Action Scenes

trashcanofobsessions:

A couple of people on Discord were complaining about writing action scenes, so I’ve compiled a list of some of my tips and tricks for writing them.

There are a few major key points of action scenes, and I’m going to discuss each in detail. There’s the feel of the scene, the flow of the scene, and the sight of the scene.

For starters, establish the feel of the scene. Is it a friendly spar between two students? Is it a desperate battle between archenemies? Is it two gods battling for dominance in the skies? The feel of the scene is very important to how you write it. 

A method I use for figuring out the feel of it, and thus how to write it, is humming a score for the scene as I play it out in my head. Is the soundtrack sad and slow, or epic and desperate, or angry and destructive? Try to write with that soundtrack in mind.

Another method is pretending you’re someone who fought in/witnessed that battle. How would you describe it to others? Is it a story to be told around a campfire as a legend, or a fairy tale told to kids, or a memory you wish you could forget? When telling the story, how does your voice sound? Does your volume rise and fall for maximum dramatic effect? Or are you simply recounting how your sparring buddy knocked you flat the other day? Is your voice sad and almost fearful, as if seeing what you saw felt like something was wrong with the world itself?

Next up, how does the scene flow?

For this one, I want you to remember grade school. Remember how they told you to use more transition words, such as “Then” and “Next” and “Finally”? Well, I’m telling you to drop all of them.

As a general rule, action scenes are meant to be, well, eventful and action-packed, usually fast-paced and heart-pounding. This means that sentences should be sharp and fast, one after the other, bam bam bam. In fact, I’ve prepared a quick little spar as an example, just for you.

I slice my sword down, a lethal blur of silver. Jytha swipes it out of the way with her clawed fingers. In that moment, I dart forward and swing upward. Leaning back to dodge my attack, she then lunges forward. I raise my blade just in time and block her sharp claws with metal. Out of nowhere, Jytha’s other hand slaps my sword right out of my grip. It clatters on the asphalt of the parking lot and dissolves into thin air. Before I have the chance to summon it into my hand, Jytha tackles me to the ground and pins me easily.

However, despite the lack of conventional transition words such as “Then” and “Next”, it still flows. How?

The use of these babies: “In that moment,” “Out of nowhere,” “Before I have the chance to”

These are examples of what I call action transitions. Used sparingly between sentences without them, they help break up the monotony of the rather passive sentence starters that action scenes tend to have. They help the scene flow like transition words, but they still feel fast-paced and exciting. However, overuse them, and they lose their meaning. For best results, I try to use them between sentences without them, in an a-b-a-b pattern.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the sight of the scene. 

EXTEND ACTIONS.

USE DESCRIBING WORDS.

More specifically, use them in the same sentence as the noun they apply to! One of my friends on Discord provided an exaggeratedly bad example of them trying to write an action scene, which I’m going to use here.

“He punched! It was powerful!”

Now, as I just said, this was written poorly on purpose. However, while it seems like the solution to fixing this would simply be combining the sentences, this is easier said than done.

He punched powerfully? Grammatically correct, but boring, especially for an ACTION scene, and it sounds … just kinda dumb.

This is where my previous statement, “EXTEND ACTIONS” comes into play. What did he do that made the punch powerful? Did he cock his arm back and leap forward with the punch? How exactly did he punch? 

Did he scream anime-style and slam his fist into the earth, cracking it in two?

So, extend the action. He didn’t just punch powerfully, he …

He reared back, curling his hand into a fist, and punched forward with his whole body.

Doesn’t that sound much better?

Now, back to describing words.

Action scenes are supposed to pull in the reader and throw them head-first into the chaos. Really, writing is all about throwing the reader head-first into something, but action scenes are a part that many people don’t describe as well as their other scenes.

I think this is because many people think that describing, well, the actions of the scene, is good enough. And while focusing on only the events can work in certain situations, a good rule of thumb is to describe the whole scene.

Are the characters getting hot and sweaty from fighting? Does the air smell like spilled blood? Do powerful attacks throw up huge clouds of dust that make the sky hazy and catch in your throat?

Describe what leads to the action, the action itself, and the consequences of the action. Describe how the actions make the characters feel both mentally and physically. Describe how they affect the environment.

I hope this helped! I spent wayyy longer on this than intended whoops! Remember that these are just some condensed tips, and are really only a beginning. They’re also not 100% applicable 100% of the time. EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR WRITING.

Have a great day, and may your action scenes endlessly improve!