Researching when you’re writing is something that will eventually become a necessity. While I like researching, sometimes I find it a nuisance when I’m in the “flow” and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out a term or what-not. I was having that problem today, when I wrote about Morgan’s Pepperboxes, describing them for the first time (well, not the first, since I rewrote the scene a couple of times…but you get what I mean). Now, I do wish I could find a book devoted to those old-style guns, but I have not found one yet and so most my research has been done online, while looking at different guns has been done through magazines and books. (If you don’t know what a pepperbox pistol is, I suggest looking here, there’s some pictures )

However, I am not really knowledgable with guns. I’ve never fired a gun, although I’ve held one before (but I can’t even remember it’s make!) when my Dad showed me his gun just before I went off to college. He felt it was necessary to “at least know” in case the occasion ever arose. To be honest, it felt a little creepy in my hands; cold, killing metal. I was still going to school through the DARE program, through the GUNS KILL ads, through the Columbine shooting and the fallout from that, so guns are pretty alien to me and I’ve been programmed to view them as dead machines. Sometime, I’d like to go to a range and try my hand at one. I feel I should know, since my characters use them.

Anyway, Morgan’s Pepperboxes are meant to be almost like an extension of her character, maybe even becoming characters in their own right. They are one-of-a-kind guns created to look like pepperbox pistols, but with the power of rail guns (very sci-fi)! And while I was writing the scene in question, I totally hit a snag because I have no idea about the terminology. Imagine the frustration trying to remember what a magazine is and if “cocked” and “uncocked” are the right terms.

I skipped over the research, using the words I needed, and dog-tagged it to come back to. I didn’t want to loose my momentum. However, I’m having trouble finding good books about gun parts. I find a lot of magazines for appraising guns and listing the kinds of guns, but I have yet to find something like Guns for Dummies, with a nice cross section or something. Cross sections are nice.

Come to think about it, if “Big Brother” ever tries to watch my internet usage, he’s in for a surprise because of some of the sights I’ve gone to for research. From the less mundane, more explanable babynames.com to the more disturbing sites about BDSM (there was a story with a brothel, I needed terms). Once, I went to buy a baby name book at Barnes & Nobles when I was 13 and the look the saleswoman gave me when I asked where the baby name books were located! Then there was the time my mom caught my large pile of gun magazines and gave me that worried look and said, “Are you feeling stressed lately?”

Ah, the trials and tribulations of writing.

By the way: If you’re wondering what kind of Pepperbox I chose for Morgan in the end, the design was inspired by Sharps Co. pepperboxes, except with a longer barrel, filagree, and the handle looks more like the kind found on an Allen & Thurber pepperbox. Yes, it does sort of look like a pirate gun, but doesn’t that only increase the neato factor?

12:59 am | Category: Writing | |

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