Some Advice for Action Scenes

[edonil]

So, I've had a few people compliment me on my action scenes in my stuff, and a lot of those same people have said how they wish they could do the same. While I've tried to answer them in the context of their questions, I thought I'd post some of the advice here, along with a more detailed response in general. A couple things to start off:

I don't think that this is the only way to write a compelling action scene. My methods are one way to do it, but I have seen other writers do different ways and make it still work. Experiment, see if you like it, if you don't, then try something else. Get feedback on things. I've got several years of action scenes providing the foundation for what I write, and looking back is painful.

The other thing I would say, is that your best bet is to do research. There are a lot of authors out there who write great fiction, and your style is going to be constantly evolving. Take bits and pieces from the best, and craft your own style. For me, I've got specific authors who I'll be reading when I'm looking for ideas on how to do a specific thing. Did you really enjoy a part of a book? Then buy a copy of it, and start highlighting and/or marking the sections that showed what you want to improve on.

So, with that stuff out of the way...here's into the main topic!

• Know your characters. People are specialists by nature, generalists are very rare. So, take that into account. Is your character a marksman? Then, aside from some very specific circumstances, he's probably going to be at a disadvantage against someone who's a close combat master and is in melee range. Your character is going to be good at some stuff, decent at others, and miserable at even more. This applies even more the younger they are. The longer someone has been actively training, the broader their specialization options. If your character is perfect at everything, it's going to register as a problem. So, is your character a knife fighter? Then they're going to have issues with a weapon like a mace. If they are proficient with swords, maybe they don't know how to fight with their feet and hands. The limitations of your character are equally as important, if not more, than what they're good at.
  
• Once you've figured out your character's specialization, do some research on those weapons. Is your character a brawler? Watch some movies with barfights, or find a book or two with great barfights. See how those go, and what they do. Is your character using a sword? What kind of sword did you pick? The more specific you make your choice, the better you'll be prepared. A scimitar is very different from a rapier which is very different from a bastard sword. Do you stab with this kind of weapon? Or is it made for quick slashes? Where would people normally aim to make their attacks?
  
• With guns, it gets a little more complicated, because you have to bring in things like range, rate of fire, line of sight, ammunition... just pay attention to these things. While you can, technically, still kill someone with a pistol bullet from a mile or two away, that's not going to happen in reality except as a mistake. No one intentionally does that kind of stuff, because it's that unlikely. Is your character a sniper? How often do they move? Do they have a gun where you only have one shot at a time, or can you use a 'double-tap' method?
  
• Okay, now we have the characters and the weapons, onto the action itself. The biggest mistake you can make, in my experience, is to start naming your attacks. And no, it isn't because it's unrealistic (depending on the culture, it's probably highly realistic, see Asian sword styles) or that it gives an anime feel. It's more that if you start listing technique after technique, it slows things down...and that's the best case, where you're describing what the attacks do. As a perfect example of this, look to Robert Jordan whenever he has two blademasters fight. It's technique after technique after technique...but the reader has no idea what those techniques are! (made worse by the fact that he's changed the original names so we can't even look them up) So, keep things general. Come up with a short verb list for your characters based on their weapons, and stick to it. If I'm going to use a knife, I'll talk about slashing, stabbing, thrusting, attacking. If I'm using a mace, the verbs change to things like smashing, swinging, striking. (wow, there's a lot of those verbs that begin with 's'...*makes a note to use thesaurus more*) You're building a scene, but the imagery should be in the head of the reader. Let their imagination run wild!
  
  • Here's a short example, and I feel weird using my own writing for it, but oh well. Arias warily observed the larger, dark haired man for a few moments, then cautiously began probing with his sword. Every thrust or slash was blocked competently by the buckler, but the marine made no effort to attack on his own. Strange, thought the captain. He hadn’t sparred with Black before, but the man’s reputation was for anything but a defensive fighter. With a shrug, Arias threw caution to the wind, quickly building up the speed of his strikes.
    

  [*]Now, every now and then, you're going to want to break the rule of keeping things general. There are two times that you're going to want to do this (probably more, I know of two):

  • #1- Rule of Awesome. The technique is just that cool, you want to show it off. Is your character using a sword, and ducking under his opponent's next attack to create an opening? Then put that in- the first time. Be careful with this rule, because doing it over and over with the same techniques get predictable, and you'll lose your readers. (As an alternative method to this rule, if someone else is watching the move, have the character not be able to see what just happened at all because it was so quick. Just describe the aftermath, and their confusion)
    
  • #2- Rule of Plot. This is going to be a game changing move, and it's important that the readers realize it isn't just another attack. Is this the death blow against a very difficult opponent? Detail it out. Don't start to do this with every redshirt your character fights, but the truly incredible fights, you're going to want to.
    
    • Because I have an example of this, I'll throw it up. Rather than try to cut it, Phelan spun and wove around the attacks the creature made. Its outer skin was too tough to get through, so the only way to kill it would be to find some gap that he could exploit. He searched frantically for one, his movements becoming even more frantic as the creature became more adept at guessing the direction he would dodge. Its mouth opened, a black void that promised death- and Phelan's short sword flashed silver, stabbing at an upward angle into that blackness, searching for the creature's brain.
      

  [*]Building Tension. By far, this is the one that I see people struggle with the most. There's a lot of reasons for it, only one of which is Mary-Sueism (although it's a common reason). So, how do you build tension into your fights? Make your opponents better than your character, or at least equal. Make your character have something slowing him down. Find something to put your character at a disadvantage, and exploit it. Often, for me, I have my characters outnumbered, in unfamiliar environments, or fighting people just that much better than them. Even the times where the character just outclasses their opponent, and it's one on one, I give the enemy some sort of advantage. If my character is using a polearm like a glaive, then her opponents are going to get in close where the glaive can't be used correctly. In a larger scale combat, some of the enemies might have guns, and my character doesn't use them, so has to close the distance. Or, in a larger scale fight, the enemies are working together. These aren't the only ways to build tension, but they're excellent starting points.

So, there's the details. That's what's going through my head whenever I write a combat scene. So, there you go people! That's my formula for it (and I'd love, love, love to hear other people's formulas, I'm always looking to expand my style). To wrap this up, I want to list out some novels and series that have influenced my style of writing. I'll break them down by genre, to make it a little easier.

Fantasy-

• The first book I started drawing influence from is Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce. While not the best example of action scenes as a whole, the character Alanna of Trebond is a great example of the training specialization idea, because she starts off at first as a terrible fighter. She works her ass off, and becomes a great sword fighter, and later on adds in some unarmed techniques...but she's not that good with them.
  
• The Malus Darkblade books by Mike Lee and Dan Abnett. They're more than a little grim and dark (it's Warhammer Fantasy, what do you expect) but it's got some great discussion of sword fighting, cavalry combat, raiding, and large scale war scenes in a fantasy setting.
  
• The Night Angel trilogy, by Brent Weeks. This series has some great examples of tension building in scale with what a character can pull off over time. The main character goes from not knowing how to use a sword, to taking out demons casually...but the tension is still there. If you're at all concerned about power creep with your characters, or how to balance out a fighter who outclasses all his opponents, look here.
  
• The Safehold books by David Weber. This series is a bit of a weird hybrid between science fiction, historical fiction and fantasy...but the technology base is "low" enough I'll toss it in here. Lots of great large scale conflict at sea. Also, some incredible examples of world and character building.
  
• The Drizzt Do'Urden books, by R. A. Salvatore. I was somewhat hesitant to add these ones to the list, because as time has gone on with these books, the characters have gone more and more over the top...but, his early works are incredible. I'll freely credit this author with breaking me out of the habit of describing every attack. I'd recommend highly the first and second trilogies in this series, Homeland, Exile, Sojourn and The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver and The Halfling's Gem.
  
• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Some great aerial combat ideas in here, particularly within a more steampunk style setting.
  

Science Fiction

• Dan Abnett. Just about anything written by him from Black Library, although I'll do particular shout outs to the Gaunt's Ghosts books, along with Horus Rising. Large scale combats and small, last stands, sieges, trenches, infiltration missions...you name it, he's got it. He's even got aerial combat that's really engaging in Double Eagle.
  
• Michael A. Stackpole is a novelist who's written a lot of Star Wars books over the years, particularly the X-wing series (recommended for anyone who wants to do aerial combat), but I'm going to recommend him more highly for his work in the Battletech books. Mech combat is interesting, although he does a bit more play-by-play than I'd prefer, but his combat scenes are engaging, he's one of the best character writers I've come across, and he's got the idea of Byzantine plot down to a science.
  
• David Weber, in the Honor Harrington books. Be warned, these action sequences are incredibly physics heavy...but it's still a worthwhile adventure to learn from him. Plus, he's the only author I've run across to explain how a six-legged cat would fight in a brawl...and personally, I was torn between being terrified for the cat, and laughing because it was just that awesome.
  
• Grey Knights by Ben Counter. Some good stuff in here about elite infantry who outclass everything they run into and how to keep them 'balanced.'
  
• Execution Hour and Shadow Point, by Gordon Rennie. Some more excellent black-water naval combat, and he's got some other really interesting scenes in ground combat, with guns and swords.
  

I can't think of any others right now that fit the specific parameters I've laid out, but there you go. Sorry for the length of the post, but hopefully this will help you guys out! Keep writing, I always look forward to seeing new chapters and stories here everyday.

[Cambrius]

With the exceptions of Night Angel and Gordon Rennie, I own every one of the books you use for examples. lol

Awesome tutorial, particularly since we have pretty much identical ideas. No bias at all!

[edonil]

Glad you liked it, Cambrius! And I really would recommend those last two, great reads.

[Thechosenone]

Lots of thanks and love for the OP for sharing. This is how we all get better and these sort of things are as valuable to being a better writer as actually just sitting down and writing. So kudos sir.

And if i may hijack the thread a bit...

I don't want to use the words "writing tutorials" but "my style of writing" articles are certainly a good thing for the board.

If anything, introductions to our writing may not be a bad idea either. You know: Here's who i am, here's what i like to write, here's what i feel i do good and why, here's some advice and some things i need help on.

Primers to the authors in this board.

But for what it's worth I do write ALOT. I do dice and paper games every week that I game master, I have a forum dedicated to that game with in story writing from NPC perspectives plus i've written full length novels (200 plus types pages) regarding those settings. I'm not expert at all certainly.

My experience with writing action is that it is very dependent on the character that the scene is focusing on. If it's a non-combatant just trying to survive the action should be written differently than for a hardened vet. The Action tells a story just the way it's presented.

The other thing i've noted that works best for me is that action scenes need to be told rapid fire. They need to be understandable and clearly written but they need to happen fast. It lends to the tension. Otherwise you have action scenes the way Tolkien would write... drawn out, filled with alliteration and detail that slows you from getting to the point.

My final bit of advice, which applies to all things but action especially, is EDIT your stuff before calling it done. One little missing word or badly worded phrase will kink up the flow of the action and take the reader out of the scene as they try and piece together your intent or even worse... try and piece together what it is that is happening in your scene.