Speaker 1: Oliver motioned with his hand to the men behind him and darted toward Blaze, Marshall, and Aurora. The men behind him followed on his heels. Blaze charged forward and slid to the ground with her leg out. Catching his legs, Blaze dropped him with a grunt. She tackled him with several fists to the head and then grabbed the black baton out of his limp hand. She held it out and stepped toward the next approaching man. Her swings connected with force and drove the man back. Marshall swung, slamming a man square in the jaw and throwing him back several feet. He lay sprawled out, unmoving. The next man dodged his punch, so Marshall crushed him in the ribs. A cracking sound rippled through the air and he lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. Another man swung wildly. Marshall blocked the fist and struck him on the side of the head. He dropped with a thud. Blaze clutched the black baton and stood back to back with Marshall as several more men surrounded them. You good, Marshall? Blaze asked. Oh, you know, just another fight with you at my back. Blaze chuckled and then her eyes landed on Aurora and her blood turned to ice. This is a scene from our new up-and-coming book, The Uprising, and it is an action scene. And so today's video is going to be all about writing an action scene that has emotion and that really captures your audience. How do you feel when you watch an incredible action scene in a movie or read a book and a really intense action scene in a book? How does it make you feel? And what I want you to do is think of an action scene in a book that you read or a movie that you watched, one of those action scenes that you watched or read that you still remember that was that memorable. Get that scene in your mind. And one of the scenes that is my all-time favorite is from the original Avengers movie. And so it's the scene in New York at the Battle of New York. It's toward the end of the movie, and it's Hawkeye and Black Widow, and they are fighting the creepy aliens that are coming out of the sky to attack everybody, and they're crawling all over the buildings, and it's just this super high-intensity scene. And in the middle of Black Widow shooting her gun and Hawkeye shooting arrows, and they're fighting, and in the middle of this intense scene, they have this little exchange, this little verbal exchange that just leaps out of the action and gives such a depth to the characters. And Black Widow looks at Hawkeye, and she says, this is just like Budapest all over again. And Hawkeye looks at her, and he says, you and I remember Budapest much differently. It's just a simple little verbal exchange between these two characters in this intense moment that gives depth to the character, and it makes the audience care about these two characters. Have you ever tried to write an action scene that was that memorable, that resonated with your audience and with your reader, and struggled to feel like you nailed it, and it just still feels flat? There are three elements that are critical to writing an action scene that resonates with the reader and that really is memorable, and it is a balance between tension, drama, and character development. One of the reasons why Avengers is and was such a popular movie, it is still a very, very well-loved movie, is because they really nailed the balancing of tension, drama, and character development. They have excellent action scenes, and you can learn a lot by watching that movie and really studying what they do and how they do the action scenes. It would be a really good exercise for anybody that's really curious about this topic. The Marvel and the original Avengers movie is a master at the action scene and balancing these three elements. By intertwining action and emotion, what that does is it makes the audience emotionally invested in those characters. So it's not just a high of action, it's also an emotion. The emotion brings the audience along with the action. It is actually the character development and the emotions that drives the action. When writing a really emotional and excellent action scene, the first thing you want to keep in mind is character development. And I talk about this a lot in other videos. Character development is critical if you want your reader to be emotionally invested with your character. And in order to do this, you really have to know your characters. What makes them tick? Why are they working so hard to do something or to be something? What do they want? What's their inner conflict? What's their desire? It's those things that cause the reader to become emotionally invested in your character. So you want to make sure that you are developing your characters with the action scenes so that your action scene further grows your character. If you like this video, make sure you subscribe and like and hit that bell notification so you don't miss any future videos. Number two is pacing. So I don't know about you, but I love a good roller coaster. You get in the cart and they strap you in. And the cart shoots you out. And you go along and you go along. And then suddenly you start going up. And it gets slower. Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga. And you go up, up, up, up, up. And you get to the top. And then whoosh, you go down. And then the next thing you know, you're going up again. And so it slows down. And it's up. And it's down. It's intense. So you have moments of slowing down while it amps up. An action scene is, I like to think about it like a roller coaster. And your pacing is really important with an action scene. You want to make sure that you have your highs. You have your lows. You have your times of intensity. And you build momentum with those intense moments. And you want to have the emotional connection with the characters. Think about it like a roller coaster. You can't just have intensity in an action scene. Just like that scene that has so many. It's my favorite scene in the Avengers movie. That little exchange between those two characters. It slows down from the intensity of that scene. And you get just a slight little break. It gives the reader a chance to breathe and connect with your character. It's all about pacing. Number three is sensory details. Every action scene, it's really important that you keep in mind all of the sensory details. What does your character see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? And you can incorporate those sensory details into your action scene. And that will give your action scene depth. And it will help your reader be emotionally invested in that action scene. Number four is use powerful verbs. So when we write, we want to use the most powerful verb possible. The most descriptive verb. And some examples of that are this. Instead of go, use speed, race, or crawl. Instead of like, use adore or relish. Instead of think, how about ponder or consider. And this is the best one when you're talking about action scenes. How about instead of hit, tap, or shove, or strike, clobber, and even wallop. These are all really good examples of using the strongest, most powerful verb that you can find for what you're saying. And that's what you want to do with an action scene. Make sure that all of your verbs are really descriptive and really strong. And number five is you want to use a mix of short sentences and long sentences. So when you use short sentences, you are going to speed things up. It's going to be faster. And when you switch to longer sentences, it slows the pace down a little bit. So if you want to go a little bit faster, and then you want to slow it down a little bit, use longer sentences. Space that out, and that will also help with your pacing. When you're considering your pacing, think about how long or short your sentences are, depending on where you're at within your scene. And number six is the climax. So every action scene and every book, you have a climax to the action scene and to your book. You have an ending. And so when you're looking at the climax of your action scene, you want your reader to have an emotional payoff. You want to give the reader closure for that action. You want to give them an emotional payoff, because if you're doing a good job, the reader is emotionally invested in those characters and in the action scene. And because they're emotionally invested, you want to give them an emotional payoff for going on this ride with you. Now, an example from books that I've read, because I read a lot of books, is that I read the first Divergent book. Now, I enjoyed it. So I got the second book, and I enjoyed the second book, and I was emotionally invested in these characters. And so when the third book came out, I decided I'll read the third book. Well, if you do not like spoilers, please do not listen any further to this next little second, because I'm going to give a spoiler about the Divergent series in case you haven't already read them or already know what happens in those books. So in book three, I'm super invested in these characters. I want them to get a happy ending. I want them to have their happily ever after. And at the end of a very intense action, intense scene, towards the end of book three, the main character dies. Now, I don't recommend that, because what happened is I was angry. I was emotionally invested in that character. She was the main character, and she never got her happily ever after. There was no closure. There was no emotional payoff for going on this ride, this emotional roller coaster that I've invested in. There was no payoff. Do not do that, because it ruined the entire series for me. You don't want to do that. You want to take your reader along for the ride and have them emotionally invest in your characters and your story and what's happening, and then give them that emotional payoff. It's very important. I would love for you to practice writing your own emotional action scene and share your experience with me. Share it in the comments. I would love to hear from you. Have a great day.