{"id":506,"date":"2014-01-21T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/punch-it-writing-tips-for-action-scenes\/"},"modified":"2014-12-08T22:13:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T06:13:44","slug":"punch-it-writing-tips-for-action-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/punch-it-writing-tips-for-action-scenes\/","title":{"rendered":"Punch it! Writing Tips for Action Scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I said yesterday<\/a>, violence in our media is necessary in our culture for an open discussion. We should try to avoid censorship whenever possible because that only tends to make it worse. But then we have the fact that not everyone does violence well. In fact, one of the hardest things to do is to create an action scene in writing without losing the reader or making it seem silly. So for today\u2019s \u201cTuesday Tips\u201d (yeah, I\u2019m dedicated to this bit) I\u2019m going to be talking about things to keep in mind when writing action scenes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

1. Adjust the pace to the medium<\/h2>\n
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One of the major mistakes of a lot of new writers is not realizing that every medium has completely different pacing rules. Film flows almost completely different from prose and both flow entirely different from graphic novels. But a lot of writers have to learn this the hard way and it is no truer than on the topic of action scenes. Many writers, especially today, are inspired to get into writing by film and television and have the pace of those mediums in their head as they approach stories. This can be a huge mistake.<\/p>\n

In film, your genre determines a lot of how, when, and why you can include an action scene. In fact, in the more action oriented genres it is normal to include an action beat once every 10 pages. So there will be quite a few action scenes over the course of a single script in that genre. On the other hand, you don\u2019t want to go writing too many knock down, drag out fights in a romance movie and if anyone is going to throw a punch you may want to hold it for the third act.<\/p>\n

Prose, on the other hand, tends to follow the rule that action scenes happen when the story lets them. There\u2019s no requirement for pacing according to specific lengths of time but rather for the build. People who are reading a book are naturally being more patient with you and are more interested in the words on the page than some may be with the words on the screen. So you can hold back on the action, even in an adventurous book, until it makes sense.<\/p>\n

In essence, while pace can be determined in film by action, in prose, action must always naturally follow your established pace. Do not try to approach prose with the idea that there has to be an action scene once every so many chapters – your story may end up looking stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Picture a novelization true to Bay’s vision and Shia’s acting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

2. Dynamic Words for Dynamic Moments<\/h2>\n
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When you\u2019re writing prose (and scripts, for that matter), one of the key things about making people want to keep reading it is to make sure your language shifts enough that the reader starts to see more energy in it. You don\u2019t really think of it much in your day to day conversation, but the more mundane and common a word is, usually the less energy it feels to have. Consider how often you see people walk, run or jog compared to dash, dart or scramble.<\/p>\n

It seems like a silly thing to do, but when you read words like \u201cscramble\u201d you picture more than just the motion, you picture the emotion behind that motion. Why are they scrambling? Are they panicked? Clearly the sound of it suggests someone under pressure, scurrying for cover or just simply out of the line of sight of something trying to get to them. And when you can have the motion invoke the concept of an emotion, people will start to get into it more.<\/p>\n

But the thing is, you can\u2019t use these words constantly. If you do, they will only cause harm to your story. For instance, if you were to use these words during the more common, mundane sequences, when it becomes time to make an action sequence you\u2019ll have no deeper to go to give the reader that feel like something more dynamic is happening. On the other hand, sometimes worse, you can make the normal parts of the story feel silly because the characters seem to be having such a dramatic reaction to simple things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Either one is a bad sign.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

3. Make sure people care<\/h2>\n
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One piece of advice I was given myself in the past is that you should never have a gunfight unless the audience cares if someone there is going to die. The purpose of this was to say that you shouldn\u2019t really include gunplay until a couple of acts are under your belt to justify people caring if one of the characters happens to get grazed. But is it that simple?<\/p>\n

I think in some stories the idea of frequent gunplay is going to come up and the threat of death could and should loom over the heads of the characters involved. But in that case, how do you make sure the characters are worth caring about? The thing that came to me eventually was that action scenes should have a purpose, a meaning and something that will motivate the readers even if they\u2019re not familiar with the characters yet.<\/p>\n

One example would be if you were writing a story about soldiers carrying out a specific mission. While the first act wouldn\u2019t give you nearly enough time to make people care about the individual soldiers, you can make people care about why the fight is taking place. Maybe they\u2019re rescuing someone, defending the helpless or being ordered to do something they don\u2019t agree with. In the nature of the mission you\u2019re given an opportunity to say something about the characters in the very act of defining why they fight. You don\u2019t want to have one of them wounded in the early stages of the story (unless that IS your story), but you can still have meaning.<\/p>\n

4. Know your audience\/message<\/h2>\n
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And when you do make that situation happen and you\u2019re telling that story, it\u2019s important to remember your audience and the message you\u2019re trying to convey. A lot of times writers will go for excessive blood and gore when it\u2019s not appropriate and turn off the audience in a way that makes the action scene a detriment to the rest of the story. But of course, there\u2019s always a time when the graphic descriptions can be used effectively.<\/p>\n

One proper use of graphic descriptions would be if you\u2019re looking to shock or horrify your audience. You don\u2019t want to describe it just as a run of the mill scenario, rather as something where you\u2019re actively trying to disturb the reader. This may turn some people off, but if done correctly, another branch of the audience will actually be a little excited about it. These people are sick puppies, but they\u2019re also the kind of sick puppies that will be loyal to your work over the years. So reward them a little for being so twisted.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, maybe you\u2019re trying to convey a message with it. Maybe you want to write about the horrors of war and make people realize just how horrible it actually is. If that\u2019s the case then you can use the graphic, visceral nature of your scene to make people feel that sick pit in their stomach that tells them what they just read is wrong.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s the key thing about graphic violence, you\u2019re communicating to the part of the human consciousness that knows what they\u2019re reading is wrong. You have to remember that as you approach it and treat it with that kind of respect. Yes, some will be enticed by the wrongness of it, but even they will recognize that it\u2019s still wrong. So don\u2019t use it at every turn, don\u2019t trivialize it, because your audience won\u2019t do the same.<\/p>\n

5. Follow Through<\/h2>\n
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One of the things that also needs to be understood is that every fight scene is essentially a more active version of a Chekov\u2019s gun. Every time an action scene takes place, there will be a consequence or follow up. Sometimes this is brief, but it still must exist. If you were to write just a fight scene that had no purpose or point, and if it never paid off later on, people are going to wonder just why exactly it happened at all. For instance, while there\u2019s very little reason to have your character in a street fight if he happens to be a detective, it is actually a pretty good device to show how he thinks.<\/p>\n

But then you can\u2019t just leave it there. If he\u2019s just having a fight for the sake of showing how he thinks, you could have done that in a better fashion. So to resolve it, you need to tie it back into later parts of the story. For instance, if he later has to defend himself against a stronger opponent during the course of his investigation, the original scene pays off because then it had a purpose that extended beyond itself.<\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t follow through and have some connection to the rest of the story (a rare thing), you can find audiences reject it. A recent new anime, Space Dandy, had the first episode of the series end with the entire main cast caught in a planet destroying explosion. In the next episode, everyone wondered how they could possibly continue the series on after something like that. When it turned out that the second episode began with no explanation for what had happened, there was a large contingent of the audience that was confused, disappointed or angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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And the show isn’t even trying to be taken seriously<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now, if there is eventually an explanation for how they survived that explosion, all will eventually be well. But if it is left that way for the rest of the series, it may very well be the thing that ruins the entire series for those people. That\u2019s the kind of reaction you can get for not following through. You can\u2019t have an action sequence begin and then drop off without resolution, you can\u2019t have it happen without it tying into the rest of the story and you can\u2019t just write in a fight just for the sake of a fight. Even a movie about a fight has to show how that fight ends and what people\u2019s reactions are to it. Think about it, what\u2019s the most memorable line from the Rocky franchise?<\/p>\n