The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story

HOW TO: Writing techniques for action writers

- short sentences. Choppy. One action, then another. When there's a lull in the fight, take a moment, using longer phrases to analyse the situation-then dive back in. Snap, snap, snap.

- same thing with words - short, simple and strong in the thick of battle. Save the longer syllables elsewhere.

- characters don't dwell on things when they're in the heat of the moment.. They will get punched in the face. Focus on actions not thoughts.

- go back and cut as many adverbs as possible.

- no seriously, if there's any time to use the strongest verbs in your vocabulary - bellow, thrash, heave, shriek, snarl, splinter, bolt, hurtle, crumble, shatter, charge, raze - it's now.

- don't forget your other senses. people might not even be sure of what they saw during a fight, but they also know how they felt.

taste: dry mouth, salt from sweat, copper tang of blood etc.

smell: sweat, blood, urine, faeces etc.

touch: headache, sore muscles, tense muscles, exhaustion, blood pounding, bruised knuckles/bowstring fingers. Injuries that ache and pulse, sting and flare white hot with pain. Pain will stay with a character, even if it's minor.

sound and sight might blur or sharpen depending on the character and their experience/exhaustion. Colours and quick movements will catch the eye. Loud sounds and noises from behind may serve as a fighters alert only before an attack. 

- if something unexpected happens, shifting the characters whole attention to that thing will shift the audiences attention to it, too.

- aftermath. This is where details resurface, the characters pick up things, they cast aside during the fight, both literally and metaphorically. Fights are chaotic, fast paced and self centred. Characters know only their self, their goals, what's in their way and their quickest way around those threats. The aftermath is where people regain their emotions, their relationships, their rationality/introspection and anything else they couldn't afford to think or feel while their lives were on the line. 

- do everything to keep the fight here and now. Maximise the physical and minimise the theoretical. Keep things immediate - no theories or what ifs. 

If writing a strategist, who needs to thinks ahead, try this: keep strategy to before and after fights, lay out plans in calm periods, try to guess what enemies are thinking or what they will do. During combat, however, the character should think about his options, enemies, and terrain in immediate terms, that is shapes and directions (large enemy rushing me, dive left, circle around, scaffolding on fire, pool below me etc)

Lastly, after writing, read it aloud. Any place your tongue catches up on a fast moving scene, edit. Smooth actions scenes rarely come on the first try.