Explosions as Plot Devices

Marcella stares hard at the gauntlet laying at her feet. She nods and picks it up. If you read Jeffe Kennedy's Sunday post, you may have noted that she mentioned I defend explosions as plot devices. It's true. I've said that often. It's my own lame attempt at a joke, as well as an attempt to give stuck writers (especially me) permission to escape what feels like a dead end story loop. Don't know how to resolve a scene/section of your book? Fine. Blow something up and move on. Give yourself that permission. Nine times out of ten, that random act of silliness will move you past boxed-in thinking and you'll get back to focusing on the narrative arc. Once that happens, you're likely to solve the plot/character arc problem that I suggested solving with the placeholder explosion. So there you are. Tacit permission to use fireballs as a means to distract yourself when you're stuck. This is by no means permission to light your entire manuscript on fire, however. The flames stay in the words you put on the page. Only rule.

I can't disguise the fact that I love blowing stuff up. In fiction. I don't think there's a book or story I've written yet where a hero or heroine doesn't bomb something. Thus the joke about explosions as plot devices. However, I'm a character driven writer rather than a plot driven writer. That means that plot comes from who my characters are, what their wounds and fears are, and what challenges they need to face in order to become better versions of themselves. If they're going to. So when I talk about explosions, whether literal or metaphorical, not only am I writing a fight scene, sex scene, political struggle scene, or sabotage scene that destroys an object or objects in a story, the action of the scene must also destroy my protagonist in some vital way. I'm either shattering arrogance or confidence or trust or defenses. Or possibly, I'm shattering a character's view of themselves as incompetent. Whatever it is. Every explosion has to have corpses. I'm just bloodthirsty enough that while there may be actual dead bodies on the ground or floating in space, there's also some aspect of the MC that dies at the same time.

A fight has to have a point and I'm happiest if that point skewers good guys and bad guys in some way all in one go. So in that regard, the only good explosion (plot device) is one that ends up with unforeseen collateral damage. I love walking my characters right up to what they imagine is their strong suit, having them deploy it to devastating effect, only to have them discover that their most prized weapon cut them in some vital way, too.

Damn it. I can't believe I'm sitting here effectively arguing for 'cost of magic' when the whole notion in fantasy offends me. But it is what I'm doing. Crap. 'Cost of magic' is the notion that every talent your protagonist possesses comes at a cost. Where does the energy for magic (or explosions or ability to pilot a spaceship) come from and how does that impact your MC and the people around them? It makes sense from a physics standpoint - every action having that equal and opposite reaction. It's just that in fiction, we get to widen our definition of equal and opposite reaction. In fact, I think we have to. I can write reams about the physics of recoil in space, but that's far less interesting than the recoil inside my characters or inside the structures they've built in their lives. It's far more interesting to me to have a character blow up a bad guy's hide out and discover she's also unwittingly blown up her rocky relationship with her dad.

So this is me, hugging my explosions tight, and saying, "Yeah, but EMOTIONS." I'm defending the right to blow things up. Just remember to scorch the eyebrows off whoever lit the fuse.

Writing the Punchy-Punchy-Stab-Stab

I'm probably the one here who does the most fight-scene heavy writing, as most of my books involve a fair amount of punches to the face or practical application of knives as problem-solving techniques for my characters.

Not that face-punching or stabbing are good solutions to problems, but these are fictional characters in a fantasy universe, so that's how it rolls.

But the point is: I write a lot of action scenes in my books, and I think a lot about how to make them effective.  It's a two-part process.

First: the external.  What happens, and showing it in a way that has clarity and engagement. This can be a challenge, especially when your characters are facing nameless thugs.  There's only so much "this guy and then the other guy and then the third guy" you can do before it gets confusing.  One trick I do is have the POV character make their own distinctions of the people they're fighting, and use that it keeping the situation clear.  Another aspect is keeping the geography of the fight clear.  Who is where, where they can go, how close they are to each other, so on.  Juggling that stuff canbe a challenge, but can make the difference between a fun, dynamic fight scene and a confusing, muddled one.

More importantly is the internal: What does your character feel during the fight?  Terrified?  Exhilarated?  Bored?  What do they want? What are the stakes of winning or losing the fight?  How does continuing the fight cost them?  Give thought to all that.

Now: take those elements, shake them up, and let 'er rip.  Like this bit from Parliament of Bodies where Satrine is rescuing a boy from a room filled with gang members, four floors up in a building controlled by that gang.

Satrine took a moment to catch her breath, and pushed through the pain to pull little Yetter with her to the stairs. 

A doorway in front of her burst open, and Short Hair came out, knives drawn. Satrine glanced behind her, and Hatchets had come out of the apartment she had just come from. Obviously the rooms up here were connected. And it wouldn’t be too long before the rest of them recovered enough to get out here. 

“Back to the wall, kid,” she said, drawing out her handstick. 

Short Hair and Hatchets both leaped at her at the same time. Short Hair pounced like a cat, knives first, while Hatchets swung in tight circles—not enough space in this hallway to really go wide. Satrine stepped to the side—to keep Yetter between her and the wall—knocking one of Short Hair’s blades with the handstick before pivoting and sweeping the stick at Hatchets’ tight swings. 

She caught the handstick against the hatchet handles, below the blades, and pushed hard to throw him off balance into the wall. Short Hair came up with another swipe, which Satrine pulled back from. She could feel the blade pass by as it barely missed the tip of her nose. She kicked at Short Hair’s knee, while bringing the handstick into the girl’s sternum. 

Both Short Hair and Hatchets reeled for a moment, and Satrine pushed Yetter toward the stairs. “Run!” He went like a crossbow bolt down the hallway, and Satrine tried to shove past Short Hair to do the same. Instead something yanked at her leg and Satrine fell to the floor. 

She flipped herself over to land on her back, just in time to get her handstick up to block the two knives coming at her chest. She tried to pull up her leg, jam a knee into Short Hair’s side, but Face Scar was on the ground with her, holding on to her boot. 

Satrine kicked, knocking Face Scar in the nose while holding back Short Hair’s desperate press to bury her knives into Satrine’s heart. Satrine kicked again, and this time her leg was free—as her foot had come completely out of her boot. She kicked Face Scar again, pushing the girl into Hatchets, who fell on top of Short Hair’s legs. 

That distracted Short Hair enough for Satrine to jerk the knives to the side. Short Hair tried to push harder, but just jammed her knives into the floor. Satrine gave her two quick jabs to the face and scrambled out from under the girl. 

She was on her feet at the same time as Hatchets, and he just looked annoyed. Satrine was already bruised and winded, a gash on her arm that she only now noticed, one leg aching and the other one with a bare foot. 

He came at her with arms like windmills, hatchets spinning, screaming like he was on fire. It would be bad business for Satrine, but he brought the hatchets down in a predictable rhythm that was easy to block. He was swinging too wide, so Face Scar and Short Hair were stuck behind him. Satrine knocked his hatchet blows away as she stumbled back. Quickly he caught on to what she was doing, and tried to switch up his method. He did a fancy spin that looked impressive, but left his back unguarded. She slammed her handstick into his spine, grabbed his shoulder and hurled him into the wall. Both his hatchets got stuck in the wall. 

She wasted no more time getting to the stairs, even though she she could only hobble on her uneven feet. 

“Someone get that lousy stick!” she heard screamed from behind. As she tried to catch up to Yetter, she could hear plenty of bruisers giving chase, and even more brawling below her.

Fight me (in a scene)

True confession time: most fight scenes in books and movies bore me. You know how a lot (all?) James Bond movies start with an action scene or chase sequence, and it's supposed to be thrilling but it isn't really related to the rest of the story and is mostly about Daniel Craig being pretty people jumping off buildings and somehow never breaking their legs? Yeeeah, that's my popcorn-buying break.

As a consumer of entertainment, I really only like action scenes -- and sex scenes are absolutely action scenes -- that somehow affect the protagonist's internal arc. Not affect as in physically wounding the characters or other plotty nonsense, but as in revealing something critical about them. Happily for me, there are lots of ways a storyteller can add that crucial layer to a fight sequence to grab and hold my interest.

How do they fight?

I haven't read it in a really long time, but I remember being blown away with the aikido fights in Steven Gould's Helm. I mean, there were lots of fascinating things about that book (hello, mind control and ambitious youngest-child not-chosen-ones), but the journey of the protagonist, Leland, is bound up with his embrace of aikido, so how he fights -- the stances and centering and balance -- is a reflection of how much he has grown and learned as the story progresses.

Who do they fight?

Sometimes the reveal is who the protag is fighting. If anyone hasn't seen The Last Jedi, skip to the next section, 'cause I'm about to spoil something here. Gone? Okay. So that throne room fight sequence was so freaking amazing. Not just because of the choreography and fancy lightsaber work -- we have seen plenty of lightsaber fights, not all of which were interesting. This particular fight sees a dramatic shift in allegiances, and when Rey and Kylo end up fighting back-to-back together against Snoke and his red minions, the whole Force is in balance. Damn skippy I didn't go get popcorn during that.

Where is their attention during a fight?

I recently read The Magnolia Sword, Sherry Thomas's retelling of the Ballad of Mulan, and I adored all of the action scenes, especially the really, really long one at the end. Now, you might think that a fight-weary reader like me would have gotten bored quickly, but I wasn't. Weird, huh? So of course I had to re-read several times and try to figure out why. I think part of it was the staging, which was beautiful, but also important was where Mulan's attention was during the fight. She is constantly checking off where her opponents are (I mean, duh that), but she's also always hyper aware of where her allies are, what they are doing, how vulnerable they are, and how close they are to losing. She shifts her own tactics and position to better aid them, and in the process her anxiety became my anxiety in the best possible way.

How do they see this all going down?

And by that, I mean the planning. For instance, in Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart, David is the kid with the plan. He has a plan for everything, especially and including his personal revenge. So in every action scene, there is an accompanying thought of "how well is that plan working out for him?" The difference between David's plan and what actually happens, and how he deals with those differences on the fly, reveals a lot about where he is in his personal vengeance quest, not to mention character development.

So what you're saying is layer other stuff in because we are all really more interested in that stuff than in people kicking each other?

Yep. Because a story about people beating each other up for no good reason is dull, and if a scene is a micro-story with beginning, middle, end, and motivation, then there have to be layers and character development shown within the fight. Otherwise, you're gonna bore your reader.

10 Tips for Fight Scenes

Fight! Fight! Fight!

~ehem~

I write fight scenes way more often than I write sex scenes. Matter of fact, my published books don't have sex scenes--unless the protag walks in on an intimate moment. A kiss here and there, sure. My stories do, however, have fight scenes. Lots of fight scenes but not too many; I'm not writing the Expendables. ~rimshot~ Plus, kicking ass is exhausting and characters need time to recover.

10 Rules of Fight Club Scenes
(Okay, they're not rules; they're tips)

1. The types of fights should escalate over the course of the story. Don't deploy the full arsenal early unless your story is about what comes after the fight (aka apocalyptic aftermath).
2. Bigger isn't always better. The climactic battle doesn't have to be El Cid's army charging down the mountains. Sometimes it's two gals in a doorway and only one knife. 
3. The protag's ultimate goal is what matters in the fight. The question isn't who's the better combatant; it's can the protag get what they're after.
4. Fights should reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. Physical, emotional. Privileges, biases, even caste/class if that's part of your world.
5. Weaknesses should absolutely be used against the characters until they become strengths.
6. Consequences must happen, both personal and environmental. Something changes within the character and in those around them. That ought to include negative consequences. 
7. The costs are way more interesting than the celebrations. Personal costs and mission costs.
8. The hero cannot always win.
9. Winning leads to bigger problems.
10. Don't punch down.

There you have it, my 10 Tips for Fight Scenes. If your challenge is visualizing the conflict and putting it into words, then turn on the TV. Find a few shows that have scenes similar to what you think you want to write, and describe out loud the blow-by-blow action happening on the screen. Start with the set, then the staging, then the attire, then the action, then the actor's reactions. Don't forget the smell that's probably there even though Smell-O-Vision hasn't happened yet. Every detail, you put into words. Definitely want to do that writing exercise at home, alone, with the remote in hand. Feel free to get up an reenact what you see. Yes, it's hard to put into words what we see and hear coming from our entertainment centers. 

Good luck! 

Fight Scenes for Peace Lovers

I did a book launch signing yesterday for THE ORCHID THRONE, along with Jane Linskold. So lovely to see that my local indie bookstore, Page 1 Books, has such an array of my books!

It was a fun event and I so appreciate all the folks who took the time to come out.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Writing Fight Scenes. Now, I - somewhat famously, if I want to give myself that much credit - don't like writing fight scenes. I'm really not much for violence overall. I'm that person who covers her ears and shuts her eyes at the scary part in the movie. The fight scenes - especially those extended mano a mano duels that seem to take up the last twenty minutes of every action movie - bore me to death.

I've even been on panels - like one Jennifer Estep put together for RT one year - on Steam vs. Scream: writing sex scenes or writing fight scenes? Spoiler: I'm the sex scene gal.

I love writing sex scenes. They come easily [heh] for me. I love the way the intimacy and power of sex peels open the characters and can drive transformation. People try to tell me that fight scenes do the same thing and my frank opinion is that they're wrong. Fight scenes can reveal character - and should, if well done - and a fight scene can challenge a character, but overall I think that fight scenes drive plot.

So, this makes sense to me, that character-driven writers like myself tend to prefer sex scenes - or any scene delving into emotional intimacy - where plot-driven writers love fight scenes. Marcella Burnard, our Gal Friday here on the blog, is forever claiming that explosions are perfectly valid plot points. I'm sure she's right - they just aren't for me.

I titled this post "Fight Scenes for Peace Lovers" and that's probably not fair. I know plenty of writers who create horrifying fight scenes while being perfectly calm, lovely and peaceable people in real life.

But what do you do when, like me, you're someone who abhors conflict and finds fight scenes (and I'm including battle scenes in this) tedious at best? When all I really care about is who wins and what kind of damage the participants suffer going forward.

I can personally vouch that treating them like sex scenes, only with fighting instead of loving, DOES NOT WORK.

You know what worked for me? Layering.

I write the bare bones of the fight scene to get it in the story, then I go back and add to it. The major battle scene in book 2 of Forgotten Empires, THE FIERY CROWN (cover reveal coming October 16 on Tor.com!), I revised and layered in more and more detail probably a dozen times. On each pass, I was able to take more time to add to the visceral experience of the battle, to slow things down. This really helped me get past the "Joe and Susan duke it out. Joe gets a gut wound. Susan wins." mentality.

Giving myself permission to revisit the scene multiple times and layer in information really made a difference for this Steam writer. I'm sure our Scream writers here at the SFF Seven will have more advice. I know I'll be reading.

Cats Dogs and Otherworldly Creatures: Pets In Space 4

Our topic this week is whatever is on our minds currently. Confining myself strictly to the author world, what’s on my mind are cats, dogs and otherworldly creatures, otherwise known as Pets In Space® 4! It’s my pending new release, on my birthday next week.

About four years ago, my author friend Pauline B. Jones and I started this fun project and invited some other science fiction romance authors to join in. We put together an annual collection of all new stories featuring action, adventure, romance and a pet of some sort involved in the story. Sort of like “Lassie in space”. (Not the racier kind of ‘pets’ you find in some steamy fiction!).

The idea was to find new readers for scifi romance and to support a worthy cause with a portion of the royalties. Now in our fourth year, we’ve hit the USA Today Best Seller list twice and been able to give our charity quite a nice chunk of donations, thanks to our wonderful readers.

Pets in Space® 4 Anthology Blurb:

For a limited time only! Pets in Space® 4 is proud to present 13 amazing, original new stories! Join the adventures as today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors take you on a journey to another world. Pets in Space® proudly supports Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that provides service animals to veterans and first responders in need. Join New York Times, USA TODAY and Award-winning Bestselling authors S.E. Smith, Anna Hackett, Tiffany Roberts, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Donna McDonald, Regine Abel, Alexis Glynn Latner, JC Hay, E.D. Walker, Kyndra Hatch, and Cassandra Chandler for another exciting Pets in Space® anthology. Get the stories before they are gone!

Proud supporters of Hero-Dogs.org, Pets in Space® authors have donated over $7,100 in the past three years to help place specially trained dogs with veterans and first responders. 10% of all pre-orders and the first month’s royalties of Pets in Space® 4 will again go to Hero-Dogs.org. Open your hearts and grab your limited release copy of Pets in Space® 4 today so together we can continue to assist this worthy charity!

I always set my Pets In Space® stories on an interstellar cruise liner and have had all kinds of pets from a cat to an eagle to an alien blend of a tribble and a red-tailed panda. This year my pet is an alien ‘dog’, named Charrli. Here’s a bit more about my full length novel in the anthology:

STAR CRUISE: IDOL’S CURSE (The Sectors SF Romance Series)

An unusual bequest….

Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question.

Until the rock disappears from her office…

When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise - she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship.

Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster?

An excerpt when Juli meets Charrli:

“We can give you a ride,” Steve offered. “The side of this road isn’t a good place for you to be stranded, especially with a storm coming.”

A gust of cold wind buffeted her to emphasize his remark and she shivered. What happened to the hot sun of just a few hours ago? Peering at his sporty groundcar, she hesitated. “I don’t want to be a bother or ruin your date.”

He laughed. “No bother and it’s not a date. Remember I told you my aunt Dian was going to be a passenger on the next leg of the cruise? I picked her up this afternoon and I also have the use of the captain’s personal shuttle, so I can take you all the way to the Zephyr with us. Plenty of room in this rented car of mine.”

“Say no more, I’ll be thrilled to accept your help then. Let me grab my purse.” Heart unaccountably lighter because he wasn’t on a date, Juli fished her possessions out of the car, and went to climb in the backseat of his racy red vehicle, as he held the door for her. Hope never dies, I guess. Oh, Juli, get over this mad crush. Angry at herself for her racing pulse and the effect this man invariably had on her, she stumbled and Steve steadied her with one big hand. Her body tingled a little at the physical contact.

“I’m Steve’s Aunt Dian,” said the lady in the front seat, swiveling to study Juli. She extended her gloved hand.

Juli tried not to stare. Dian was elderly but wearing full, expertly applied makeup and her syntho hair was coiffed into a confection of pink and blond a trideo star might admire, accented with a glittery star-shaped barrette. Her pink and cream woven suit was by a high end fashion designer, or else a very good knockoff and she presented an altogether glamorous and retro picture. This is practical, stoic Steve’s aunt?  Juli detected no family resemblance although of course that didn’t mean much. “I’m so happy to meet you and glad you’ll be sailing with us.”

Next instant, a barking ball of golden brown fur sailed over the seat, landing in Juli’s lap with a thud. With a startled scream she tried to fend off the pet, which fortunately seemed intent on getting into her purse, rather than actually attacking her personally.

“Charrli, don’t be rude,” said Dian, snapping her fingers in annoyance. “No one asked you to do a search and destroy mission on Juli’s belongings. Get back here where you belong.”

Hand on the controls, Steve studied Juli. “Do you have a snack in your purse?” he asked. “Charrli’s a real chow hound.”

“What an inelegant way to describe my champion purebred miniature Deskaza dog.” Despite her offended protest, his elderly relative didn’t sound too offended.

All Buy Links: https://www.petsinspaceantho.com/books/pets-in-space-4/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WCQF358/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WCQF358/

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07WCQF358/

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07WCQF358/

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pets-in-space-4

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/pets-in-space-4/id1476281234

Slipping Sideways into Death

Black bellied whistling ducks line the opposite shore of the pond behind the house. They're chatty birds who like to fuss and argue amongst themselves. They often lose track of the pair of alligators eyeing them from the deeper water. One of the ducks is supposed to always be on watch, but when hierarchy fights erupt, the look-out bird gets involved. Once in a great while, a gator gets duck for breakfast.

It's lightning fast and terrible to witness. Dreadful to hear. The caught bird is killed instantly, but there's a lot of snapping and crunching involved while the remainder of the flock screams.

On this side of the pond, the alligators take a different form. They wear white coats and read numbers from gleaming computer screens. Stage three this. Acute that. Denial feels like a flimsy shield, but who among us dares to point that out? So we keep busy on our side of the pond, where we watch the ducks and they watch us. We acknowledge that one of our party keeps drifting closer to death's pointy-toothed grin. But we keep busy. Maybe if we keep moving we can confuse the specter creeping up on us and death, when he comes calling, will miss his grab and leave empty-handed and resentful yet again.

Or maybe, this harvest season, he won't.

Juggling Cats and Chainsaws

Folks, it has been a TIME for me the past few months.  In good ways, with the Good Kind of Busy, but still: A TIME.  And a big part of that is the cat-and-chainsaw juggling that is finishing the draft of PEOPLE OF THE CITY, where I have several plot threads from four different series converging and paying off, and that has been a huge thing, let me tell you.

I'm honestly so glad I'm using Scrivener for this.

One of the things that I LOVE about Scrivener is how painless it is to move scenes around. When you're juggling a bunch of converging plot lines it can be VERY helpful to try different orders of scenes for maximum impact.  Like, you plot it out in outline, figuring out all the What that needs to happen.  But then once it's written, and you've got a sense of the scenes, how they each rise and fall, the lengths of each one, the rhythm of the chapters, it's fun to play with how that works.  Do you group three disaster scenes together, so things fall-fall-fall in each bit through the chapter?  Or push the disaster of one plot line to the next chapter while bringing in the hope from another: fall-rise-fall. Which one is the best end-of-chapter kick?

Plus I can see the word count of each scene, each chapter, and get a sense of how shuffling the scenes around affects the pacing, keywords to show me which characters and threads I'm moving, how each plot thread is moving forward.

I can't imagine writing a novel like the one PEOPLE OF THE CITY is shaping into without these tools.  SO VERY HAPPY.

In other news: SHIELD OF THE PEOPLE comes out this month.  AND I'll be at New York Comic Con this weekend and World Fantasy Con next month.  So things are not slowing down.  Say hello if you can.  Wish me luck.