Tag Archive - Action Scenes

How to Write Realistic Fight Scenes

Today’s guest post is by J. M. Robison.

After watching the final episode of Grimm, it occurred to me that being realistic in fight scenes is not as obvious as I had believed.

Before I start making claims that I know what a realistic fight scene is, I need to prove why I know it: I’ve been in military police for twelve years in the US Army, as well as held a full-time job for five years as a deputy sheriff in Elko, NV.

In the final episode of Grimm (no worries, names are protected to prevent spoilers) Bad enters the room. Good, Joe, and Bill are in this room. Joe fights Bad briefly before Bad kills Joe. Good rushes to Joe’s side and sobs over his dead body for a good minute. Enraged, Good then rushes Bad. Bad deflects Good, then kills Bill. Good sees Bill fall mortally wounded and races to his side, sobbing over his dead body a full minute and then—enraged again—rushes Bad. Bad deflects Good again, knocking him unconscious, and Bad leaves. Continue Reading…

3 Keys to Writing Effective Action Scenes

Today’s guest post is by Remy Wilkins.

We all want our climaxes and battles, our chase scenes and explosions, to be as dynamic and blood pumping as the summer’s best blockbusters, but the difficulty is that the strengths of cinema—its visceral visuals—do not easily align with what’s exciting in a novel.

But this doesn’t mean our action sequences are relegated to flat descriptions that must wait for a movie adaptation before becoming exciting. There are plenty of evocative scenes that drag the reader through finger-biting excitement and fear, but it’s a tricky balance of details and space enough for the reader to flesh it out.

Many writers err on one side or the other; they either overload the scene with too many descriptions or speak so sparsely about the events that the reader misses the drama.

In considering these pitfalls, I sought inspiration from movies on how to write compelling action scenes, looking for tips that I could apply to prose. As I studied both good and bad action sequences I found three keys that separated the effective scenes from those that were ineffective. Continue Reading…