Simple, quick tips for improving both your writing quality and your Wattpad experience. Open, friendly, and conversational, this book will give you that little info boost you need to tackle common problems and often-overlooked issues.
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Requester: avadel because sometimes we need help too, lol
Category: Writing Tips
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This time, we're going to discuss action sequences. Blood-pounding, heart-wrenching, on-the-edge-of-your-seat action. Whether it be a movie or a book, action scenes are almost always sure to get your heart pumping. But it's only those behind-the-scenes that know how hard action scenes can be to write.
In this article, we're going to discuss some ways to get action right and some things to avoid.
Before we begin, let's dissect what action, in essence, is.
Action can be a fight between two characters, two armies or something else, but whatever it is, it all boils down to one thing: conflict.
Action is conflict. And like any conflict, it has to be an obstacle standing between the character and their goal. It has to be a significant threat for the character to eliminate. Practice fights? Then the obstacle is that the character is/ believes that they're not good enough to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve. Fights between enemies? Then they both have a wish, however strong, to defeat the other. Fights with a guard? I'm pretty sure that the obstacle is clear.
So with all action scenes (all scenes in general), you need three basic things: a character goal, an obstacle and finally, a character reaction. Another thing that is necessary for action scenes is vision. You need to be able to visualize your character's moves and that of their opponents. If not, then it will be very difficult for you to write them down and describe them to your reader. If you cannot, I suggest watching some videos or movies until you're confident enough to visualize them.
Now that we have the basic ingredients, let's see how we can spice it up!
1. Research
Action sequences need research. You need to know what kind of sword/gun they're using and what the range of the weapon and the moves commonly made with it are. I'm not saying you need to be an expert, but please, be careful. For instance, it's possible in swordplay that a beginner would be much better than someone who has trained for a while because the beginner isn't conformed by rules and methods.
Do you think something like this would be obvious? It's not the only fun fact, so do your research on the method of action you're using. Even watching three or four fights anywhere counts as long as they're using the weapons you will be writing about.
It also helps to build your vocabulary specific to this topic. Read descriptions of fights or listen to commentary if this counts as a sport.
