Describing gunshot in shoulder

adam11 said:

Hi,
As I'm working on my first crime novel, I need to know more about the general reaction of injured people with a short-distance gunshot in shoulder. For example, will they be able to writhe? somehow I just think most injuries on screens don't look realistic enough.
Be kind, please, I'm new here.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Why wouldn't they be able to writhe? I don't understand?

It depends on the person and the injury, which depends on a lot of things. A wound like that could be clean and not a particularly big deal or a huge deal.

In general, what bugs me about screen gunshots is people falling down, being tossed backwards when shot, etc. If someone falls down when they're shot, it's more than likely a psychological shock reaction (shock like OMG, not shock the physiological kind). A non-immediately-fatal gunshot simply doesn't carry that much punch, even heavy caliber shots.

adam11 said:

Because I think unless you got real gunshot before, it's hard to describe how serious it hurts. Some just pass out but some look still fine and bear the pain, it varies in films. This makes me wonder all the time. And also blood loss, I've read a novel saying a guy got shot in chest, 'and the gushing blood stained his tie', I just thought, if the bullet was at that middle position and the blood was gushing, how could he survive?

Click to expand...

People are different. People have different pain tolerances to begin with, people have different reactions to trauma, every gunshot has a different effect on the individual person it hits.

'The chest' is a large area. People are shot in the chest and survive all the time. People are shot in the chest and don't survive all the time. It, again, depends on a slew of factors, including the random trajectory of a bullet. Sometimes someone is shot and the bullet will go through them, out the other side and right into another person. Sometimes, someone is shot and the bullet goes through a couple of layers of clothing and then stops right under the skin.

adam11!

Your question is best off in our Story Research and Experts forum, so I'm whisking you away there now.

If you don't think screen shots are realistic enough what's your idea of 'realistic' based on?

And with gun injury questions, the more specific you are here the better re characters involved, scenario, positions, ages, health, weapons, distance, point of impact....

And here's a kind little jig- - not writhing after being shot

And do keep in mind whether it's really necessary to go into any detail.

adam11 said:

Hi,
As I'm working on my first crime novel, I need to know more about the general reaction of injured people with a short-distance gunshot in shoulder. For example, will they be able to writhe? somehow I just think most injuries on screens don't look realistic enough.
Be kind, please, I'm new here.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

I'd like to point out (though I won't provide any links) that there are many videos and photos in various corners of the internet of actual gunfights and gunshot victims in real life. So depending how devoted to realism you want to be (and how strong your stomach is), you're really only a few googles away from seeing the real deal.

But from what I've seen, most people just fall/lie down and get very still when they realize they've been shot. Notice I said when they realize they've been shot, not when they've been shot. But as others have pointed out, it's going to depend on the person. For instance, a soldier on a battlefield who's been trained to react a certain way is probably going to act differently than a civilian who's just making an atm withdrawal when someone decides to put a hole in them.

adam11 said:

As I'm working on my first crime novel, I need to know more about the general reaction of injured people with a short-distance gunshot in shoulder. For example, will they be able to writhe?

Click to expand...

You're correct in that movie/TV images are not realistic. They are bloodier and have more of a wound than usually exists. A gunshot at close distances, depending on caliber and location of hit, normally looks like a hole, possibly with some blood.

Nobody writhes from a gunshot wound. They actually don't have a lot of pain due to the body's reaction to serious trauma. Except for some specific shoulder locations, there are very few critical or vital body parts. A single artery that is really hard to hit, the rest is flesh and bone.

A hit can disable the shoulder/arm on the side hit. Depending again on caliber/weapon, it can simply pass through with little or no serious damage. Bottom line is, decide on the wound/effect you need and write the wound to match.

And welcome.

Jeff

It really depends on how bad you want it to hurt or incapacitate the character. If you really want to put the hammer to them, knock their **** in the dirt, have it shatter a bone or the joint itself, cut a major vein. If you want "just a flesh wound," then it punches though the deltoid or trapezius muscle.

adam11 said:

Because I think unless you got real gunshot before, it's hard to describe how serious it hurts. Some just pass out but some look still fine and bear the pain, it varies in films. This makes me wonder all the time. And also blood loss, I've read a novel saying a guy got shot in chest, 'and the gushing blood stained his tie', I just thought, if the bullet was at that middle position and the blood was gushing, how could he survive?

Click to expand...

Folks are different. I've heard of people who didn't realise initially that they had been shot - sometimes it takes a while for your body to process the incident - especially if there has been nerve damage/compromise as a result of the injury. Sometimes the body just naturally shuts it out for a little while. Sometimes it unleashed a whole hell of pain, and sometimes it shuts down and the person passes out.

Everyone is different.