March 28, 2024
3 POINTERS ON WRITING AN ACTION & FIGHT SCENES

3 POINTERS ON WRITING AN ACTION & FIGHT SCENES

Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay

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.

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HOW DO YOU WRITE  YOUR ACTION & FIGHT SCENES?

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