25 Days of Writing: Day 3 - Scene(s) You Want To Write
Thursday, February 25th, 2021 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizvogel3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway).
That would be all the fight scenes, ever. I love writing fight scenes -- action scenes of any kind, really, but fight scenes are especially fun. A good fight scene is a showcase for the character's attitude, world-view, and beliefs, as well as their training and background. Do they fight close-in with elbows and teeth, or keep to distance weapons and cold precision? How do they react if the fight goes against them, and how do they win out anyway -- or how do they react if they don't? For that matter, how do they react if they do win? Plus fight moves are just plain fun, and an active character with an immediate necessity of dealing with something is an easy character to write.
Unfortunately, for all that showcasing to have meaning, you first have to establish the character, and the opposition, and the circumstances, and the mission goal that puts the character in the situation in the first place.... can't we just jump to the clever elbow strike? There are a number of Highway of Mirrors-related story ideas that exist solely for the cool fight scenes -- and the reason they exist as "ideas" and not "stories" is all the tedious set-up that needs to happen first. I keep trying to come up with a novel idea that's basically just an excuse for lots of running and chasing and fighting and such -- but the darn things keep wanting to have plots.
That would be all the fight scenes, ever. I love writing fight scenes -- action scenes of any kind, really, but fight scenes are especially fun. A good fight scene is a showcase for the character's attitude, world-view, and beliefs, as well as their training and background. Do they fight close-in with elbows and teeth, or keep to distance weapons and cold precision? How do they react if the fight goes against them, and how do they win out anyway -- or how do they react if they don't? For that matter, how do they react if they do win? Plus fight moves are just plain fun, and an active character with an immediate necessity of dealing with something is an easy character to write.
Unfortunately, for all that showcasing to have meaning, you first have to establish the character, and the opposition, and the circumstances, and the mission goal that puts the character in the situation in the first place.... can't we just jump to the clever elbow strike? There are a number of Highway of Mirrors-related story ideas that exist solely for the cool fight scenes -- and the reason they exist as "ideas" and not "stories" is all the tedious set-up that needs to happen first. I keep trying to come up with a novel idea that's basically just an excuse for lots of running and chasing and fighting and such -- but the darn things keep wanting to have plots.
