The three most important elements of your action scene: Character, Character, Character

by Bonnie Hearn Hill

You need more than guns, knives and exploding objects to make an action scene work. When I started writing thrillers, I didn’t know that. The more bodies, the better, right? Those early attempts of mine didn’t sell, and I didn’t have a clue what they were missing. More action, perhaps?

Articles on the internet offered tips on pacing and other literary devices. Okay, I now knew the effects of different chemicals in the bloodstream. I understood how to kill someone with a nail gun to the head. This was about the time my husband started looking worried when I discussed potential weapons at the dinner table.

Only when I began understanding the elements of character-driven fiction was I able to write novels that sold. Don’t make the mistake of thinking a high body count will guarantee a compelling action scene. Remember The Silence of the Lambs? I don’t know about you, but I had to hide my eyes and cover up the words as if I were watching a movie. Yet how many people died in that story? One, and that murder starts the protagonist’s quest. Clarice wanted to save just one girl, stop just one more killing. When you think about that book, what do you remember? Clarice? Hannibal? These characters drive the story.

One of the biggest problems writers make in crafting action scenes is relying on what author Gary Provost called surface tension. This is secondary conflict that is caused by physical danger. Primary conflict is always person to person. Buildings might be blowing up, and bullets may be flying, but it’s the character who makes the scene compelling to the reader. Stay in his head, and if possible, have him interact with one other character. Think of Rue in The Hunger Games. Those scenes with Katniss would have been less without Rue in them. Their dialogue doesn’t detract from the action in the scene; it enhances it.

Another problem writers make is what I call researchitis. It’s fascinating to pore over details of murder and mayhem when you’re researching. Besides, doing so allows you to put off actually sitting down and writing your story.

You really don’t need to know that much to make a scene believable. Write the scene first, and research the kind of bullet in the gun later if you think you really need to.

Here are some other elements you can include to make the most of your action scenes:

An antagonist. A single antagonist is better than an army of them. You may have an army, but make one person the true antagonist in the scene.

Dialogue. It improves your pace.

Stakes. Why is your protagonist committed to the scene’s outcome? What is at stake for your character?

A ticking clock. Something is going to happen if your character doesn’t win this struggle—now.

Tight point-of-view. Your character is in the middle of an action scene. She is not going to be thinking of the action as a blow-by-blow police report. Record the action through her senses.

The best action scenes have true tension because of the characters and what they have at risk. Only then will the danger matter to the reader or the writer.

Now, where did I put that nail gun?

***

 Author, teacher and public speaker Bonnie Hill worked as a newspaper editor for 22 years, a job that, along with her natural nosiness, increased her interest in contemporary culture. Her novel, Intern wascalled “a page-turner” by Publishers Weekly. Killer Body, a thriller about our weight-obsessed culture, was a Cosmopolitan magazine “pick.” She also wrote three newspaper thrillers featuring hearing-impaired reporter Geri LaRue for MIRA Books, the young adult Star Crossed series, and most recently, Ghost Island, a paranormal love story. Her publication credits include short stories, nonfiction books and articles.

>>Bonnie's classes, Murder, We’ll Write: Intro to Crime Fiction and Vampires Optional: Writing Young Adult Fiction, start September 5. 

***

Read More »

3 comments Bonnie Hearn Hill, character, scene problems, WOW Classes, WOW instructor

Layers in Life and Writing

While looking through Facebook photos, I noticed the different hairstyles of my friends. Hairstyles have certainly changed over the years; my all time favorite—the layered cut. The "Shag", the long shag, the short shag, it didn't matter as long as there were lots of layers. I like layers.

Cakes come in layers and we layer clothes. Make-up (which I don't care much for) is layered and bricks,to build a nice house, are layered. My life is multi-layered and yours is too. 

Characters in a novel or even a short story need to be multi- layered. 

Think about the character in the book you're reading or in the one you're writing, how many layers does the character have? What are the obstacles? How many are from the present and how many are from the past? If your character only exposes one layer, how interesting does that make her? 

Here's a check list:

1. What overall problem needs to solving?
2. What additional problem can be added (key word additional)?
3. And what additional problem can be added? 

Problems, problems and more problems make layers. The main character should have, at the very least, three problems. In my WIP (work in progress), Jill is an FBI agent trying to catch a serial killer, she's dealing with the multiple shootings she's been involved in, struggling with the fact that she doesn't have children and that she's attracted to her partner. Like all of us, she has much, more than that going on in her life, but that gives you an idea of the kinds of problems one character should have. 

Jill's partner, Jack has his own set of problems that build up the layers of his character. He's twice-divorced, has a 5 year old daughter who he's trying to get custody of, he can't keep partners or a steady relationship. He never had a little sister, so he tries to make Jill his sister. He's trying to catch a serial killer. 

Problems and conflict are synonymous when it comes to your characters life. 

Joy Cagil, in comparing writing a novel to screen writing, says, "Creating a conflict inside the story begins with setting up a motivation. The question to ask here is what does the character want the most? Motivation is important because it makes the audience identify with the character. This doesn't mean that the character has to be goody two shoes, but what he wants the most--be it to blow off the planet--has to be of interest to the reader or the viewer. When the viewer's curiosity is aroused, he'll stay with the story to see if the character will succeed in his quest.

The screenwriter likes to "create a platform" so he can push forward the motivation of the character. This means creating a scene or a sequence of scenes that state the point of the story clearly, so the audience or readers can penetrate inside the character. At this stage, the character's touch-up characteristics or his shades may be developed that were left out in the initial planning of the story."

Read More »

2 comments Cher'ley Grogg, Conflict, layered cake, layers, multi-layered, novels, scene problems, shag, writing.

Got Scene Problems? We've Got Quick Solutions!

If you're in the process of editing your NaNoWriMo manuscript, novel, or short story and find that a scene isn't working, it may have one of these problems listed below. See if you can pinpoint the problem and apply the quick-fix solution!

Scene drags at the beginning
Problem: Too much exposition
Solution: Get your characters interacting right away--at least by the second paragraph. Provide them with a conflict. The story of how they got there and why can wait.

Scene has too much dialogue
Problem: "Talking head" syndrome
Solution: Break up dialogue with actions, gestures, or character's thoughts. For example, instead of having a character say, "I'm so sorry," have them place a hand on the other character's shoulder. Instead of having a character say, "I'm so angry!" have them throw something. Remember, dialogue is a vehicle for moving the plot forward--for characterization, background information, description of other characters, and for creating suspense and building tension. If you allow dialogue to fill a whole scene, most likely, your characters will end up talking all over the place about anything and everything, and your action and narrative will suffer.

Reader can't visualize the scene
Problem: Not enough setting description
Solution: Add descriptive details to the setting to ground your reader. You don't want these characters in a blank room. Your reader needs to know where they are--just a few descriptive sentences. Choose descriptions that enhance the mood of the scene.

The scene is...(yawn) boring
Problem: The scene doesn't advance the plot
Solution: Cut it! If there are some parts of the scene you really love, you can combine those ideas with one of your existing scenes to make it more vibrant.

Tension has waned
Problem: Too many slow scenes in a row
Solution: If the scene is still good for character development, you may want to keep it, but you should consider rearranging your scenes.

Scene starts off strong but fizzles out at the end
Problem: Misplaced climax
Solution: Rewrite the scene and put the emotional high point at the end.

Good luck!

Read More »

1 comment dialogue, editing fiction, scene fixes, scene problems