Not all stories need action scenes, but when they do need one—how to approach? It can be intimidating to look at a fight scene, or a race, or anything else that would work beautifully in a high-budget movie but makes your fingers freeze over your keyboard.
Action is actually one of those things that comes a little easier to me. The unfortunate part is that I’m not so good at explaining it because of that! But here we go, regardless, because I know this is a point a lot of authors can struggle with.
I’ve seen a lot of authors talk about how they avoid fight or action scenes just because it can be difficult. I’ve also read a fair few stunted or slow or awkward fight scenes… So the most important thing to keep in mind when writing action is to KEEP THINGS GOING!
Narrative flow is a very vital thing to keep in mind at all times when writing, but especially for action scenes! They’re action scenes because ACTION IS HAPPENING, after all. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean all action scenes are fast-paced, although I’d say well over 90% of them are—but two exhausted/injured/impaired characters could be having a slow but tense race to reach for that gun, for example. That’s not a lot happening there on the surface; the characters could barely be moving, inching themselves forward.
But since that fast-paced stuff is largely what gives authors pause, and it makes up the vast majority of action scenes, let’s just focus on that. Narrative tension will carry you through that other 10%.
LIST TIME!
-There is a lot more to fights than kicking and punching. (Especially if you’re writing something with a magical/supernatural slant!)
-There are also a lot more kinds of punches and kicks than right hooks and kicks to the stomach. Or whatever’s a popular kick I don’t know. I don’t even name most of my moves, because if I don’t know it, a lot of readers won’t, either. That said, do some research!
-Related: absolutely do research if it involves martial arts at all unless you’re already an expert in it yourself. Maybe even then. Then, it’s 100% okay and probably best to use named moves.
-Don’t sweat the exact terminology or positioning! The fast pace is what you need to preserve, so we don’t need to know that his right fist came crashing into the second-bottom-most rib on her left side. (Unless that’s actually plot-relevant, in which case, law of conservation of detail and all that.)
–You should know what’s going on at all times, but it’s alright if things get a teensy tiny microscopic amount of confusing for the reader. The tiniest amount possible! Because it’s fast-paced and THINGS ARE HAPPENING so they’ll be excited to get to the next thing and maybe won’t spend a ton of time agonizing over which leg he stumbled back onto.
-WEAPONS CHANGE THINGS DRASTICALLY. Your action scene is going to go completely different if someone pulls out a knife—and whether they pull it out at the beginning, middle, or end, too.
-Also, improvised weapons!! Sticks, boots, books, gardening tools, clothing, broken pieces of glass/metal/wood, get creative! Desperation breeds ingenuity, after all.
-Longer sentences can work well to keep the action flowing and keep the reader moving along at a brisk pace, but punctuate things with short, abrupt sentences, too! Look at any fight scene I’ve ever written. (It’s a lot.) It’s long long long (hit, dodge, emotional turmoil)—thwack—short and sweet (ow, curseword). Pacing is key in action.
-Don’t do that all the time obviously. Don’t do anything all the time except spell correctly. But it can be a neat trick to use to manipulate reader attention—they’ll keep moving along with the long, action-y sentences and then they’ll give a brief pause to that short sentence because it breaks up their perceived narrative flow. And then they realize that hey, that hurt right then! That was a slightly more important thing! (That works with anything, tbqh.)
-Honestly, strong verbs are your best friend in fight scenes, even more than usual. I try to avoid “punch” and “kick” in general (or use them as nouns). Think of “lashed out”, “threw himself at her”, or even things like strike, slam, whip, etc. Thesaurus it up! (Not too much. Preserve your own narrative tone above all else.)
-KEEP IN MIND INJURIES. If someone has a hurt leg, they’re going to favor the other leg. Injured ribs are a bitch and make breathing and movement both pretty damn hard. Blood comes from injuries, and if they’re bleeding from the mouth, that means mouth injury or lung injury. Do research on this! Let your character get hurt, but commit to it. (And for the love of god if you have their arm in a cast remember which arm you put it on. No I’m not speaking from personal experience what would ever give you that idea hahaha)
-Running as an action scene in writing is hard to do. For chase scenes or races or other running scenes, you don’t have to constantly describe the running itself—but don’t let the reader forget it, either. (Strong verbs there, specifically, are your bff. Sprint, bolt, dart, flew, etc!) Keep in mind what it’s doing to your character. Burning lungs, aching legs, maybe they have to get around obstacles. Are they too afraid to turn around to look? Can they see things out of their peripherals? Are they trying to get out of something and are looking for an exit?
-Keep running scenes fast paced and no abrupt narrative stops until it’s over!
This is far from an exhaustive list; this is a list of things I have learned through many years of writing characters hitting each other. It should be a good starting point for you to get over that hump of intimidation when imagining your characters throwing down, however. Good luck and happy writing!
