Advice for people who are better at writing dialogue than action
As someone who has always been able to spit out witty quotes but couldnât write a fight scene to save my life, here are some tips that have helped me that I would like to share.
Letâs get the hard one out of the way first. Iâm going to use âfight sceneâ for this example, but it can apply to just about any action scene. Have a starting point and an ending point, then just start writing. So letâs say two characters threaten each other. Okay. One takes a swing. Alright. What next? Maybe another one swings back. What next? First one kicks. Is it appropriate for character 1 to stab character 2 yet? Probably not. What can I do instead? Just work it out one action at a time. If it doesnât come out the best on paper, who cares? You have a baseline. This isnât easy and maybe not the best way to do it, but itâs a method Iâve used and itâs better than just saying âThey fought until character 2 was stabbed.â
Just use what youâre good at, famâ. Direct the action with dialogue. If youâre like me and your characters have an affinity for arguing with each other, sometimes their conversation will give you a better idea of whatâs going on anyway. I mean, I essentially have a chase scene where one character gets shot and the conversation goes as follows.
J: thatâs what you have to say to that?
Thatâs not a great example, but this is also from a scene Iâve rewritten like ten times.
I mean, also, what about the âturn around slowlyâ scenes in horror movies?
I also use this sometimes to informally describe how a rock looks like the middle finger or something because the characters think itâs funny. It helps me, at the very least.
Point being, use your charactersâ thoughts to give the reader a deeper idea of whatâs going on if itâs hard for you to explain it outright.
First go in and write whatever the characters are discussing before going in and filling in the action. Do what you like and feel comfortable doing first, then perfect it later on. If itâs a fight scene, maybe the characters are sharing insults. Write the insults and then conduct the action to fit the rising tension accompanying the verbal insults. Donât get writers block over the action; save it for when you have the energy.
As a perfectionist with anxiety, I try to make my first drafts perfect. Spoiler alert: YOUR FIRST DRAFT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. Life is too short to get upset over your weak action scenes. Write simple sentences and get the basis down. Who cares? Certainly not me at this point. When you go back and edit, then you can flip them around, add color and flavor, and make them come to life. But in the first draft? Itâs perfectly okay if your action scene is âHe ran towards her. He hugged her. She hugged him. They went home.â Later, you can go in and add things like âThey embraced each other, tears in their eyes, never expecting to let go.â Itâs okay if youâre not there. One step at a time, famâ.
If anyone else has any suggestions or tips for people who struggle with dialogue, feel free to add! These are just what has helped me through the years.
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