Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[David Evil Overlord]

It kind of depends on the stage of the relationship but that early stage when everything is wonderful and he's perfect and you're walking into door frames just thinking about the way he chews the end of a pen (or whatever) and absolutely knowing that he's much much too good for you and there's no way he could really like you as much as you like him etc etc. then I think he could pretty much get away with anything.

It's kind of early days, but they've been friends for years. Which means it's just a little weird and awkward.

YES​

excuse that but I am a 16 year old girl and I would literally throw either my phone or a sizable book at the guy I like if he admitted he loved my via text message. That might just be me but I'd rather he said it in person much more personal.

She's about to do something similar to him. But she hasn't exactly been perfect herself...

Not a girl, David, but perhaps it depends upon whether this is the modern equivalent of the love note/letter, in which you (sorry, your character) might just get away with it in some circumstances. I still think it should be more personal, though, but I'm a little old-fashioned that way. It is not under any circumstances to be used as a Valentine's card substitute, though. Such use may result in impaired walking capabilities, with justification.

Funny you should say that, Abernovo. Impaired walking capabilities may be in his immediate future, since he did the text thing on Valentine's Day...

 

[David Evil Overlord]

What does it feel like when you faint? I've never fainted. If a character was about to faint, how would it happen? I know the whole light-headed, dizziness thing. But could they try to speak, for example, then just pass out?

Happened to me twice. Both times, I was standing, and then I was waking up lying on the floor. I remember nothing in between those moments. It was that quick.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just checked with my hubby who fainted very dramatically at the Christmas Eve service in church... he felt lightheaded, started to sway, felt a bit strange, like the room was moving, and then woke up on the floor. I remember he went down without bending or flopping or anything like you normally would, so no sinking knees or anything.

On the other hand when I've had panic attacks, I feel all lightheaded, like I'm going to faint, and the room closes around me; if you want something that takes you to the point of fainting, but not quite.

 

[Hex]

In my experience fainting just wipes you out -- so you go from lightheaded to strange to waking up on the floor -- no memory of falling or anything.

It's hard to know, really, what'd happen if you tried to speak because I think fainting does something with your memory (or it does with mine). If it helps, the main character in my wip spends a lot of time fainting and a couple of times she tries to speak before she does it and no one has yet said: 'hey! that isn't how fainting works!'

(I don't faint often, honest. Only when my corset is too tight)

 

[Abernovo]

Mouse, about four years ago, I had a dose of labyrinthitis (an inner ear complaint). I moved my head too quickly and that was it. Fainted.

For less than a second, I felt something was wrong, like a little 'Oh!' thought, then I was out. Tiniest sensation of falling, but nothing else. Next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor, very confused and with a sore elbow that I'd hit off the edge of a desk.

I didn't have time to speak, only just enough to think 'Oh', but even then I was slightly confused, not realising what was happening. Different people could have very different experiences, though.

 

[Mouse]

Thanks, guys.

The character's already fainted twice before and I think I just had him feel light-headed and then fall down. But this time he's a bit more in control and he's sitting on a sofa. So I've got him just about to open his mouth to say 'wow' or something similar when he just crumples. It's in his POV. So that'd be realistic?

 

[Glitch]

What does it feel like when you faint?

Depends what you land on

Some people I have spoken to have commented on a sudden feeling of heat, as if stood next to a raging fire. Some mention a shortness of breath and an inability to move or slow reaction of their muscles to move.

I guess it very much depends on the reason for fainting. Have you ever stood up too quickly and felt light headed ?

 

[Abernovo]

It certainly wouldn't be a problem for me, Mouse.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'd be cool with it.

 

[Mouse]

Cool, cool. I've felt faint myself, had the racing heart and the blurred vision and light-headedness, but never fainted. So thought I'd check!

This is the line I've got on the actual faint:
[FONT=&quot]He opened his mouth and then crumpled onto the sofa.
(Except I'm pondering a comma before the 'and')
[/FONT]

 

[Ursa major]

What does it feel like when you faint? I've never fainted. If a character was about to faint, how would it happen? I know the whole light-headed, dizziness thing. But could they try to speak, for example, then just pass out?

I felt very faint: lightheaded, yes, but more of a feeling of fading away. The first time was when I stood up very quickly while in a hot bath; the second, I leapt up onto the arms of an armchair in order to adjust a poster on the wall. Thankfully, I didn't quite lose consciousness either time. But it was very sudden, so I can understand Abernovo's experience.



By the way, Mouse: is this a serious question or are you practicing swooning.

 

[Vertigo]

When I was young (between 8 and 11) I had very low blood pressure and used to faint quite regularly at mass. I was at a Roman Catholic monastic boarding school and mass was long, incomprehensible (in latin) and we had to endure most of it standing. As I recall they eventually told me I could sit if I was feeling faint but I still used to keel over because it would come on me too quickly; one mintue I was fine, the next someone was picking me up.

 

[Interference]

As a youngster, my brother and I got into a fight. Well, what's so new about that? Nuffink then or now, but that isn't the point....

The point is, though, that he grabbed me by the collar and started to drag me along the floor (something he hasn't done in years) and after a few seconds of this I passed out. I'm sure it must have scared the Hell out of him at the time, but for me what was exciting was the pervading impression of the colour purple and a fragmentary dream-like state featuring people but no actual dream that I could then or can now recall. The centre of the image that I do recall, and which comes to me whenever I think of this event, was illuminated, but not in a "go into the light" kinda way, while the outskirts were this very deep purple colour I mentioned, flecked with sparkles like a dusty photo. The very edges seem to me to have been a pale grey or greyish pink.

I've never fainted (as such am completely unqualified to respond in this instance) but have felt faint a few times, once while pushing a shopping trolley between flats when I was at college. I now suspect it was probably low blood-sugar, but again I kept lapsing into an almost hallucinatory dream-state while in mid-stride. This happened about four or five times during the trek. I don't recall the denouement, but I reckon I got where I was going safely enough and probably had a hot, very sweet coffee. Well, that wasn't so unusual for me in those days

 

[monsterchic]

I've passed out only once. I stood up too quickly off of the couch when I was sick, and I tried to say something, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor bleeding (hit my head on a coffee table...). But I don't remember even falling, just blackness.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Ah, these questions used to start "I have a friend ...", now it's "In my novel ..."

I don't know what the world's coming to. Can't an Evil Overlord post an innocent question without everyone assuming he has ulterior motives?

 

[hopewrites]

I used to faint so often that I did practice it so that I would not hurt myself when it happened suddenly. (weird logic, i know.)
I can usually tell about a day in advance now when I am going to faint (not time and place, just that one is coming on) I would describe the lightheadedness as the kind one gets from painting in a closed space, or leaning too close to the fingernail-polish remover. A sort of space in the top of the skull and behind the eyes. Just before fainting I feel the world doing one of those camera pushes that they do in movies by zooming in while rolling the camera back.
When I practiced I let my knees crumple one way while my hips shifted the other so that I would pretty much just fold up like a floppy sandwich and land at my own feet, thus reducing the chance I would hit something on the way down. Once I got used to the sensations that would lead up to a faint, I would plant my self in a chair or on a couch so that I had less space to fall through and a soft place to land.
It freaked people out, but I would tell them "I'm probably going to faint soon, but dont worry, I'll come to rather quick" because it always feels very quick to me. Like when your head hits the pillow and the next thing you know your alarm is going off and you wake up thinking 'who time-warped me into the morning without letting me sleep, that wasnt very nice'

happy to give more details if you need them.

A question for the ladies -- if you were waiting for your new boyfriend to say "I love you" for the first time, would you be very, very mad if he said it by text?

funny enough this happened to me once. and, no I was not upset. but that was because it was a long distance relationship, and we did most of our communicating via text, skype, and what not. Next time I had him in a video call, I did ask him to say it, and he blushed prettily while he did.
that relationship ended for other reasons.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Thanks for the detail, hopewrites. I'll have to use it. I've been saying "text" but (being SF), it's more of a recorded-message video-call on her phone. She definitely doesn't see that as face-to-face in-person. She sees it the way a girl would see a text message today.

I'll have to have him blush prettily while he says it.

Especially when she makes him say it again, in a real face-to-face setting.

 

[hopewrites]

so I should tell you that one of the petty reasons for breaking up with him was that he blushed prettier then me?

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Well, she's a super hero. No matter how prettily he blushes, he can't leap tall buildings in a single bound (almost).

 

[hopewrites]

well then it makes total sense for him to be too shy to do more then 'text' her at first. Intimidating women are hard to chat up, or so they keep telling me.