Writing Tips & Wattpad Tricks

Tip #17: Writing Action

One of the key things to believable action sequences is the imagery used. The readers have to be able to imagine the scene clearly, see the setting and the moves. A good way to do this is to add imagery to your writing. Are they fighting in an open ground? Have the character feel the grass tickling their feet. Are they fighting in a forest? Have them hear the sounds of the animals intermittently. Or maybe it has just rained or is going to rain and the characters can smell the wet mud.

Remember that visuals are not the only way to add images or settings; using all five senses of your character plays to your advantage. Wet mud and sounds of running water can transport a reader to waterfalls, while owls hooting can bring forth an image of a forest cloaked in darkness. Use the setting to your advantage, and play with all of your character's senses. Not just for the setting but the fight itself too. If there's a significant wound, have them smell blood. If they've just made a strong move, have them feel their bones resonating with it. If they've just swung their sword in an arc, have them hear the swish of the wind.

3. Dialogue / Internal Conflict

Another way to spice up your action is by adding emotional conflict over your physical one. Have the characters talk, if they know each other, but if not, give glimpses into your characters' minds with short bursts of thought. What is their goal? Why is it so important? Remember to be careful with this, because you don't want to say the same thing over and over and risk boring your reader. Make sure that the dialogue or thoughts are short, one-clause sentences because otherwise, you will be bogging down your action with too much prose.

That's all I have in the way of specific methods to improve action sequences. As usual, don't rely too much on only one of them, and don't use any one of them too much. Use each of them, but sparingly. Here are some general dos and don'ts for action that I couldn't fit in above:

DON'T: Make sure not to bog down your action with too much imagery/dialogue/thoughts. You do not want to slow down something that should be fast-paced, or else you risk boring your readers.

DO: In general, try to follow the rule of threes; have three action sentences and one description/dialogue/thought sentences. If your book is a descriptive one, where you describe too much, two sentences for three action sentences is okay, but that's the maximum. Try not to exceed this limit.

DON'T: Overexplain each move your character makes. You have to trust the reader to fill in the blanks.

DO: Try to keep your sentences short and snappy, unless the whole book has longer sentences. This helps bring about a sense of fast-paced action. Omit some really obvious stuff.

DON'T: Use the same words over and over. If it's first person, it's really easy to overuse 'I' in action sequences. It's also really easy to keep using the same 5 or 6 verbs throughout the scenes. It makes the scene seem redundant.

DO: I cannot stress this enough, DO. YOUR. RESEARCH. It will help you build topic-specific vocabulary as well.

DON'T: Please don't skip the research step.

As an exercise, try rewriting this swordfight with all of the tips shown above. This a basic and actual version of an action scene that I edited out from the first chapter of my wip.

--Example--

They looked at each other, waiting for the other to attack. Avery's eyes narrowed to her opponent and she jumped towards him, hurling her sword towards him. He moved to the side, stretching his sword to her stomach. She bent backwards, aiming her sword towards him as she came back up. He blocked her with his own sword. She removed her sword from the cross that had formed and used it to cut his arm. He yelped as it drew blood and they stopped fighting.