posted
As the topic states, I need help in writing chase scenes. I have two already in a new novel I'm writing and I don't feel as if they're written as well as I can, so what I'm asking for is any hints and tips to remember whilst writing a chase scene. Any help will do.
posted
I don't know much about writing yet but I'd keep the sentences short to show a fast pace. Apart from that I enjoy really detailed description of action. I know some people don't so it depends on what you like.
posted
The action of the chase is only one element of a chase scene. Put me in the characters' emotional reactions: mention the pumping adrenaline, fear, excitement, glee at outwitting the opponent, etc. Adding in the emotions makes it more intense and helps me feel it.
posted
Never tried to write one before. Sounds like a challenge. Also sounds like a scenario where J's Rule of Action Writing Applies: no matter how smart, talented, or trained your MC is, there just ain't that much thinking or planning in the heat of a fight/chase/etc., and what little occurs should be implied by acts rather than described explicitly.
Posts: 683 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
If you are first person or 3 ltd omni, there are certain things you can do to build suspense that wouldn't work for full omni.
Ex: If full Omni - you can show the group of terrorists getting out of the minivan while the MC is taking part in a meeting inside the building. The suspense there is because we, the reader, know something the MC can't and, if properly invested in the character, worry about what's going to happen. So the tension of the hunter coming can be used to great effect in this POV.
If Ltd Omni or 1st person, the POV only knows what they are experiencing. So while you lose the suspense of the coming threat you gain the immediate peril. As an example, the MC is hiding in a cabinet, cliche but for the moment it works, she sees the shadows passing her. The tension is because the MC doesn't know if the shadow is someone coming to rescue her or kill her. If it's a bad guy, will he find her? She's going to hear her pounding heart and worry it is going to give her away. She's going to try to hold her breath. To make the scene work I need to feel her fear and be right there with her.
Generally, I prefer shorter sentances because the POV isn't going to have time to recite the Illiad. The scene needs to be very POV oriented and only focused on that moment.
posted
Short sentences, lots and lots of action (but not detailed in a blow-by-blow way, which can get annoying), and definitely stay inside your POV character's head! Make sure the POV character is someone we care about. If he gets hurt, I want to feel his pain. If someone dies trying to protect him, I want to feel his anguish, and then feel him pushing that emotion aside to get back to the fray. If it's a car chase, I want to feel the impact when the car side-swipes a truck, feel the fear when the back windshield is blown out by bullets, feel the driver's sweat running in his eyes as he goes the wrong way up a twisting one-way city street. Incomplete sentences, choppy writing, can sometimes add to the stressful feelings. Let the readers FEEL the stress involve, feel the exhilaration when your hero makes an escape, then the horror when he realizes someone has gotten ahead of him and he has to turn down an unknown alley that ends in - oh no! - a dead end! He gets out of the car, jumps to pull down a fire escape ladder and the race goes to the roofs of the buildings. He falls, scrapes his hands on the gravel on one roof, tries to decide if he can make the jump to the other - show me his fear, show me his courage, show him ducking from the bullets impacting much too near him.
Chase scenes are fun to write. Throw absolutely everything you can think of into it (think "Lethal Weapon" or "Indiana Jones" type chases - they raced away from bad guys on foot, in cars, on horseback (in the IJ movies), on ships, every possible way to chase and be chased - and wasn't it fun?!). Have a lot of near-misses, and even some injuries to heighten the drama. You can always trim away stuff that doesn't work, but if you throw everything possible (in your world) into it, you'll blow right by your inhibitions and have something fun to work with, I think. Works for me, anyway!
Do some research when you get around to editing it, though, so you don't get blasted by your critique group. I had a car crash that ended in the car exploding. My crit group said "nope, doesn't happen except in the movies." A little research later, I learned they were right and had to revise that scene.
posted
Keep the characters' goals in mind, and structure the action so that they are always clearly trying to accomplish those goals.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
A lot of feedback, which I wanted. Thanks everyone.
To sum what everyone said, keep to short sentences, full of action, mental and physical details and remain on POV at all times. I think I should be able to write a much better chase scene now.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
