Five Crucial Tips for Convincing Action Scenes

By Harrison Demchick, @HDemchick

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Action scenes can be tough to write, since they're often a lot of description to describe a single act. Harrison Demchick visits the lecture hall today to share some tips on writing a convincing action scene. He's also offering a free compelling action checklist on his website, so be sure to check that out.

Take it away Harrison...

You’ve finally worked your way to the climax of your novel, and you’re thinking big. Lasers. Explosions. An avalanche in the middle of a hurricane. Basically the end result of a Marvel-sized movie budget flowing from the tips of your fast-typing fingers.

That’s great—but let’s slow down a little. Great action in fiction doesn’t come from size and scope alone. Effective action is crafted with care. As a book editor, I’ve worked on scenes as massive as a dozen or more superhuman teenagers battling it out with a litany of impossible powers, and scenes as small and well-considered as a heated argument in a confined space—and I’ve also seen all of these scenes fumble and fail for one reason or another.
Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com