writing woes

[rivendellrose]

Someday? I really need to learn to properly write good action scenes. Somehow I always end up writing scenes with battles or what-have-you, and... I really pretty much just suck at them. It's kind of painful.

Under deadline and a little braindead today. Keep getting distracted trying to research, or trying to get the right word for something, or just plain (as right now) trying desperately to figure out how to write what's going on. I can see it in my head... it's just hard to find the right words for an actual battle, especially when my characters, bless them, are pretty much just looking on in horror.

For now.



Screw this shit. I may very well at this moment officially hate every word of this bloated, nearly 20,000 word piece of tripe. I am so very sorry to the friend who foolishly promised to edit it.

Comments

[toastedtea.livejournal.com]

When writing action scenes, it helps to keep descriptions short and sharp. Remember, the operative word is action. You have to convey that with your prose, and that's more easily done by keeping sentences short, fast and to the point.

Also? Lemme know if you need/want a beta reader. 8)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I get kind of lost sometimes, trying to describe what I can see going on in my head, so maybe short sentences will help with that, as well as making it stylistically more motive (mobile?).

Heeeee, I will definitely be taking you up on that at some point, although perhaps not for this particular piece. I've got one beta-reader lined up who's been kind enough to put up with my flailing on this thing for a while, so that I can get a serious red-pen job on it before anyone who hasn't already been subjected to its self-indulgent madness has to see it. :P

It's fanfic. The Hellboy-fic-of-doom that I've occasionally referred to on and off for... oh, more than a year, now. Dunno what I did to have this bunny-from-hell settle into my head.

[toastedtea.livejournal.com]

so maybe short sentences will help with that, as well as making it stylistically more motive (mobile?).

That's the point, exactly. You want to keep action scenes moving, make the reader feel like they've been swept up in it.

It's fanfic. The Hellboy-fic-of-doom that I've occasionally referred to on and off

Oh, very cool! I look forward to reading that when it's done. 8)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Woo!

I look forward to reading that when it's done. 8)

At this point, I just hope it won't be total crap. I think that's the "oh god, get-it-finished!!" talking, but it's hard to tell at this point. :P

(Hee, your icon. That's awesome.)

[toastedtea.livejournal.com]

At this point, I just hope it won't be total crap.

That is completely normal. I always get like that in the final stages of a fic. *g*

(The icon is made of win, isn't it? Soon as I saw it, I had to snare it.)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Glad to know it's not just me, on that feeling. ;)

It is, it is made of utter win! Awww... someday I really have to write something with more Hellboy than the other characters. I really do love him, he's just also a tough character for me to find the voice for.

[toastedtea.livejournal.com]

Definitely not just you. It's a common feeling for most writers. You get to a certain point where you've been working on a piece for so damned long you hate the sight of it, and can't tell if it's good, bad or indifferent. That's what your first readers & editor are for: to be an objective pair of eyes.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, totally. I mean, I get it with all my stuff, but it's usually not quite so acute as this one, which... worries me. :P As does the fact that I've hit a "groove" of.... writing a hundred words, staring blankly and wondering what the hell I think I'm doing, having a sip of beer, staring blankly, and vaguely considering having my villain pop out with the Large Hadron Collider and just create a black hole.

...The really sad thing is, if Mike Mignola did that (and he would), it would totally work. Me, not so much. ;)

[toastedtea.livejournal.com]

Welcome to my life. *wry grin*

...The really sad thing is, if Mike Mignola did that (and he would), it would totally work.

So, find your version of the LHC. ;)

[nekokoban]

I can't really offer much help or advice with actions sequences (because I suck at those too, unless they're already kind of weird and choppy--kind of like the porn I write!), but I gotta say that it is pretty much exactly why I got a twitter: so I could liveblog my frustrations with things and not clutter my actual LJ about it. :|a

ALSO I got the link you sent, but I only got home like ten minutes ago, so I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. \o/ I WILL SOON!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeeeah, I'm good as long as I can do a sort of free-form stream-of-consciousness poetry thing with it (ha, that sounds even weirder than I mean it, but I'm tiiiiired, so I hope you sort of understand). But actual regular "hello I am a book" kind of action? Ha. I wish.

This is why James Alan Gardner will forever be one of my heroes, because he's good at action, and I find that fascinating in a writer.

And yay! The vid is quite cute, and there others on the related thing, although I turned out to be wrong about it being all of the behind-the-scenes stuff, which is a pity. I still want to find those. No rush, though!

And twitter. Yes, maybe. I am starting to see how it could be useful....

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Short sentences. Sparse description. Pay very close attention only to those things that people actually pay attention to when they are immersed in action (and that's different for different people; some tunnel vision, others will adopt a radar-like mentality because they need to see everything that's going on around them to evaluate it, but it's short and sparse and real time. No time to lollygag. Threat or not a threat? Handle it or move on.

For example, during action, your character isn't paying attention to a lot of things. He's probably no noticing the pretty your Corsican girl with spiral hair on the corner with the intricately styled corset with a pattern of the home nation of the Blahblabian race that descended from Atlantis a thousand years ago.

He ran past her, his feet leaving dust clouds on the street, as he did a dance for traction in his turn. It was only as he passed the pretty girl, and moved beyond her, that he heard the click of a gun and recognized the position of the pretty girl in the corset, and wondered when he was going to get around to realizing that not all enemies wore tidy uniforms for him to recognize, and...

(Purposely overdone for the sake of example :P)

Instead.

A woman stood on the corner. A quick glance. No uniform. No threat. He ran past her and skidded on to Market Street.

Then he heard the click of a gun.

Fuck.

...

Or something like that. Obviously, POV and the type of action will alter that :)

[irishninja.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in reading good fight scenes, I recommend RA Salvatore. The Drizzt books, particularly the second trilogy, have pretty awesome fight scenes.

Otherwise, it looks like everyone has given you pretty good suggestions of how to deal with action scenes. :)