  Action/Adventure
This week: Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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The adventure begins with the first step, and the wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long course of the river, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and at journey's end, finding yourself forever changed.
-billwilcox |
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Slowing Down Time
I have found that it is not only possible for writers to have ‘god-like’ abilities to create fantastic realms filled with unimaginable creations, but it is also possible for them to control Time. I don’t mean the time it takes for your hero to get from point A to point B, but the time it takes for an action sequence to unfold like a movie inside your readers mind.
Normally, during an action-packed scene, you can feel the urgency and the natural rush to an inevitable conclusion. But this is where writers often make a vital mistake. Events in the story are happening so quickly, the writer will miss the opportunity to really put their reader into the situation. But, if you use your ‘god-like’ talents and abilities, you can SLOW DOWN TIME, describe every little detail, and still have the sequence feel as though it is rushing forward.
I know you’re probably thinking that it takes too long to describe everything that is going on and will bog the story down, but actually it enhances the scene and makes your action much more memorable.
First of all, ask yourself, why do people read Action/Adventure stories? For the action, right? For the adventure. For that momentary escape from their dull lives so that they can experience what it’s like to feel the stinging wind on their cheeks and smell the salty splash of the High Seas. The action scenes are the best part of any Action/Adventure story and you should really take the time to draw them out and make them all that they can be. Ask anybody what they like most about an Action/Adventure story and they will say, “The action…the adventure.” As writers, why hurry through the best part of the story? My tip for today is to learn to Slow Time Down, and describe everything.
I remember a Star Trek movie, Resurrection, I think it was called, in which Captain Piccard is shown, by a non-aging species, how to look at a single moment of time and put it into ‘slow-mo’ so that it lasts forever. In the movie, if I remember correctly, the characters are looking at a humming bird hovering above a flower, and then time is slowed down so drastically, you could actually see the bird’s wings beating.
The point is that this is what you have to do when writing an action sequence.
SLOW DOWN TIME!
Here's a few examples of what I'm talking about:
The shopper stepped out of the store and into the busy street, and then was hit by an on-coming car.
It 'tells' everything that happens, but does not 'show' it, and fails to put the reader into the scene. How about this:
As the shopper stepped out of the store and into the busy street, there was a scream of brakes and sliding, wailing tires that plumed with smoke and then were silenced by a muffled thud and the tinkling of broken glass. In the fan of the automobile’s headlights, the woman, eyes as big as doorknobs, lay on her side in a spreading pool of blood, her back bunched and twisted in several places, her late-night shopping expeditions at an end.
How about if someone tries to save the woman and we slow time WAY down...
As the shopper stepped out of the store and into the busy street, the pedestrian shoved her in the chest and stomach as hard as he could, sending her flying backward with her hands and feet thrust out in front of her. She landed sitting up in the gutter, bruising her tailbone on the curb but breaking nothing.
Then the two tons of automobile, still traveling at thirty miles and hour, struck the man full on. He was heaved upward and backward in a low, slow arc and went with the car's hood ornament imprinted on his cheek like a tattoo and one broken leg trailing behind him. There was time to see his shadow sliding along the pavement beneath him in a shape like an X; there was time to see a spray of red droplets in the air just above him and for a moment, time to think that he might just make it, even as he came back to earth with a terrible mortal smack and rolled--skull fracturing, back breaking, lungs punctured by brittle thorns of bone as his ribcage exploded, liver turning to pulp, intestines first coming unachored and then rupturing.
Slowing down the action turns it into a movie inside your reader's mind. Don't rush it. Put yourself in the situation and describe everything.
Until next time,
billwilcox
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larryp
Submitted Comment:
I had a night alone last night - pulled out the DVD of "Open Range" and got to watch it with no interruptions! Thanks for featuring my story in your newsletter.
-Larry
kiyasama
Submitted Comment:
Hehehe, great newsletter, Bill! Happy Father's Day to you!
GhostDragon 
Submitted Comment:
Hello W.D., and nice newsletter (heh i laughed a couple times most likely cause of my family and the fact that i'm an odd guy). Well anyway, I enjoyed reading your newsletter even if some of the things that you mentioned don't apply to me (and i havn't been "feminized"!). Well anyway bye for now W.D.!
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Action/Adventure: June 27, 2007 Issue [#1776]
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