: Re: ...and then she held the gun In the short passage I am writing, the starting point is that one character is being held at gunpoint, and the end point is that she now holds the gun, having

@Connie138

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When you train for years in anything like a martial art, it becomes "muscle memory:" you don't even think about it consciously, you just drop into the correct motions to execute the response-to-stimulus. I experienced this once when a drunk at a party very unexpectedly grabbed me by the throat: I had broken his grip and kicked out at his groin without even realizing I was doing it, because that is what I had been trained to do. Everyone thought this was hilarious (well, except the drunk), because I was a fairly innocuous-looking young woman at the time. Being innocuous may not fit in with your character's persona, but if it does, you could always have her respond to his startled inquiry by saying something like, "sorry, just reflex." So perhaps, "without thought, without hesitation, she rapidly and fluidly disarmed him, coming back to herself when she had the gun pointed at him from the two meter distance she had put between them." Then, if he gapes and asks, she says something about the reflex or training that allowed this to happen.

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