Two parter here. Writing battles/hunts and switching POV for a chapter...

lucidzfl · Aug 27, 2009

I apologize for the length of this I just (Dramatic pause) don't know where else to turn. I'll split this into two questions so I don't make two posts. Feel free to answer one, or both.

I attacked my WIP with absolute excitement when I started. I had this brilliant idea about a man trying to find his captured wife in a post apocalyptic world.

I spooled out nearly 40,000 words setting up the apocalypse, dealing with the aftermath, the creation of the refugee camp, and finally the massacre of the survivors by the main antagonists of the story.

I finally sit down ready to write the very first chase/battle/hunt for my MC (He's the hunter btw) and I draw.

A.
Freaking.
BLANK.

I spent nearly two, FREAKING hours last night just figuring out how the hell the scene plays out. I have so much to keep in mind. He's new at this, and not as refined as he'll be in the final section of the book. His quarry is coming in from an unknown location and doesn't know who he is yet. (He's not famous)

I was plagued by realistic and logistical consequences to X meeting Y meeting Z.

Now finally, after 10 handwritten changes and a few plot modifications (!!), I know what happens.

NOW I DONT KNOW HOW TO WRITE IT!!!!!

Question 1:

I ended the previous section of the book (Preceding this section by 6 months) by switching POVs (for the whole chapter) to the first man who my MC kills. I show his perspective as he runs from my MC and until he ultimately dies. Personally, I love this device.

Is it ok to write a chapter from the POV of the person my MC is chasing/hunting?

I love the idea of having a chapter showing my character setting up the traps, laying out the battlefield, and preparing for the ambush, then having an entire chapter from the perspective of his quarry as they fall into the trap and try, in vain, to escape.

But can I do it?

Question 2:

Logistically, I found i had to sit down, figure out the lay of the land, and practically draw maps to figure out what my MC does from where, and where the bad guys go, and how he reacts. It made sense to me but it was an arduous, time consuming task. There has to be a better way!

How do you guys plan out complex chase / hunting / battle sequences?

dgiharris · Aug 27, 2009

lucidzfl said:
Question 1:

I ended the previous section of the book (Preceding this section by 6 months) by switching POVs (for the whole chapter) to the first man who my MC kills. I show his perspective as he runs from my MC and until he ultimately dies. Personally, I love this device.

Is it ok to write a chapter from the POV of the person my MC is chasing/hunting?

I love the idea of having a chapter showing my character setting up the traps, laying out the battlefield, and preparing for the ambush, then having an entire chapter from the perspective of his quarry as they fall into the trap and try, in vain, to escape.

But can I do it?

Question 2:

Logistically, I found i had to sit down, figure out the lay of the land, and practically draw maps to figure out what my MC does from where, and where the bad guys go, and how he reacts. It made sense to me but it was an arduous, time consuming task. There has to be a better way!

How do you guys plan out complex chase / hunting / battle sequences?

I'm a short story writer working on my first book so take my comments with a grain of salt.

As for your question 1. I'm noticing a trend in modern books (90s to now) in which many authors indulge in multiple POVs giving each character their own POV chapter. George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan comes to mind and once I got oriented to this style I found it very entertaining. So the quick answer as stated in the Uncle Jim thread is you can do anything if it works.

Now, what may come across as wierd is if 95% of your book is one POV and then you just have this one antagonist POV chapter. That i'm not sure about and you'd have to ask some of the bigger brains around here.

As for your Question 2. Sorry, for some wierd reason, I never have problems keeping my stories/scenes straight in my head. I've probably never written anything that was so complicated where I needed to sketch things out. But as I understand it, many many authors sketch scenes out so you are not alone.

Mel...

5bcarnies · Aug 27, 2009

1) Changing POV to show the set-up and the actual capture and eventual demise of a character sounds fantastic. Judging by how you planned it the writing should come across wonderfully. Seeing the predator in action followed by the prey in the next chapter could be a real mind-bender, in all the right ways

2)I have a chase scene in my WIP. Since it is a UF I got on mapquest and researched the highways, the crossing streets, and even went out to location to visualize everything. If you are unable to do that, and it sounds like you won't be able to because of the setting, maps and sketches may be your best bet. It depends how you learn something. Like a visual learner versus a doer. But if you mix the two concepts you'll have a better understanding of what each of the characters are experiences.

Cassiopeia · Aug 27, 2009

I have a WIP that has three POV's. The main female character, a cop and then the killer. We don't get that much insight into the killer. At least not yet. The other two character's chapters take up anywhere from 7-13 pages in Word per chapter but the killer gets two pages.

And get this. The woman and cop, well they are in first person. Killer, he wants to be read in third person. I wrote him first in third person then rewrote in first and back to third and he's powerful at a distance.

As to my advice on how to get it all written down. Just write it even if it's crappy but get it to start coming out. Once you get moving I think you'll bust free since you have it so well mapped out.

I'm not too keen on the idea that you only have ONE chapter from a different POV. But that might just be me.

Good luck.

Nivarion · Aug 27, 2009

I recently had something like this happen with a chapter. I knew what was supposed to happen, and how it would effect the story and on and on. But I couldn't write it.

My solution (After a bit of help from the guys in the SF/F) was to make a new character and tell it from their POV. It all fell into place there. I was too emotionally charged telling it one way and too emotionally dead the other, because of the closeness of the POV.

If you can't seem to get I moving, take a good look at your cast. A character who is partial to the whole thing, or not right in the middle of it might be a better POV to write it from.

For a battle scene try to do what causes the most stress and tension for a reader. Describe with painful slowness every single swing of a sword, every arrow that whizzes by them. Because those things are fast, and have dire consequences. Like what would happen if your MC didn't parry that sword blow. (Many of mine don't) And do things of little consequence or that take a long time, tell very short. This keeps battles exciting and helps you get into their flow to write them.

For hunting scenes you more want to describe the characters emotions than what happens. Hunting is a thrill, no matter what any one tells you. As soon as you see your prey your blood begins to race, your heart pounds in your ears. Adrenaline rushes in unlike anything you've ever felt before. The gun/bow/spear become as light as air. And then when they run, Oh now that's a thrill, chasing them down.

And then the let down after your done. At the end the buck didn't prove any threat, and all of your Adrenaline was of no use. Knowing that you have to go it and do all the butchery is business like and not fun. Carrying or trying to drag the body through the woods is tiring and depending on how you made the kill you often get covered in blood. And its sticky and unpleasant. Sometimes you ruptured their entrails and they smell like an outhouse when you gut em. Wrapping the meat with plastic and freezing it takes forever and you are all sticky with blood when your done.

Anyways, That was a bit of a ramble, but I hope it helps.

Emrys · Aug 28, 2009

Hello Lucid! Just my two cents...

One: I love that. In my story I have a main character, eight chapters from her point of view first person. Then I have two chapters, one from another character's point of view third-person, and one from the antagonist's point of view third person. (these last two are interspersed, not at the end) I did this because writing from a first-person perspective, there are just some things she should not/could not know. And, seeing how a situation affects others and getting some insight into them I believe helps my novel rather than hinders it.

Two: My story takes place at a boarding school. I literally drew me a map. Grounds, school, hillside and river, mountain, the classrooms and dorm rooms, etc. Otherwise, I kept getting lost :Shrug:

. When I get my own office space, even if it turns out to be the corner of my bedroom, I plan on having stuff stuck everywhere - pictures of the characters with their bio info, maps of places, anything at all. Doing this stuff has sometimes kick-started something for me just by chance, a scene or an off-hand peice of dialog will come to mind and then I can get back into the story again.

Disclaimer to the above: I am a writer, not an illustrator, so while it may help me it still really really sucks... :tongue

BigWords · Aug 28, 2009

For exteriors Google Earth or any map sites are invaluable, though you should be aware that there are edits and omissions to many maps available online.

For interiors I suggest you do a search for blueprints in an image search. There are some interesting building designs and layouts I would never have thought of on my own. Change anything that doesn't work for you in Photoshop.

Linda Adams · Aug 28, 2009

One of the reasons I switched to omniscient viewpoint for my WIP was because third person was too limiting when it came to the fight scenes. In my last one, I had a big battle on a mountain and four main characters. Third person made it extremely difficult to do this because so much was going on that it wasn't realistic that the viewpoint character could see it all, and I didn't want to have a lot of one paragraph scenes hopping from one character to another. Omniscient gives me an overall camera view, and I can zoom in on any characters I want.

As for Question #2--ahem, I don't play well with maps. I'm directionally dysfunctional as well, so when I look at a map, I don't see whatever people find in maps see. So I tend to think in terms of sections. Section #1 might be the beach, where the main character meets the bad guy. It's near Section #2, which is the bad guy's camp. That's right at the end of a path near the ticket taker's shack. Then, if I need something in the terrain, I just add it into the appropriate section. For what the good guys and bad guys do, that would be some quick brainstorming.

Karen Junker · Aug 28, 2009

2) I'm using a grid, like you do in D&D, with little figurines (okay, actually die and a salt cellar, but...), so I can keep my logistics straight. For a fight scene, I try to get two people to actually act out the steps of the fight, so I can get details like angles, facial expressions, sounds, etc.

BigWords · Aug 28, 2009

Karen Junker said:
For a fight scene, I try to get two people to actually act out the steps of the fight, so I can get details like angles, facial expressions, sounds, etc.

Or you could hire a couple of homeless people to beat the shit out of each other and videotape it...

Karen Junker · Aug 28, 2009

BigWords said:
Or you could hire a couple of homeless people to beat the shit out of each other and videotape it...

Clearly, my failure to come up with these superior ideas is the reason I'm not making the big bucks in creative writing...

Emrys · Aug 29, 2009

Two parter here. Writing battles/hunts and switching POV for a chapter...

lucidzfl

Back from the dead

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist

5bcarnies

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

Nivarion

Brony level >9000

Emrys

I can hear the ocean calling...

BigWords

Geekzilla

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.