Update 2018/10/15

Made an AO3 account (same name) because I live in one of the two countries in the world that actually banned FFN, you know, just in case.

Will be spending the next few days uploading my libraries there, for those of you that prefer it there.

Awakening - Published 2015/10/20 Completed 2016/1/29 - A fic set in the original timeline about how Robin became Grima.

Your Brilliant Smile - Published 2015/12/18 - One shot.

Children of Men - Published 2016/2/6 - Retelling of the FE:A game.

The Taste of Loneliness - Published 2016/4/14 - Originally a one shot. May be expanded when the muse comes, or if someone's kind enough to give me a suitable prompt.

I read anything that caught my attention, but I only review when there's something I can think of something to say other than "Good job. Update please." or "You suck. Stop writing. " . When I do review, I try to give at least some con-crits of what I think work/don't work for that particular fic. So if you are in need of a review, or wanting to get some feedback on your writing, and don't mind an over-analyzing pair of eyes, just shoot me a message and I'll see what I can do. But please don't flip out if I decline. That's probably because I don't find that particular fic interesting enough to read, or I don't know the source material good enough to give an honest opinion.

Would also be willing to do review-swap, as in I review yours and you review mine, but it's not exactly needed. I'm writing to clear my head of the plot bunnies, not to win a Pulitzer or something.

And while we're at it, I have a lot of ideas and very little time to write. So if you are in a writer's block or need to polish some ideas, feel free to pm me. And again, please don't get be offended if I decline.

From the vast knowledge of the Internet. The essence of plot.

YES - This happens BECAUSE that happened, but that happened SO this other thing had to happen

NO - This happened, THEN that happened, THEN this other thing happened

JustKidd's Guide on Writing Action

1. Part 0 – Introduction

First off, let’s get one thing out of the way: I am not a great writer. I think I’m better than some, but still have more to learn. People say when you started writing your first 10,000 words would be garbage, and I can confirm that (I think). Based on my stats on FFN, I’ve written around 80,000 words by now (more if we count those that I scrapped), and I still think my writing have more ways to go (who doesn’t?), and that’s okay. I usually write just before going to bed, and just a way for me to clear my head after a long day at work. Plus, it keeps the plot bunnies in my head from procreating too much (who else has this problem?).

So why is thing here? Well, the short answer would be because I can. The long answer would because I want to have my notes about writing in one place. As the title suggests, this ‘article’ will be focusing more on writing action scenes, but there’s also some bits and pieces that can be used for general writing as well.

And needless to say, these are not my tips per se. They’re what I’ve compiled over the years, scouring through the internet and books and others, and what I’ve found works best for me and my style right now. And if you recognize them from somewhere, shoot me a pm and I’ll see if I can give credits to the original sources. Hopefully, you can use some of them, but if not, there are worse ways to spend on the internet.

2. Part 1 – The Introduction

I’ll be honest; action is probably one of the least interesting bits in writing. Unlike games or movies, there are no booming explosions your characters can escape from, no cool sword designs to show, no gravity-defying, mind-bending, heart-stopping move to excite your readers. All you have is blocks upon blocks upon blocks of text. Let’s face it, no matter how well-choreographed you think that fight between your MC and the Villain is, there’s no way your readers will be able to imagine it blow-by-blow as you would. You could get try to get them as close as you can, but it won’t be the same. Everyone is different. Yes, action in writing can be exciting if done well, but how many times have you read a scene where the author just listed what happened and which character did what, sentence after sentence, and you just wished s/he’d just get it over with, so you just skipped the rest? I know I’ve done it. My readers have probably done it as well. And that’s fine. Like I said, action is one of the least interesting parts in writing.

So how do you make that fight/skirmish/battle you’ve been building for the last ten chapters just that more interesting so the readers would skip less of it? First of all, there needs to be a reason why the fight happens. Two dudes wailing on each other just because they can? Meh. Two dudes wailing on each other because one kidnapped the other’s child? Still meh, but it’s a start.

tl;dr Make sure your readers understand the scene happens for a reason. Not just “we’re fighting you because you’re in our way”, even if the reason is “we need to get to the other side, and you’re in our way”.

3. Part 2 – The Setting

No, not that setting. This is about how you set the scene itself. We’ve already established the reason why the scene needs to happen, so next we need the tension that would keep it going. You know, those things that make your readers go “ok, what’s going to happen next?” or “how would he wins this thing?” or just plain “oh sh, gimme more!”. These are what makes the actions interesting. What makes your readers, well, keep reading (hopefully).

The easiest way to do this? Give your Heroes a ticking time bomb. No, it does not have to be a literal time bomb. Just something that would keep the time (and the tension) going. Let’s take our first example with the two dudes. So that one guy needs to get to his child, that’s good and all, but does he have to do it right now? If the child’s not in any danger whatsoever, why not wait some more, plan the course of action a little bit more detail, why the rush? Well, let’s say the child actually suffers from a magical disease and would die if s/he didn’t receive the antidote in five hours. And the antidote deteriorates over time. Now, your Hero really needs to rush.

And when people rushed, they make mistakes. We’ll talk about how you can direct your actions so that everything your Hero does takes him from bad to worse later. But for now, suffice to say that these escalations and how they are solved are what make the action interesting.

Do keep in mind that there is a thing as overdoing it. You don’t want to write your Hero into a corner and then pull a Deus-Ex just because you can’t solve it.

And while we’re at it, let’s talk about that setting for a bit. To quote R.A. Salvatore (very roughly), there’s only a handful of ways you can write two guys wailing on each other with a sword. The place it happens is what you want to think about. A fight in a grassy plain is different than a fight in a dark cave where you can’t even see your hands. So, if they’re fighting in a desert, don’t just make your Hero thrust his sword but was blocked by the enemy. Make the enemy kick some dust and blind him, before he loses his footing and stumbles on the ground because the sand is so damn thick (this one’s mine).

tl;dr The motivation is what makes the scene worth reading, but the escalation is what makes us keep reading.

1. Part 3 – The Tone

This part isn’t specifically about action, but please be consistent. If you’ve built your story/world as this dark, grim one, don’t make the fight comical and try to be funny. Some comic-relief is fine, we need that here and there, but full-blown fight with fairy dust and exploding rainbows?

tl;dr Be consistent?

2. Part 4 – The PoV

Now that we’ve got all of those out of the way, let’s actually start writing the scene. And what better way to start writing than by thinking about the Point of View we’re going to use. I’m pretty sure everyone at least knows about the different type of PoVs (there’s only four), but just for the sake of completion, they are as listed below:

a. First person – The one where the MC also the narrator (usually, but not necessarily). Very popular in YA genre nowadays (especially the present-tense variant, which I don’t get). Again, usually, but not necessarily, used in fanfiction in fics of the self-insert variety. This guide?

b. Second person – The one where the reader is the MC, and the narrator is, well, narrating the reader’s action. Slowly gaining some traction right now. Not the most popular. Usually used in fanfiction in the fics of the ReaderXCharacter variety. Almost always start with the word “You”.

c. Third person limited – Also very popular, particularly in the epic fantasy setting. The only example I can think right now is ASoIaF. The one where the ‘camera’ follows the MC. Often used when following multiple MCs at close distance.

d. Third person omniscient – An old style of writing. Not that popular right now. The one where there’s only one (usually) ‘camera’ on the sky, and will ‘zoom’ in and out as needed. Very useful for writing that big battle scene you always wanted to. Think Tolkien.

So which PoV should you use? The short answer would be the one you’re using for the rest of the fic. With the exception of limited-third and omni-third (to some degree), you can’t exactly change the PoV in mid-fic. Well, you can if you know how to use framing device (diary, journal, newspaper article, etc), but that’s for another time.

I can’t say much about second person because I’m not actually familiar with it. So we will only talk about a, c, and d in this section.

When writing action, you should always think about the distance between the readers and the MC. You want the reader to be your MC? Want them to actually feel what the MC’s seeing, thinking, feeling when in the fight? How the smell of blood made their guts churned, or their knees trembled when that big, bald, one-eyed man came rushing, brandishing a red-dyed axe towards them? Use first person. Want more of the same thing, but with a smoother transition between the characters in the different part of the battlefield? Use limited-third. Want to go full-blown Tolkien and show how big the battle and the armies were? Use omni-third.

But I said before, unless you’re really good at using different framing device, changing PoV mid-fic isn’t always an option. You should at least have some general idea how you want your action/battle before you start writing. Me personally? Unless that narrator has a very, very unique/strong voice, I just stick to third person.

tl;dr Think about the distance between the readers and your characters. Closer PoV gives more weight/impact/intimacy(?), while broader PoV gives bigger/grander scale to the scene.

6. Part 5 – The Pacing

Right, so we have the reason the fight’s happening, the escalation, the overall tone, and the PoV. But before we actually write the scene, let’s slow down and talk about pacing.

Ah, pacing. One of the words I hate when discussing writing. Its meaning seems to differ from person to person. From weeks of ‘research’, I’ve got stuffs ranging from “the passage of time” to the “structure of the prose”. And since everyone has their interpretation, I figured I’d write my take as well. So here it is, from weeks of scouring the vast knowledge pool called the Internet, my definition of pacing. As I understand it, in the easiest words I can think of.

For me, pacing is the flow of the writing itself. For simplicity, let’s take the standard three act structure as an example. If we assign numbers to it, the start-middle-end would be one-two-three. As I understand it, how long you take to move from one to two to three, is the pacing of the story. So, when you go 1, 2, 3? This is very fast. But let’s say if you go 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3. This would be a slower pace, moving at the same speed. And if you go 1, 1.5, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.7, 2.9, 3 and so on, you would move on an even slower pace, with different speed in each act.

Still with me? Let’s continue.

So how do you control the pacing? Here is where people tend to differ. But before we get to that, keep in mind that every story needs to move towards the three. Doesn’t matter where it starts, it needs to move towards the three. Just stop for a moment and let this sink in, okay?

Now, if you think any number you’re at as now, and three as something that will happen in the future, then going back would, for lack of better words, stop and reverse your timeline. This means, things that don’t progress the story (flashbacks and backstories) will slow the pacing down to a crawl. This, is the reason backstories aren’t as exciting as the main part, no matter how interesting they could be.

Next, would be the “show, don’t tell”. This would be the easiest way to control the pacing. Compare the 1, 2, 3 and the 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 in the definition of pacing. The first one is when you just tell the readers what happened, the second one is when you take the time to describe the setting, why the scene is important, what your characters are feeling at the time. But do keep in mind that overdoing this would slow the pacing way down. This is why LotR is very tedious to read, for me at least.

The other is monologue/thoughts. This is probably the strongest aspect of writing compared to other mediums like movies or games. You’re able to move in and out of your character’s head seamlessly, so you can actually show/tell the readers what he’s thinking when he’s staring at the bullet mere inches from his head.

There might be other ways to control your pacing, but these are what I’m familiar with, and the easiest way I know. With that out of the way, let’s move on to why we’re talking about pacing here.

Let’s say you’re watching an action movie, you’re now in the middle of the big finale. There’s an awesome chase scene leading to the fight. The characters punch and kick and flip their way all over the place. Right before that climactic scene, the frame stopped. The action freezed. The characters move in slow-mo. And then bam, the thing hits, it’s back to the fast-paced action like before.

The thing you need to know about writing action is that, fast-paced action does not necessarily mean fast pacing. Your action will move alongside your character, but instead don’t just make him punch and kick and flip, slow the pace down once in a while. Get into his head, what is he thinking when he’s unleashing the ultimate attack, show me how beautiful the blood spattering across his face when it hit, tell me how satisfying it is for him (and for me) when he popped the opponent’s kneecap, you know, the one you’ve been building as the scum of the earth for the last three chapters. In short, do something with the actions. Don’t just let a punch be a punch. Of course, overdoing it is a big no-no.

tl;dr Fast-paced action =/= fast pacing. Vary the speed of the story.

7. Part 6 – The Action

Finally, the part where we actually talk about how to develop the action. But first (it’s been six parts now, you should already know this is coming), my personal pet-peeve, italicized for emphasis. Please don’t make your characters roll out of any attack. Ever. Seriously, don’t. Why? Because it’s ridiculous. With few exceptions (he’s already on his back, and the attacks are coming from above or under him), rolling in and out of something only happens in games. In action games, you (the player) need the i-frame because you (the character) can’t actually duck to get out of that Rathian tailspin. Go find me a movie/anime/cartoon where the characters actually rolled out, or worse, into the attacks to dodge. Make your characters sidestep/jump/strafe or better yet, teleport/fly/whatever if it’s full-blown fantasy, just don’t make them roll. Here’s a fun thing to do. Stand in a wide, empty space, preferably where people won’t be able to see you. Imagine a rock is coming right at you. Take a few steps to the side to dodge. Then, do it again, but roll out of the rock this time. Which one do you think is easier, and more importantly, safer to get out of the incoming rock?

So the action. The one thing you need to keep in mind is that actions are fluid. The action scene can be chaotic, with things taking and leaving the center stage, but the actions themselves need to have a flow to it. For me, this is what separates a well thought-out action sequence and a scene where the writer just lists who’s punching and kicking.

When developing my action, I usually think like a JRPG. In a basic turn based RPG, the player and the enemy move in turns. First player, then enemy, then player again until one pummeled the other onto the ground. When planning your action, assign a turn to each character. No matter how many characters you have on the field right now, one character can only do one action in one move. So, if you have only a hero and a villain, it will go like this. Hero, villain, hero, villain, and so on. If you have a hero, a villain, and a henchman, it could go like this. Hero, villain, hero, henchman, villain, hero, etc.

Now that you know which sequence your characters will move, it’s time to give them the action. Generally speaking, there can be four types of move you can do, and each can be followed by four kinds of reactions, as listed below.

The actions: Attack, Block, Retreat, Distract

The reactions: Succeed, Succeed but, Failed, Failed and

There are others, but most are the variations of these four (parry is a version of block, evade is a version of retreat, etc). And their usage isn’t limited to a fight scene. For example, attack can be a punch for a fight, ramming the car from behind for a chase scene, or a *clears throat* thrust in a smut.

Let’s take a hero and a henchman in fight scene for example. The hero swung his sword (attack) at the villain. From this action, the resulting reaction can be one of these four.

a. Succeed - It hit the villain square in the chest, and he died. (Self-explanatory.)

b. Succeed but – It hit him in the chest, but the henchman also managed to land a hit on the hero’s leg. (The henchman died, but the hero also suffered a bruised leg. And the big bad villain is coming towards him with two more henchmen.)

c. Failed – The henchman the hero’s sword, and raised his own, preparing for an attack. (Also self-explanatory. Hero’s move. Henchman move. Hero’s move again.)

d. Failed and – The henchman blocked the hero’s attack, and the impact shattered his sword (it’s a very brittle sword, okay?). (Now you have a swordless hero, and the henchman is preparing his attack. Also, the big bad is coming towards him with two more guys.)

So which of the above four you think is exciting to read? Of course, just doing d all the time is as boring as spamming a. Mix and match the actions and the reactions as you see fit.

tl;dr Nope. Can’t do it. This is the simplest I could get.

8. Part 7 – The Structure (Writing?)

9. Part 8 – The Loose Ends

10. Part 9 – The Happily Ever After (?)

11. Part 10 – The Other Stuffs