The Young Christian Writer's ABCs
A - Action
Action is such a word! It encompasses quite a lot, but I've broken it down as far as how it applies to writing, which is a more manageable size, but still quite huge. This is definitely the tip of the iceberg, and I'll include links at the bottom of this post for you to check out.
What, Why, and How of the Action in a Story
This part is super basic, so I'll go through it briefly.
What is action, as it pertains to a story? Dictionary.com (which I have been using for years, and is an excellent reference), defines action as:
noun
1.
the process or state of acting or of being active: The machine is not in action now.
2.
something done or performed; act; deed.
3.
an act that one consciously wills and that may be characterized by physical or mental activity: acrisis that demands action instead of debate; hoping for constructive action by the landlord.
4.
actions, habitual or usual acts; conduct: He is responsible for his actions.
5.
energetic activity: a man of action.
Simply put, the part of a story where
something is happening is the part that has action. Description is not action, and these two components are what make up a story. Description, and action.
Why do stories need action? This one's pretty obvious. Without action, there is nothing happening, and the reader will become bored and go read a different story. Action is what gets the MC from point A to point B. Without action, the MC wouldn't be going anywhere or doing anything to begin with, and the story would not exist. Stories don't exist without action.
How does action make a story? I'll discuss this in more detail, but action is the presence of conflict or tension for the MC, whether internally or externally. It pushes the MC down the road and keeps them going from point to point in the story. Which leads me to my next point...
The Doorway Concept
I was first introduced to the doorway concept in James Scott Bell's book
Plot and Structure, a book that I would recommend to any writer. As always, use discretion when reading it, because if I remember right, he uses a few examples from books that are not very great. However, the positives of the book far outweigh the negatives.
So, what is the doorway concept? Basically, your character doesn't want to go anywhere. They want to just live their lives like they always have, and they have no reason to change what they're doing. That's why, for the good of all involved, you have to force them through a doorway of no return.
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. -Chinese Proverb
You present the character with a disturbance, which signifies that something is amiss with their world, and then you throw something their way that will force them to change how they're living. You know that your character has gone through the first doorway when something has happened to them which prevents them from returning to normal life. Which means that it really, in a way, must be big. Because your character's first reaction will be to try to return to normal life, right? So you have to think of something big enough that will
prevent them from returning to normal. This can be external or internal.
There is also the possibility that they choose to walk through the doorway themselves, in which case, they will, of course,
not try to go back to normal. Nevertheless, it is still a doorway, because they cannot go back to living how they were before. In this instance, perhaps they
want their life to change, but without a doorway it won't. So they find a doorway and walk through it, knowing it is a one-way door. Or maybe you have another character show them the doorway. It is your job as the author to have them go through a doorway, one way or the other.
Examples of doorways:
Anne Elliot, in
Persuasion, by Jane Austen (I have only seen the movie), is pushed through a doorway when her former almost-fiance, Captain Wentworth, comes back to town and they keep running into each other.
Scrooge, in
The Christmas Carol (again, I've never read the whole book), is pushed through a doorway at the appearance of the ghosts. Now that I think about it, the whole book is like a giant doorway, and each ghost is like another shove out the door. But there is, of course, an initial doorway.
And, because it's easy and I've seen it used before, another example is in
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Katniss goes through a doorway of no return when she volunteers to take Prim's place in the Hunger Games. Once she volunteers, there's no going back.
So, in short, the doorway of no return forces your character (whether they choose it or not) into action or a different way of living.
Active Scenes & Active Sentences
When writing a scene, the point is to a) keep the reader's attention by dealing with a conflict (whether internal or external), and b) move the story along, which means your reader should know something that they didn't know before.
So, your character(s) should be dealing with something in the scene that will move the plot forward and keep the reader interested. I'm no expert at this; I'm just passing on some of what I know. This is probably my main problem in my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel - not having enough action in a scene and therefore not accomplishing both (let alone either) of the two goals in each scene.
Most of the sentences and paragraphs in a scene should be delineating action. This doesn't mean you have to have someone
doing something in each sentence and paragraph... sometimes it's the
lack of action that actual implies action. People can have whole conversations across a crowded room, just by their body language or facial expressions. Not that I recommend having this sort of conversation, but what I mean is that a lack of action or speech can still move the story along and keep it active.
Also, each sentence should be active, as opposed to passive. Which sounds better?
The new car was crashed by Jerry.
Jerry crashed the new car.
Sometimes passive is better, but for the most part, active is the best. Not to mention it is more natural. I don't usually say "That sandwich was saved by me." No, I say, "I saved that sandwich."
Each sentence is a nugget from the big gold chunk. And in order to get the whole chunk to sparkle, each nugget has to be polished to perfection. If one nugget is below-par, the whole chunk suffers. Like this, if the whole paragraph looks good, except for one sentence that contributes nothing, the whole paragraph will suffer. Similarly, if a whole scene looks good, except one paragraph, the whole scene suffers. Each sentence and scene must drive the story forward or teach the reader something new. This doesn't mean you can do an information dump, though. In a minute I'll talk about showing instead of telling.
There is also a type of "active scene" that is only action. Those battle scenes, fight scenes, or chase scenes - the big ones that are jam-packed with almost nothing but action. I've never written one like this, which is pretty sad, but I expect I will soon.
And finally:
Show, Don't Tell
The nemesis, as it were, of writers everywhere. Maybe you don't have a problem with it, and if that's the case, then I say bravo! You're a step above everyone else.
This is another concept that is presented well in
Plot and Structure - the fact that readers don't want to be
told what is happening, they want to
see it.
For example, which sentence is more interesting:
John was angry.
or
John clenched his fists and stomped his foot, and his face got redder and redder every minute.
Once again, I am no expert in this area. I don't think I can emphasize how much I'm not an expert, but just because I haven't applied this concept as well as I'd like doesn't mean I can't tell you about it. :) We're all in a learning process.
So, action is best shown, because it more easily and effectively accomplishes the two goals of every scene: to keep the reader's attention (showing is more interesting than telling), and to move the story forward. In the first example sentence, all we know is that John is angry. But in the second sentence, we not only learn that John is angry, but we see what he does and what he looks like when he gets angry.
"When deeds speak, words are nothing." -African Proverb
Let the deeds (or the looks on the character's faces, or the moments of silence, or whatever) in a scene speak for themselves.
Like I said, this is nowhere near all the things we could talk about that relate to action, but this is lengthy enough already. I'll leave you with a sneak peak of upcoming posts, and the list of links I promised.
Stay tuned for...
Related to this whole idea of keeping the reader interested through action is keeping the reader interested by unexpected plot twists, which I will post about when we get to letter U. :)
Stay tuned for more posts about writing, one of which will be the hook - getting your reader hooked on the story so that they will keep reading. The initial thing that grabs their attention - not the things you must do throughout the book, but just what you must do at the beginning.
Links for A - Action
Note: I recommend goteenwriters.blogspot.com, but the link with * next to it is a website that I do not endorse as I haven't taken the time to read more than just the article that I link to.
What exactly is an inciting incident? Talking about doorways...
*
Easy Ways to Keep the Reader Interested
7 Ways to Make Your Action Scene Stronger This one's talking about
the action scene. You know the one I'm talking about - fight, chase, battle, what-have-you.
Writing the Action/Fight Scene Same sort of action scene as above.
Writing Advice that Completely Changes Things
Do you know of any good articles that relate to action, moving the story forward, and keeping the reader interested?
Do you have any thoughts or comments about this article? I'd love to hear them!
Stay tuned... on Saturday, I'll tell you how to make your own blog button!
