Writing Tips!

Action, Drama, Description

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The faster paced the scene, the more important it is to properly developed your setting ahead of time.

The most common mistake I've noticed in the action scenes of not-yet-publish manuscripts isn't overly long, bogged down scenes or badly written individual actions, but poorly developed settings.

Where the hell are your characters?! If your reader is forced to re-visualize the surroundings at any point throughout the scene, then your suspense has been dropped a notch, and your reader de-immersed from the story.*

Every piece of the setting which will be used at some point within the action scene should be documented up front, with very clear respect to each other. That second part is the most crucial component.

Your reader doesn't simply need to know that every part of your setting exists, but where each part exists in relation to all other parts.

They need to know this clearly, definitively, instinctively. They need to have no question as to where all necessary objects are within space. Because when the subject creating the suspense bursts in through the left hallway, the reader must know how close Suspense Dude is to the main character – how immediate of a threat Suspense Dude poses. And when the main character throws a vase at Suspense Dude's head, the reader must be more shocked by Suspense Dude's reaction then they are about the fact that a random vase was floating on a random table they never realized were there.

The more complicated the setting, the more time you need to spend up front describing things. This will slow the story down. Sometimes, the best way to avoid confusion or stalled suspense, is to simplify your setting as thoroughly as you can.

The super cool setting you had in your head might look great in a movie, but unless the reader can picture all the necessary parts of it without being distracted by the unnecessary aspects, the super coolness of will melt into a chaotic mess of confusion.

Tldr: By simplifying your setting and using your powers of description, you can save your reader from confusion and boost your scene's suspense level.

Disclaimer below the cut:

* (Grace is given if the reader is re-visualizing in time with the pov character, but that only works if the narrative is slowed down enough to give the feeling of such co-visualization.)

As with all writing, I'm sure there's a way to get around this problem without describing things up front. But if you can't successfully pull of the beginner's version of describing things before hand, you probably aren't going to have much luck with anything else.

Also please note that this is my opinion. All opinions are subjective and were developed based on my own personal reading preferences and the reading preferences I see most commonly in my editors and beta readers. In all matters of writing you should keep your own opinions and try many different styles and theories before settling on anything.

When in doubt, get a the honest opinions from (at least ten) readers in your general audience.