Category: Writing

I love a character who’s badass enough to take on two, three, four enemies at once. And writing that sort of scene is really fun. There are all sorts of ways to make it believable, and lots of places to turn to for how it works. But I want to make one suggestion.

You know what the most unrealistic thing in most war movies is? The wounded to kill ratio.  It’s like, every time the hero shoots a bad guy, the bad buy dies.   That’s never been accurate.  Even in the ancient world, where the lack of medical knowledge drastically increased mortality rates, you hardly ever hear of a battle where the wounded to killed ratio is lower than 3:1. In modern warfare the ratio is significantly higher. So the next time you’ve got your protagonist surrounded by bad guys, why not disable all or most of them instead of killing them? A sword-thrust through the upper thigh, a broken arm, a sharp rap to the head, a punch to the solar plexus.  Not only will it feel more believable, but by reducing the body count, you make it more powerful when you actually do kill someone. And more powerful is more gooderful, right?

Just a thought.

As requested, here’s how things are going:

I’m approaching the halfway  point in Vallista.  At my current rate of work, the draft should be done within about three months,  maybe sooner.  Then it goes to my critique group, gets revised, gets turned in, line edited, &c.  If I had make a wild-ass guess about when it’ll be on the shelves, I’d say 18 months.

Also, Incrementalists #2 with Skyler White, called The Skill of Our Hands, should be out early in 2017.

I’ve also finished another novel, called Good Guys, which is still under consideration, so no guess when or if that will be out.

Thanks for your interest.

 

I have a little bit of theater in my past. From around age 14 to maybe 20, my passion for theater and for writing were about the same. One effect of having a theater background is that I’m in the habit, when watching a performance, of thinking about how it applies to writing. The one I’ve been noticing most recently is the reaction shot.

In a particularly effective scene, think about, instead of the actor who is doing the thing, the one who is reacting to it. This is always the key to fight scenes: stage combat (I love stage combat) is 90% about reacting to attacks. But it applies more broadly. For example, I’ve just re-watched Leverage, one of my favorite shows. If you watch the episodes where Wil Wheaton guest stars, watch how many scenes he sells by reacting. There is one spectacular example in “The Last Dam Job,” where we believe in the taser because of how he sells being tased. Another great example is in The Martian. One of the more delightful scenes in a movie full of delightful scenes is the one where the crew is finally in touch again with the stranded astronaut. There is some splendid and real-sounding banter between friends (“We have to take turns doing your tasks, but I mean, it’s only botany, it’s not real science.”), which is both well written and well performed between the actors; but what really makes the scene work is the way the rest of the crew, listening to the conversation, reacts to it. For a third example, I’ve been watching some old episodes of the original Mission: Impossible, and watching Martin Landau react, and noticing how much that carries a scene, is fascinating. (As a side note, Landau is one of my favorite actors; if you ever get the chance, catch his appearance on Inside the Actor’s Stuido. He talks about acting the way we process geeks talk about writing.)

Do I have to spell out how this relates to writing? No, but I will anyway, because I’m a pedantic son of a bitch. Check out how easy it is to change the emotional content of a scene just by the reaction of someone not directly involved  in the action.

“Okay,” I said, letting a dagger fall into my hand. “We can do it that way if you want.”
He kept his face expressionless. Behind him, the bodyguard folded his arms and smirked.

vs

“Okay,” I said, letting a dagger fall into my hand.  “We can do it that way if you want.”
He kept his face expressionless. Behind him, the bodyguard leaned forward a little, hands twitching.

Or, this.

He held out his arm, and she took it. Her friend glanced at them and gritted her teeth.

vs

He held out his arm, and she took it. Her friend glanced at them, then looked away, suppressing a smile.

Now of course, point of view is at the heart of this, as it is at the heart of everything. But paying attention to the reaction of those who are not directly involved in the action can accomplish a lot with very little effort.