One way to improve your action writing is by writing a scene with a simple premise: two characters get into a fight. This may sound overly simplistic, but that’s why it works as a perfect tool to practice action scene writing. An engaging action scene in manuscript format can’t be solely about the action taking place because simply reading about punching and kicking doesn’t translate the same way in a book that it does on screen. Instead, the focus should be on what is at stake on a character level.

By writing a scene based on this simple, you’re able to focus on the why behind the fight, rather than making the action exciting as we’re often feeling pressured to do. For example, let’s say we have two characters: Matt and David. Matt and David get into a fight, why? Are they two friends who had a falling out based on some dishonest behavior, only to wind up running into each other at a bar one night and having it out? If that’s the case, what was the lie and what did it cost each of them?

Or are they two strangers out at a club who bump into each other, a few harsh words are exchanged, and suddenly punches are being thrown? If that’s the case, what put them each in a bad mood? Maybe one of them just has anger issues, what has his anger cost him in his life? What could this moment cost him, should it get too out of hand? There is so much going on behind a fight and, in a manuscript format, focusing on these aspects is how you’ll be able to keep readers engaged and excited about the action.

Writing Prompt: Write a scene where two characters get into a fight. You can choose two already-made characters or create two new ones for the purposes of the scene. What is the relationship between the two characters? What caused the fight vs. why are they fighting (sometimes these are two different answers)? What are the stakes of their fight, both internally and externally? Put your dukes up, writers.

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Misery

Playing on fears of fame and notoriety, this Stephen King novel turned film gives a new and more sinister meaning to the phrase “I’m your biggest fan.” This movie follows a famous novelist, Paul Sheldon (played by James Caan), who gets into a car accident. He is discovered by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), his self-proclaimed number one fan, who brings him back to her house to heal. This film is not only dark and suspenseful but also contains one of Kathy Bates’s best performances of all time.

Dead Poets Society

This film stars Robin Williams in the role of John Keating, a new English teacher at a boy’s preparatory school. He uses unconventional teaching methods to reach out to his students and to inspire them to ‘Carpe Diem’. Also starring Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson, the film is also a coming of age story which tackles the tough problems young adults face. This movie will have you laughing and crying, which isn’t so shocking for a Robin Williams film.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Based on a true story, this film stars Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel, a struggling writer with bills that are piling up and a drinking problem to boot. In a desperate attempt to earn some money to support her writing, she begins to forge letters from famous writers and sell them to bookstores and collectors. Given that the basis of this film centers around being a struggling writer, it can definitely hit a little close to home for the writers out there. This movie is also a rare de-evolution story in the sense that the protagonist is already starting low and goes much lower. It also includes a killer performance by both McCarthy and her co-star Richard E. Grant who plays Jack Hock. It also contains the perfect writing exercise: Pick your favorite author and try to write a letter in their voice!

Adaptation

Starring Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation is about Charlie’s struggle both in his screenwriting career and with feelings of inadequacy. This all comes to a head when his twin brother, Donald, who also now has ambitions to be a screenwriter as well. The film is a meta-narrative about Charlie Kaufman’s real-life failed attempts to adapt Susan Orleans ‘The Orchid Thief’ into film, with some fictionalized elements like the twin brother.  First off, who wouldn’t want to see Nick Cage play twins? But seriously, this film is not only hilarious but also includes performances from Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox, Judy Greer, and more.

Ruby Sparks

One of the more imaginative versions of a writer/writing film, Ruby Sparks is about a writer who is suffering from writer’s block after his first novel received critical acclaim. He begins to get over his writer’s block when he dreams of a girl, a fictional creation who he names Ruby Sparks. As he writes about Ruby, he begins to fall in love with her until, suddenly, she has seemingly materialized into a real person who already believes they’re together. Written by Zoe Kazan, who plays Ruby Sparks in the film, the movie is about how the writing process at large can affect and warp our perspectives of relationships.

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Barnes & Noble Journals

For writers who just want a simple journal with a bit of creative flair, the journals at Barnes & Noble would be a perfect fit for you. They have blank, lined, no-nonsense pages with very creative covers, ranging from the brown leather vintage feel to colorful metallic shades. They even have some with texturized pages to add to that old-world feel. These journals range so much in style and color that you’re bound to find one that gives you that sense of importance and inspiration that your journal should.

Book Cover & Personalized Journal(s)

If you’re looking for one that’s still blank inside, but might be a little more creative outside, you can go with a more customized journal. You can find journals printed with some of your favorite fandoms on the cover or even have them personalized with your name. And if that’s not already cool enough, there are even some Etsy shops that will create journals that are made using old book covers. They simply fill the old book cover with notebook pages and all of a sudden you’re writing the next Jane Austen novel.

Reading Journal

If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that writing and reading go hand in hand. There’s no better way to improve your craft than by being an avid reader- especially in the genre or writing style you aspire to. Well, to help writers and readers alike stay on track, you could get yourself a reading journal! These journals will allow you to track your reading progress month by month, keep track of your favorite reads, and even record your favorite quotes. Some of the more creative iterations will even come decorated with gorgeous art and include some literary quotes to give you inspiration.

Writing Prompts Journal

On the other hand, you may be looking for a more interactive experience or a journal that will help improve your craft. If that’s the direction you want to go, may we recommend a writing prompt journal? These journals will provide you with creative writing prompts that will keep you active in your writing day-to-day. In addition, they are also good for giving you creative inspiration for your novel and even helping you when the dreaded writer’s block rears its ugly head.

Writer’s Planner Journal

Finally, if you’re looking for a journal that will allow you to stay organized and flesh out your story, we recommend going with a writer’s planner. This journal will help you do everything from staying on task with your writing to giving you inspiration, charting your writing goals, plotting out each act of your novel, giving you detailed character development sheets, and so much more. For any writer who ends up with miscellaneous papers in five different notebooks when they’re plotting out a new story, this type of journal is a great way to make sure all of your story and character notes and ideas stay organized and together.

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1) Erasers (Delete Key)

Oh, erasers. Thank you for saving us from our typos and all of the embarrassingly bad prose we’ve immediately regretted. Thanks to you, we don’t have to toss out the whole draft everytime we use the wrong form of ‘their’ when we haven’t had enough coffee yet. Speaking of which…

2) Coffee (or Tea)

Sweet sweet (and not so sweet) Coffee, thank you for giving us life. For helping us stay awake long past our bedtimes to finish the sections of our book we just had to get down before they slip away. Thank you, also, for helping us the next day when we need to work our day jobs without falling asleep at our desks. You give us strength when our frail human bodies have none left. You keep our eyes open in times of need. Bless you.

3) Spellcheck

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you, spellcheck. Though we have been blessed with creative minds, we sadly have not been blessed with perfect spelling and grammar (much as we may wish otherwise). Thank you for poking us with that red squiggly line and keeping us from embarrassing ourselves time and time again.

Thank you to our dear editors. This thank you is especially necessary because half of the time we can’t stand you guys (sorry). You take your editor axes and chop up our book babies and we have to sit there and watch it happen. Does this not sound grateful enough? All jokes aside, we know we fight you tooth and nail on every cut, but our book wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is without your hard work. Thank you for seeing what we miss and being tougher than we can ever be.

5) Google

This is a big one- THANK YOU GOOGLE. Because of you, we don’t need to spend hours in the library just to resolve one solitary plot point like the writers of old. The ease with which we can now look up old cold cases or political happenings or the science behind space travel has changed the writing game. Researching is such an important part of writing but, thanks to you, it takes a heck of a lot less time. Thank you for your service.

6) Our friends/family

To our friends and family, we are also truly grateful. Thank you for putting up with us. Thank you for understanding when we cancel plans last minute for an urgent writing night. Thank you for knowing we still love you when we don’t text you back for weeks because we’re so deep into our fantasy novel that we forgot the outside world still exists. Thank you for encouraging us in a career path that everyone else says will leave us living in a cardboard box. Thank you for forcing us out of the house when we have a nasty case of writer’s block (or we just haven’t seen sunlight in weeks). Thank you for listening to us talk about imaginary people for hours on end and pretending you care. We know we’re not the easiest people to deal with at times, but thank you for loving us all the same.

7) Our characters

To our characters AKA our real friends- thank you. Thank you for presenting yourselves to us and for allowing us the privilege of witnessing your lives. We feel honored to have witnessed your elation, struggles, desires, adventures, triumphs, losses, and so much more. We’ve grown to love you so much and can only hope we’ve done justice to what we’ve seen by jotting it all down. No matter how hard we try to the contrary, we’ll always know you much better than our readers ever will. Thank you for being a part of us and allowing us to be a part of you.

8) Strangers

Darling strangers, thank you so much. Thank you for allowing us to spy on you for hours on end with little to no repercussions. Thank you for your mannerisms, your quirks, your style, your gestures, and your words- because we stole all of them. Thank you for being so specifically weird that you vastly improve the quality of our writing. Without you, our writing wouldn’t be nearly as realistic and interesting. Thank you for allowing us to witness your bizarre majesty and for being oblivious enough not to notice us staring and hanging on your every word.

9) Our enemies

This is a weird one, but hear us out. Yes, you are all terrible. But, thanks to you, our books have some really great villains. We’ll go to our graves denying it, but our villains are definitely based (at least in part) on you guys. Without you ruining our lives with your horribleness, our villains wouldn’t be nearly as specific and awful as they are. Our readers love to hate our villains, all thanks to you. So are we happy you exist? No. Did you finally do something good though? Sort of. So we sort of thank you for it.

10) Our notebooks/phones

We thank you both so very much. Without you guys, we would never remember half of the stuff our fickle brains come up with. Our ideas are so fleeting and brief, but you guys are always right there with us so we can jot them down before they slip away. Thank you for holding all of our crazy ideas, keeping them safe from harm, and for having them ready just when we need them most. We know we don’t always treat you the best. We drop you, we tear out your pages, we scribble and get so disorganized that you lose all sense of purpose. But, if we ever lost you, it would be like losing a part of ourselves.

11) Books

We may tear up a bit on this one, but thank you, books. You were and will always be the first and greatest love of our lives. You are the reason we fell in love with writing. You are also the reason we got good at writing and you still improve both our writing and our lives to this day. You’ve taught us about life, love, family, culture, history, imagination, and what it means to be human. Ironic as it is, there are no words to express our gratitude toward you.

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1) Book Candles:

Book Candles are great gifts for readers and writers alike. Several candle companies, such as Wick and Fable, create scents that correspond with your favorite book series. Not only does this company have scents curated to fit popular series like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, they also make scents meant to evoke the feel of a specific genre. They have scents for fantasy, romance, sci-fi, and suspense genres. Allowing the aroma of a writer’s specific genre to fill their space may inspire them in their own writing.

Another company who goes beyond the normal book scents is Novelly Yours. They include scents that correspond with specific parts of the writing and reading process. These include scents like Cliffhanger, Plot Twist, World-building, Villainous, and Romance Trope. So if your writer friend is stuck on a specific section of their book, this may be the perfect way to inspire them.

2) Barnes & Noble Notebooks

For those writers who still love that feel of pen to paper, you can’t beat a quality notebook and pen set. Barnes & Noble has an amazing selection of stunning leather notebooks, perfect for the writer in your life. This is a convenient gift too because it’s hard to find an area without a Barnes & Noble close by.

3) Litographs

Litographs merchandise is the perfect gift for any literary inclined person. The website contains an array of different t-shirts, posters, scarves, and bags from over 200 different books. What makes these gifts unique, however, is that they aren’t just related to each book- they are each book. Every item has large excerpts of from the text from that particular book written all over it in small print. For those who aren’t content simply carrying their favorite book and would like to wear their favorite book, this website allows writers to take literary obsession to a whole new realm.

4) Writing Mugs

For writers who live on coffee or tea, an inspirational mug is always a great gift. There are so many to choose from but this one and this one are our favorites. It all depends on what you’re going for, just as long as it has a fun and creative saying. A funny mug can make a writer smile in the midst of their writer’s block or an inspirational/aspirational mug can provide a writer with the words of affirmation they need to keep writing well past their bedtime.

Are you ready to publish your book? Contact us today!

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