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How do you all handle action scenes? I've read examples where there's entirely too much detail as to what specifically. How much detail is too much, how much time do you all spend describing what's happening physically and what's happening mentally?
Posts: 69 | Registered: Oct 2008
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In an action scene, I don't tend to tell much if anything about what is happening mentally or emotionally. That should be fairly obvious from the action. Depending on the scene, there might be a very little dialog.
After, and sometimes before, an action scene, i would go more into how it affected the characters. But not during. Unless, of course, that's the whole point of the scene.
The rest is, I think, fairly obvious. I use short sentences and little, if any, physical description unless it's really necessary. Now is not the time to tell you that the character is riding a bay horse, for example.
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I go for clarity. I want the reader to know what happened, but be able to envision it easily in their mind without having to be a black belt, or maybe a weapons specialist. In books I read, I want to know what happened but hate it when they get too technical.
As far as thoughts and reactions, it would depend. I would put in a reaction if it had to be in, or if the character had the time and the wherewithal to process it. For me it would depend on the character, is the action scene something that is effecting her profoundly or is she a seasoned killer doing her job.
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I love action. For me, I try to set the broad stage early on before the scene. Then fill in the details as I go, it sounds off probably, but I feel it helps the reader get into it more, take a sword fight over a run down city. The characters chasing one another through broken landscape. This also avoids the dreaded info dump at the beginning of the scene.
As far as inner thought and mentally, yes I do that as well, if I am in a tight pov. Its a great way of adding to that pov, a strategic fighter in complete control is going to be thinking moves ahead, a scared kid fighting for his life is going to have a lot of different thoughts. The main concern here is flow though.
Considering sentence structure, I vary them, with the flow of the fight. Some are short and choppy, and others long and flowing, once again depending on how the scene is developing and where I want to have the emphasis land.
I tend to treat all action scenes with the same regard, understanding and flow if I can, wheter its a sword fight or car chase. You might not get into too many specific details, while a man is fleeing, he definitly will feel the branche whip him in the face as he ducks beneath it, he might not know its a weepy willow, but he will feel the sting.
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That's an artistic call on the part of the writer, and is probably best thought of as a function of the importance of the action(s) in question to the overall story. The more important the action of a scene, in general the more detail it would warrant. But, I have found as a reader that too much detail can leach all the excitement from a scene by bogging it down. If the hero is finally coming to blows with the arch-villan, I generally won't have patience with the technical details of every thrust and parry and dance step of their fight, especially if I'd been subject to all of that in earlier scenes. In other words, pacing plays a role too, and in many instances an action scene should be fast-paced. A few vivid details can often suffice.
Posts: 612 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I like to stay grounded in character as much as possible, and bring out the characters' perspectives. Otherwise, I find action quickly devolves into he did this, she did that (same as sex, lol).
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:The more important the action of a scene, in general the more detail it would warrant. But, I have found as a reader that too much detail can leach all the excitement from a scene by bogging it down.
This is very true. Also, there's the standard advice to use short sentences for action, for they convey speed.
How to reconcile the need for detail with short sentences and a minimum of detail?
What little I understand of writing action I learned by studying Fleming's Bond books. Not only do I happen to be a Bond fan, they're action best sellers. Fleming does it by building up slowly to an action scene, establishing characters, place, relevant objects like guns and all those cases of books and precious objects to crash through ahead of time. Then when the action starts to move quickly, he can use short sentences because relevant detail is already in the reader's mind. We know who and what are where, we know who has how many shots in their gun, and we can enjoy watching the action play out. We can follow Bond's instincts because we have the same information he has, and feel no need to have his thought process explained--which feels authentic, for he's not thinking, he's reacting.
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as far as I am concerned, the readers imagination will create the fight scene way better than any words I type. Ill give them a rough idea, but most of it is imagery, the hypothetical "flow" of the conflict, and the thoughts behind that.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Another answer to "how much detail?" is something I learned from a stage fight director, who said that a good fight develops our understanding of the characters fighting, as well as who wins and who loses. For example, in one of the Firefly episodes Mal has his opponent's throat at the tip of his sword, and lets him live; in another episode, where he's feeling rather more stressed, he throws a helpless enemy into an engine: we learn that he can be magnanimous--or not.
Posts: 1796 | Registered: Jun 2007
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A rule for action is simple: it must flow. If you keep stumbling at big words and difficult sentences, then the action cannot flow. It must be smooth, therefore simple words, simple sentences and only tell enough detail that the reader has a clear picture on what is happening. I didn't say it was easy, but with practice you can achieve it.
PM me if you want to check my action scenes.
[This message has been edited by MartinV (edited February 12, 2009).]
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