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Action! Writing Better Action Using Cinematic Techniques
This book gives writers pointers and guidelines on how to improve their action scenes by implementing some of the same kinds of techniques used in film-making. Loaded with new terminology and definitions, an introduction to the basic concepts of an Action Scene, and application of the concepts, this book gives writers the tools to write their own expert-level action scenes! KAPOW! BANG! ZOOM!
- GenresWriting
60 pages, Kindle Edition
11 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Ian Thomas Healy
95 books101 followersIan Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. His superhero novel Deep Six: A Just Cause Novel was a Top 100 Semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. He’s a seven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month where he’s tackled such diverse subjects as sentient alien farts, competitive forklift racing, a religion-powered rabbit-themed superhero, cyberpunk mercenaries, cowboy elves, and an unlikely combination of vampires with minor league hockey. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes.
His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.
Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.
His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.
Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 16, 2021
As the title suggests, this little non-fiction read is focused on developing a writer's skill with their creation of conflict scenes. I have found penning fight scenes an arduous task, in the past, and did find some useful tips here to aid me in my future attempts.
My main issue arose from the brief page count, a mere 80 pages, and how just under half of these were dedicated to scenes from the author's fiction books. He used these shared scenes to illustrate points later made, but when they were each pages long they seemed, at least to me, too lengthy to be useful.
My main issue arose from the brief page count, a mere 80 pages, and how just under half of these were dedicated to scenes from the author's fiction books. He used these shared scenes to illustrate points later made, but when they were each pages long they seemed, at least to me, too lengthy to be useful.
February 5, 2015
Good premise; good approach. Unfortunately, when he isn't promoting his own self-published novel (which needed a bit more proofing), his advice is pretty good. Still, this is barely more than a pamphlet. Less than fifty pages.
Disappointing.
Disappointing.
October 16, 2011
Post-Review Update:It's been a while since I first read and reviewed this book, and now I'm increasing its rating to FIVE stars. Why? Well, every time I write an action scene I think about this book. I think it makes me better. And that's deserving of full marks.
I found this useful, but it didn't blow me away. I'm giving it four stars because it gave me something invaluable: confidence. I can write good action scenes. And it got me thinking about what I'm trying to accomplish with my action scenes and how I should put the various parts of the scene together to accomplish that.
All of this book was useful. But in my opinion, the most useful aspect of this book didn't get enough attention. It was thrown in toward the end in a section designed to provide additional tips. I'm talking about pacing. Throughout the book, the author told me about stunts, which make up engagements, which make up sequences, and he described various kinds of engagements and what to think about for each kind of engagement. All this was very informative and increased my confidence level by giving me a frame of reference.
But how do I write a stunt? That's the building block of an action scene. All through the book, I kept thinking, "Okay, but how?"
I think my action scenes tend to be too mechanical--probably a downside of my being a patent attorney during the day. So how do I write action scenes that flow and excite? The author finally got into this issue while wrapping things up at the end of the book. And what he had to say about pacing was invaluable. But I wanted him to say more, and I wanted him to say it sooner.
So if you decide to read this book, and I absolutely recommend it, then I suggest you skip to the end and read the pacing section first.
I found this useful, but it didn't blow me away. I'm giving it four stars because it gave me something invaluable: confidence. I can write good action scenes. And it got me thinking about what I'm trying to accomplish with my action scenes and how I should put the various parts of the scene together to accomplish that.
All of this book was useful. But in my opinion, the most useful aspect of this book didn't get enough attention. It was thrown in toward the end in a section designed to provide additional tips. I'm talking about pacing. Throughout the book, the author told me about stunts, which make up engagements, which make up sequences, and he described various kinds of engagements and what to think about for each kind of engagement. All this was very informative and increased my confidence level by giving me a frame of reference.
But how do I write a stunt? That's the building block of an action scene. All through the book, I kept thinking, "Okay, but how?"
I think my action scenes tend to be too mechanical--probably a downside of my being a patent attorney during the day. So how do I write action scenes that flow and excite? The author finally got into this issue while wrapping things up at the end of the book. And what he had to say about pacing was invaluable. But I wanted him to say more, and I wanted him to say it sooner.
So if you decide to read this book, and I absolutely recommend it, then I suggest you skip to the end and read the pacing section first.
October 27, 2012
Well worth $0.99 that it is on Barnes and Noble if you're serious about improving your writing of action scenes. There may be other eBooks out there focused on action as this one is but if so I haven't seen them yet.
August 14, 2015
This short book offers excellent advice for writing action scenes.
October 29, 2018
This book is incredibly short (like monograph or pamphlet-short) which is usually a sign of a quick cash grab under the guise of a thin and dubious "How-To" book. It turns out, though, that the book is only short because there isn't a lot of padding. It manages to distill a solid core of rules, cardinal dos and don'ts, for writing action scenes. By the end of the book I was actually grateful for the lack of padding and the straightforwardness of the author's approach. The exercises at the end of each chapter (usually citing films to be referenced and re-watched in order to deconstruct what makes them work) would be the perfect bare bones for a creative writing elective course for young writers just starting out.
I may not be the ideal/target audience for this book, as I've been writing professionally now for more than a decade (both combat sports journalism and fiction), and my style was well-developed before I'd heard of Mr. Healy and his book. Having said that, however, you're never too advanced to learn something new or add another tool to the kit. And while this short primer, with its clear, concise breakdowns and descriptions, probably won't be kept at-hand next to the computer from here-on-out, I'll at least remember some of its choicer nuggets if not referencing them directly. Recommended, especially for those who are literally just getting started in their careers. And good luck, to those of you who are.
I may not be the ideal/target audience for this book, as I've been writing professionally now for more than a decade (both combat sports journalism and fiction), and my style was well-developed before I'd heard of Mr. Healy and his book. Having said that, however, you're never too advanced to learn something new or add another tool to the kit. And while this short primer, with its clear, concise breakdowns and descriptions, probably won't be kept at-hand next to the computer from here-on-out, I'll at least remember some of its choicer nuggets if not referencing them directly. Recommended, especially for those who are literally just getting started in their careers. And good luck, to those of you who are.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews