Just like any other scene your action and fight scenes must serve a purpose. It must match up to what is going on in the story at hand. You can’t just be writing fight scenes just for the sake of writing fight scenes. My current work in progress novel During the Blue Hour is about werewolves . So there are a lot of fight scenes and action scenes. When I first started writing my werewolf novel I didn’t really know how to write good fight scenes. But through experimentation with my writing I learned and this is what I found out.
FIGHT AND ACTION SCENES MUST SERVE A PURPOSE
In the instance of writing my action and fight scenes in my first draft I thought in terms of action reaction scenes and based whatever went on in the previous scene there is always a reaction to it in the next.
I also asked the question before writing the fight scene. Why are they fighting and what are they trying to accomplish with this fight? What lead to the fighting? Who started the fight and why? And ultimately who will win? Also I make sure the outcome of the fight has crucial and irreversible consequences for the character .
In my novel’s main fight scene My main character Sirena is given a choice to fight or flee her situation. The result of her choice even though it is to fight causes her a lot of irreversible consequences as a result of choosing to fight but . Those consequences changes her life forever.
A GOOD FIGHT & ACTION SCENE IS ALL ABOUT THE CAMERA
Okay so I have a background in screenwriting and am I ‘m used to writing for the camera.
So when writing your fight scenes think about the camera in a movie where the director uses all the camera angles there are to make the scene immersive. When writing your action or fight scene think about point of view, distance, and time. Vary your reader’s perceptions.
In my work in progress novel the main fight scene lasts about an hour or two. But on the written page is very short maybe two pages at most? Do you know how I do this?
I change up the POV constantly within the fight scene. One minute it’s in the main characters POV as she comes along to the cave to face off against the villain but then the villain overpowers her and boom we are in the head of the Villain POV . So I play with fight scenes like that a little . Giving maybe three sentences or at most a paragraph.
The pace is fast and I never use flowery language when writing the fight scene.
But that all depends on how that particular character fights. I use words such as howled, cracked, grunted , hissed, ect, ect. Those fast and speedy words. I use shorter sentences and mix action with dialogue.
IN ORDER TO HAVE A GOOD FIGHT SCENE YOU NEED A GOOD TRAINING SESSION
Have you noticed that in almost every action movie there is a training montage. Have you ever wondered why?
Heroes and main characters shouldn’t win a fight scene when they haven’t even trained .
I have at least one chapter dedicated to training my Main Character Sirena because born in the human society she knows nothing about being a werewolf. However, at the end she still doesn’t fight the best. Throughout most of the book she is running scared and in a damsel and distress kind of situation . Having to be saved . But through the training session that she is given by the rest of the yearling pack she learns about restraint and the basics of her powers.
If you liked this blog post and you want to see more content involving my work in progress During the Blue Hour join the werewolfpack today and keep up to date with the latest content through a newsletter.
But first LET’S START A DIALOGUE
You can also interact with the podcast on
HOW DO YOU WRITE YOUR ACTION & FIGHT SCENES?
I want to know so let me know in the comments below.
You can also interact with the podcast on Gab @duringthebluehour
You must be logged in to post a comment.