Techniques for Writing Intense Action Sequences

I've heard of different methods used to write intense action sequences, and I'm a little confused. I suppose this is still a "whatever works for you is what you should do" situation, but it seems it might be acceptable to establish the techniques as a bit more of a "rule," shall I say, to ensure that each action scene feels right.

I've read that you should use short sentences, with occasional long sentences, to describe action to create a dramatic, instant effect. To counter it, I've read that using short sentences, which results in more punctuation marks being used, actually slows the reader down because their eyes stop at every. Single. Punctuation. Mark.

I've also read that you should use long, flowing sentences that summarize the actions the characters are completing as simply and concisely as possible. Then use an occasional short sentence, such as a dialogue or describing a character glaring at another. Return to long sentences.

Is there a technique that others typically use? A combination of these and others?

 

I don't know about techniques. I just know what I like. Some of my favorite action sequences are from Robert E Howard. Here's the opening to his Conan story Queen of the Black Coast:

HOOFS drummed down the street that sloped to the wharfs. The folk that yelled and scattered had only a fleeting glimpse of a mailed figure on a black stallion, a wide scarlet cloak flowing out on the wind. Far up the street came the shout and clatter of pursuit, but the horseman did not look back. He swept out onto the wharfs and jerked the plunging stallion back on its haunches at the very lip of the pier. Seamen gaped up at him, as they stood to the sweep and striped sail of a high- prowed, broadwaisted galley. The master, sturdy and black- bearded, stood in the bows, easing her away from the piles with a boat-hook. He yelled angrily as the horseman sprang from the saddle and with a long leap landed squarely on the mid-deck.

"Who invited you aboard?"

"Get under way!" roared the intruder with a fierce gesture that spattered red drops from his broadsword.

"But we're bound for the coasts of Kush!" expostulated the master.

"Then I'm for Kush! Push off, I tell you!" The other cast a quick glance up the street, along which a squad of horsemen were galloping; far behind them toiled a group of archers, crossbows on their shoulders.

"Can you pay for your passage?" demanded the master.

"I pay my way with steel!" roared the man in armor, brandishing the great sword that glittered bluely in the sun. "By Crom, man, if you don't get under way, I'll drench this galley in the blood of its crew!"

The shipmaster was a good judge of men. One glance at the dark-scarred face of the swordsman, hardened with passion, and he shouted a quick order, thrusting strongly against the piles. The galley wallowed out into clear water, the oars began to clack rhythmically; then a puff of wind filled the shimmering sail, the light ship heeled to the gust, then took her course like a swan, gathering headway as she skimmed along.

On the wharfs the riders were shaking their swords and shouting threats and commands that the ship put about, and yelling for the bowmen to hasten before the craft was out of arbalest range.

"Let them rave," grinned the swordsman hardily. "Do you keep her on her course, master steersman."

 

As you move forward and gain experience at writing you'll find that some of the so-called rules work, some don't (for you), and that you can mix things up. You'll also start to get the feel for how to mix things up. You'll pick up advice (a much better term than rules) here and there and find that different advice works in different situations. Try never to just single-mindedly follow any piece of advice—mix things up and see what actually works and in what situations it works. That's the important thing. The advice gives you ideas to try out, then you put them into practice and develop your own way of writing.

 

A couple of things I noticed immediately about that passage from Conan—

There's very sparse description, and it's included in action sentences, not pure description sentences that would slow down the pace. Right off the bat you get—

You know there's someone riding a horse, there's a street sloping down to some wharves. A lesser writer would have started with pure description, something like 'A long dirt road sloped down toward some rotting wharves...' Sloping isn't much of an action, but Howard makes sure most if not all of his verbs are powerful. And he peppers in little dribs and drabs of description of the environment, the crowd, the ship and the rider. Just snatches, just enough to give a fleeting glimpse, which parallels the way people in the scene would actually experience it.

And scanning rapidly, I only noticed a few adverbs. Beginners tend to overuse them rather than find ways to get the information across without adverbs, which is usually far better. It's fine to use them, they're pretty ubiquitous. If you try to completely avoid them your sentences start to feel as weird as if you overuse them. But, as with just about all the writing advice, the key is to learn to use it effectively.

 

That's a small thing I've somehow never considered before...But it makes a world of difference.

 

Go to some of your favorite authors and take note of their action scenes, similar to the ones you're envisioning.

Take notes on how they combined action, dialouge and description, etc. to garner the effect you're looking for.

Then apply what you learned to your own writing style and tale you're writing. In essence, create your own set of rules to use as and modify as needed.

 

First and formost: You do not have to know anything about fighting to write a good action scene. In fact, it's probably better if you didn't in most cases.

Good action scenes are really more about good use of adjectives and verbs than they are any real technical skill concorning fighting. If I were to describe my last HEMA tournament fight in a play by play breakdown, then it would get pretty damn boring. But if I focused on things like the way the mask was tight and hot, sweat on my face, the careful anticipation, the fear that I might fall behind on points, and the tension of leading up to that last winning strike, that is far more interesting.

Yes, some technical knowledge is good, but the use of verbs and adjectives is really the key.

 

ah...yes. It's peerless, actually. Clearly, I need to read these books.

I seem to remember some good passages from The Scarlet Pimpernel, and there were definitely a ton of them in the Aubrey/Maturin novels.

I don't really know that much about writing action scenes, but drawing from the best ones I've read, I don't think the scene itself matters if its narrative context is poor. I mean, use short sentences, use long ones, but if you have a narrative thread that sets up the scene well and invests the reader in its outcome it will be more successful than a scene which may be better-written, but to whose outcome the reader is not as attached.

Assuming all that, I think one key to the scene itself is stripping out the useless information, and even the information which would be useful in a scene where tension and action are less important. idk