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)