Watch the revolver in this clip from Ed Wood’s cheese fest, Plan Nine from Outer Space. Can you count the number of times the detective aims it at himself and the other officers? Your characters would do best to only aim a firearm at people and objects they’re willing to shoot. And they’d never look down the barrel of a gun to see if it’s loaded.
Here you go, writerfolk. It’s ammunition specifically designed to shoot down drones. All I know about this product is from this press release. Note the “ferromagnetic ballistic payload,” which I presume to be some sort of explosive.
Writerfolk, whenever you get the itch to write in a character dramatically pumping a shotgun in a story, stop. Come up with a different method of intimidation. I know you’ve seen it countless times in movies and TV shows, but as @abnersenires so eloquently stated on Twitter, it’s the wrong kind of smooth move.
@benjaminsobieck Ah, yes. Dramatically pump loaded shotgun with one in chamber, lose a round. Smooth move, ExLax. 😛
— Abner Senires (@abnersenires) February 6, 2015
Coming from a family of sportsmen and women, I got to know firearms and knives at an early age. This has benefited me when writing about them in crime fiction. This also made me a picky reader when it comes to depictions of weapons in fiction. It seems some have either never handled a weapon or based everything off Hollywood movies. Continue reading
Fiction, especially the thriller and crime genres, loves the pocket shot. Nothing surprises a target character like a blast from a handgun from within a jacket or pants pocket.
But how true to reality is the pocket shot? Is such a thing even possible? Continue reading
The Writer's Guide to Weapons 