"He struck Bob in the face." Holly advised

That little bug-a-boo of mine, (when was the last time you heard that phrase?) is the fight that begins my ending.

Action scenes can be so easily overdone, but I have found the advice of The Literary Assassin: Fiction by Holly Messinger "RULES OF ACTION SCENES", to keep me on track.

1. Fights are short. I know that a whole movie can seem to be one big action scene, but as Holly points out, a fight between experienced fighters, who are seriously trying to do each other in, will last minutes. If it is an experienced fighter and a novice, it can be seconds before your inept hero is lying in the ditch, groaning.

The important thing is writing the tension build-up, which leads up to the fight, extremely well.

2. Her next bullet point is extremely helpful to me.

“Use subject-verb-object construction as often as possible:”He struck Bob in the face.”

She goes on to point out that the pacing of your writing adds to a “punchy quality that shakes up the reader.”

SO, if you are in the midst of writing or editing, or just pondering your action scenes, please check her site out, because this is some seriously good advice.