I keep telling folks that their local NRA (for Americans, at least) will have classes that can introduce them to at least the basics, so they're not writing completely blind. If I never see another stupid 98-lb actress holding a Desert Eagle, it'd be too soon. Hell, people flying backwards 15 feet after getting shot is more believeable than some stick figure barbie-doll being able to manhandle one of those puppies!
Yeah, I know it's easier to ignore the complexities and ramifications, the messy parts of such a lifestyle. I just don't see why a good writer would want the easy, though: wouldn't knowing all the difficult parts make the character that much fuller, the story that much meatier?
To use another gun analogy, in the old westerns, apparently once-upon-a-time they actually made six-shooters that could fire eighteen rounds before reloading, and one shot could take down three Indians! Amazing! Unless you were an Indian, in which case your gun fired twice and locked up, and you weren't actually hitting anything, anyway. Then along comes someone who realizes that "running out of ammo" is a difficulty that can make for a great tension-builder and plot-point, a breath-holding "oh, no, what does he do now?" moment... and it's in that tradition that I hold forth so long.
Phantom income, seventeen bullets in a six shooter -- same kind of slacking. We might want life clean, but novels are better when they're messy.
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Date: 22 Nov 2007 04:48 am (UTC)Yeah, I know it's easier to ignore the complexities and ramifications, the messy parts of such a lifestyle. I just don't see why a good writer would want the easy, though: wouldn't knowing all the difficult parts make the character that much fuller, the story that much meatier?
To use another gun analogy, in the old westerns, apparently once-upon-a-time they actually made six-shooters that could fire eighteen rounds before reloading, and one shot could take down three Indians! Amazing! Unless you were an Indian, in which case your gun fired twice and locked up, and you weren't actually hitting anything, anyway. Then along comes someone who realizes that "running out of ammo" is a difficulty that can make for a great tension-builder and plot-point, a breath-holding "oh, no, what does he do now?" moment... and it's in that tradition that I hold forth so long.
Phantom income, seventeen bullets in a six shooter -- same kind of slacking. We might want life clean, but novels are better when they're messy.