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does anyone know which post had all the tips about writing good action scenes?

...and on that note, any tips about writing good action/fight scenes? my action is majorly boring and idk how to fix it.

A lot of people are afraid of godmoding during action scenes, so they write fights that have minimal physical contact. Blows are always dodged or blocked, and no one gets hurt. People will write open-ended actions like "A tries to punch B" so the other player can decide what happens to their character. It's like play fighting, and it's boring. It's also OOC if your character is supposed to be some kind of epic fighter. Real fighting (except for the showy, unrealistic kind of Hollywood fencing) is a high-contact activity. A better way of handling action scenes is to talk to the other player and decide on the ground rules for the fight. Good action movie scenes are choreographed, so it makes sense to have a plan when you're rping one. Decide on who's going to win and by what method. Agree that characters can hit each other and inflict minor injuries so you don't end up with a lot of open-ended, no-contact actions.

For physical combat, remember that people who are having a serious fight don't just stand several paces apart and trade punches and kicks. They're grappling, they're shoving each other around, and they're using the environment to their advantage. They're thinking about what objects they can use as improvised weapons (having a weapon is usually an advantage) and they're thinking about what they can use to put some distance between themselves and their opponent. And that's just for basic brawling. If your character is an acrobatic kung fu master or a sneaky ninja, they're going to be using the environment in a completely different way than a character who is swinging a big, heavy battle ax. If one character is unarmed or much weaker than the other, their primary concern is probably going to be defense and escape. If you're writing a gunfight scene, characters are going to be thinking about cover and lines of sight.

Be descriptive about what's going on. Does your character grip their sword confidently, or are their hands trembling and sweaty? Did they scrape their elbows on the ground when they rolled out of the path of that machine gun? Are they out of breath and in pain, or are they so full of adrenaline that they're ignoring a serious injury? Are they fighting in a desperate panic, or are they trying to lure their enemy into a devastating trap? Don't forget dialogue - is your character is the type to taunt and quip throughout a fight scene, or will they try to reason with their opponent? The actual combat doesn't have to be that exciting as long as the character's thoughts and actions are exciting. You don't have to play out every slash and every kick. It's fine to let the actual fighting fade into the background while you focus on what your character is thinking.

anon above is fabulous and you should take it all to heart. I'm only chiming in to emphasize the bit at the end about not playing out every single punch, kick, or slash.

phase over the uninteresting bits, describe taking and giving blows that work to give both characters (or all, in a melee) a reason to be fatigued, injured, whatever. summarizing or using words to describe a brief passage of uninteresting time/action is not a bad thing. save the actual play-out for landing serious hits, major injuries, or really spectacular moves. particularly if you're playing a shonen protag who calls their shots and names their moves.

also agreeing on making ooc arrangements, and do let hits land. even shonen protags get ripped to shreds in most of their battles, so they can't dodge everything unless the power balance between fighters is skewed ridiculously.

Hello again anons~

I wrote some guides here a while ago based on my own experiences training and fighting if you'd like to use these. They could stand to be revised a bit by now but they should still serve as good bases.

Yer wonderful

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