Jan 2021
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GoldenHoneydew
Jan '21

I read novels on a variety of sites and something that was recurring at times was the mc fainting to end the chapter. It used to frustrate me a lot but now that I'm really thinking about it I'm kinda just confused? The mc would be perfectly fine then bam something completely unrelated that causes them to faint happens and the chapter ends. I honestly don't mind this at all, however, there are some stories where they end almost every chapter like this. you would assume that the fainting would somehow be related to the plot but by end of the story, it's just completely looked over & isn't seen as important. Why do some writers do this? Is this something that I don't know about because I'm a newer writer?

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    Jan '21

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surenlicious
Jan '21
1

Not sure if they suddenly faint out of nowhere, but mine actually have a reason omg. XD

KelheorRegular
Jan '21

As one joke goes "She is fainting, because she lacks words".
I think it's just a way to do a cliffhanger and to show how fragile the heroine is :pumpkin: Probably some would do it deliberately, but you meet them frequently, I think it just means there are a lot of amateurish authors who don't know how to finish a chapter :smiley: Or their heroines are incredibly anemic/have some other health problems :sip:

elyss
Jan '21

I could see some writers use it for easy transitions to locations. And by 'some writers' I mean that I did this ALOT when I first started writing. Granted, I had a nice plot reason to avoid judgment :sweat_smile:

crowstories
Jan '21

It's basically lazy writing. You'll also notice that a lot of writers will knock their MC out during a fight, which saves them having to write the rest of the fight scene (fight scenes are a lot of work to write IMO).

I'm not saying "never do this" but it would be nice if authors would at least address the health implications in a realistic way. For instance, any blow to the head that's bad enough to knock you out for more than a few seconds is likely to lead to brain damage or death. Personally I try not to put my character in situations that I'm not willing to actually write.

DelythThomasArt
Jan '21

Yeah it was a trope that really bugged me too. Unless they've been really stressed, ill or harmed it just seems very...cheap. Fainting from blood loss? Sure. Fainting from excitement? eh?

cherrystark
Jan '21

Tbh, I've used this trope. Someone pointed out in feedback that you have to build up to the fainting, whether physically or with the moment before. One character in my series faints because she has a truckload of information dumped into her brain at once and she's overwhelmed. Another character faints because he was shocked.

Fainting solely to move the scene forward is kind of dull. Reading about a character struggling to stay conscious, interesting.

domisotto
Jan '21
1

The very first English-language bestseller novel, the 18th century Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson, used fainting as the only weapon the teenage heroine had against her stalker-bad-boy variant.

That vile lord, who didn’t bat an eyelash at abduction, criminal age gap, long moral arguments and workplace harassment (the gal was his maid), apparently had a kink that he wanted her to be conscious when he raped her... so by strategically fainting to preserve her virginity, Pamela won the battle of wills despite being at every disadvantage. In the end the jerk married her.

So, the fainting has a long history as a plot device and a cliffhanger.

Inspector_Spinda
Jan '21
Kelheor

I hope not! Yikes :sweat_smile: fainting so much like that could cause traumatic brain injury and long term brain damage unless someone catches you every time

Iris-Grimoire
Jan '21

As someone who thought people fainted from anything because of books, I can relate, and I put it everywhere in my stories. Turns out, real life faiting is way less dramatic or fun, and just taking a whiff of chloroform isn't going to send you 3 hours into the future.

Nowadays, I still end up using it every now and then, but there's always a reason. The character was knocked out so they'd get captured, or they used too much of their power and the body forces rest then and there, or someone cast a forced sleep spell, that kind of thing. Probably goes without saying it shouldn't be used to show a woman being fragile, but also, it's better used in a fantasy setting where magic can make it happen without giving the person horrible side effects.
It's a neat trick to change chapters or locations very quickly IF you can place it properly, but you can get away with cutting using a perfectly conscious character if there's no immediate consequences to all that time you compressed.

nathanKmcwilliamsIn the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Jan '21

Just to show what kind of educated and high brow person I am...I initially read this thread title as "Characters Farting"

Anyways...I don't think I've ever had a character faint in any of my works before. Knocked out by getting punched, or getting shot by tranq darts yes. Fainting no.

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Jan '21

I was thinking if any of my characters fainted and I could only think of two instances. And both were human characters encountering a paranormal entity and a monster that kind of defies logic for the first time. Funnily enough, I've another one that encounters 6 demons and she was fine (which adds to the comedy I think) xD

I personally haven't come across any stories where the character faints that much for each scene transition and agree that it's most likely just amateurish writing. Though I did use the fainting mentioned above as scene transitions myself, however, it only happens once in each story.

AmysGames
Jan '21
crowstories

Yeah, I have a scene I was writing in one of my stories where a character was knocked out from a blow to the head, where I actually looked up medical stuff related to concussions. It'll most likely get scrapped though because I don't want the health implications interfering with the plot, but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more stories address that aspect, since it was pretty interesting to write.

That said, I think fainting but being perfectly fine afterwards (and similar things that should have stronger medical implications) have their place in fiction, but it's best suited for comedies and other stories that shouldn't be taken super seriously.

KelheorRegular
Jan '21

Well, frequent fainting happens IRL too, so it's totally okay to use it in fiction. The only question is how to use it, when to use it and how much :sweat_smile:

therosesword
Jan '21
1

In my fantasy series the protagonist is multi-lived and knows it but has no memories of those lives in general. Eventually they all come back to him. I had him faint at the end of a chapter because of a memory, but only once. Not again. Usually he goes catatonic and stands there while he steps into the memory and relives it.

I haven't seen too much by way of fainting in the stories I've read but that's probably because I'm not reading the same things you are. Still, I would find that rather annoying to end just about every chapter that way.

crowstories
Jan '21
AmysGames

For sure, though if you were going for realism, you could provide a reason for the fainting (low blood pressure, anemia, dehydration, etc). I agree that it can be used well for comic effect, especially since it is such a trope.

Random_Guy
Jan '21

I see it as just lazy writing, I've ended off a few chapters with characters fainting, but it's always intended as a cliffhanger because they're fainting from grievous injuries, or a blow to the head, or getting the air choked out of them.

TedGravesArt
Jan '21

I think the idea is to create a cliffhanger, but if they're just throwing unrelated stuff in there to make it happen it doesn't make much sense to the story as a whole. If it doesn't push the plot forward at all, or if it's overused, it doesn't build suspense like the author indended.