Tips from Other People, Part 8.

Fight scenes. Action. Stuff that used to intimidate me as a writer, until the end of last November.

Seriously folks, before last fall, I had never attempted to write a fight scene. I was petrified by the idea. But I knew that in order to make my NaNovel work, somebody was gonna have to get thrown around like a ragdoll at least once.

The day of the fight drew near, and I broke out into a cold sweat every night as I tossed and turned, unable to stop thinking about every possible horrible outcome. What if my descriptions fell flat? What if my adjectives were insipid? What if my readers ended up rooting for the wrong guy? What if I somehow managed to break the laws of physics? I wished there was some way out.

But the dawn finally came, and I knew I couldn’t avoid it any longer. So I booted up my laptop, opened my text document (pleasingly long by now), and placed my hands shiveringly on the keyboard.

And had a blast. Seriously, writing that stuff was the most fun I had all month. Action scenes are nothing to be afraid of. But even so, it’s always good to have a few tricks and techniques under your belt. Here’s a great article from the lovely people over at the Now Novel blog. You should really be following them, if you aren’t all ready.

 

Conflict is key to a good story in any genre. Understanding how to write fight scenes and action scenes will help you punctuate your chapters with moments of gripping high drama. To write scenes that hold your readers’ attention, try the following: 1. Maintain and build tense tone and mood Conflict is a situation boiling…

via How to write fight scenes and action that grips readers — Now Novel