: Re: How to make a repeating plot "slice" not annoying In my fantasy novels, I don't want to kill anyone off, I just want to get them injured, like badly. I made up numerous believable excuses

@Holmes449

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Ditch the cliché altogether. Stop talking about recovery or pain, stop any worry of the character not recovering, even if they are screaming don't let that affect the other characters. Treat it like humans really would treat such a world, as one in which injuries are temporary and fully recoverable and everybody knows it, including the injured.

That would make sense in this world, and the reader can sympathize. You can still have harrowing danger in such a world, if Joe gets exploded and is unconscious, you still need to limit further damage by injecting the STASIS agent and and get him back to cover and evac to a hospital for repairs. But his comrades can be braver and take injury themselves saving Joe; because some of them have been shot, cut, smashed, blown up and are so accustomed to it, they can keep moving anyway and will.

Don't try to have it both ways. Embrace your world: Technology has advanced to the point lethal injury is a risk but exceedingly rare, so soldiers and everybody else have adapted to this truth and fight and think accordingly, with this in mind. The risk of death is no longer what drives the tension; the risk of losing and the dire consequences of losing must drive the battle. The temporary loss of heroes that provide unique and valuable skills becomes an obstacle to victory that the team doesn't know how to surmount. Recriminations about letting Joe get injured, compromising the mission, cause interpersonal team conflict and resentments.

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