Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearzy
I like what Xuvie said first about short sentences.
Think of it like a movie scene, and however long your sentence or your description is, is how long looking at that thing, or doing that action is taking.
For example: "She swung her leg out, tripping him." sounds really quick, while "she spun her leg in a wide circle, tripping her opponent" makes it seem like one of those scenes in sherlock holmes where he thinks a few moves ahead, and time slows down for the reader/viewer.
The other trick is to limit your narration, or the internal monologue of your POV character. Assume that the only thing that is on their mind is exactly what is going on then and there. It brings a sense of urgency. If the only thing your character is worrying about is punching that other person, or not getting punched, then the reader knows that things are kind of dire.
Your action scenes don't have to be short to not drag on, they just have to have a sense of urgency.
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I see, good advice! Focusing too much on a character's internal monologue is probably a big part of my problem. I'm very descriptive and I tend to get into the details and the characters' thoughts quite a bit, so that's something I think I need to work on in general
It seems especially important in the action scenes, since timing is everything with those. Creating a sense of urgency is definitely my goal, thank you for the help!
---------- Post added 12-29-2015 at 12:24 AM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by xuvrette
Film writing is different. Cause they actually have a separate profession, Martial Art Director/ Chronographer position.
So, the screen write just have to write -fight going on-, then the chronographer would arrange accordingly to what is provided by the screen writer. If the wound at the shoulder is significant, screen writer would just mention the important point of the fight scene.
Let me add one bit. Objective is quite important. What is the fight scene for? The cause of it? and the outcome of it? It can be one or many others. And in the event there are a lot of objectives, tier it according to importance, so you won't lose focus.
Have to figure out what you want to gain from that fight. eg. get the main character hurt? Show off character's secret skill?
Basically, justify how important that fight scene is, and adjust the length of the fight accordingly.
As, writing a fight scene and fight scene in film is very different. Fight scenes would ALWAYS look awesome on film, but not so in words.
Writer forum had been quite quiet lately, so excuse my long winded self absorbing blabber.
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Oh no, not at all! I'm just glad I'm getting advice about this! I noticed that this forum doesn't seem very active, which is a shame.
I hadn't really thought about the point of each individual fight scene. I guess it's usually in large part because they're cool and exciting lol but I'll have to put some more thought into what else I'm trying to accomplish with them.