Good tips for all authors. I love some of the alternative words suggested.
Hi, SEers. You’re with Mae today for a look at writing action scenes. Of all the types of scenes that go into constructing a novel, I used to dread action the most. Not so much these days, but they’re still the scenes I tweak and re-tweak most during editing.
When writing an action scene, there are a few tips to keep in mind:
Use Short Sentences
Short sentences generally work best in action scenes. Keep your reader pumped up and immersed in the moment. Don’t leave them stumbling over a tangle of lengthy sentences. Intersperse longer sentences with dialogue and/or shorter sentences to propel the action forward.
Avoid Weak Verbs
Actions scenes call for strong verbs. Avoid verbs that are overused (turned, pulled, looked, moved). A trick I use when I write action is to focus on the urgency of the moment. As an example, people don’t just turn or
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Each of my novels takes months to write, usually taking several hours work daily. Research – double-checking every fact behind the fiction – or actually typing, formatting as I go. All of it requires editing, proofreading, a cover and a short description. When I hit “publish” on Amazon, I’ve usually set a launch price of 99 cents or the equivalent worldwide. So, what next? Fix a realistic price – $2.99, less than the price of a coffee because readers won’t pay more.
Read/Enjoy/Buy
Frankie Watkins was good with his fists, so good in fact he might even have been a champion. But getting a title shot would have meant hard-work and fighting guys who were also good with their fists; that wouldn’t have suited Frankie at all. You see, Frankie was a coward, and a lazy one too. The thought of someone hitting him back terrified him even more than hard work.
The flat-capped, raincoat wearing man liked to stalk his victims first. He deliberately cultivated an unassuming, almost invisible appearance for the initial stages of his work for obvious reasons, ensuring that any possible description of him would be as nondescript as that of the nearest lamppost. The knife-wielding sociopath was most meticulous in his planning, proud indeed of his attention to detail. But then, of course, he had to be otherwise his career would most likely have been a short one … 
I’ve loved animals since I “adopted” a neighbours cat when I was five. (She got very fat eating in two houses until Mum found out she wasn’t a stray!) Years later, when I learned to ride horses, I discovered that people hunted foxes for fun. According to them, they were controlling foxes that kill farmers’ livestock, but if that was true, why did they protect the foxes’ setts and stop killing them when the vixens were breeding? Research showed more cruelty, and these people didn’t pretend to be helping! They boasted about how many wild animals they’d killed – some of them endangered species – and their “good bag” of birds. I joined societies fighting against this, and I donated money, but I wanted to do more. How could I persuade people it was wrong when so many others couldn’t?
