I tend to be desensitized by the sight of blood. I've seen it more than most people, I actually enjoy the sight and feel of it, and I've had plenty of other people's on my hands.
I'm not sure what makes peopel nervous about blood. When my coworker's diabetic leg ulcer exploded at work one day, I carefully helped her to a seat, held her leg up for her, and put pressure on the wound while the manager tried to hand me paper towels with shaking hands. I told her to go call an ambulance, since the old woman who was bleeding couldn't apply pressure to her own leg. Nothing about that experience bothered me in the least. blood washes off and I merely saw a person in need of help.
I'm not sure whether people are squeamish about touching blood because of fear of disease or whether it's a fundamental instinct signalling danger, but it doesn't affect me.
That being said, I've also stitched a friend's arm, performed surgery on an insect (yeah, weird I know, but it lived), and treated all kinds of things for my dog when he was alive, including draining an aural hematoma. For me, medical things are simply things that need to be done. Sometimes it gets a tad gross, but it's just a part of life. Personally, bleeding makes me feel alive. Now what I HATE are burns. Oh man... I'm such a baby if I burn myself. Ruins my whole day.
In writing, I tend to be as true to injuries as I can be. My experience with certain things doesn't unfortunately allow for as much knowledge as I need to write other injuries, say, being shot with an arrow. I've never shot myself and we're too safe at the range to have had any similar injuries for me to observe first-hand.
So I have to rely on things I HAVE witnessed. When I was younger, I went with a friend to buy a snake from a guy. It was a 7-foot Burmese python and it attacked the guy who was selling it. The snake bit into his hand (it's head was about 5-6 inches long) and wrapped around his arm. My friends (three grown men) worked to try to get the snake off, but you could hear his skin ripping as the snake's teeth slid. Eventually, after twenty minutes or so of him screaming because the snake was constricting his arm, trying to separate his wrist from his arm. They eventually got the bath filled with cold water and submerged the snake until the cold weakened its muscles sufficiently to allow them to unwrap it... but it was a pretty tense time. I've never had an excuse to put a snake attack into a book but I use that experience to inspire other animal attacks.
The thing is... I figure if it can happen in my life, it can certainly happen in the lives of my more adventurous characters' lives.
I'm not adverse to blood in my writing but I try not to over-do it. I like to keep it for tense moments and since it takes so long to heal, I keep serious injuries to a minimum.
I'm not sure what makes peopel nervous about blood. When my coworker's diabetic leg ulcer exploded at work one day, I carefully helped her to a seat, held her leg up for her, and put pressure on the wound while the manager tried to hand me paper towels with shaking hands. I told her to go call an ambulance, since the old woman who was bleeding couldn't apply pressure to her own leg. Nothing about that experience bothered me in the least. blood washes off and I merely saw a person in need of help.
I'm not sure whether people are squeamish about touching blood because of fear of disease or whether it's a fundamental instinct signalling danger, but it doesn't affect me.
That being said, I've also stitched a friend's arm, performed surgery on an insect (yeah, weird I know, but it lived), and treated all kinds of things for my dog when he was alive, including draining an aural hematoma. For me, medical things are simply things that need to be done. Sometimes it gets a tad gross, but it's just a part of life. Personally, bleeding makes me feel alive. Now what I HATE are burns. Oh man... I'm such a baby if I burn myself. Ruins my whole day.
In writing, I tend to be as true to injuries as I can be. My experience with certain things doesn't unfortunately allow for as much knowledge as I need to write other injuries, say, being shot with an arrow. I've never shot myself and we're too safe at the range to have had any similar injuries for me to observe first-hand.
So I have to rely on things I HAVE witnessed. When I was younger, I went with a friend to buy a snake from a guy. It was a 7-foot Burmese python and it attacked the guy who was selling it. The snake bit into his hand (it's head was about 5-6 inches long) and wrapped around his arm. My friends (three grown men) worked to try to get the snake off, but you could hear his skin ripping as the snake's teeth slid. Eventually, after twenty minutes or so of him screaming because the snake was constricting his arm, trying to separate his wrist from his arm. They eventually got the bath filled with cold water and submerged the snake until the cold weakened its muscles sufficiently to allow them to unwrap it... but it was a pretty tense time. I've never had an excuse to put a snake attack into a book but I use that experience to inspire other animal attacks.
The thing is... I figure if it can happen in my life, it can certainly happen in the lives of my more adventurous characters' lives.
I'm not adverse to blood in my writing but I try not to over-do it. I like to keep it for tense moments and since it takes so long to heal, I keep serious injuries to a minimum.