Q&A for How to Begin Writing a Good Action Novel

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How can I make the fictional world of my action novel seem real?

Grant Faulkner, MA
Professional Writer
Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story, a literary magazine. Grant has published two books on writing and has been published in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts Write-minded, a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and has a M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

Grant Faulkner, MA

Professional Writer

Expert Answer

It's a matter of studying your physical world or fictional world. If your fictional world takes place in a hospital, for instance, go spend some time in the hospital and take notes. It's amazing what going there and observing the setting will do in helping you catch all those precise details.

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How can I introduce characters in an action story?

Community Answer

You can reveal a lot about characters through dialogue. Their names, their thoughts, their feelings. It's much more interesting and engaging for the reader than to simply read a description of a person. Great dialogue brings characters to life.

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Question

How can I start the action in my story? I usually start it too quick and I can never seem to get it right.

Community Answer

Think about how it all led up to this huge action scene or whatever you had in your mind. Then, write a page or two about it as a free write, and then take it from there. If that's not really your style, maybe write about what happened seconds before this action scene, add some good description and dialogue and maybe some observations the main character had.

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What is the velocity of a bullet?

PandaSqueeze01

Community Answer

It depends on what gun you shoot it from. I'm going to assume you mean some kind of handgun/pistol. Let's take the Ruger MARK III. The average .22 LR bullet has 124 ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, which is much less powerful than the average pistol's round 338 ft-lbs. On average, this round has a muzzle velocity of 1,218 fps, making it one of the slowest pistol rounds.

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Can I include foreign words in my novel?

Donagan

Top Answerer

Yes, as long as you can do it without completely confusing your readers.

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