Storymaker Conference - Report 5: Writing Action

Go ahead. Describe what's happening in this pic.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took two classes from Traci Abramson at Storymaker. She's an entertaining writer and instructor.

Writing Action
The POV should be from the people who have the most to win or lose.

• Visualize your novel like a movie. Don't write about the character -- BE the character. Doesn't this sound just like that Show, Don't Tell thingy?
• Use visual words.
• When there's action, there will be more white space on the page.
• If your pacing is too fast, you'll lose your reader.
• If your pacing is too slow, your reader will get bored.
• Be concise in your writing because sometimes less is more. If five words will do, don't write thirty. Some good examples of concise writing can be found in poetry, song lyrics, and newspaper articles.
• Your sentence structure is important with action. All right, your sentence structure is important in all writing unless you want to sound like Yoda. Watch your paragraph format and see if your sentences are in the right order.
• If you want to write action, read the books of writers who do it well.
• If you're not sure if the action scene is working, act out the movement. Watch yourself in the mirror.

Do you have any particular techniques for spicing things up in an action scene?