The moment is tense. The character is looking at something that makes them so angry. And the reader

The moment is tense. The character is looking at something that makes them so angry. And the reader can feel that anger, can feel the tension building. And then…“He doesn’t realize how hard he’s clenching his fist until he looks down and sees bloody half-moons pressed into his palm.”Aaaaannndd it’s gone.All that tension and build-up just deflates in a single moment due to this line, only to be replaced by a heavy sigh, or worse, a physical eye-roll.There’s 3 reasons why this scene (played out in so many books) garners this reaction from readers. 1. It’s overdone It happens so often it’s become cliche. Like…really cliche. If you think your character is the first character to have this reaction, I’m sorry to inform you that this is very much not the case. And if you’re thinking “well I don’t mind if it’s original, because it fits the scene,” well…continue to reason #22. It’s melodramaticIt’s way too over-the-top. No one does this in real life. Especially for like…contemporary fiction? Like at least if the fate of the universe is at stake it’s easy to see how the author could have gone there. But I’ve seen so many times where it’s “average school boy is jealous” or “average school girl is mad at bully” type scenarios, which…no. No one gets so jealous they don’t realize they’re carving into their hands. Or even the ones where they do notice but they “like the pain because it grounds them”? But if your think it’s not melodramatic, well…continue to reason #33. It’s actually pretty much impossible.Most of the time I see this, it’s a male character who doesn’t defy gender norms, or a female character that does. (And the “I’m not like other girls” trope is a whole other discussion) Meaning that 95% of the characters who do this have short or medium-length nails.And here’s the thing: human skin is incredibly elastic. This means that it can stretch a LOT before it actually breaks. If the skin were pulled taut, you could discount some of this elasticity, however when the hand is curled into a fist, the skin of the palm is the most relaxed it can be. (Just take a look at all those wrinkles and folds!) Not to mention that the human fingernail is relatively blunt and spreads the force out over a larger surface area. And fortunately (unfortunately?) our grip strength just isn’t enough to break the skin of our palms with short-to-moderate length nails just by making a fist and squeezing.I mean…just try it. I have short-ish nails and I couldn’t break skin even while squeezing it even tighter with my other hand. It wasn’t pain that stopped me from squeezing harder, it was just that the max force I could apply wasn’t enough.If you need more proof, just look at punching. Professional fighters always keep their nails short-to-moderate length because if they punched someone with long nails, they risk cutting their own palm. But if landing repeated punches with short-to-moderate nails doesn’t cut someone’s palm, there’s no way that squeezing the fist alone would accomplish that.They can leave little indentation marks, and those marks can hurt quite a bit and linger for a while. But don’t have the character clench their fist until their nails break skin or draw blood from their palms. It’s just not realistic.When this rule doesn’t apply:Now, of course, if your character is Lady Deathstrike or some kind of wolfman or something and has claws or talons instead of fingernails, this might be different. In fact, if your character is new to these claws, and underestimates the force they can apply to their fist-clenching, then it might actually happen! However, (and this is a big however) they would notice. They would react the same way they would if they stepped on a nail or piece of scrap metal and cut their foot. Don’t just have them staring broodily at their enemy as their claws slowly carve into their palms and have them not even wince. That’s back to reason #2Other tropes along the same lineReasons #1 and #2 can also be said for the “character bites lip until it bleeds” trope. However, this one is technically 100% possible, as humans have more than enough bite strength to puncture our delicate lip tissue. Except that our brains won’t let us just do that willy-nilly. It hurts too much and our reflex (even while distracted with anger/jealousy/frustration) is to stop biting down once that pain fires off. This one is at least able to be modulated easily for the same general effect. For example, the character could chew at a little bit of dry skin on their lip and, in their distracted anger/jealousy/frustration, cause that bit of skin to tear too deeply (we’ve all been there, amirite?). This would hurt, potentially bleed, and almost certainly give them that metallic taste in their mouth we know you were looking for.Keep in mind! Either way, unless the person just permanently maimed their lip, the blood should be kept minimal. I’ve read books where the blood “gushes into their mouth” from a frustratedly-bitten lip, and…no. There’s no way that should do that.Hope this helps some of you with your writing journey!Good luck and good writing! -- source link

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