhere for that matter), it becomes a good experience that will add to your  ability to describe a fight scene and pull your reader into the actual feel of receiving that strike.

9 comments:

  1. LOL

    no one comes running to me when i let out a yelp either :)

    and i think its important to remember the pain sensation. i have many memories to draw upon. my body is a mass of scars and broken bones...

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  2. You smashed your eye AND still got dinner on the table?! Super mom!

    This also works with emotional pain too. I once went back to read my incredibly sappy and dramatic junior high journals to remind myself what it felt like to have a broken heart.

    I hope your eye gets better soon!

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  3. Research isn't supposed to be painful, Mel! hehehehe You ARE super mom for getting dinner on the table after that.

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  4. LOL Great post! It's so hard to describe stuff when you've never experienced it. And for what it's worth, I'm always threatened by the refrigerator. i think the door handle on our new one sticks out much further than our old one so whenever I'm bent down I forget about same handle on the top freezer part and wham, right on the head. Hurts like hell.

    And yeah, you're definitely a supermom, even before you got dinner together with a bruise. :)

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  5. This is a great post. And you're exactly right. Sometimes we get inspiration from the strangest places.

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  6. Thanks guys! hahaha...super mom? or did you all mean to say SUPPER mom :-) Thanks for commenting and thanks for the awesome compliments. Glad you guys enjoyed the post. I enjoyed writing and sharing it.

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  7. That was hilarious! Just picturing it made me lol... and when I told the hubby about your post he asked why I didn't take MY research so seriously. Smartarse! ;)

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  8. hahaha DL. Your comment made me LOL. Next time he says that, ask him to let you beat him up a little and then describe exactly what he was feeling while you take notes. haha. jking of course!

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  9. As you described your accident the sore spot on the top of my head started to hurt. I have hit my head on the handle to the top freezer door a few too many times. One time I even saw stars!

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