Or more often then not, you don’t know your action is bad.

Action in written form can be tricky. It’s goal is to give your viewer the emotional exhilaration from within their own minds using only the words you give them.

It’s a careful balancing act that takes a bit to figure out, especially in your own voice and pacing.

The issue with action is you have a great deal of information to give your reader, and you need it to flow to them in a way to both keeps them engaged, focused, but also that elevates their hearts a little.

When I was younger I frequently spent time in AOL Chat rooms (yes I’m oldish), mostly in role playing rooms for games like Resident Evil.

I was obsessed with the games and loved making my own stories and scenarios to play out with others.

The issue was my writing.

I’d start every encounter listing off how cool my character looks, all the cool gear he had, all the guns and knives and swords. (I was like 12 at the time okay). It was all pre-action fluff.

The issue came when anything actually happened it normally went-

“My character shoots the zombie in the head and he dies, blood flies everywhere.” (not THAT bad but you get the idea.)

Wow, so glad I listed all those important gear details! It made my writing so much better! Amazing action!

As I read more and wrote more, I found that the secret sauce to writing good action that my brain so badly craved, was to bring it close to the reader. Not overwhelm them with descriptions but to carefully focus them on the parts of the action that would best convey the things I needed it to.

I like to break action scenes down into 3 different parts-

Pre-Action

Seasoning

Does the character know they’re about to be in an action scene? Are they aware of it? Are they prepared? nervous? blindsided?

Take some time and really get into the mind of your character and think about how they might feel about the upcoming action, aware or not. Here’s an example I’m making up now.

The crowd shifted around him, breaking and flowing like a river beating against an old worn down rock. Danial kept his eyes focused, watching the man with the black cloak as his made his way down the cobblestone road, shoving anyone careless enough to have the misfortune of being in front of him .

Something in his gut tightened, his hand went to the hilt of his dagger, the cold metal both only somewhat comforting. The cloaked figure saw him and quickened his pace, the massive shadow of a man now barging towards him. Danial knew he couldn’t do it here. He needed somewhere with less people, less potential casualties. He ducked into the alley on his right, taking a few quick steps before turning and tucking himself into an alcove, letting the shadows of the afternoon sun help hide him. He drew the blade and waited.

Now, nothing has even happened yet, but we’ve set the stage for it. We’ve shown our character is both nervous and prepared for what is about to happen.

We’re letting our reader know, hey sit forward a bit here.

We have a little bit for “flowery” but nothing that drags the moment on. Remember we want build the mood of action. We don’t have musical ques or flashy camera tricks to introduce this moment so we have to create those ourselves.

The Action

Meat, meet Potatoes

This is where a lot of writers stumble. We’re here. The action is happening.

How do I describe it?

Again I believe the focus should be on feeling. Not how your character is feeling, but how the READER is feeling. Push the notes that get a visceral reaction and just draw visuals.

It’s cool to describe two guys duking it out in an alleyway, left punch, right punch, duck and shuffle etc.

But if I can teach one thing, It would be that little moments, little details are what make action intense, not an abundance of description. Let’s me show you.

The massive cloaked figure rounded the corner and Danial went at it, planting both feet hard and trusting the blade towards the brutes stomach, lashing out from the shadows like a viper. But he was faster. A large gloved hand gabbed the dagger, stopping it inches away. The other came swiftly crashing down from above, Danial raised his arm to block but the blow was too fast, too strong.

The world spun as the fist collided and it took everything he had to stay standing. Snarling he shoved again with the dagger, pushing with every muscle he had but it was no use, the gloved hand squeezed over top of his till the hilt cut into his hand as if it was the blade itself, blood running down his wrist as he struggled.

Now those are fairly sparse details that could probably use a little more meat, but the idea is give your reader just enough that the action flows and stays intense but don’t linger too long on the details and descriptions.

Trust your readers to imagine the gaps. They will, as you did just now.

Post Action

Now What?

Now what happens after the action is dealers choice but I do encourage you to explore this moment a bit as it can be a very useful tool.

As fun as action is to write, how your character deals with the aftermath of that action can say just as much about them as anything else you can tell the reader.

Are they cold? Are they emotional? Do they have regret or remorse? Anger or sadness?

Beyond that, make sure the action has purpose!

Did the action do anything for the story? Change the motivation? Advance the plot?

Having action for the sake of action is okay in some contexts but its always important to remember to move the story forward.

If you’ve read this far I appreciate you and hope I was able to help or at the very least entertain you.

Till next time!

-JD

Stay up to date on all out our posts!