Purple Prose:
action

I’d like to welcome back S.J Kincaid, author of the upcoming YA dystopian novel for boys, Insignia.

If you missed part one of her post on writing action scene, click here and here. Her analysis is based on the book Watership Down. I watched the movie as a kid, and cried. A lot. (Not a great movie to watch if you have pet rabbits).

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TIMING
The entire clash between Bigwig and Woundwort is spliced between the other aspects of the larger battle going on, but the entire outcome hinges on what happens between these two rabbits. It doesn’t drag on too long, it doesn’t eclipse everything else going on. Instead, we get to experience a tiny triumph before the much larger triumph later in the battle when General Woundwort encounters his greatest surprise of all (but I’ve spoiled enough).

ON THAT NOTE…
I can’t go into much more depth about this, because it’s been ages since I’ve read Watership Down, but I remember the Bigwig/Woundwort skirmish vividly. IMO, that’s the mark of a powerful scene—the fact that I remember it after all this time.

The most important thing to take away from this is that I truly believe emotion matters the most, when it comes to writing a decent action scene. That’s what makes a fight scene interesting, and it’s what gives the reader a stake in its outcome. The rest, the technical stuff (the mechanics of throwing punches, of laying down sentences, of word choice), that’s just window-dressing. It’s merely the vehicle for expressing the larger, emotional idea of what’s going on in the scene. Consider the special effects of a movie: yes, they look cool, but if the movie only consists of special effects, what do we care? This is why the clumsy sword battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is so riveting, and the sophisticated, dazzling swordplay between Darth Maul and the two Jedi in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, is so completely lame in comparison. It’s all about what the audience feels. Same principle applies to writing. The trick of an action scene is above all to convince a reader to care. The reader’s emotional engagement in the scene will do the bulk of the work for you.

This is why I often dread writing action scenes. There is so much to consider, so much to put in place beforehand, and it is incredibly easy to throw in an explosion and superficially make the plot more interesting, without bringing a reader along for the ride emotionally. When you do pull of a fight scene, though? When you read your own writing and realize you’ve hit those points you were aiming for? That’s one of the most satisfying things in the world. If you’re an aspiring writer, I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself. So although I dread writing them, I know if I can pull them off, the payoff will make the writing worth it.

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Thanks S.J. Kincaid for you awesome posts on writing action scenes. Here’s the blub to the book my son and I can’t wait to read. It’s due out July 10^th from Katherine Tegen Books (Harpercollins).

IT'S WORLD WAR III.
THE ENEMY IS WINNING.
WHAT IF THE GOVERNMENT'S SECRET WEAPON IS YOU?

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test, and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?

Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid’s futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology.

I’d like to welcome back S.J Kincaid, author of the upcoming YA dystopian novel for boys, Insignia.

If you missed part one of her post on writing action scene, click here. Her analysis is based on the book Watership Down.

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BIGWIG AND WOUNDWORT, AND THEIR VERY PERSONAL HISTORY:
Bigwig infiltrated General Woundwort's frightening warren. Woundwort was impressed by his size and his ferocity, so he imbued Bigwig with some measure of authority. When Bigwig helped a number of rabbits escape Efrafra, and his loyalty to Woundwort was revealed as a ruse, this was more than a heist-- it was a personal betrayal of Woundwort. When Woundwort and his rabbits close in on Watership Down, he's determined above all to exact revenge on the traitorous Bigwig. There is serious bad blood between these two rabbits.

THE STAKES OF THIS BATTLE:
By the time Bigwig faces down Woundwort, the very survival of Watership Down is at stake. They are in the middle of a battle for their very existence. Their free warren is the last bulwark against Woundwort's fascist, rabbity empire, and the entire battle comes down to whether Bigwig can hold a critical tunnel for his side. Bigwig believes even his dead body will block the run long enough to save the day-- as long as he doesn't let the larger General Woundwort shove him backward out of the tunnel. These are the highest stakes you'll ever get here.

CLEVERNESS/SURPRISES DURING THE FIGHT:
I can't recall off the top of my head whether the reader is in on this or not, but Bigwig knows Woundwort is too large to take in an open fight. So he plants himself in a critical tunnel, where Woundwort won't have room to navigate, and buries himself in the dirt. Woundwort starts down the tunnel, certain he's about to win the day, and then out springs Bigwig, taking the clever General by surprise. Clever tactics are employed, surprises are there, and these all hold my attention as a reader.

HIGH EMOTIONS:
There are many instances of this in the battle. This fight is the climax in the Bigwig/Woundwort relationship. Woundwort, more fearsome, cannot overcome Bigwig, who fights out of sheer conviction. Bigwig is determined to die if he must, and Woundwort's bloodlust shifts to a dawning realization he may not win a battle against a rabbit as determined and ferocious as Bigwig, even if he is larger and stronger than Bigwig by far.

There are other small aspects that are extremely well done. In one moment, Woundwort, faced with the first true challenge of his life, demands to know why Bigwig won't just surrender. He offers him his life. Bigwig refuses and informs him 'his chief rabbit' has ordered him to hold this tunnel. This is when we get one of the most satisfying moments of the book: the invincible General Woundwort feels a moment of true fear. We find out he’s always assumed Bigwig was chief rabbit of his warren, and now he envisions a 'terrible chief rabbit' lurking in the tunnels somewhere who is larger and stronger than Bigwig. (We, the readers, know that the chief rabbit, Hazel, is smaller than Bigwig, and has a lame foot, to boot. In fact, General Woundwort had already seen him, and dismissed him without a second thought as insignificant. That's why it's fun to be in on a secret.) Until now, we have only seen Woundwort as a terrible tyrant feared by all. In this particularly striking moment, we get to see Woundwort experience his first true doubt, and it’s wonderful to read.

These emotions throughout the battle, the moments large and small, keep a reader hanging on every word.

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Part three (the final part) will be posted on Monday.

If you want to know about writing action scenes, who better to ask than an author of action-packed YA stories for boys. I’m excited to welcome S.J. Kincaid. Her YA dystopian novel Insignia (Harpercollins) is due out July 10. My son and I can’t wait to read it!

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Thanks for letting me guest post, Stina!

Okay, the truth is, I dread writing action scenes. Given the sheer number of action scenes I included in INSIGNIA, this assertion may strike those who have read the story as odd, but it's true. As my manuscripts approach those moments I need to have violent clashes, I always feel a terrible reluctance to proceed, like I'm about to head to the dentist or attack a sink overflowing with dishes.

I dread writing them because the best action scenes must be set up a long time before the action actually takes place, and there are a lot more considerations to keep in mind than just the technical aspects of throwing punches, or the coolness of giant explosions.

I'm going to focus here on an action scene I think is absolutely awesome: the climactic fight between Bigwig and General Woundwort in the middle of the final battle of WATERSHIP DOWN, by Richard Adams. There are some awesome moments in the battle between other characters, but I'm just going to zoom in on these two.

BASICS:
Any writers querying agents have probably read the conventional wisdom: "Never start a novel with a fight scene." Why is this? Because we don't know the characters, we don't know the antagonists, we don't know the stakes, so we're not sure why we care about this fight. This same line of reasoning explains why we do care when we encounter fight scenes: because we know the protagonist, we know the antagonist, we know the stakes. With that said, let me go into why the fight sequence of Watership Down is awesome.

BIGWIG, THE GOOD GUY:
By the time of this battle scene, the reader is firmly attached to Bigwig. He starts off as an off-and-on antagonistic character to Hazel (the main character), and Fiver (his brother), but they've formed a solid bond of trust by now, and through that bond, we’ve bonded with Bigwig. Bigwig's immense size and strength render him a critical source of support for Hazel, who is now chief rabbit of the new warren, Watership Down. He's also exhibited his humanity (er, rabbit-anity?) on several occasions, most notably when rescuing a tortured rabbit, Blackavar, from the grasp of General Woundwort, and when befriending the seagull, Kehaar. We want Bigwig to live, and we’ve seen enough deaths of other rabbits to realize it is not a given that he’ll survive.

GENERAL WOUNDWORT, THE ENEMY:
From the moment of General Woundwort's introduction, it's clear he's the largest, most frightening rabbit in existence. He's the leader of an almost fascist network of warrens, he survived on his own in the wild (unheard of), his sheer size is staggering, and even the closest thing the Watership Down rabbits have to a WMD (the seagull Kehaar), is batted contemptuously aside by this fearsome rabbit. By the time Bigwig and General Woundwort are ready for their huge brawl, we've learned to fear this rabbit through the other rabbits who know of him. This is a worthy enemy for Bigwig.

Part 2 of the post will continue on Wednesday.

Do you enjoy writing action scenes?