Bathroom Break?

[Tim Murray]

I've seen a lot of TV and movie sci fi. I came up with a fun thought, how would you write in the main character excusing themselves to relieve their immediate needs?


Spock noticed Captain Kirk squirming in his chair, his right eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Captain, are you feeling well?"

Kirk composed himself before answering, "I have to take care of some personal business, Spock, you have the con."

The bridge crew watch him walking very fast to his quarters.

 

[Ursa major]

That sounds like the tension coming to a head....


*cough*

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have loads of toilet scenes, including a no-arms free one.

Well, in close third you can't leave your character when the going gets touchgh....

 

[Juliana]

Not SFF but you just can't beat the road trip bottle scene in John Green's Paper Towns... And I was really pleased that they didn't edit it out when they made the movie.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I write 'bathroom scenes', except mine are more 'behind-the-nearest-tree scenes', but I do try to portray the relief when the character finds somewhere at last, as well as anxiety about someone wandering past the tree/boulder/bush at just the wrong moment.

Edit: waiting to see how many puns a certain (Charmin') bear can produce from all that. Does remind me a bit of a toilet roll advert on British TV from not too long ago....

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I've always thought I could easily have done without the peeing in the lake scene in Rob Roy, complete with surround-sound. I'm just as glad they leave those things out of most shows. I feel about bathroom scenes the way my mother felt about sex scenes -- it's fine with me if the curtain falls and time passes.

 

[Droflet]

Hmm, curious. My characters never relieve themselves. Well of course they do, I just choose to look the other way.

 

[Foxbat]

You could just have your character say something like 'I'm off to see a man about a Photon Torpedo.'

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You could just have your character say something like 'I'm off to see a man about a Photon Torpedo.'

Ow. That's gotta hurt....

 

[Droflet]

Not as bad as phasers out the other end. Yowza.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I've seen a lot of TV and movie sci fi. I came up with a fun thought, how would you write in the main character excusing themselves to relieve their immediate needs?


Spock noticed Captain Kirk squirming in his chair, his right eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Captain, are you feeling well?"

Kirk composed himself before answering, "I have to take care of some personal business, Spock, you have the con."

The bridge crew watch him walking very fast to his quarters.

"Spock, take the chair. I'm off to produce the Captains Log." ??

(Ahh the old ones are the best, eh...)

 

[Boneman]

"Kirk to Enterprise. Just beamed down to the planet's surface for a dump. No sign of any Klingons."

 

[Ogma]

I did have character disappear behind bushes to take care of such matters. A couple of times the chamber pot was pointed out to guests/prisoners. A slops bucket plays a minor role in my next book. i think there's nothing wrong with a couple of references to add to realism, but I wouldn't overdo it in the same way I wouldn't overdo brushing teeth, washing the clothes, peeling potatoes, etc.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I'm afraid I'm just crude. "My gawd I need to peee." And walks off singing the theme tune to Fireman Sam.

My MC often hides in the boys toilets so... and my monks go Roman style and it's very communal.

 

[Ursa major]

Though now relieved -- the whole terrible experience had, finally, come to an end -- Kirk was also confused. He turned to Spock. "What just happened to me?"

"Life, Jim, just not as we know it."

 

[Ray McCarthy]

If it's an American book / film and mentions bathrooms ...
When I was small I used to think they took very speedy baths. Then I discovered they prefer showers, which I thought explained it.

 

[tinkerdan]

They can be fun scenes to write. I'm still waiting for a reader input on the use or abuse of such scenes. Possibly there are enough other things in my writing to annoy them that those just wiz right by.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I don't see the difference between writing that scene and a non-bathroom scene. Write it in voice, write it in context, and write it relevant. I think we don't see this so much in books because - well - how does it further the story? Poison Wee?

pH

 

[tinkerdan]

Well yes of course::

I don't see the difference between writing that scene and a non-bathroom scene. Write it in voice, write it in context, and write it relevant. I think we don't see this so much in books because - well - how does it further the story? Poison Wee? pH

And sometimes you could use it as a moment to frame in a backstory or perhaps do some exposition about the setting on the way to the loo.

Perhaps a chapter entitled:: Much ado about the loo.

 

[Tim Murray]

Well yes of course::


And sometimes you could use it as a moment to frame in a backstory or perhaps do some exposition about the setting on the way to the loo.

Perhaps a chapter entitled:: Much ado about the loo.

With Sgt. Pooh.