Mistakes Waiting to be Made

I seem to be referencing articles talking about movies a lot lately, but another one came to my attention the other day.  From tor.com, a number of mistakes movies make that can throw people right out of the movie:

I’m not talking about the “sound in space” problems or never-ending ammo. Just weird niggling details that remind you all too easily that what you’re watching isn’t remotely real.

Some of them, of course, are very movie-centric -- sounds in the wrong place or the wrong sounds is one -- but it's possible that any of them might show up in writing as well.  After all, a writer is describing the sights and sounds to the reader, and if the writer describes a metallic ringing as the hero draws her sword, well, that's the same error as listed in the article.

The cash problem mentioned is another that some novels do well, some novels gloss over well enough you don't notice, and a number of them somehow have the heroes with enough money to stay at inns on an extended voyage with nothing bringing them income.  It may be slightly easier for written works to fix, also, unbound as they are to the visual medium that is movies, and thus able to add in an aside or two that takes care of the problem.

One of them hit directly home for me, however.  Number four, about the lack of smoke for many blazes.  I'm currently editing one of my short stories that, wouldn't you know it, takes place inside a burning building.  And after reading the article, I realized I don't have enough smoke in the area.  Granted, for most of it I don't have open flames visible either, but the smoke is an insidious challenge -- and therefore something great to add to the story to make the hero's life even that much harder.  Needless to say, I'll be making another pass through the story to cover that as well.

Be sure to read the comments as well, as they cover some other points related to, or even not mentioned  in, the article.

The ones that stood out for me in particular, other than those mentioned:

• Getting beat up should have lingering repercussions.
• Parchment is too valuable to burn in most cases, and much harder than paper to burn anyway.
• Characters running around with their fingers on the triggers of weapons -- or, alternately, cocking the gun/chambering a round too many times.  This is beyond the classic six-shooter with 13 bullets problem.