The Fight Scene vs. An Argument
Tips for writing active stories and quiet stories.
Hello Everyone! The winner of the YA Section’s Winter Writing Contest has written a tips and tools as a guest author. Without further ado, please welcome, Shiloh!
Hi, It’s Shiloh here, a guest author for the YA Section! You probably haven’t heard of me, but, among my other passions, I absolutely love to write! Currently, I’m working on an action/adventure story, but hope very soon in the future to begin writing quieter realistic fiction. Which brings us to our topic today!
Quiet Stories vs. Active Stories (and tips on how to write them)
The difference between these two types of stories is pretty self explanatory: Active stories are mainly stories based on an action-y plot. Most fantasy and sci-fi is active. Meanwhile, quiet stories are often less fast-paced and action-y. But both keep readers turning pages! So, now you’re wondering, “Well, how do I write them?” (Or maybe you’re not). Without further ado, let’s get started with tips for writing each kind.
(These tips can overlap between active and quiet stories, but here are separate lists of what I think are the main important parts to (hopefully) help you with your future writing!)
Active Stories
Active stories captivate the reader from the first page, pulling them in, and engaging them so well that the reader keeps turning pages. They’re often full of exciting revelations, plot twists, action sequences, and so on. So… how do you write good action plots without your plot sounding like, Fight Scene, Plot Twist, Fight Scene, Conversation, Fight Scene? (I definitely have experience with this kind of boring action writing…) Well, here are a few tips to help you elevate your active story writing and plotting abilities. :)
First off, Make the action necessary. Nobody wants to read a story where the plot doesn’t make any sense, and you probably don’t want to write that either. So, make sure the action sequence is useful, and present an obstacle to the main character that they have to overcome, or a goal they have to achieve.
Another helpful tip I’ve been taught is to, if possible, help the scene elevate your character. Active stories do not mean there are no well-written characters! In fact, the more the main character struggles, the more his personality will be shown, and the more he can stand up for what he believes in. Even if you have amazing action sequences and plot twists, with explosions and betrayals and all that, active stories won’t be nearly as page-turning to a reader if they don’t care about what happens to the characters.
In action sequences (not the whole story, but individual scenes) it helps to Write in ‘active’ prose. There are ways to make a good action scene even better just by changing wording. I find it helpful to use strong verbs wherever possible. I mean, writing “Sage’s punch was pushed away before he could hit the monster” just isn’t as captivating as “Sage’s punch was deflected before it had a chance to even glance off the monster’s face.” And then there is the ever-talked-about show, don’t tell rule, which can elevate a sentence even more by taking away the boring word “was”: “Before Sage’s fist could even glance off the monster’s face, the monster deflected the blow.”
Quiet Stories
While most of my writing is active, I’ve tried my hand at softer, quieter stories, which often centre more around a character plot more than an action plot. For example, in the story that landed me here, writing this guest post, I was really trying to focus on inner character development for the main character. The plot was certainly important, but it was quieter and more inner-character than the plot of an adventure story would be, and the end result was less of a change outside, but inside the MC.
Quiet stories can seem hard to write because there isn’t anything immediately attracting the readers’ attention. But like active stories, there are both easy things and hard things about writing these quieter stories. So how do you make captivating stories that stay in readers’ hearts?
Make the character both realistic and relatable. People aren’t perfect; we’re far from it. If you make a perfect character, nobody is going to root for him. It’s important to have flaws in your character. Give them real hobbies, real dislikes, real quirks. This makes the reader sympathize with the character and feel engaged and like they’re living the story, which in turn makes them care about the characters, what happens to them, and how they overcome struggles, both physically and mentally/emotionally.
Create challenges and barriers that shape the characters. Like in active stories, there needs to be challenges the character(s) have to overcome. However, in quiet stories, these don’t have to be violent battles or complicated heists. When I’m plotting quieter, character-driven stories, I like to think up the characters first (or more like they come storming in my brain at inconvenient hours of the day yelling at me to write about them XD), because they are what is affecting the plot. I find it helpful to recognize the flaws in a character and shape the plot realistically around that. This makes both the character grow and the reader keep going, invested in the quiet personal and character battles going on.
Use the secondary characters. Use them to help the MC, or vice versa. Just because they’re not your main character doesn’t mean they have less of a personality; it’s simply that it may not show as much. Keep them steady with their personality, or develop them and/or have them develop your MC. Just don’t have them sit there doing nothing except occasionally inputting funny comments.
Write with a deep POV. I always write in first person; I’ve always liked it better. But I know a lot of people who write in third person. Writing in third person doesn’t mean you can’t have a deep POV. Get deep into your character’s head. Introduce things into the story like chores or having to go to work every day. These real-life circumstances can further the personality of the character, and also make him relatable to the readers, because we all have boring chores too. Make problems that aren’t a big deal, a big deal to the character, like a math test, or missing somebody’s birthday. If you write like you are in the world you wrote, your reader will read like they’re in that world.
Well, those are the tips for writing active stories and quiet stories that I’ve compiled together. I hope you enjoyed this post and found it helpful! And, to the authors here on the YA Section, thank you so much for allowing me to write this!
~Shiloh
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