otive and emotion are a couple of key elements to any action scene.
One book series that immediately springs to mind when I think about action scenes is the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. I think most of us will have read the books or seen the movies.
Envision the big battle at the end. Throughout the books the author made it clear why this battle had to be, which makes the reader feel involved in the story. There was a good build-up to the battle and as a reader I have chosen a side I want to win and care about the fate of the characters. This makes for good reading.
It is important for me to know why something is happening. Why are those armies fighting? If I don’t know then I don’t feel that same involvement nor do I really care about the outcome of it all.
The same goes for other action scenes. If I don’t know why person A is chasing person B, why should I care if person A will catch person B? I want to know if person A should catch person B, or if I want person B to escape…
Emotion is important as well. It is crucial to every story that the reader starts to care about the characters they are reading about. This does not mean a story needs to be dramatic, but offering insight into the characters is very important. How do they work? What are their responses to the situations you place them in? What is important to them? What makes them tick? And, too, what are their motives for their actions?
How does an action scene affect them? Portray their emotions. Are they scared? What goes through their minds? What are their physical reactions?
A classic example is a person walking through a dark alley. They hear footsteps behind them… what is their reaction?
If you just write it down as:
Sophie walked through the dark alley. Suddenly, she hears footsteps behind her. She is scared and starts walking a bit faster.
This will not really grip the reader.
Why is Sophie walking through the alley? Is she on her way home from work? Is she cold, taking the short-cut against better judgement? Perhaps she has had a long day at work and is very tired.
What are her responses to the dark alley? What is the dark alley like? Has it been raining, are there the usual litter bins?
Maybe she hears something, is startled and realises that it is just a cat. Only to then hear the sound of footfalls behind her.
It could be that she has good reason to fear those footsteps. It could trigger images in her mind of news articles she read, a past experience or something that happened to someone she knows.
What does she feel will happen?
Perhaps, even, Sophie is not supposed to be in that dark alley. Perhaps she is the person that is up to no good... which puts a whole different spin to that scene and a whole different set of possibilities about her emotions and feelings.
The best advice I can give any author is, ”Don’t just tell, show!”
Kit Marsters is an author on
http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.
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