Ok guys, plasma globes. The electric current that extends from the inner electrode to the outer glass insulator are called Plasma Filaments - what would these be called if the same sort of zig-zag, blue illumes extended from person to person? Thanks in advance
Would they not still be the same phenomenon? Interesting side note. When electricity passes through the human body, as in lightening strike victims, it sometimes leaves a fractal branching pattern in the skin known as Lichtenberg Figures.
[MENTION=3885]Wreybies[/MENTION] "Plasma filaments extended from the witch's fingers into the neck of her enemy rendering the faerie lifeless mess on the floor" Not my exactly but that feeling - Are the first two words a bit err... crap? Any ideas for something better?
Ah, understood. We are in the realm of fantasy. I thought it was a real world question. So, yes... What would that look like to the observer.... "The witches fingers gave unholy birth. Actinic blue jumped from their tips to the fairy's neck, joining the two in an indecent caress. The faerie was the lesser in this embrace and the light left her eyes along with her life."
do you think the reader would realise the witch is conducting electricity and transferring it through her digits?
Um.... yes? Actinic blue is the actual name for that kind of incandescent blue color that comes of fluorescence and also from arc welding. This, for me, is a question of how much you want to guide the reader in the visualization. My personal style (so take that for what it is) is to give the reader the A and the B and make the path between the two clear, not to walk the reader, hand in hand through every motion and action.
Maybe sometimes I don't give my potential readers enough credit? I would have associated actinic blue with aquariums, or more as a colour than an electric current.
It's one of the things I look for when I edit my work, and also when I can't find a good way to express the exact nuanced move or action. I think to myself if the result of the action is perhaps more important or more evocative than describing the action inch by inch. Um... kinda' like when you take photography and one of the first things you learn is never to cut a horizon line right in the middle of the photo. It might all be important, but you need to decide of the sky is more dramatic than the land or vice versa. You have to give preference to one part or the other. In a scene like the one you described, for me, the detail of the instrument is less important than the gruesomeness of the act. Your reader will make it uglier in their mind's eye.
I get it, I just pictured in my own head the 'plasma filaments' starting at her shoulders, zig-zagging down her arms, through her hands and into the neck of the victim blah blah blah and thought the actual name was terrible. I also know you are a gifted wordsmith and like I said, maybe I don't give potential readers the credit - maybe this is a common problem, not to sound condescending or the want not to send readers for a dictionary. There's a balance there between dumbing down and raising the stakes.
How about something like, "The witch sent an electric blue web of power from the tips of her fingers..." Disclaimer: I haven't had lunch yet, so my brain isn't quite cranking at 100%.
