The author’s complete guide to writing action scenes

 

It’s hard to write believable action when the most exciting thing you’ve done this year is spike your cat’s water bowl.

I say this because I’ve had a pretty action packed life and the action I’ve lived, I can write. One of my most infamous memories is of being attacked by gang members a couple years back. Thanks to that encounter, I can now say with confidence black eyes are not my style, a broken nose isn’t as flattering as I’d hoped, and hard as I try, I can’t rock stitches.

While I certainly wouldn’t recommend it, I can say that experience has positively impacted my writing. I learned some of the clichés used in books to describe action are surprisingly spot on. But the majority are nothing more than fluff. It took life experiences to weed out the fillers and learn to write realistic action.

Since there’s no “fight a gang” hotline where you too can get beat up, what can be done? Fortunately, there are much cheaper, not to mention less painful, ways to write believable action.

But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I promised you a check list for starting off your book right. So here you go!

 

CHECKLIST FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER:

• Is your first line gripping?
• Does the first line leave the reader with a question?
• How about the first paragraph? Does it leave the reader with questions?
• What’s the hook in your first scene?
• What’s your protagonist’s goal?
• Do you have a “save the cat” moment with the main character? Aka a way to draw reader empathy by showing the main character doing something kind or heroic like saving a cat?
• Is your protagonist flawed and relatable?
• Do you have a good balance of questions asked by the reader vs answered in the first chapter?
• Do you end your chapter on a hook?

 

BIG PICTURE CHECKLIST:

• Have you added tension by raising the stakes continually?
• Is the main characters proactive?
• Have you set up the first 50 pages for success?
• Is there emotion especially in high intensity scenes?
• Do the starts and endings of most chapters have hooks?
• Are plants (for plot twists) set up ahead of time?
• Do you use active voice?
• Have you avoided filter words?
• Are strong verbs used?
• Are there good sentence and paragraph variations throughout the story? Especially in high action scenes?

 

CRAFT BOOKS TO READ:

• Save the Cat Write’s a Novel by Jessica Brody
• The Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson
• The Emotional Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
• Fight Write by Carla Hoch
• Creativity by John Cleese

 

PAGE-TURNING NOVELS TO READ:

Fantasy

• Saints and Monsters by Ellen McGinty
• Iron Rose by Abigail O’Bryan
• Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams

 

Near future sci-fi/dystopian

• The Chaos Grid by Lyndsey Lewellen

• Enhanced by Candace Kade

 

Space opera sci-fi

• Rogue Pursuit by B.L. Dean

• Suspended in the Stars by E.A. Hyndryx

 

Action Adventure

• Calculated by Nova McBee

   

 

HOMEWORK:

• Find critique partners to help you grow
• Listen to a dramatic piece of music. Focus on the beats. The intense, short beats are kept from getting overwhelming by being cut by legato notes (smooth, long). Often there’s a moment that’s made incredibly impactful by all of the chaos suddenly dropping away. This is your roadmap. Reading your scene out loud should match the beats of a dramatic song.
• Read more books that are fast-paced. (This tip comes to you from Abigail O’Bryan, author of Iron Rose).
• Enlist beta readers to help point out slow places in your manuscript

 

 

Now, back to how to write action. . .

Get out of your comfort zone!

Action is not comfortable.

Sure, your reader can sit in the safety of their house snuggled up with a warm blanket and hot chocolate but your protagonist doesn’t have this luxury.

Being face with opposition in the form of physical danger is downright terrifying. Believe me. Your protagonist is going to be more than uncomfortable. If you never push yourself out of your comfort zone how can you write about it?

Challenge yourself. What’s something that scares you? I’m not talking something dangerous, just something that will give you a little of that fight or flight adrenaline. Is it going to Toast Masters, trying to play a sport, cleaning out that corner of the garage, meeting new people, or attempting to two-step?

Try something you wouldn’t normally do and write about how you handled it. More than just sweaty palms, what thoughts were racing through your head? How did you react physically? Later, you can pull on some of these descriptors to sharpen your action scenes.

 

Explore the world of your action scene

Depending on the type of action you’re writing there are different ways to do this. One is obvious. Read what others have already written. Problem with this is you never know if those writers have real experience. If not, you’re going to end up playing one long game of telephone with the truth getting more obscured with each writing.

Better yet, try conducting more hands on research. Interested in having a scene where a fight ends up on the ground but don’t know anything about fighting? Take a Jiu-jitsu class or Krav Maga class.

I did this for the first novel I ever wrote. There was a significant portion of my book that was supposed to show the main characters training and growing in combat. Problem was, I hadn’t the foggiest idea what that would entail. I tried googling things, reading other books, and so on, but for the life of me I just couldn’t write this section of my book.

Finally, I enrolled in a Krav Maga class. After several months of training, I had enough notes to complete my first draft AND include killer details. The way my knuckles split after certain drills, the correct stance, the bad habits that are easy to pick up—all these things came through in my writing. Not to mention, next time I encounter some gang members wanting to beat me up, I’ll be ready.

Another, less time consuming way to research action is to talk to an expert. Want to know more about hand guns? Is there someone who works at a local shooting range you could talk to? A friend? A speaker coming into town? Want to know what sky diving would feel like? If you can’t afford to actually try it, why not ask someone who’s done it before?

Other ways to learn more about different types of action include visiting museums, watching documentaries, and attending trade shows. What things have helped you write believable action?