Writing Action Scenes

Guess what? I've never been in combat. (Duh).
Never shot anyone.
Never fought anyone hand to hand.
Never aggressively handled a knife.

...but I have to write about it.

Which means a few things. First, I've got to go paintballing. Yes, I'm using writing a book as a way to justify thrilling outings as "work." So, I will be going paintballing for "research purposes." No, I won't be inviting my 6 foot 7 boyfriend to do any hand to hand combat research, though.

Second, it means I have to do a lot of research. There's nothing worse than writing an action scene that pisses off people who've really been in combat. Here are a few links for action scene research:

Make Your Fight Scenes 20% Cooler (Use your environment, different mediums, different levels)

Basic Ground Fighting Techniques (Army Study Guide)

Writing Fighting (Use line breaks, avoid compound action, avoid excessive linguistical jargon [and phrases like linguistical jargon], short sentences, heightened senses [smell/sound], choreograph it in your head or on paper,

Writing Better Action Scenes (Build up to the action, kill the followers, LOTS of advice on how to portray the antagonist accurately)

How To Write Action Scenes (Slow it down like a slow-mo movie)

Six Flaws in Combat Scenes

Iraq Combat (Short anecdotes about what it really feels like)

On Love and Triangles

...or perhaps just Love Triangles.

I was browsing around on Absolute Write today and stumbled on a thread about whether love triangles were overdone. I'll warn you, there's somewhat of a love triangle in Duplicity (the working title of the novel I'm 89k deep in). Someone redirected me to Carrie Ryan's post about love triangles (read it here).

Here's what she had to say...

To me, a love triangle done right isn't about a female* character's affections bouncing back and forth between two men, it's about her internal struggle within herself as she figures out who *she* wants to be and what's important to her.  This internal struggle then gets reflected externally as she wars within herself and grows.  And that's the heart of any book -- a character's growth from first page to the last.

Writing Song

Today's writing song = "One O Six" (A.N.D.Y. Remix) by  Jupiter

By the way, I waited 45 minutes to get on the Blue Line this morning. FORTY FIVE. It took me a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes to get in (it usually takes about 25). Public transit, I smite thee...

Now, back to work!

I'm Writing A Book!

In fact, I should say I have written a book. It's 89,000 words. That's a lot of carpal tunnel, folks. And there are still 4 scenes I'm considering adding.

89,000 is too long for a Young Adult book. Meaning I'll have to cut, especially if I add those scenes.

I shall have to cut MERCILESSLY!

They say writing a book is like making a baby. Well, I'm about to cut that baby up, and it feels so wrong.

Pray for me to hash away smartly!

P.S. Yes, I've had far too much tea today.