A good action scene starts with the character. Seriously.
I love action in my entertainment. Books, movies, TV shows, even games. I also enjoy a great story to go with it, but I like the external forces that cause the true nature of a person to bubble to the surface. I want to see what people do and discover why they did it.
At this point in my career, writing action comes pretty easily to me, but that wasn't always the case. My early work was way too descriptive in how my fight scenes played out—I explained every detail, I created special names for fighting styles and whatnot. It took longer to read the action that it did to actually perform the action.
At this point in my career, writing action comes pretty easily to me, but that wasn't always the case. My early work was way too descriptive in how my fight scenes played out—I explained every detail, I created special names for fighting styles and whatnot. It took longer to read the action that it did to actually perform the action.
Which is the opposite of what you want when it comes to writing action.
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