Shenanigans. Brilliant as usual. My favorite is all the martial arts dancing. How do you write action so well? It's difficult and you find all the right verbs and it's always so precise and cinematic. Mai and Zuko voice so strong, and they are just hopeless. Praise praise!
Yeah, despite coming at this fic with the basic idea of "Mai and the Blue Spirit steal a train," I think the centerpiece is the duel in the middle. It really embodies everything this story is about, with bonus nudity. XD
As for the action, I hope it doesn't sound too pretentious to say I've made a study of good written action scenes? I got into fanfic writing originally just to see if I could write a fight sequence that was fun to read for general audiences, to test some theories about why certain professional authors I like are so much better at it than others. Then it turned out I like writing other stuff, too, and the rest is history.
The basic idea is that every "beat" in the action sequence should be a problem-solution set. The character is presented with a problem, be it a gang of ninjas or a tricky tactic from an opponent or a trapdoor opening beneath their feet or whatever, and then has to come up with a solution. That makes the action into a Story, rather than a string of meaningless events. The physical descriptions should be kept to the minimum required for the reader to picture it, since action sequences should move quickly, but I admit I struggle with this one. I try use evocative words to help keep things running lean, especially since I don't want to stop in the middle to remind readers of features of the location that will come into play. I also try to control the flow of the sequence and offer "slow motion" moments with single sentence paragraphs for the really 'cool' stuff. The actual action is then just about knowing the genre being evoked (martial arts, superhero, shoot'em up, etc) and using the stuff that's in the toolbox. For the duel between Mai and Zuko in the pond, I actually watched some martial arts comedy movies so that I'd have the 'feel' and style in my head when I came up with the sequence. Mai pressing up against Zuko, pulling his spare sword out of its sheath, and then spinning away was one of the first moves I developed for the sequence, and I built around it.
As is probably becoming clear, writing action takes longer than most other forms of writing, except maybe comedy. A single action sequence is essentially a little story unto itself, and it requires a lot more planning than a conversation (which should also be a little story, IMO). Comedy action is, therefore, the most labor-intensive writing I've done. This story was a definitely a labor of love for me.
Which is all leading up to me being SUPER pleased you appreciate the end result! Thank you very much! =)
Best long response ever. Super helpful. The problem-solution set is a great point. Not joking but I'm actually studying some of your stories for good action scenes, lol, so it makes sense you did some deep work. It shows. Would love to hear you elaborate on authors you studied and what else is in the toolbox. Perhaps I'll wander to your Tumblr and ask anything soon! You should share this with more people
I'm glad it helped! Definitely hit me up on Tumblr if you want more details and/or specifics.
As for the authors who offer the best examples, I like Adam Troy Castro for his extended action sequences; he moves things through several 'acts' so that he can fill up a good chunk of a book with a battle without it getting repetitive, but his individual moments are still very good and hits all the points I described in my first comment. Matthew Woodring Stover is a practicing martial artist and can sometimes provide a bit too much detail about what exact bones his characters are breaking, but that kind of detail can be informative in a general informational sense, and he's good at keeping his fights surprising, engaging, and centered on character (and also epic in feel, as he just has this great writing voice that could make cheese molding on the table into something epic). Brandon Sanderson is a bit of a negative example, as he's good at coming up with stuff that would look great as visuals, but provides far too much detail for prose and tends to have his protagonists rampage over the bad guys; I read his fights and see the spots where I'd want to rewrite them to make them top-notch. Aaron Allston is one of the best I've seen at writing spaceship battles, capturing that 'roller-coaster' feel my problem-solution sets are meant to evoke, and showcasing a lot of creativity in the tactics the characters use as their solutions; even though I don't write spaceships, I do like evoke the same use of tactics as he does.
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