Realism VS. Drama: The hospital scene - What's your take?

[Rhonder]

As both a reader and author, I think both approaches are fine and have merit. For me the main thing is consistency. If a story is shown to frequently allow "rule of cool" type moments that defy reality for effect, then I think it's fine (and expected) for it to continue to do so in a scene like this. But if a story otherwise adheres strictly to the rules of the real world the majority of time but then suddenly allows "slip ups" like that it can sometimes feel like a plot convenience I think? It's definitely okay to mix and match but if you switch approaches too frequently it can feel like the author is undecided on how they want to write. it's up to the author to set the tone, rules, and expectations for their story and world, and adapt scenes accordingly.

[shfra13]

Swaying somewhere in the middle. I love dramatic stuff, but I hate overexaggerated unrealistic drama. I also love realistic stuff. So, a balance of both is great. Having dramatic scene with a little bit unrealistic thing is fun for climax, it gives several emotions at a time lol. It can also give, like, more tone and emotion rather than leaving the story flat. Though, other than on climax.... Eh, not so much. Can be overkill. So, as long as there's only a little drama in an overall realistic story, it's great for me!

[HGohwell]

As a reader and a writer I think it should be consistent with the tone of the rest of the work. If you're writing a soap opera, of course your hospital scenes are gonna be as dramatic and over the top as everything else. If you're writing something based on real life and heavy on realism, you're going to be more grounded. I think this should apply all over. Internal consistency is what's most important. Shounen fighting anime runs on a very different logic to something like a realistic crime thriller. And then there's things like Reality Is Unrealistic, which is it's own set of problems.

[WillowTree]

I don't usually care about how accurate it is as long as it's engaging, but my husband is the exact opposite. The amount of times I've heard him say 'You don't shock asystole!' is just truly ridiculous. I kind of enjoy the over the top, dramatic stuff. Got knocked out, then you're up and running not two minutes after waking up without so much as a headache?? Heck yes! Catch that murderer!

It also depends on the story. If the entire novel has been serious, down to earth, super accurate, then all of the sudden the hero is defying all medical odds then that's where it can throw me out of what I'm reading.

[alexlcuri07]

I'd say on a scale of 1-10 with "perfect researched realism" being a 10 and "do whatever you want, be free" being a zero I like to be at about a 7 or 8 as a reader and a writer.

I do a lot of research for my story, especially on injuries and trauma and I've spent a painstaking amount of time to make sure there aren't anime-logic sized plot holes in my story's timeline. I really just expect the same of fellow authors. And I hate being pulled out of the world of a story because I have to stop and go, "that's not how that works."

Also, I find that there's nothing quite as dramatic or horrifying as real life. To use the hospital example you provided- my fiance was in a car accident in January. It would have been a relief to rush in there in a dramatic display of affection. Know what I had to do instead? Wait. Think and wait. I was sitting there for about an hour all because he wasn't in the system yet. Because of that, they couldn't tell me what room he had been placed in or if he was okay. If that's not way more dramatic and suspenseful then swooping in and seeing him I don't know what is.

I appreciate writers who can take real life and make it dramatic. Its easy to make something that fits what you want; its harder and more impactful to take realism and write it in a way that it still conveys what you need it to.

[therosesword]

To me the writer's job is to research as much as possible and have, even in a fantasy, as much "reality" as possible in a finished product.

Also... as a side note: Old TV actor Clint Walker took a ski pole to the heart and survived. Key to the survival was... they didn't remove it until he got to the hospital and it was surgically removed, thereby properly. Don't quote me but I believe the reason Steve Irwin died was because he pulled thIs ray's barb out and may have survived had he not (not 100% sure on that) So, conceivably someone could be stabbed in the heart and deliver a monologue, as long as the weapons is not removed.

The Devil is in the details and readers remember them. They may love a story but be a little sketching on some of the points of it but they will ALWAYS remember the errors they found.

I read a friend's story once about a selfish princess who made her father build her a castle and the ramparts were edged with emeralds. But she wasn't satisfied and made him build her a bigger one this time with ramparts lined with amethysts. Imagine the author's surprise when I told him which was a "gem" and which was considered a "semi-precious" stone. He asked if anyone else would notice and I told him to ask a few more women... he might still be rewriting that.

There are a lot of things you can fudge with, especially in fantasy etc. but things rooted in realism, I think, are better.

Besides, the research is fun.

Write hard, write true.

[ble]

I'll go with option B. I mostly watch stuff for the escapism.

Like the only medical shows I watched were Doctor House and Scrubs, and not for the medical stuff, but for the character interactions, those same characters could be in another setting and I would still watch it.

I have seen people watch something and then keep complaining about "well that doesn't happen in reality", yeah, sure, then watch the news.

[therosesword]

I took forensics classes at the university. Imagine how fun I was to be around watching TV or going to a movie muttering "no, that's wrong." "oh holy hell, no." "are you freaking kidding me?" "that's wrong, nope, that too, nope..."

[WillowTree]

My husband was an EMT. I told him he wasn't allowed to watch Grey's Anatomy with me anymore lmao

[therosesword]

I imagine the two of us would drive people insane if we were in the same room watching the same show. All those groans and eye rolling!

Lol

[UrMom]

Depends on the story you're trying to tell. If you're telling something exaggerated and dumb like in a soap opera, then lax of realism for the sake of tone is fine. Same with other fantastical stories, especially ones set in a made-up universe. I think the only times I get taken out of a story with something like that is if the story is set in the real world and the character has a mysterious terminal illness that somehow doesn't make them look or feel sick, except for when it's convenient for the plot.

For more realistic, serious stories it would be good to do research, and be as accurate as you can be. It would be out of place to have a real world drama where everything is more practical, then have the hospital scene be weird and not make sense. The author doesn't have to be 100% accurate since demanding something like that would be impractical, unless they're doctors or nurses, but just enough for it to make sense to.

I guess my overall thing is just do what makes sense for your story's setting and the type of story you're telling.

[cherrystark]

Two of my siblings are in the emergency services field. I've watched shows about their professions with them and the middle ground between artistic license and realism is the best. The show "Emergency" made their two leads undergo paramedic training prior to shooting because the paramedicine program was so new. They wanted the show to be accurate medical wise because they didn't want people doing first aid incorrectly.

If you need a scene in a hospital room, the structure of hospital rules is nice for story-telling. I wouldn't discount the absurdity that generally falls into Camp A. My mom worked most of my childhood in the healthcare industry. A lot of doctors and nurses at the local hospital were family friends and regularly brought up in conversation. I've seen medical professionals crack stupid jokes, watch silly videos, and engage in tons of shenanigans during their working hours. (*Best one, my childhood doctor threatened for years to dress up as Hawkeye Pierce (bathrobe and cowboy hat) on his last day before he retire. I don't know if he did it though.) Our local hospital is a small country hospital. I'm sure there are tons of crazy stories at larger hospitals.

[WillowTree]

Also the rules vary widely depending on the country you write in. Like HIPAA is a massively big deal in the USA, but I remember learning in middle school (so my info could be outdated!) that Australia doesn't have rules like that with their medical professionals

[Phantomlight]

I have been in and out of the hospital and most of the time you're either answering questions, "enjoying" down time, or talking with whoever may have accompanied you while you sit in a bed feeling pretty naked (at least in the worst case scenario). The most dramatic experience I have been through at a hospital was someone who was disturbing the peace by yelling at the staff, nurses and doctors and they were also getting a bit aggressive. I've also experienced what @cherrystark mentioned:

I've seen medical professionals crack stupid jokes, watch silly videos, and engage in tons of shenanigans during their working hours.

So things aren't always far from the truth and there's never one way to write certain scenes because there's also the possibility that somewhere in the world there may be some truths to certain details.

At least in my experience, overall it's just been uncomfortable, unbearable, boring, dreadful, scary, or quiet. The scenes in novels and comics, we can't expect them to be completely accurate, especially if it's a work of fiction. They aren't documentaries, they are works of entertainment. But, for me, a little or quite a bit of research is always appreciated with any event or scene a creator portrays. And if it's something the creator personally experienced or has seen someone close to them experience, I have a deep appreciation for that as well. But I don't mind either approaches though. It's whatever people want to create, but I personally prefer what other's have already mentioned, that it fits the genre or tone of the novel or comic ^^

[cherrystark]

That's a very good point. HIPAA is a really big deal if your series takes place in the US. That was one of the first lessons I ever learned about the medical profession. Sure, you can talk about characters' (people) personal lives because you can't stop gossip, but you never, ever talk about a patient's medical history except in certain contexts. So if you're trying to write for realism, it's unlikely that a character can just walk into a hospital and casually "find out" in conversation what's wrong with another character.

[ninjashira]

I think it's fine either way, whichever situation fits the tone of the story. I've written really serious, dramatic, grounded scripts where someone's SO is in the hospital and they can't go in to see them because it's family only, so there's all this building drama while the person is stuck in the waiting room, not knowing if their SO is okay or even alive.

And I've written really campy, cheesy, shinyhappyanime scripts where a character comes to consciousness in a hospital and is surrounded by all his friends and his magical talking animal companion (but not his parents who surely must have been worried sick about their kid).

Whatever serves the story best is the best way to handle it.

[therosesword]

I worked for a short time for the University's Oral Maxillofacial Surgery department in accounts. We also had the emergency care dental care near our offices. Once we had a bunch of oogly eyed construction workers in, all of them really giving all the nurses and dental women the once over and one of the women had had it. She took a clear (not red, but clear so you could see everything) sharp's container of blood, tissue, teeth and liquid past all the guys calling out for the doctor to tell him her station's "blood bucket" was ready for disposal. Three other women shouted from their stations, "I've got on too"

Construction workers HATED coming into that area.

Medical workers... best gallows humor around.

[NickRowler]

Growing up, my mom was a bit anti-hospital dramas but she did watch a lot of doctor and ER shows based on real stories. And I guess because of it, I sort of want some sort of realism.

I enjoyed the manga Black Jack, which had a sort of supernatural approach to surgeons. However, the creator, Osamu Tezuka, has worked in hospitals and does have an understanding of the medical field. He does claim he made a lot of the stuff up but I feel like his approach to how Black Jack dealt withe the fictional illnesses were logical within his world. This is probably why I also dislike the adaptions of the series.

When it comes to other media. I prefered the video game Lifesigns Surgical Unit over Trauma Center Under the Knife. Lifesigns has a much more grounded story while Trauma Center is about using time stopping pentagrams in order to stop crystal cancer, I just found it dumb.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Where do you stand on this spectrum? How important is realism to you? How important is drama? What do you prefer as a reader?

I like to be in the middle, I guess...like, it's okay for things to be a little unrealistic if the story reads better that way. In the grand scheme of things, the overall story is much more important than the little odds and ends.

But if it's kind of common knowledge that certain things just don't happen (like monologuing after you've been stabbed through the heart. THROUGH THE HEART) and you write them anyway, you're just abusing your readers' suspension of disbelief.

Hospital inaccuracies, for instance, are forgivable: most people will go most of their lives without being familiar with what goes on inside a hospital, and what all the rules are. Personally, I've only been in a hospital maybe 6 or 7 times in my life, and never longer than a few hours...despite the fact that my own mother works as a nurse, I'm pretty clueless. =/

When it comes to things like jumping out 8-story windows, though...I mean, most 6-year-olds know what'll happen to you if you leap off a skyscraper or get your head cut off; no one's gonna go "oh, poetic license" when you pretend something other than death might be the outcome...

TL;DR Write whatever you want; drama rocks. But if your story does indeed take place in the real world, watch your extremes.

[kmlangleyauthor]

I’m a meet-in-the-middle person for reality vs drama. Especially for hospital and medical situations, I personally try to do enough research to get the bare bones of what I need. Enough that I’m comfortable wiggling the details a bit. And then I hope and pray that my readers’ suspension of disbelief is holding strong