Is it just me or are action scenes a cheat code?

[Gryphon]

Action scenes aren't that difficult for me either, but I really wouldn't call them a cheat code. Just a bit of a warning before you complete your thought. If you go into writing stories using that idea of writing fight scenes are easy and can be used as filler, your story will suffer drastically. Fights will begin and end randomly, and actually making the fight good will take a back space to making the fight long. The readers will notice the lack of quality, and they'll leave after the fifteenth fight that somehow takes up three chapters and doesn't contribute to anything else to the story after.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Dialogue is where the words flow better for me. I like having characters talk or act more than fight. Fighting scenes bore me to death if they drag on as much as exposition.

 

[LuoirM]

I would agree. I pump out 5k words chapter of a 4v4 fight easier than an average 1k word chapter with dialogues and shit

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Everyone has different strengths. I will probably ask AI for some help with action scenes when I eventually get back to writing.

 

[CheertheSecond]

Easy to fill it with gibberish.

Very hard to place something meaningful without irritating a lot of people with better spacial intelligence than me.

 

[Jemini]

Personally, I find dialogue easier, and individual combat encounters in my series are always over with very quickly. A clash is usually over within a paragraph or two, and if the fight continues past that clash then it involves one of the combatants taking distance and fleeing in some form or another.

That said, I've had an action scene completely run away from me once, and this is despite the fact that I have a rule of keeping individual combat encounters to take up less than half the chapter. (I've implemented a standard in my world where the enemy group always sends out their top strike forces in groups of 12, which can make for long action scenes despite individuals being taken out quickly.)

It wasn't so much a single action scene though as it was an all out war across the city, showcasing how civilians were getting swept up in it and selling the power of the enemy with the lengths the main cast had to go to in order to run around and hide while baiting the enemy into single encounters. And, of course, there was plenty of dialogue between combat scenes even though effectively none of it was spoken from one side to the other (excluding a period where the enemy had 2 members of the main cast held captive.)

 

[Roseofblades]

The term is "Cinematic Fight Scenes." Which is... fights that look amazing on camera (or in a story) but are in no way realistic. Real combat is bloody, brutal, but mostly importantly... it's fucking quick. That's the whole point. The point is to kill or incapacitate your opponent in the most efficient way possible to reduce or eliminate the possibility of them wounding or killing you instead. An actual combat lasts 30 seconds. And unless you're writing in "bullet time" then that's like... 2 or 3 moves. It's simple and efficient, but makes for absolute shit cinematic fights. It would be like watching Luke and Vader spending all the movie building towards fighting each other and then it's over almost instantly. No... instead there's drawn out combat where both sides have their parts to play. There's tension. There's a climax of the fight. There's the potential for brutality, but it's a small snippet. So... In summary... YES combat can fill word count... but it is in no way realistic. Just... don't go full DBZ and talk about powering up for 10 episodes, spend another 10 powering up, then 5 doing the "Oh yeah? What about this?" and then it all ends in half an episode.

The point is.... Don't get so caught up in the details of combat that you lose your reader. Sometimes too much can be a bad thing. Especially if you find you are lacking in other elements of your story.

 

[Corty]

Huh… I am totally the opposite. I struggle with action and can write dialogue with ease.

 

[PancakesWitch]

@Story_Marc made a nice video about action scenes. I don't think it is a cheat code, that is oversimplifying things.

The issue is the type of story. Because there are two types of action scenes.

1.) Realistic: These ones happen quick so if they are drawn out it doesn't feel right.
2.) Flashy: Ones where fantasy warriors call out powers that are flashy. These ones feel more appropriate to be drawn out. It is more like a performance than a gritty alley fight.

what about fights like in hajime on ippo or wrestling, they're drawn out and they dont have flashy powers, just fighting below rules

 

[Notadate]

Sex ?

 

[Story_Marc]

what about fights like in hajime on ippo or wrestling, they're drawn out and they dont have flashy powers, just fighting below rules

Typically cinematic. I teach using wrestling breakdowns for more drawn-out stuff like that.

Anyway, to answer the OP question, that's just what you enjoy making, nothing more or less. Whether the fight scene is good or not is a whole other thing (don't assume you're good at it just because you like doing it), but the top takeaway is that you're just inclined towards that topic in particular.

 

[HungrySheep]

Huge agree. Action scenes/chapters are by far the easiest to write (for me).