TOPIC - Hunting on a Hunting Trip?

When I conceived the story, it was centered around a hunting trip.  About Day 4 or 5, I realized that they will be on a hunting trip for 11 days; shouldn't they hunt something?




I have no idea how to hunt.  I never held a rifle.  I had no idea what it takes to hunt.

So I asked those around me about hunting.  Since most of my friends are gay men in San Francisco, none knew how to hunt.  I asked Bruce, my Marine technical advisor, and he never went hunting.

So that left the internet.  There is so much out there on hunting; most of it is pointless.  I sifted through a lot, and I found tons of information.

Initially I was going to have Tate go off and come back with a trophy kill.  But the more I thought of it, hunting is very much a paternal experience.  Since I was transitioning Tate into Dan's father figure, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to describe their bonding.

So I had to find out how to hunt.  I started with the legality.  I know that hunting is highly regulated.  The fact that the lodge does not reside in an identified state, I could be loose with the law.

Then I needed to find a rifle.  I was going to go with the butchest rifle for Tate.  Finding that was difficult, as again so many opinions.  Instead I toned down the choice to one that Tate would have Dan learn on, namely a bolt rifle.

So then I had to learn how to shoot it.  It was about this time that I caught a powerful film, Winter's Bone, where Ree—played by essentially unknown Jennifer Lawrence—teaches her younger brother to hunt.  Those tips wound up in my story.  (On a side note, Winter's Bone is a phenomenal film, and I highly recommend it.)

Dan's penchant for shooting with precision came out of my desire not to waste time writing Tate berate Dan for fucking up.  Besides, this was the perfect example for Tate to marvel at his young boy and Dan to develop some pride in himself.

The shooting of the buck, came from the internet.  They described the best location for the shot.  One video actually showed a demonstration, which kind of creeped me out.

The one part of my hunting description fabricated by me is the turning of the blood.  That was more of a plot device than anything else.  I wanted Dan and Tate there to meet those two strange men approaching.  I figured no one would notice after the details that preceded it.  Some people were fooled into believing that turning the blood was real.  I guess that's a complement to my writing.