Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars kill 40,000 people I just shoot for the tires though.
There are cartridges specifically designed for shooting cars.
Like what?
Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
71–80 of 122 posts
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#72You know how to recognize an American movie ? There's a gun on the poster.
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#73One of the things about fiction is that it gets almost everything wrong. It isn’t just guns. It’s professions like spies and snipers, cars, boats, planes, programming/hacking, radios, technology, etc. And those are just the areas that I personally know they get wrong, because I know more than the average person in those areas. Some people judge fiction way too harshly for inconsequential but inaccurate details which…
A modern author who's fairly good in this regard is Andy Weir; the main thing is you have to do a ton of research while writing and have trusted sources (I think Clancy had many) to rely on when mulling over the details.
The tough thing is, once you get "above average" in terms of accuracy, those of us who like to be a little more pedantic will grade on a curve!
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#74Kinda like when the hacker character in movies does... just about anything
...enhance...enhance...
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Possible he had a real source?
Possibly, but I can't imagine a writer taking that kind of chance at the height of the Cold War just for verisimilitude.
I mean, the way I imagine it is he chatted with one ore more guys and after a while he got bits here and there he was technically not supposed to have, not enough of its own, but with imagination enough to get the rough picture of how it worked and got very close. But I don't think conscious braking of classified information happened. More carelessness I guess.
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#76Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are cartridges specifically designed for shooting cars.
Like what?
Like this [1].
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was just watching Tom Scott's latest video, he mentioned firing a trebuchet and the guide pointed this out that you don't "fire" a trebuchet since it doesn't involve gunpowder, you launch it. Tom's commentary later was that he disagreed with that sentiment. "I disagree with those potential comments. Words change their meaning overtime. In modern English, you can fire an arrow, you can fire a torpedo, we were gonna…
There's a decent argument for using today's words even for settings that are no the current world. But for fantasy specifically I find it breaks immersion quite a bit. I'm not convinced by the "language changes over time" line of argument. If you take it to a bit more of an extreme it would also be fine to have characters say "cool" or even use some gen-z-ism etc, because hey words change meaning over time after all.…
You raise a good point, but where would we stop? Should movies depicting medieval events use medieval English? It was the lingo at the time after all.
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#79I guess my pet peeve of "firing an arrow" is also a gun mistake of sorts. It can be found in many fantasy books. A bow is not a gun, there's no gunpowder involved. If a commander orders his archers to "fire" what should they do, set their bows on fire?
I was just watching Tom Scott's latest video, he mentioned firing a trebuchet and the guide pointed this out that you don't "fire" a trebuchet since it doesn't involve gunpowder, you launch it. Tom's commentary later was that he disagreed with that sentiment. "I disagree with those potential comments. Words change their meaning overtime. In modern English, you can fire an arrow, you can fire a torpedo, we were gonna…
In the US Navy at least, you don't "fire" a torpedo, you "shoot" it. The lore is that "fire" has a very specific, very urgent meaning on a warship and you don't use that word unless there actually is a fire.
Re: Gun Mistakes in Fiction Writing: Handgun Edition
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the correct term? Loose? I'm sure I've heard that before. I know nothing about arrows except to identify the pointy end.
It is very tiring to hold back the shot in a position like that. In real life you just wouldn’t do that. And in general your archers know their range and will/should start shooting as soon as they have a target in range without any orders. The volley fire thing is from black powder musket/rifle days. Basically volleys were used so you can actually seen what you are shooting at (aim) and manuever (hard to move while r…
If most archers start shooting as soon as targets enter the range, and if their individual ranges are clustered around the average, wouldn't that result in a relatively high density of shooting when the distance to a moving group of targets coincides with their average range?
Some movies actually provide a plausible-sounding explanation for the volley fire thing. A dude in charge commands everyone to wait until the unsuspecting enemy enters the kill zone. But even in that case, I guess the archers won't wait with their bows drawn.