Writing About Guns: Resources (meta and non-political)

2011-09-25T18:16:14Z

Last night snickfic was kind enough to rec my SPN/Discworld crossover A Grand Sneer and had some lovely things to say about it (thanks, btw). Being insecure, not having looked at it in, well, a long while, and wondering how I've grown as a writer since, I went back to see if I really had done some of the things in it that s/he'd mentioned. I only got to the end of the first chapter before I face-palmed:

"Get back!" shouted Dean, pulling his pearl-handled automatic out of his belt and taking aim.

Oh, Self, you were so naive back then. Semi-automatic, Dean's Colt m1911 is a semi-automatic, which is a whole other thing. (This is why rereading your own work is always a dangerous thing). Then again, it was my first Supernatural fic and as a writer I started out in two fandoms (Buffy and Doctor Who) whose canons are notoriously anti-gun (penalties range up to "being flayed alive onscreen" for villains who show up with them). So for a long time I didn't really need to know about guns, and not being the type who much cares for guns in the real world (I'm a knife/aluminum baseball bat kind of girl), I had little to no interest in researching them. Leading me to write things like the above. **Cringes**

( Bad Self. Research is always important. Especially when you start expanding into new fandoms )

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Writing About Guns: Resources (meta and non-political)