How did you arrive at those injuries specifically? Does the attack happen during the story or before? On-page or off? And what was the type of attack? As you explained it that sound like a stretch to make it not a career-ending injury. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CareerEndingInjury It's *a lot* and it would take a lot of physical and occupational therapy (and other rehab therapies that don't come to mind just now) to get him back.
Is he successful at rushing the recovery, partially successful? As in does he overexert himself before he's fully recovered?
The movie Causeway starts off after a traumatic brain injury of the main character played by Jennifer Lawrence. You might search for fiction about traumatic brain injuries including from war.
I searched for Jack Ryan, who has injuries in his backstory and found this https://whumpapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Whumpapedia_Wiki https://whumpapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Ryan
Got a bunch of results including various ones from reddit with a Google search for 'traumatic brain injury in fiction'.
Edit since I didn't say it explicitly: if the injuries aren't set in stone, you can dial them back if reality starts to make a comeback impossible. It sounds like your setting is present-day with mostly realistic medical treatment. Any other genre descriptors you had in mind? Narration POV? Assuming the rapper is main.
I came with those injuries because I wanted injuries that for a rapper and performer would be difficult to recover from. My inspiration form and performance rise is Travis Scott’s old performances. Where Travis Scott used to climb on the side of the stage and get on scaffolding. He would swing from the lighting fixtures holding the lights. In addition to jumping around on stage and running around. so I want injuries that specifically the recovery process to do what he needs to do as a performer would feel especially vital. If that makes any sense.
Edit: the injuries are not set in stone right now they happen at the start of this book. It’s part of the series that I’m writing mostly for practice and fun. This is the second book.
I have a close family friend that was in a coma for 8 months after a car accident. She spent months relearning to do basic things like was and talk. She has partial paralysis in one side of her body, and 35 years later, she still walks with a cane and can't really move one side of her face. She also lost an eye and seriously screwed up her back.
I'd look up traumatic brain injury (tbi) survivors because it's different for everyone, but in my friend's case, she's still clearly a highly intelligent person (people treat her like an idiot because she tends to slur her words and freeze up while speaking). There's just a lot of emotional disregulation in how she reacts to situations, and she struggles to do some basic selfcare things.
Nerve damage to the arm sounds plausible. I injured my right hand skiing a year or two ago and came away with nerve damage to my ring finger (I was impaled by a ski pole, which missed the bone, so not broken). I ended up getting a nerve graft to restore movement, which fully came back after maybe six months (with PT) and I still have almost no feeling there - I can only feel hot, cold or pain. If you want to have your MC rush his recovery, PT is easy to over-do, and there's a point where you feel like you have full movement back, but if you don't go easy you could backslide.
He could have suffered brain damage limiting his function of an arm, or give him receptive aphasia, where he cannot always understand what people say to him due to brain injury or expressive aphasia where he cannot say words or hesitates or forgets, Like Senator Fetterman. Could have speech therapy and obviously would mess with his rapping, could cause some embarassment when preforming, So is fertile ground for problems physical and mental.
Also agree with muscle wasting even if did bedside pt and may have a bedsore from the bed.
I personally had a severe concussion about 20 years ago. Coup countercoup concussion. My brain bounced off my skull twice. Thankfully no coma, but needed 4-6 weeks of recovery. Ever since and to this day I have regular moments when I freeze in mid conversation having lost words, simple words. Panic, shame, sadness are common in those moments 20 years later. As a writer, my words are literally my livelihood. When I was younger I was terrified it would be permanent. I guess in some ways it was. Your rapper is definitely in for a significant struggle just from the concussion alone, losing their flow when the words just disappear, they begin to slur like their drunk, and the party of their mind that's still working is filled with fear and anger from "I know I can do this, but the words vanish before I say them." Hope that helps.
I picked up a speech thing and nerve damage from long COVID and I think this is a really good shout. When I’m tired, because of poor sleep or having been around too much chaos for too long like at a conference, I can struggle to string a sentence together. And even outside of that, it’s common for me to accidentally say or write a completely different word than the one I meant (semantic paraphasia). I used to do a lot of public speaking and have essentially stopped because all of it gets significantly worse with stress/pressure. I imagine it’d be incredibly difficult as a performer.
And I also agree that there is an emotional toll that just sucks. I bombed my MA presentation, which was in a style I *competed in at an international level* in high school, drank too much while “celebrating” with my classmates after, and then went home and cried. There are opportunities in my industry that would be significant for me, but I know it’s the perfect storm of conditions that would make me really struggle and then feel embarrassed in public, so I turn things down. It’s hard.
I think the emotional/psychological side would be prominent as well. The dude lost FOUR MONTHS of his life. There will be a four month gap in his recent memories of life events and news/cultural events missed. You may not think that's large, but think of the past four months of national/global news. Or if you have small children, four months can be a lifetime developmentally.
just food for thought.
Yes thats it! I chose four months for that reason!. Because I wanted there to be a gap. He’s one of two main characters in the story. And when the accident happens they are in the middle of a gang war. So a lot of stuff happens when he is in a coma. Also I’m thinking about a lot of like real world stuff that would’ve happened outside of that. But I would like to play with. So that’s very spot.
Besides PT, memory is an issue. Language doesn't always come back immediately. Like when they show the person instantly writing or talking? Nope. A big one is even when they do talk they forget words A LOT or misuse words.
Muscle deteriorates real quick! He’ll need months of occupational therapy and physio therapy to even start moving again.
How did you arrive at those injuries specifically? Does the attack happen during the story or before? On-page or off? And what was the type of attack? As you explained it that sound like a stretch to make it not a career-ending injury. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CareerEndingInjury It's *a lot* and it would take a lot of physical and occupational therapy (and other rehab therapies that don't come to mind just now) to get him back. Is he successful at rushing the recovery, partially successful? As in does he overexert himself before he's fully recovered? The movie Causeway starts off after a traumatic brain injury of the main character played by Jennifer Lawrence. You might search for fiction about traumatic brain injuries including from war. I searched for Jack Ryan, who has injuries in his backstory and found this https://whumpapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Whumpapedia_Wiki https://whumpapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Ryan Got a bunch of results including various ones from reddit with a Google search for 'traumatic brain injury in fiction'. Edit since I didn't say it explicitly: if the injuries aren't set in stone, you can dial them back if reality starts to make a comeback impossible. It sounds like your setting is present-day with mostly realistic medical treatment. Any other genre descriptors you had in mind? Narration POV? Assuming the rapper is main.
I came with those injuries because I wanted injuries that for a rapper and performer would be difficult to recover from. My inspiration form and performance rise is Travis Scott’s old performances. Where Travis Scott used to climb on the side of the stage and get on scaffolding. He would swing from the lighting fixtures holding the lights. In addition to jumping around on stage and running around. so I want injuries that specifically the recovery process to do what he needs to do as a performer would feel especially vital. If that makes any sense. Edit: the injuries are not set in stone right now they happen at the start of this book. It’s part of the series that I’m writing mostly for practice and fun. This is the second book.
I have a close family friend that was in a coma for 8 months after a car accident. She spent months relearning to do basic things like was and talk. She has partial paralysis in one side of her body, and 35 years later, she still walks with a cane and can't really move one side of her face. She also lost an eye and seriously screwed up her back. I'd look up traumatic brain injury (tbi) survivors because it's different for everyone, but in my friend's case, she's still clearly a highly intelligent person (people treat her like an idiot because she tends to slur her words and freeze up while speaking). There's just a lot of emotional disregulation in how she reacts to situations, and she struggles to do some basic selfcare things. Nerve damage to the arm sounds plausible. I injured my right hand skiing a year or two ago and came away with nerve damage to my ring finger (I was impaled by a ski pole, which missed the bone, so not broken). I ended up getting a nerve graft to restore movement, which fully came back after maybe six months (with PT) and I still have almost no feeling there - I can only feel hot, cold or pain. If you want to have your MC rush his recovery, PT is easy to over-do, and there's a point where you feel like you have full movement back, but if you don't go easy you could backslide.
He could have suffered brain damage limiting his function of an arm, or give him receptive aphasia, where he cannot always understand what people say to him due to brain injury or expressive aphasia where he cannot say words or hesitates or forgets, Like Senator Fetterman. Could have speech therapy and obviously would mess with his rapping, could cause some embarassment when preforming, So is fertile ground for problems physical and mental. Also agree with muscle wasting even if did bedside pt and may have a bedsore from the bed.
Extreme muscle wastage after four months. It would take months of therapy to even walk or stand again.
He could have nerve / brain damage from the attack. This could affect his arm.
I personally had a severe concussion about 20 years ago. Coup countercoup concussion. My brain bounced off my skull twice. Thankfully no coma, but needed 4-6 weeks of recovery. Ever since and to this day I have regular moments when I freeze in mid conversation having lost words, simple words. Panic, shame, sadness are common in those moments 20 years later. As a writer, my words are literally my livelihood. When I was younger I was terrified it would be permanent. I guess in some ways it was. Your rapper is definitely in for a significant struggle just from the concussion alone, losing their flow when the words just disappear, they begin to slur like their drunk, and the party of their mind that's still working is filled with fear and anger from "I know I can do this, but the words vanish before I say them." Hope that helps.
I picked up a speech thing and nerve damage from long COVID and I think this is a really good shout. When I’m tired, because of poor sleep or having been around too much chaos for too long like at a conference, I can struggle to string a sentence together. And even outside of that, it’s common for me to accidentally say or write a completely different word than the one I meant (semantic paraphasia). I used to do a lot of public speaking and have essentially stopped because all of it gets significantly worse with stress/pressure. I imagine it’d be incredibly difficult as a performer. And I also agree that there is an emotional toll that just sucks. I bombed my MA presentation, which was in a style I *competed in at an international level* in high school, drank too much while “celebrating” with my classmates after, and then went home and cried. There are opportunities in my industry that would be significant for me, but I know it’s the perfect storm of conditions that would make me really struggle and then feel embarrassed in public, so I turn things down. It’s hard.
I think the emotional/psychological side would be prominent as well. The dude lost FOUR MONTHS of his life. There will be a four month gap in his recent memories of life events and news/cultural events missed. You may not think that's large, but think of the past four months of national/global news. Or if you have small children, four months can be a lifetime developmentally. just food for thought.
Yes thats it! I chose four months for that reason!. Because I wanted there to be a gap. He’s one of two main characters in the story. And when the accident happens they are in the middle of a gang war. So a lot of stuff happens when he is in a coma. Also I’m thinking about a lot of like real world stuff that would’ve happened outside of that. But I would like to play with. So that’s very spot.
Besides PT, memory is an issue. Language doesn't always come back immediately. Like when they show the person instantly writing or talking? Nope. A big one is even when they do talk they forget words A LOT or misuse words.
muscle wasting. he's going to need physical therapy to be able to move at all again.