How To Write A Kicka$$ Action Scene

I’m not the best writer. I’ve got a long of things to learn and some downright terrible habits. But if I can pat myself on the back for just one thing, it’s that I know a little bit about action and how to write it.

When it comes to action, I have about thirty years experience watching things get blown up, sliced open and beat down. My parents were excellent in their job as parents, so they were happy to watch things like Aliens and Terminator with me when I was about 12 months old. And since then, I’ve known little else.

I’ve been through most of the phases. Discovering a copy of Police Story on VHS for the first time. Buying ten packets of fruit pastilles to exchange for that dodgy kid at school’s ropey copy of Ninja Scroll. Convincing my wife that God of War isn’t mindless violence, it’s art. And explaining to my mum that Spartacus is all about the Gladiator battles, not the buff naked men.

And so, if you’ve read my first book — The Trial, you’ll know that’s it’s overflowing with ludicrous action sequences and implausible physics. I even had one reviewer feedback to me that he couldn’t continue because it was hard for him to believe a teenage girl could survive a fall from a plane into a dessert with no parachute. And that happens on something like page 7. Trust me, it only gets crazier from there.

But for those of us that love action, we want to consume it in every format possible. The more ridiculous the better. So my goal was to convert that same feeling of intensity you get from watching a fight, into reading it. It certainly wasn’t easy, but as fans of the book will happily tell you, the result seems to have paid off.

There are a few steps I follow to keep the action flowing and the reader turning the pages.

First up, things need to be short and snappy. Like a classic Yuen-Woo-Ping choreographed fight scene, each movement needs to come and go like a rhythm that keeps the consumer bouncing along in tandem. It’s no use getting tied up in tongue-twisters and complicated terminology. That will only kill the pacing and have readers scratching their heads trying to picture what is actually happening.

The key to all this is planning. All great writers go in with a plan. They set up their characters, their plot, their themes and all the twists and turns that go in between. But often when it comes to the action, they jot down only a note or two. Sam fights Dean. Well sure, but doesn’t that fight deserve as much planning as the complicated love triangle that you’ve weaved throughout the past eight chapters? Plan your action segments in detail too!

When building a compelling action scene, I put all of my focus squarely on the set-piece itself with a few big questions:Why is the scene in the book?What makes it more unique/dangerous than any other action scene?

And why does the outcome matter?

A quick dumb-downed example would be:

Why is this action scene in the book? Because the two characters involved are two of the best fighters in the world. It’s a truly momentous occasion and the biggest in each of their lives.

What makes it unique/dangerous? They’re fighting on top of a speeding hover car.

How does the outcome influence the book? My reader will be squarely rooting for Dean, but he’s is going to lose badly. Which will affect their character arc in soooo many ways.

Another technique I use is to try not to focus on just the action, but the outcome of the action.

A character throws a punch. Who cares? There’s nothing special about that. Punches get thrown all the time. You don’t need to go into tonnes of detail saying he balled up his fist, pulled his arm back etc. We all know how punches work. But a punch can have a number of outcomes and that’s where you throw in the detail:

“The blow left dark, almost black, blood bubbling from his nostril down into the corner of his mouth” or “It hit him hard enough to slam him back through the window, sending shards of glass spiraling down below.“

And finally, the choreography.

Focus on the combatants. What are their characters like? How would it influence the way they fight?

Is she a seasoned kickboxing expert who easily overpowers her opponent with precise kicks and punches and has them intimidated from the get-go? Or is shy, reclusive and physically unimposing, giving overconfidence to her enemies only to surprise them with her in-depth knowledge of martial arts?

These are just a few small tips for putting some punch into your action. Just think about the characters and setup, play it out in your head, and the action should write itself.

If you want to see some of the action at work, PULSE: The Trial is available now!

Thanks for reading!

Originally published at www.racrawford.com .