I hate writing action scenes. Like really hate them. I’m not sure if other authors struggle with getting down those pulse-racing, blood-pumping sequences that change by the heartbeat and have readers clenching the pages, but I do. 

It seems almost impossible to take a list of actions and turn them into an imagined movie as vivid as the ones on screen. With Christmas days away, I can’t possibly talk about action without my favorite holiday movie: Die Hard. If we take apart just one scene from that movie, we can see just how boring the scene at its base could have been. 

SCENE:

Our hero, John McClane, has taken refuge from the hostage-taking gunman on an empty floor of the Nakatomi building. He corners one of Han’s ‘terrorists’ with his gun. When he tells Tony the terrorist to put down his weapon, John gets back a casual reply.

                            TONY

You won’t hurt me… you are a policeman. There are rules for policemen.

                            JOHN

Yeah. That’s what my captain keeps telling me.

Then, John tries to elbow Tony in the face, but he dodges. John loses his gun and jumps on Tony’s back. Tony spins while firing his machine gun and then runs John into the wall. John hangs on as Tony falls through a doorway and down a nearby set of stairs. Tony dies from the fall, but John lives.

Reading those few statements of action at its basest doesn’t really have the same kick as watching the scene unfold in widescreen. On its own, that paragraph describing the fight is missing the grunts of pain John lets out as Tony breaks through the drywall again and again, John’s head acting as the battering ram. There’s no sudden rush of panic as the spray of bullets pierce and ricochet around the pair caught in their desperate struggle.

And if you’re not careful with your writing, your action scenes will be kick-less too. 

One thing our screenplay-esque segment does have going for it, though, is the acting. The first and best step in plotting a fast-moving scene of suspense is to ‘act it out.’ That advice sounds a lot easier than it is however. 

The other day, I listened to an audiobook as I drove to the store. As the reader got to an action-filled scene, the feeling the reader projected completely changed. Her voice quickened. The emotion in her voice grew thick. The volume of the reading fluctuated, lowering to an urgent whisper at times only to swell as the action hit its breaking point. 

That reader performed the scene in the exact manner an author would want someone to read it. The issue is, that while the reader can and should speed up as they get through the scene, an author needs to slow down. Again, this may only be a me problem, but I find that when I start to write a suspense-driven scene, my brain does what the audiobook reader did. My mind speeds up, trying to get the words out in a rush like I might forget them at any second. And while that might sound cool—like I’m caught up in inspiration, like I’m a writer in a movie obsessed with their work—it most often leads to mistakes and lacks feeling. 

If I write my action scenes the way I read them, they’ll sound like John and Tony’s interaction above. Flat. Boring. Emotionless. If that sounds like a problem you have while writing too, the best advice I can give is to slow down. Slow way down. Go one second at a time. Frame by frame. What do the characters see? What do they smell? How can you bring the setting into the action? How can you make the reader feel the characters’ pain and determination?

Know everything. Until you know everything in an action scene, you can’t write anything. And writing slowly will make your audience want to read fast to reach that satisfying end. 

And if you need a game plan on how to get from knowing nothing to knowing everything, go ahead and start with our little Die Hard scene above. Act it out. Start with those boring basics. Who? Where? When? Write the screenplay in basic building blocks, and then think through every second, pulling out all the emotions and sensations as you do. 

Like I said, action may come easily for some writers, but if you’re like me, just remember to know everything and act it out. 

What do you think? How do you approach writing action? Comment below to join the discussion. And while you’re here, be sure to stop on my CONTACT page and sign up to get the newsletter! And if you want to read a romantic suspense full of action, check out GLAZED SUSPICION