Action Sequences: Play. Pause. Write.

The first time I needed to write a fight scene, I was totally lost. Being an “arts” girl, I had no clue how to pick a fight, let alone finish one. You will probably experience this situation at some point in your writing—creating an action sequence for something that you’ve never had exposure to.

I found YouTube to be one of the best sources of information for learning about and visualizing an action sequence as it would unfold on screen. As a n00b to the art of hand-to-hand combat, I watched several extreme fighting and cage fighting videos until I found one that had the look and feel I was going for, and that was well matched to my characters. I would play a few seconds, pause the video, then write what I saw. Play. Pause. Write.

Here’s what I ended up with:

Dirk and Reed give a slight bow to each other, then close in. 

They each throw a series of punches that connect with nothing but air.

Dirk rushes Reed and gives him a left to the jaw.

Reed tackles Dirk to the ground.

Dirk tries to get free, but Reed has him in a strong hold.

Reed lifts up and punches Dirk several times in the face.

Dirk uses his strong legs to propel Reed off of him.

They get to their feet.

Dirk rushes Reed again and throws a high punch.

Reed ducks to miss it, but Dirk grabs his head and tries to knee him in the face.

Reed grabs Dirk's legs, lifts him up, and drops him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Reed wipes the side of his mouth with the back of his hand...first blood.

I also use this technique to familiarize myself with cultural events, such as the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, and Native American ‘jingle’ and ‘fancy shawl’ dances. Seeing the women in their native dress, the flowing ribbons on their shawls, and their fancy footwork, is helping me to understand the culture and to construct a more authentic scene.

The next time you need to write an action sequence, take a moment to watch a few videos on the topic and find those little nuances that will lend credibility to your scene.

Guidelines on Length: dialog, action, scene, and script

At my screenwriters Meetup group last night, there was some good discussion about the length of dialog and action lines, the overall duration of each scene, and the length of the screenplay as a whole.

So how long is too long?

Descriptions. Keep scene descriptions to three lines or less. Use double-spacing between paragraphs to break up longer descriptions.

Action. Similar to descriptions, keep action lines to three lines or less, and use double-spacing between paragraphs to break it up. Too many lines and I get lost in the action. As a personal rule, I break up my action lines whenever I switch focus to another character, object, or location. Use short choppy sentences to speed up fast-paced scenes, and use flowing sentences to slow down a scene.

Dialogue. Keep each character’s lines to three or less. Only go to four or five if it’s absolutely necessary! To shorten long lines of dialogue, break them up with action. This could be something as simple as basic body language, or be used for a greater purpose to show subtext. If my character is being interrogated, saying ‘her hand tremors as she lifts the glass to her lips’ tells me a lot more about her innocence or guilt than saying ‘she takes a sip of water.’ Use these small moments to give your scenes and characters color and depth.

Scenes. The ideal length of a scene is based on its significance. Important scenes can be up to four pages, but less significant scenes should average about a page and a half or less.

Script. All scripts are formatted in Courier 12 pt. font. PERIOD. Why? Because courier is a fixed-pitch font, not a proportional-spacing font. Each letter gets the same amount of space whether it’s an “I” or a “W.” This allows studios to estimate the screen time of a script at 1-minute per page. I’ve heard a lot of target page numbers thrown out from 115 to 90 to 120 pages in length. One article I came across broke it down into basic dollars and cents:

• The person at the studio who initially reads the script, gets paid by the number of scripts they read in a day. So if you’re an unknown, shoot for 105 pages to help your script float to the top of their pile.
• From a studio perspective, a 105 minute film has more run time in the theaters than a 120 minute film, which means higher box office profits.

All these restrictions may seem cumbersome now, but they will make your screenplay more readable. At my screenwriter’s Meetup last night, we read 10-pages of eight scripts. 80 pages. The ones formatted properly are quick and enjoyable. The story just flows. The ones not formatted properly take longer to read, which ultimately detracts from the story and it makes me want to stop reading. So take a moment and quickly go through your script and add strategic line breaks in any action or description that's over three lines and see for yourself the difference it makes.