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[julilly]

I feel like I tried to catch up on this conversation at a really weird point.

[mare]

Tonight's Question

How do you go about writing your action scenes? Do you ever act them out or verbalize before you type it out? Do you ever have difficulties putting in words what you see in your head? I guess this would apply to more than action scenes, I just know for me this is usually the hardest thing to move from my head onto the screen. lol

[Carter-Orange]

I imagine them playing out in my head, but sometimes writing them doesn't come out how I wanted them to.  It's hard sometimes to type what's in my head. 

[Sakabelle]

I have a really hard time with action scenes and rely really heavily on dialogue. If I'm writing something that's very action heavy I tend to try and visualize it very clearly in my head and write out a sentence every ten minutes. That's why I tend to write stories that are all about drama or a character's internal monologue. Those kinds of things come a lot easier for me and in that case I just try to get into the mindset of the character and think like they would. I either write it fast because I'm so caught up in the scene in my mind, or it goes incredibly slowly because I have a hard time getting into the right mindset.

[FrickingKaos]

I like writing action scenes, sometimes I try to picture it in my head first like I'm watching it play out, then I try to be descriptive when I write it. Weird World has several action scenes, it was somewhat difficult for me to write the action, I'm a bit better with suspense and dialogue.

[Pengi]

For me the key to action scenes is verbs and short sentences. For example something like "The door was locked. Nick kicked the door in harshly. Everything was silent." seemes more action-packed than some long drawn out thing... which is good...unless it's a suspense... Suspense would be all "Nick's muscles tensed, pulsating just beneath the surface, as he pushed the door in with his foot. The door creaked and groaned under the pressure before caving way into the silent hallway beyond."

I think tones can be set by engaging the reader's senses the same way a film would. Instead of one drawn out scene, action scenes in movies are pumping quick flashes of scenes that tell the viewer what's happening, quickly, mimicking that feeling of a fast heart pumping. I think the scenes/sentence length should reflect what you want the reader's pulse to do in the story. If you wanna chill it, go slow. If you wanna speed it up, go quickly.

Does that make sense?

[Pengi]

I feel like I tried to catch up on this conversation at a really weird point.

You mean talking about stripper Brian and youth paster AJ, all while getting American Idiot stuck in our heads isn't a normal point to join a conversation? Whaaa? 

[Sakabelle]

For me the key to action scenes is verbs and short sentences. For example something like "The door was locked. Nick kicked the door in harshly. Everything was silent." seemes more action-packed than some long drawn out thing... which is good...unless it's a suspense... Suspense would be all "Nick's muscles tensed, pulsating just beneath the surface, as he pushed the door in with his foot. The door creaked and groaned under the pressure before caving way into the silent hallway beyond."

I think tones can be set by engaging the reader's senses the same way a film would. Instead of one drawn out scene, action scenes in movies are pumping quick flashes of scenes that tell the viewer what's happening, quickly, mimicking that feeling of a fast heart pumping. I think the scenes/sentence length should reflect what you want the reader's pulse to do in the story. If you wanna chill it, go slow. If you wanna speed it up, go quickly.

Does that make sense?

That makes so much sense, and is so true! I think what you said about engaging the reader's senses is dead on. That's exactly what you want to do, and depending on the type of story, you want to engage them differently.

I never really thought about it consciously like that before!

[RokofAges75]

With action sequences, I try to imagine them like a movie and then write them that way.  I don't do a lot of acting out, though I will get up and pace around when I'm thinking.  I tend to act things out more when I'm describing body language and need a visual of how someone would look; I'll make faces at myself in the mirror or whatever LOL.  

[myconfession]

I'm kind of with Julie, when I have action scenes, I tend to try and write them like they're happening in a movie. Sometimes I'll sit for 30 minutes or so just to try and figure out how I want to word something so that the reader will see what I see in my head.

But how would one description Magic Brian's dance moves? Hmmm 

[mare]

When I write action, I tend to visualize it and act it out in my head. I do say the dialogue out loud and try to move as i'd want my characters to move. LOL I try to get my cats to re-enact but they never do

[mare]

Does anyone have a question for today? I can't think of anything as of yet lol

[Carter-Orange]

OK, I've got a question, a crappy question, but it's still a question.  Roughly how long does it take you to write a chapter?

[RokofAges75]

I do!  I was waiting for a day when you didn't have anything.

This question came from watching the Walking Dead marathon last weekend.  As those of you who watch the show probably know, the TV show The Walking Dead is based on a comic book series, and the writer of the comic, Robert Kirkman, is also the producer of the TV show.  I haven't read the comic yet, but I do know that it's quite a bit different from the show - a lot of the basic storyline seems to be the same, but the pacing of the storylines is different, and the TV show seems to add a lot of stuff that wasn't in the comic, including characters, and leave out other things (so far).

It made me wonder what it would be like to take something you wrote in one format and adapt it into a completely different format.  So the question is, have you or would you ever rewrite one of your fanfics in a different format, such as a script/screenplay or even just an original novel?  If so, which story and what format?  Would you try to keep it as much the same as possible, or would you make major changes, and if so, what kind of changes?

[RokofAges75]

Oops, Steph beat me to it because she is much less wordy than I am, but since I'd already typed all that up, we can just have two questions today!