Writing a Good Action Sequence
This subject came up not long ago on another site, but I think it is worth posting again. I hope you readers out there benefit from it in a small way.
My general advice about any sort of fight scene is to learn as much as you can about the weapons and styles of fighting your characters use. If you’ve studied martial arts or have wrestled, boxed, fenced, you are in a good position to begin sketching out your scene. Even a few hours perusing Youtube (one of God’s great gifts to humanity) might give you some great ideas.
Second, sit down with a piece of paper a pencil and sketch out the fight space you intend to use. Then place your characters where you intend to have them. Try to keep the whole thing as close to scale as possible. And then work out who is where and who is doing what to whom. Now, you can’t graph an entire 20 or 30 minute battle that way, but folks generally don’t write entire battles blow-by-blow. Just sketch out the parts you intend on writing about. For longer fight scenes, you might even use multiple sheets of paper to represent different periods of the fight.
If you are feeling especially bold, find yourself a place that matches the dimensions of your fight location, and take your sketches and a group of your friends (cardboard and wooden swords only, I urge you), and then block out the sections of the fight you intend to write about, the same way stage actors would. You do not have to run through fight at full speed, just fast enough to get a sense of who is standing where and how feasible it would be for, say, A to strike at B? Or, does C actually have the line of sight to throw a dagger and hit D? Can E cover the distance to attack F without G getting in the way? Is H in a position s/he could tell whether I has something in his/her hand? That kind of stuff.
Not only will blocking tell you what is realistic and feasible (adding to the authenticity of your account), but seeing it with your own eyes will help it come to life in your mind. You’ll be able to write clearer and cleaner prose about something you’ve seen with your own eyes.
That’s my suggestion. I hope it works out for you.
v/r
BLS
My general advice about any sort of fight scene is to learn as much as you can about the weapons and styles of fighting your characters use. If you’ve studied martial arts or have wrestled, boxed, fenced, you are in a good position to begin sketching out your scene. Even a few hours perusing Youtube (one of God’s great gifts to humanity) might give you some great ideas.
Second, sit down with a piece of paper a pencil and sketch out the fight space you intend to use. Then place your characters where you intend to have them. Try to keep the whole thing as close to scale as possible. And then work out who is where and who is doing what to whom. Now, you can’t graph an entire 20 or 30 minute battle that way, but folks generally don’t write entire battles blow-by-blow. Just sketch out the parts you intend on writing about. For longer fight scenes, you might even use multiple sheets of paper to represent different periods of the fight.
If you are feeling especially bold, find yourself a place that matches the dimensions of your fight location, and take your sketches and a group of your friends (cardboard and wooden swords only, I urge you), and then block out the sections of the fight you intend to write about, the same way stage actors would. You do not have to run through fight at full speed, just fast enough to get a sense of who is standing where and how feasible it would be for, say, A to strike at B? Or, does C actually have the line of sight to throw a dagger and hit D? Can E cover the distance to attack F without G getting in the way? Is H in a position s/he could tell whether I has something in his/her hand? That kind of stuff.
Not only will blocking tell you what is realistic and feasible (adding to the authenticity of your account), but seeing it with your own eyes will help it come to life in your mind. You’ll be able to write clearer and cleaner prose about something you’ve seen with your own eyes.
That’s my suggestion. I hope it works out for you.
v/r
BLS
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