How To Write A Successful Minecraft Fanfiction

9: Action

Hello, it's me again. Today's chapter will be on my favorite thing to write about: action.

First off: action in the actual game of Minecraft is boring. There's not even blocking when it comes to sword fights (unless you have a shield), so you're basically just hitting each other until the other dies.

I recommend not writing your action like that. If your characters are having a good old fashioned sword fight, allow them to block and dodge and parry and stuff like that. Make it interesting.

But make sure you're not writing the same thing over and over again (i.e. "He swung, she blocked, she swung, he blocked). Yes, I know I've written like that before, but I was lazy. Really, you should vary your vocabulary by using synonyms and other interesting language.

Also when writing action, you shouldn't have really long sentences, otherwise it will kill the suspense. Make fast paced scenes have shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs. Whenever you're reading action, you're gonna want to instinctively read faster because it's getting exciting. And that's good because it puts you in the mood.

Speaking of making things interesting, all of your action shouldn't come from sword duels. You should include bows and arrows, axes, fist fights, even crazy weapons like TNT. And don't just write your action scenes with a one-on-one duel with nothing else happening. Make something interesting going on in the background.

What I try to do is make the environment/setting be interacted with during the battle. It can provide both advantages and disadvantages to the characters, which will make the fight more interesting. For example, the power plant battle in AMS. The entire building started to fall, and Steve fought a Creeper while hanging on wires of the falling building.

Okay, maybe that one was a little far-fetched. But I had a battle with the Wither take place on moving trucks in AMS, a battle on a moving train in TGW, and some helicopter battles in TFOM.

Wow, those all involved vehicles. I probably had other interesting settings that affected the action, but I can't think of any right now. You get what I mean, though. The setting should make the action more interesting.

Speaking of interesting, it's okay to write in weapons that don't really exist in Minecraft (such as a redstone pistol or a scythe), but I wouldn't rely too heavily on those. Keep in mind people are reading your book because it's Minecraft, so if you don't have any traditional swords or bows and arrows, you might lose readers. Additionally, completely unrealistic/OP weapons will kill your story, like a one-hit-kill sword (some circumstances could allow that, though).

Also, good old fashioned mob fights are always good to write into your story. Again, they're the Minecraft part, so your characters fighting off Creepers and Zombies and Ghasts and stuff is always fun to read. Not that fights with other characters is bad, but make sure you throw in the monster fights as well.

Also also, action doesn't just have to be battling. Running away from something or chasing someone counts as action, as well as games like Capture the Flag or Spleef. You could also consider your characters being put under pressure to do something in time as action, such as defusing a bomb.

The last piece of advice I have about action is this: don't write too much of it.

Yeah, I know. I don't follow that rule at all. Basically every chapter of TFOM had action in it. But, contrary to (apparently my) popular belief, that is not good.

Sure, action is interesting, but it can get boring after awhile. You shouldn't rely solely on action to make a good story. Add some romance. Some interesting interactions between your characters. Some heartbreak.

Basically, don't do what I did.

To recap, always make your action interesting. Don't always do the same thing. Spice it up by changing the way you write about it, the setting, the weapons used, the characters, and the nature of the action. But never write too much of it.

Authors, feel free to give any advice you can think of about action here.

Because I love them so much, I'm gonna write about character deaths in a separate part.

Rocknrebel44 helped me write some of this chapter, btw. Thanks <4

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!

~Radishologist