MC hit on head with rolling pin. Please advise.

UK_Scrivener

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Hi all,

I'm writing my first novel. My first MC has just been hit on the head (temple) with a rolling-pin by the wife of the man she has run away with, who has been stalking her (my MC is more sympathetic than she sounds, and the wife, considerably less-so). I like the rolling-pin detail, because the stalker considers herself to be the Queen of all domestic matters.

I have three questions about the rolling-pin:

1. Most importantly - would my first MC survive? - I want her to, but it has to be realistic. If she wouldn't survive a blow with a rolling-pin to the temple, can you suggest either: a domestic object that would have a less damaging impact (while still knocking her out cold) or a better place for the stalking-wife to hit her.
2. How would she feel and what would she experience when she came around.
3. Is a rolling-pin too much of a cliché?

I'd really appreciate your advice.

Thanking you in advance.
 
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GeorgeK

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All of life ranges between the benign and the lethal.

1. Yes, if you want the character to survive, No, if you don't.

2. Headache, possibly nausea, double vision...google concussion.

3. It depends on the hobbies of the person whose kitchen it is. I have a rolling pin, but most people that I know do not. One thing probably everyone has in their kitchen is a can of some sort of food.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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My sister-in-law once brained a guy who was hassling her with a can of whipped cream. It was, apparently effective. So yeah, pretty much anything hard works.

As for the rolling pin, depends on the relative sizes of the people involved and how much of a wind-up the attacker gets. If it's just an expression of irritation while they're talking, sort of the equivalent of poking someone in the chest with your finger, then it's fine. If there's windup involved, I wouldn't go for the temple. That's pretty much the best place on the skull to hit someone if you want to kill them. The forehead and up to the top of the skull are much thicker, but a rolling pin would still make you see stars.
 

shadowwalker

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It also depends on the kind of rolling pin. I have a wood one, which would definitely kill a person. I also have a hollow metal one, which could knock a person out, but it's doubtful it would kill anyone.
 

King Neptune

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Hi all,

I'm writing my first novel. My first MC has just been hit on the head (temple) with a rolling-pin by the wife of the man she has run away with, who has been stalking her (my MC is more sympathetic than she sounds, and the wife, considerably less-so). I like the rolling-pin detail, because the stalker considers herself to be the Queen of all domestic matters.

I have three questions about the rolling-pin:

1. Most importantly - would my first MC survive? - I want her to, but it has to be realistic. If she wouldn't survive a blow with a rolling-pin to the temple, can you suggest either: a domestic object that would have a less damaging impact (while still knocking her out cold) or a better place for the stalking-wife to hit her.

Rolling pins are traditional weapons, especially of housewives, and people almost always survive the blow, but one could kill, if that it desired. The victim need not be knocked unconscious, unless you want that. The shape of the rolling pin makes it not as deadly as it may look.

2. How would she feel and what would she experience when she came around.

She'd be pissed. As for pain, it would vary from person to person. You can make the victim as pissed and as achy of the head as you wish.

3. Is a rolling-pin too much of a cliché?

The cliché is what makes rolling pins effective. They look like weapons, but the design and construction make them less that deadly. Remember that there is give in the axle.
 

neandermagnon

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I read in the papers this morning that a man beat his wife to death with a rolling pin. A heavy instrument like that can kill someone in a single blow and it depends where you are hit. This young man I used to know was murdered by being hit on the back of the head/neck with a blunt object (it was an attack in the street by a gang of kids).

Being hit on the temple by a blunt object would carry a high risk of death. The sides of the skull are much more vulnerable to fatal head injuries than the front or back. There are major blood vessels there, greatly increasing the risk of a brain haemorrhage. The skull is also thinner here, therefore much more easily fractured.

Most falls result in the front or back hitting the floor, hence natural selection leading to thicker skull and fewer blood vessels at the front and back of the head.

As said above, a wooden rolling pin would be such a blunt instrument. The above assumes it's a wooden one. I haven't seen hollow metal ones before (I'm not really into baking). I've seen plastic ones for kids, obviously those will not do the same kind of damage as a wooden one.

If you want them to survive with just a minor concussion following a blow with a wooden rolling pin, then have them hit on the forehead or back of the skull. There's still a risk of death and skull fracture, but it's less so if the desired outcome is mild concussion but not a skull fracture and the character survives, then this would be believable. Look up the symptoms of mild concussion on a medical website. Don't give them symptoms of a brain haemorrhage (those are all the things listed on those cards they give you in A&E when you have a head injury... as in "get immediate medical attention if you get any of these symptoms" list, although mild dizziness and nausea is fine. A headache is inevitable.). Also, just to note, even with a fatal head injury, there may be a "lucid interval" where they are just fine, then they deteriorate massively.

If someone's knocked out, they probably won't remember what happened in the moments before being hit. This is because the head injury disrupts the brain's process for storing memories. So if you want them to remember everything, don't have them be unconscious for more than a moment or two.
 
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GeorgeK

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Remember that there is give in the axle.
That depends on the rolling pin. Mine doesn't have much if any give. The handles roll with the roller and the roller is marble.
 

King Neptune

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That depends on the rolling pin. Mine doesn't have much if any give. The handles roll with the roller and the roller is marble.

That is true. Some are completely solid. Personally, I have found that filling a used wine bottle with cold water and sealing it makes the most effective rolling pin, but that is mostly in comparison with the other ones I have used.
 

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All of life ranges between the benign and the lethal.

3. It depends on the hobbies of the person whose kitchen it is. I have a rolling pin, but most people that I know do not. One thing probably everyone has in their kitchen is a can of some sort of food.

Funny, I have three rolling pins in my kitchen - two wood, and one marble - but absolutely nothing in a can. Go figure.

If the wife considers herself to be the queen of all things domestic, and she actually is good at it, a rolling pin is entirely appropriate.

Back to the questions...

Yep, a rolling pin, especially a heavy one, could easily knock someone out, but would not necessarily be lethal. They are sort of the classic weapon of the housewife, and while it could be considered cliche, if you use it correctly, I imagine it could be rather interesting as well.

Yep, google concussion - headache, nausea, minor bruising, possibly blurred vision or ringing ears.
 
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GeorgeK

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Funny, I have three rolling pins in my kitchen - two wood, and one marble - but absolutely nothing in a can. Go figure.

If the
Really? No canned mushrooms? No canned artichoke hearts? ripe olives, No canned...really...wow... That would really alter what I could cook.
 

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I also have two one-piece solid wood rolling pins - one, my mother's old one, with handles lathed into the ends of a wide wooden cylinder, and the new one: narrower, with a slight widening towards the middle so you can tell it from a plain dowel. No handles, apparently 'French-style'? I suspect the first, being bigger and heavier would be likelier to kill a person, while the second one, being a little longer, would work if you got a good swing on it.

If you decide to switch up clichés and go with 'frying pan', remember to specify 'cast-iron', rather than aluminum or light-weight stamped steel. Scraping off the Teflon coating and adding it to food is slow and unreliable.
 

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Think of a rolling pin as a small baseball bat. You could definitely do some damage with it. How much? Depends on how the other person defends herself, and just where the blow lands. I think you could legitimately go from dead to unconscious to broken bones to just majorly pissed off, depending on how strong the attacker is, how prepared the defender is, and the luck of where the blows land.
 

LittlePinto

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I don't have much to say regarding rolling pins, but here's a good article on traumatic brain injuries. It might help you make sure your injury matches up with your character's symptoms. (There's nothing I like less than when a character is unconscious for a significant period of time--indicating moderate to severe brain injury--and recovers completely and instantly on waking.)
 

Flicka

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I don't have much to say regarding rolling pins, but here's a good article on traumatic brain injuries. It might help you make sure your injury matches up with your character's symptoms. (There's nothing I like less than when a character is unconscious for a significant period of time--indicating moderate to severe brain injury--and recovers completely and instantly on waking.)

My sister had a rant about that a while ago. She's a doctor and was working in a neuro surgery department until recently, and she stressed that if you knock someone on the head hard and they pass out for a considerable amount of time, it usually means brain injury that will affect speech, movement and perception at least temporarily and quite often permanently.
 

rugcat

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I don't have much to say regarding rolling pins, but here's a good article on traumatic brain injuries. It might help you make sure your injury matches up with your character's symptoms. (There's nothing I like less than when a character is unconscious for a significant period of time--indicating moderate to severe brain injury--and recovers completely and instantly on waking.)
Yes, John D McDonald's in one of his Travis McGee novels many years ago points out exactly the same thing.

The idea that someone is hit on the head, wakes up, and instantly figures out who did it and why is laughable. When you've been knocked unconscious, you're too busy after waking up puking and trying to figure out where and who you are to figure out anything at all.

And you don't drive home and lie down for a while. You end up in the hospital.
 
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UK_Scrivener

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I'd just like to interject with a thank you all for your many valuable insights, not only into the various types of rolling-pins, (and to its effectiveness, not only as a weapon, but also as a cliché), but also to your many observations, comments and experiences regarding unconsciousness and head injuries.

(And a big thank you to LittlePinto for the link that great article about traumatic brain injury!).

Thanks to all of your responses, I've got a better grasp on how to proceed and make it realistic now. Realism is important to me. It annoys me too when people wake up in fiction after a head injury and are fine, because I know enough to realise that you don't get up from a head injury and have any brilliant Holmes-esque deductions whirring through your scrambled brains (as an aside, I was knocked out for quite a few minutes as a teenager; unfortunately, I don't remember a thing of how I felt afterwards - or the previous or following days - so I can't use that in my research :))

If you have anymore useful insights, please feel free to keep them coming.
 

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...

If you have anymore useful insights, please feel free to keep them coming.

Experiencing concussion...
I've had two diagnosed concussions in my lifetime... the memory of events surrounding both are fuzzy at best

One - I fell off a bike, the back of my head bounced on the pavement (no I wasn't wearing a helmet, yes, I was an adult, yes it was stupid). I don't recall "passing out" though it's fairly certain I did. I do recall the fall, and feeling my head bounce. The next thing I recall is sitting on the curb, blood running from a cut on my knee. So everything between the actual head knock and "waking up" on the curb is just non-existent.
I walked the bike home (because I was stupid). Had a headache and some serious nausea. Went to the emergency room when the headache and nausea didn't pass after a couple of hours.
The entire time, I had crystal clear recollection of every single thing up to the moment my head hit the pavement. In the ER, I couldn't recall how I got home - the only reason I know is when I walked in the door, bloody and dazed looking, I told my roommate what happened. She repeated it to the ER staff, and later to me. I had headaches, nausea, and short term memory issues for a few days.

Two - Long story short: psychiatric patient decided my head looked like something that should be smashed into a wall. I have pretty much no recollection of anything from the moment the patient was loaded into my ambulance to waking up in the hospital (nearly 12 hours later). I was told what happened, but never could come up with my own memories of any of it.
Had lots of nausea, headaches, ear ringing, blurred vision, and a lot of feeling swollen and puffy. It was a few days before I was steady on my feet (dizziness) and a few weeks before I was back to driving again.
Had there not been witnesses, I could not have given any account of what happened. The only thing I could have said was that I was in the back of my rig with Patient So-and-So. Zero recall of being hit, or anything, but no short term memory issues like the other one - just a total blank space in my memory.

The brain is a weird thing.
 

GeorgeK

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I've been knocked out before...twice...4 times...6...8?..ok not a fun childhood. I really only remember the first time when I was like 4. I suppose I remember it the best because I later got the story from our neighbors and people tend to incorporate later details into memory. Brother 1 wanted to smash the brains of Brother 2 but he missed with the rock and hit me. Brother 3 ran up the hill, picked me up and carried me to the kitchen and tried to stop the bleeding. All I remember of that point was the gravel falling down the hill as I tried to climb it and when I got hit in the skull they seemed to slow down and fall down the hill in slow motion.

Brother 1 (like age 5) went to the neighbors' house and said. "George Fell Asleep!"

"Oh that's nice," she said, "Where is he sleeping?"

"On the kitchen table!"

"Ok...Why on the table?" she asked.

"Cause we didn't want the blood to seep into the floor!"

I have vague memories of the neighbors rushing me to the hospital.
 

WeaselFire

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Frying pan to the face. Lots of bleeding, stunning or unconsciousness, as needed. Rarely lethal but usually debilitating. And ugly when you get to the emergency room.

Jeff