 Action/Adventure: October 02, 2019 Issue [#9783] |
This week: The Fight Scene Edited by: NaNoNette  
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| Action/Adventure writers and readers, I am NaNoNette , and I will be your guest editor for today's issue. |
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The Fight Scene
Do you even know what it feels like to get punched in the face?
You're a writer. You know how this goes. Put into eloquent words what you want the reader to see. Want them to see a fight? Just narrate it. Blow by blow by blow ... actually ... NO! A blow by blow account is boring. The reader will literally end up skipping ahead to the end of the fight to see who wins. Worse, they might not even care about the outcome of the fight because your main character has, well, "Main Character Syndrome." That's a real thing. Look it up here: "Main Character Syndrome"
Now that you know how not to do it, let me give you some ideas how to make that fight a fight worth reading all about.
You're going to hate me, but here it comes: read how other authors did it. One such author is Stan Nicolls, others you might check out are Karin Slaughter (I think her name is giving away some of her intentions), or Elmore Leonard.
Whatever your fighting writing style is, keep it in tone with the rest of the writing style throughout the novel or story. That doesn't necessarily mean that you narrate every tiny detail if you're someone who enjoys describing clothes or food at length. It's okay to give those lavish clothes wearing and amazing meal eaters fight scenes that cut right to it.
"He wiped the delicious bit of caramel he had been saving in the corner of his mouth with his silken handkerchief and almost in the same motion, clocked his first opponent right between the eyes. One down, a room full of them left to go. This was going to be delicious."
Make sure the fight keeps the story moving. Nobody cares to read a fight that doesn't have any bearing on the plot. Ending a chapter with a fight that has no future meaning in the story, or isn't a result of something that happened before is the definition of boring. It holds up traffic and might get a reader to simply exit the story. You have got to ensure your reader learns something about your character from the fight. If your reader can't learn anything from the fight, maybe you can skip it.
Try to be realistic. Before you wonder what kind of advice this is, I'm not asking you to be gory for the sake of goriness. What I mean is, if your character gets shot in the leg, would he run away? Maybe. If he does, explain how that's possible. It's not very amazing if your main character keeps getting beat down and is back at it an hour later as if nothing ever happened. Yes, some shortening of healing times, some basic hero worship is okay. It's fiction and supposed to be fun and over the top. But don't overdo it. Unless you're writing The Punisher. In that case, go ahead and shoot him in the head and have him walk it off by running a 100 yard dash with a heavy backpack on.
Use the aftermath of the fight to keep showing your characters and who they are. Violence has a price. What kind of price will your characters pay? What kind of price will their adversaries pay? And how will this play into the larger narrative?
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| |  | Invalid Item
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#2198078 by Not Available. |
| |  | Old Man's War (E)
Old men fight without hope, with withering might b/c they are not young.
#2196428 by Mwajani  |
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#2195097 by Not Available. |
| | | The Dangerous Calm (18+)
A merchant ship, attacked by a gang of pirates. The opening pages to a fantasy novel.
#2190891 by EW |
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#2190541 by Not Available. |
| | | Invalid Item
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#2181341 by Not Available. |
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I received the following replies to my last Action Adventure newsletter"Oceans"
Quick-Quill  wrote: I just spent the Labor Day weekend at the beach with my 3 sisters and daughter. We are the Fun Sisters + a niece My daughter is just 7 years younger than my youngest sister and so much like us she really is a younger sister. We ate our family favorite, crab louie with mom's homemade louie dressing. Fun times were had by all. I tried to write a mystery about a house on the coast. The story is still there but I need to make it different. The mystery didn't work well.
Try adding a fight and make it into an action adventure.
Sum1's Home  wrote: The Old Man and the Seat  I know it's a typo, but it made me laugh. Excellent movie, I need to read the book though!
Haha. Good catch. I edited it, so it now says "Sea." I watched the movie, but I barely remember it. I think I was too young to "get" it. I read the book a few years ago. Maybe five years or so. It's very passive in its writing style. But it's a gripping story nonetheless. It's also not very long. You might be able to read it on one of your travels between waiting in the airport and the actual flight time. |
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