SiWC 2015 Workshop #2 Action Scenes

Action Scenes
Sam Sykes

Action scenes do include fight scenes, but is not the extent. Other kinds of action sequences: Where the priorities shift, a woman in a  hospital sees a doctor come in and tenses up. An argument. A court when a verdict is coming in. The act of receiving information.  Even playing chess - something that the characters care about, mundane things that for the characters are life & death.

Philosophical underpinnings of what will make an action scene compelling:

1. Action is a conversation

Batman’s fight scenes are arguments where the villains and Batman argue their points… with fists.

Characterization,history, personality, etc aren’t suspended during action sequences. It’s not the events of the sequence that makes it’s compelling, it’s our investment in the characters.

So don’t suspense characterization, because readers will lose empathy.

Compare prequel Star Wars movies with the old ones, we are invested in Luke when he’s hacking away at Darth Vader, but in the prequels, all the fancy fighting/animation, we don’t care at all about any of them because there’s no real relationship between them.

This characterizations should be amplified. Action is where the core of the character comes out.

Goof test: flip to a random action sequence and get a new reader tell you everything they can figure out just from reading the sequence - backstory, motivation, etc. If they can figure out why the character are doing what they did, you’ve written a good action sequence.

Motives and relationship should be apparent. All stories are tales of relationships and how we become invested in them. That’s where the action scene pays off, it’s not a resolution of conflict, it’s a heightening of conflict. How we feel after is important.

A character fighting 10 thugs in a bar versus fighting an estranged father, both will have completely different backstory/motive/etc

We need time to appreciate/get to know characters before we will care if they lose/die/etc. We don’t care about ‘thug-on-the-left-#2’.

2) No one walks away

The point of a fight scene to break up or resolve conflict, which is a mistake. Something has to change, no one should walk away from conflict unscathed, which increases the conflict. If someone gets injured, that injury must do something. It shouldn’t just be a way to show them be vulnerable, so readers will relate to the character, but that doesn’t work. A wound should influence the next fight, characters shouldn’t just walk it off.

Just as it’s not a point to suspect characterization, it should be used to end characterization.

Have the emotion or plot change due to the fight scene.

Like the Star Wars scene where Luke hallucinates killing DV, and the helmet falls off and its his own face. Luke knows that, by killing DV, he’ll kinda become him. Which changes the way Luke approaches his next move/etc.

After every action sequence the stakes need to change. You can lower them, but only briefly. The payoff is when things resolve at the end of the story (not necessarily at the end of the book), so you want to keep building the stakes, increasing how invested the reader is in the characters.

Action is not a reprieve from plot. 

3) Language shapes investment

The idea behind this is, we can manipulate the audiences focus, get them to look where we want them to, direct their investment. This is more structural rather than the first two which were more philosophical.

Style can change. Like, “The Martian” starts out in our nay entries, hal way through there’s an equipment failure, the author jumped back to a clinical/dry history of when the part was manufactured and leads you all the way back to the moment where it fails and you see the character fly off into space. That dryness lures you into a false sense of security, they you’re thrown back into the emotional investment of how he is going to survive. This also adds the benefit of now making it seems like an annoying connivence, cheating to get the character into trouble.

Pixar rule of storytelling: Coincidence getting a character into trouble is fine, coincidence getting them out of trouble is cheating.

Something he does is change something to immediately grab the reader’s attention. So, changing from lengthy prose to short, tense sentences. One draws the eye to details (lure into a false sense of security, to get more characterization) juxtaposed with short/actiony sentences to describe details.

Good tip: any scene with emotional intensity is best conveyed through minimal details allowing the audience to fill in whatever is appropriate for them.

The scariest thing in the world is a closed door with a faint scratching. As soon as the door opens, it’s less scary when you see what’s in.

Describing reactions is often a great way to play this, like in Disney movies, you never see the villain dying, you see the hero flinch/etc. It’s more powerful than actually seeing him die, seeing the body. Like the lightning flash in Tarzan when you see the body hanging there after seeing the vine snap.

What you choose to show influences what information the reader gets, the impressions they form about character motivations/history/etc. What is the first thing a paramedic sees on the scene of an accident vs a child, vs a mother, etc. Language reveals characterization which in turn informs what happens as a consequence.

Creativity isn’t a single muscle, it’s a muscle-group. Should devour all media as learning from one type of media (film/books/tv/comics) will inform the other.

Balancing action within a story, there’s a reason comedy & tragedy pair well because the laugh makes the next tragedy hit harder, and the tragedy makes us more desperate for the next joke.

Action is where our investment of the character is put to the test. Will they be okay? And when we’re satisfied/happy, then it’s tested again later.

If you don’t have those breathers, you get action fatigue. Readers need that bit of a break. They need a reason to care, to become invested.

In fantasy, using magic, the character’s values should be evident. Harry Potter, for example, uses it when desperate, to protect. Hermione uses it expertly because her motivation/etc is to learn, to push. She’s not upset when she screws up the potion and turns into  cat, she’s upset because she couldn’t make the spell work - that she failed.

Things to remember:

Guys fight to fight, girls fight to kill. Guys are about looking strong/tight/etc. Flashy moves/posturing/etc.  Girls who go to self defence classes learn to maim - go for the eyes, throat, etc.

In a disaster, most people run.

SiWC 2015 Workshop #1 Make Believe

Make Believe
Carrie Mac

Make believe:

1. write what is already there - speaks to the imagination/research/etc. Have to distill a view, hone into the details that bring something to life

1. make the words fit the picture - when you don’t, that’s when readers won’t believe you. That’s the larger part of work, that’s where you can get stuff.

Many ideas came due to past career as a paramedic.

“The Gryphon Project”, marketed as sci-fi, speculative fiction, and fantasy in others. idea jumped from a real story where a man’s ear was ground off in an accident, and a year later, he was re-growing an ear in his arm that would later be sliced off and reattached. So the idea launched off, what if you could regrow your entire body?

When wiring this world, focused research on reconstruction of bodies, only a dusting of ‘future’ stuff. Didn’t make a big deal out of flying cars/etc, focused on the social/theological questions of what happens when people can be regrown, question of the soul, is murder viewed the same way, etc.

As opposed to “The Opposite of Tidy”, a contemporary/realistic. Idea launched from paramedic calls in order houses. If you’re writing about a real city, a real neighbourhood, etc, you have to get the local details right, not just what Wiki tells you. What shorthand do locals use to refer to buildings, bridges, parks, etc?

“The Droughtlands” - a key research point was cloud seeding, how to control the rain when and where it falls using silver iodine? used in Vietnam during the war to rain on certain passes to make them too muddy/etc to use for soldiers. Also, Burning Man and Cirque du Soleil shows, how to use it in the rebellion. Controversial idea: who owns that piece of the sky, who owns that cloud, especially in times of drought/etc. Original idea sparked from 9/11 - what is the value of life? 3,000 Americans vs 500,000 children in the Middle East starved to death due to US sanctions?

At first you have one idea, then comes the story:

Where do your ideas come from?

Do them come easy?

How do you catch them?

How do you know any one is a keeper?

What attracts you to the story?

How much of a story do you have?

Is it possible to be entirely in charge?

Where are your characters and how do they end up in your story?

Do you want to tell this story?

How do you know?

“Writing a novel is like walking through  dark room, holding a lantern which lights up what is already in the room anyway.” Virginia Woolf

“We do not truly see light, we only see slower things lit by it.” CS Lewis

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, bt you can make the whole trip that way.” EL Doctorow

If you’re walking around with a lantern, you only describe/etc what is in the circle of light/immediately in front of you -  don’t overwhelm the reader with the big pictures. Don’t blind them with too much light/illumination. Focus on what’s ahead of you, not the greater world outside. Don’t get distracted by the periphery.

“Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can’t - and, in fact, you’re not supposed to - know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing. First you just point at what has your attention and take the picture.” Anne Lamott

Give the reader nugget. Small, illuminated space. Those are what you want to record, those are what you shouldn’t miss. Don’t lose those.

“The Words don’t fit the Picture” - on the Vancouver public library.

Make the words fit the picture - read the words out loud, record & play back, or read out loud to someone else who knows how to give critical feedback.

Your most gigantic tool:

“What if…?”

This is why she doesn’t believe in writer’s block. Whenever you get stuck, asking this question repeatedly is how you move forward.

What if this world is just like ours?

What if this world is like ours?

What if I bring in a very strong character? - how can/will they grow if they are already strong?

What if my character is weak?

What if there is a conflict?

What if the culture is the same?

What if I manufacture the culture?

What if there is a tragedy?

What if there is a quest?

What if they fall in love?

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” Mark Twain

What is your character doing, what do they like? Try to immerse yourself in those experiences.

Immerse: to plunge into or as if into a liquid, to baptize by dipping under water, to absorb deeply; engross

The Burning Man experience was particularly immersive for the creation of “The Droughtlands”.

Write it: As you write it, the details come.

Read it: Out loud. Faulty details and failed plot points will sounds wrong.

Research it: Get all the books, read all the sites, ask all the people. Even if your story is sci-fi or fantasy.

Live it: Are there elements you can do? Fencing? Owl research?

Go there: Visit the places that inspire the story.

Record it: Notes, photos, voice memos, etc.

How to illuminate your story:

Bring your story - but don’t pack it at the bottom of your bag

Keep your story close at hand, literally, or in your imagination

Bring a flashlight

For real, or an imaginary one. Line it on those shady crevices and deep woods and all the hidden underbellies

Bring your near-sight

Look at everything with a magnifying glass. up close. For all the details in the patina, whether you[ll use it or not.

Bring your far-sight

Step back, waaaaaay back. See the context. See the larger picture. Take notes.

Think things over. Ruminate.

Fake it until you make it:

When you’re building an imaginary world - no matter what the story is about - you are in charge. no matter how confident or shaky you feel about it.

“At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing - a sunset or an old shoe - in absolute and simple amazement.” Raymond Carver

When a reader’s senses are aligned, a world is complete, whether it is real or imagined.

SiWC 2015

Well, it's that time of year...

Surrey International Writing Conference begins today for those taking Masters Classes, and tomorrow for those who aren't.

I'm going again this year and, like the last two years, I will post my notes online for y'all.

Wish I could give you the heads-up as to all the presenters/etc, but with the craziness of house-hunting, packing, moving, unpacking, and the magazine deadline, I honestly haven't even skimmed through the website to see what's going on.

One new thing this year, they put out a desperate call for early-morning driving volunteers a couple days ago... seems no one wanted to get up at 6am to pick presenters up at the hotel, then drive them to the airport...

...and y'know I'll take any excuse to drive, right?

So now I'm an early-morning-shuttle-service :) Feels nice to help out and give back since I've enjoyed the last two conferences so much, and such a huge part of the experience is all the volunteers.

And, amusingly enough, who I'm picking up and when is about the only thing I know for sure about the conference at this moment :)

Am looking forward to checking in tomorrow morning and browsing through all the possibilities :)

For now, gotta corral the pets! Eva needs her morning walkies and Berkeley is scratching at the door waiting for me to put him in his harness and tie him up outside.

Yes, my cat is used to being tied up. He's basically a house cat, and since he's a rescue, he's so aggressive/territorial, he WOULD go out looking for a fight if he had the chance. And not just with other cats... he would go after dogs/etc.

Oh! And a week after putting up the bird feeder, I've got a (still small) loyal following of 4 chickadees and 2 junkos. Good thing they're still wild enough that they immediately fly as soon as I open the door... wouldn't want Mr. Evil Goblin (Berkeley) to catch one of them... a cat-feeding-station was NOT what I intended...

Settling in

Well, I've been in my new place for... almost a week. Friday, October 2 was my first night, and I've been busy!

When I have everything done(ish - since I am planning to rip out carpet, redo bathrooms, etc, probably in the new year) I will post something on my Bailiwick site, since that's where I do put more picture related stuff and, after unpacking all the art I've collected over the years, I'm thinking of doing an art-related post to talk about some of that stuff.

...seriously, I am running out of wall space. And running out of window space with all my plants.

Today I took a break from all that kind of stuff to meet a writing buddy and get some writing done. Well, 5 minutes before I left I was in the garage with my drill, stud finder, and some 1x6's building shelving and covered in saw dust... BUT, I did stop and leave for the purpose of writing...

...and partially wrote myself out of that corner I had nicely painted myself into (ignore the mixed metaphors, please).

See, I think the problem was two-fold. One was the logic of the situation. How, logically, would both characters react to the reveal-that-was-revealed-about-25,000-words-too-early. The second thing was my MC, Sikka, kinda hit rock-bottom in terms of how she was feeling. So, she didn't have the energy/motivation to fight back and move forward.

And that was kinda hard to write. The "bottom" (please, no butt jokes). Because everyone handles that differently. And how Sikka would deal... that was the second part of why I was stuck.

...and that's the part I figured out... (it involves head-butting, apparently).

So, that was really good.

I was super happy that, even though I've been crazy all week doing physical jobs/chores/running around/etc and haven't spared even a thought to this story, that when I carved out my writing time, I sat down and... and... and...

...things came together :)

And now I'm super overtired because after writing, I went back into the garage and continued building shelves/etc and am now sore/exhausted and it's not even 8pm. And I haven't eaten yet.

Also, my dog is a lazy, wimpy lump who refused to go for a walk today because it was misting rain. Seriously. She almost pooped on the patio this morning because she didn't want to get her feet wet by going onto the lawn.

(spoiler: she pooped on the lawn. I made sure of it)

But she is also nice and clean because I got her groomed yesterday. She was pretty gross before... since she, y'know, likes to roll in disgusting things.

Beagles.

Now she is clean enough that I would almost let her sleep on the bed.

Almost.

Because she still rattles the house with her snoring.

Which is why she sleeps in a different room, preferably on a different floor. In a perfect world, she would sleep in a sound-proof room.

Since it is not a perfect world (evidence: no jet pack, Seahawks have not been winning enough, delicious food has not appeared spontaneously on a plate and been served to me by a robotic waiter) we have agreed that she stays downstairs on the sofa with 2 blankets and 2 pillows and she doesn't try to sneak upstairs onto the bed.

So far, we have a deal.

AND, I realize I'm rambling. Because I'm tired. And sore. And hungry. And it's only 8:05pm.

Hope you are all having a lovely week! Canadian Thanksgiving is this coming weekend, so I am readying my taste buds for turkey!

I move tomorrow! and writing! (and bad grammar!)

Well, technically my furniture moves since I'm house-sitting until October 2.

But still exciting!

I've moved so many times before that I've kinda got this whole thing down. I've got everything ready and the truck isn't even showing up until tomorrow afternoon, so I've had time this morning to get a little more writing done.

Writing... uhm, y'know how in my last post I was excited because I felt I had a clear view of the next, largish portion of the book?

Well, yeah. Then I wrote myself into a corner yesterday when a reveal that wasn't supposed to happen until the climax suddenly grabbed a scene by the throat and jerked it in the opposite direction...

...and when an apology might have directed the story back on track, Sikka says, "I'm not sorry for lying to you."

...which then made the already-misdirected scene turn yet again... in yet another wrong direction.

BUT, this morning I skimmed back to earlier scenes and reread over the dialogue/actions/body language/etc and... and... and...

...yeah, this 'corner' I have written myself into completely makes sense and there are little hints all along the bunny-trail that build up to this exact thing/confrontation happening.

So, it wasn't a momentary skew in this direction, the story has been heading this way for a long time and my conscious brain knew nothing about it while my unconscious brain has been sniggering and pointing mockingly at the idiocy of my conscious brain behind its back for being such a fool.

Ahem. And yes, I think they have medication for that.

Also of note: like the apology that might have directed the story back on track, there was also a really good possibility that this scene would have drawn Sikka & Komil closer together and been a major step towards an actual 'normal' romantic relationship arc... and uhm, yeah. Not happening. Or should I say, it didn't happen.

(I don't want to assume it won't happen...)

If I could write stories like normal people it absolutely would have happened because it's the right 'time' in the story arc for it to happen.

/tears out a handful of hair/

Yup, my brain is trying to kill me. Especially with this story. It's the reason I stopped writing it in the first place and moved on to other stories, yet here I am, coming back for more punishment because my damn brain is on a suicide mission and is trying to take me with it.

...and because I'm a masochistic freak who loves a challenge, I can't get enough of it...

SOOOOOO, uhm, yeah. Apologies for the probably worse-than-usual grammar in this post as 95% of my brain is currently dedicated to unpuzzling this corner-that-is-not-a-corner that I have written myself into, and the other 5% is mired in a heady-state of self-shaming.

Okay, not really :) But it's still fun/funny to think about!