How do you write action scenes?

[Sylver]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

 

[Eldoria]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

Essentially, in action scenes, especially fights, I tend to narrate the impact of the fight on the characters and the environment to show the consequences of the stakes at stake and maintain tension rather than simply narrating the fight moves.

Readers are more likely to sympathize with your character who is injured, bleeding, or even traumatized when they are attacked by their opponent than just showing beautiful choreography. They are more likely to feel pain (tension) when they see blood, bruises, and broken bones than a supersonic fistfight.

As an author, you need to note every injury the character suffers during the fight and the consequences of those injuries in the fight. This way, the fight will likely be more intense.

For example, if an arrow hits his left arm, he won't be able to use his left hand to punch his opponent.

And it's important to understand that choreography is important to show how the action unfolds. But injuries are the effect.

Perhaps I would simplify the cinematic fight pattern as follows: Action -> Reaction (choreography) -> effect (character injuries and environmental impact).

Well, here's an example of one of the best fight chapters I've ever written (in my opinion, I don't know what readers think). You can see the chapter here:

Vol 2 Chapter 69: The Final Battle Among the Wounded

 

[Lmae]

I have one Magic User vs Non-Magic User in the beginning of Altered One. Casimir uses trickery and brute force to get the upper hand over the mage he is fighting. He also has knowledge of various spells to help him predict and dodge them.

I would recommend watching Mashle Magic and Muscle.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2181545-altered-one/chapter/2181559/ He wins.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2181545-altered-one/chapter/2181562/ He loses.

 

[LiteraryWho]

I'm personally a big fan of the "Hobbit" school of action scenes, where they happen entirely off screen, to other people, except where absolutely necessary for the plot or the character. When I must write them, I keep them brief, and focus on how this big block of words is planning to pay rent.

As a reader, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a fight scene for its action. It is far more important for me for the scene to reveal something about the world or character, and for the outcome to actually matter. If it's just the MC beating up random scrub #738, it should have been briefly mentioned at best, assuming it's not covered by something like, "X spent a few days fighting challengers" or w/e.

 

[FleecedSheep]

Action and reaction can be considered the rule of thumb. What does Character A do, how does Character B react, so on so forth. Additionally, in reality fights tend to be rather short. Boxing matches are a great example, with each major clash being equivalent to a round of boxing followed by a small break to assess damage and reassess fighting strategies.

First rounds are fairly detailed in most cases, with later rounds being glossed over, until the final climax or for important story beats for the fight itself. The Rocky movies are a good example of how fight pacing could be done, with the final bouts. At least, that's my inspiration.

I could probably pull up more specific examples from my writing if you want. Otherwise, I'm sure you can get the idea.

 

[melchi]

Best known method is to structure it in a turned based style, separated by paragraphs.

paragraph 1 :Melee (action) against magic user.

Paragraph 2: Reaction: Magic user, against melee.

The important thing is to _NOT_ mix the character's together in the same paragraph.

Round one:

Magic user,

Melee

Round two:

Melee

magic use

If melee lands a stab, first sentence is that, can have the magic user bleed or whatever. But the focus has to stay on the melee for that paragraph. It is just like essays in high school, paragraphs point to one thing above all else.

 

[Bimbanana]

In my opinion, there's two style of action scene you can deliver:
1. The japanese version, like yu yu hakuso fight where a few minutes duel had tons of commentary and inner talks
2. The hollywood version, fast paced john wick-like, where timing and clarity matters

I use the second.

Here's some that i wrote:

A gunfight + hand to hand combat scene:
The Red Circle Shooting

A fleet battle scene:
Fog of War

 

[TinaMigarlo]

White Death - Chapter 13 – Surprise | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

hand to hand combat chapter.
The setting :
---an old farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a tiny backwoods town
---the bad guy grabbed the girl and took her
---the good guy has sneaked into the basement, to size things up
---the girl knows he's in the basement, and feeds him as much information on the sly as she can to help him out

you'll read the fight develop, commence, happen, then the immediate aftermath.
this is no bar fight, this is life or death.

it could read a little smoother, but its in a list of things need read and edited again.

 

[Rolanov]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

Well, actually my MC is the only non-magic and non-aura user fighting in the world full of magic and auras,

My style of action is more technical i guess. I like detailed scene, its combination of anime like fight and real life technical.

Let me give you example :
MC vs Dragonkin.
MC in training

 

[Dawnathon]

One major component is deciding how much "health" your characters have. Don't mistake that for a literal HP system. Rather, in the back-and-forth, to-and-fro attacks between the combatants, how many attacks should it take to decide the battle? Some people write very prolonged fights where it's the equivalent of several MMA rounds before victory is decided. Other people write very sharp combat scenes where it could only be a couple strikes that seals the fate of anyone involved. Both have their place in different stories, but it decides how you should go about it. Prolonged fights should keep their actions as brief as possible since there's going to be so many of them. Sharp fights really need to sell the weight behind each blow and make it clear why it has the impact it does.

I prefer sharp scenes myself. It might get a bit wordy for how brief the actual timespan is, but it's a trade-off worth making. Just having a character stuck until they pull out a hidden power to save themselves, that's going to kill your readers, or at least grey their hairs early. Having a character cornered and trapped, desperately going through what little they have to work with for a final Hail Mary, gritting their teeth broken bones and hopeless odds to risk it all with this final gambit? Now you have a defining character moment. It could be the exact same literal events happening either way, but the one with the longer word count of the two is what I'd enjoy writing more.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

That's hard to answer, to be honest. I like action, but I'm not always very good at it, I believe. It depends-ish?
Since you allowed it so freely, I'd just put out an example. I'm not even sure if this counts as promotion, since I just said I'm not that good, but at the same time, I don't hate it. It's okay; it portrays the way I use action in my stories pretty well.
-> Prologue of The Crazy Daughter of the Duke's Family