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Writing Fight/Action Scenes

May 30, 2011 by in category Lyon's Lair tagged as , , , ,

by Jennifer Lyon 
I never thought I’d be forced to do this, but here it is…
I might actually have to thank my brothers. All these years, I have credited my parents and my sister for giving me my love of reading that led to writing. But more and more, reviewers are bringing up the fight and actions scenes in my books. I have a writer friend who sends me her fight scenes to critique…and you get the point.
So how is it I can write fight and actions scenes when I have not taken a single martial arts class in my life?
Because the first years of my life were practically on the job training. One of my earliest memories is seeing my older brother do a flying jump, snapping a kick in mid air, and break a board held by my other brother. I can still hear the crack that board made.
A few years later, one of my brothers went on to become a black belt, and he co-owned a karate studio with a friend. I remember being in the studio one day, I was about eight or nine years old, and watching him and the friend spar. It was terrifying and exhilarating. I remember the long wall of mirrors and the blue mat, the pungent smell of sweat and male, the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, the shouts and grunts, and how fast it all moved.
And most amazing of all, the expression in their eyes when they saw a weakness in their opponent then planned and executed a strike—all at lightning speed!
It’s all vivid and tactile in my memory.
And that’s exactly how a fight scene, or any action scene, should read in a book. It must be vivid and present…not distant and vague. The reader wants to see and feel with the point of view character. Here are some of my tips:
Establish point of view and stay there. This character is going to show your reader everything. It will anchor your reader into the scene and help them “see” everything that’s happening. And the same time, it should be revealing more about your character too. This is an example from NIGHT MAGIC:
Phoenix sprinted around the side of the building, followed the blood trail of the witch to a ladder on the side of the church and started climbing.
It was an A-line roof two stories up. Damn, he wasn’t a fan of heights. Why couldn’t people do their business on the ground? Hell. He grabbed the edge of the roof and silently hauled himself up to the wickedly slanted top. The tiles were slick, and he had to lay flat on the slope to keep from sliding off. He looked around while digging his fingers into the raised edges of the tiles.
In this snippet, first tension is building because there’s going to be a fight on an A line roof—someone is going to fall off, it’s only logical. But as we’re in Phoenix’s head, we’re learning about his fear of heights. And notice that while he mentally gripes, his fear doesn’t stop him.
Never use passive writing in a fight scene (and I can think of a time when I broke my own rule!). Passive writing of Phoenix keeping a woman protected behind his back while fighting his attackers: “In an instant, the rogue was on the ground.”
Yawn. A more active version:
He didn’t want to move and expose the woman. He ripped off his chain, snapped it around the knife hand, and jerked. The rogue fell to the ground, and Phoenix flipped his knife to stab the blade through the rogue’s back—
Choreograph the scene. Draw out the setting and all your characters on paper. It helps you build a visual in your head and then you know where everybody in the scenes is. And more importantly, what they are doing. You must keep track of everyone through your point of view character’s eye. That way you don’t start out with five people in a fight and two just fade away never to be seeing or heard from again. Drawing it out really helps—even with my stick figure drawings!
Action/fight scenes must be building your plot, otherwise they are just filler. Readers recognize filler. Make your action scenes work for you. Gratuitous fight scenes are as boring as gratuitous sex scenes.
Fast paced writing. This is the place for shorter sentences and carefully chosen description. In this example Phoenix spots the rogues and a woman, and goes after them into an alley. This is the entire description of the alley:
The cool air was blighted by the combined stench of rotting food, copper, and urine. Scanning the narrow street lined with weak light that spilled from the street-lights and buildings, he looked left and spotted the tops of the rogues’ heads on the other side of the blue Dumpster.
Just enough to set the scene, give the reader of visual. And notice we get the visual as Phoenix is looking for his prey. Fight scenes should be tight, clean writing using only the words you need.
And that’s all I can think of at the moment. Except to say thank you to my brothers!
Okay now for a little promo: Romantic Times gives SINFUL MAGIC, out May 31st, a 4 ½ HOT and said:
The power of undying love truly shines through here, adding plenty of emotion to an otherwise dark and action-packed adventure. Another Lyon triumph!
SINFUL MAGIC hits the shelves on May 31st, I hope you’ll pick up a copy!
Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. NIGHT MAGIC and SINFUL MAGIC are the third and fourth books in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. 

Visit Jen at www.jenniferlyonbooks.com or visit the Wing Slayer Hunter Lair on Facebook 
     
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A Fantasy Life by Janet Quinn Cornelow

May 28, 2011 by in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as ,

I have decided to put Wild Honey up at Amazon on Kindle. I can do this myself since I own the e-book rights. The paperback is already there, but I have no way of checking if it is selling.

Debra Holland is the one who convinced me to do this and I have a chapter of her book, Wild Montana Sky, in the back of my book. She has a copy of the first chapter of Wild Honey in one of her books. A little advertising going on there.

I figure since I cannot sell the book again, I would post it myself. Debra has been doing well with hers. I am waiting for the formatted copy to come back in the next day or two so I can get it up.

If this works, I may put up my children’s book. Of course, I have to come up with a cover for it. I owned the cover for Wild Honey. I have found it is extremely hard to sell children’s books. Harder than adult books.

I have not done much writing. I have six classes I am teaching online at the moment and way too many papers to grade.

I also have become a grandmother, something I was beginning to think I would be too old to enjoy when it happened. My middle son Michael and his wife Jessi had Isabella Ruth three weeks ago. Of course I think she is the most wonderful thing in the world. In the looks department, she takes after her daddy. Irish genes can be really strong. However, she is a much better baby than he ever was. She is happy and sleeps at night.

She is contemplating the world.

Of course Chewbaca, my dog and my baby, is not quite certain what he thinks about her. When she started to cry the other day, he got very upset and wanted to examine her. I think he thought something was wrong and he needed to be involved in helping her.

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Reader Events Rock!

May 6, 2011 by in category Events, Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Reading tagged as , ,

by Linda O Johnston

I just returned home from a trip east to attend three wonderful events for readers and writers.

The first was Malice Domestic, for fans and writers of traditional, cozy mysteries. I did my first Malice Go Round, which is speed-dating for fans. Lots of authors in groups of two visit about 20 tables packed with fans and told them all about their respective series in two minutes or less each. Exhausting! But definitely fun.

I attended panels and meetings and dinners at Malice, and was also on a panel called Tales with Tails with other authors whose stories involve animals. It was all delightful!

Then it was time to head for Oakmont, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, for the Festival of Mystery presented annually by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.

Before the actual Festival was the librarians’ tea. It was really enjoyable meeting librarians and book club members there–with lots of goodies to eat, too. My mouth was usually too busy chatting to eat much, though.

And the Festival? What an amazing event! About 50 authors were delightfully swarmed by lots of fans in book-buying mode. We got to introduce ourselves and chat with readers and sign a bunch of books, and all this in a town that’s out of the mainstream–which means that many people had to come a distance to attend.

Didn’t hurt that I still have family in Pittsburgh. I got to see my father and aunt while I was there.

So now I’m looking forward even more to RWA National. How about you?













Have you read the new Lauren Vancouver, Pet Rescuer series? The first book BEAGLEMANIA was released in March 2011. It’s a spin-off from the Kendra series, and Lauren was introduced in HOWL DEADLY.

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

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Heck Yeah! E-Covers That Seduce & Sell

April 15, 2011 by in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster tagged as , , ,



See all my covers at: http://www.rebeccaforster.com/

by Rebecca Forster
I doubt this will come as a surprise, but ‘pretty’ sells. So does intriguing, shocking, soothing and sexy. That’s why I spent the last three weeks sweating over cover designs for my backlist romances (all of which I hope you’ll check out for your E-reader) and redesigning my thriller covers.

Why, you may wonder, did this exercise create such angst? After all, these are only E-covers. Nobody will run their thumb over the richly embossed type, check to weight of the stock or touch it in a bookstore. This isn’t a ‘real’ cover on a ‘real’ book. And that is my point exactly. These covers are more important than a paper because they will live on in perpetuity.

In this new publishing reality authors who have backlists and don’t own the rights to their covers must now become designers; indie authors who have never had the benefit of seeing their work transformed into a visual face a daunting task of identifying the soul of their books. Bottom line, unlike paper, an E-cover’s impact will be farther reaching than any of us can even imagine.

In the old days an author might reproduce their cover image on bookmarks and mugs. In this brave new world, E-covers pop up as thumbnails on Facebook, Linked-In and other social media posts. They are broadcast to readers of blogs and reviewers who promote your work. An E-cover makes a statement on your own website. An E-book cover is brought up full-size and full color on most readers. An E-book cover sets the tone for your book in a way that a paper cover never could because you – the author – have designed it and that is the truly exquisite bottom line.**

No longer am I at the mercy of a New York art director working off a synopsis of the book we spent months writing. Never again will I have a cover where Lady Justice had a sex change and became a sword-toting Roman guy. I have seen the last of a beautiful ocean on the cover of my book that is set in the high desert of California. Hurrah! I have taken the beaches of cover design, and planted my flag and you can too.

I must confess that initially I was like a young soldier rushing into war without realizing how important the battle was. I lucked out with my Witness Series covers but others looked amateurish, weak and unmemorable. I had that revelation as I readied my romance backlist for E-publication. I was determined to make my covers as easily identifiable as my writing style so when faced with the prospect of creating a minimum of 8 new covers, I knew I needed a plan. I studied E-covers of books I admired and those on the top seller lists. I began to experiment. I realized that, like a first draft of a book, my covers were not perfect the first time out. I began to understand that I had to kick everything up a notch to get noticed.

The new covers now reflect the theme of each book or are evocative of the mood of that work. With the romances and women’s fiction in particular I tried to limit the use of full-on portrait photography in order not to inhibit the romantic reader’s imagination. For me, blocking and color worked for the romances. For other authors, flowers and pastels might be the key to success. For my thrillers, I decided to go darker with ominous and/or graphic images. Though there are no hard and fast rules, here are some guidelines that worked for me:

• Clean is better than fussy

• People (especially parts of people) are intriguing***

• Experiment. Odd colors and disparate type faces can to work together and create drama

• The covers should reflect the tone of the book

• Slugs should be tight and to the point

• Spend a little money on stock photos (I use ‘small’).

• Plug in image search words that aren’t obvious.

• Use PowerPoint portrait setting for your design. The pixel height and width will be perfect.

So, Heck Yeah! Get on top of the the covers. Your E-career will thank you for it.****

*See more of my handiwork at http://www.rebeccaforster.com/ .
**Even if you had a designer, they worked at your direction. Own that cover!
***See The Reckless Ones – my favorite partial body shot.
****The same thoughts hold true for E-packaging!

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The Writing Life…

April 6, 2011 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , ,

… is busy!

And it’s not just book deadlines that are driving me nuts these days. I’ve taken on blog guest appearances in addition to my weekly post on Killer Hobbies and my monthly post here at A Slice of Orange.

Plus, I’ve thrown myself into pet rescue after all the research I’ve done and continue to do for my new Pet Rescue Mystery series, which started in March with BEAGLEMANIA. I volunteer weekly as a dog adoption counselor at a local private shelter, plus I’ve become the L.A. Pet Rescue Examiner. I have to admit that I haven’t been posting articles for the Examiner as often as I’d like, but I hope to remedy that–and in the meantime I’m collecting some good stuff to talk about there.



BEAGLEMANIA, March 2011
Berkley Prime Crime



Linda O! Johnston

Visit Linda at LindaOJohnston.com
or http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

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