A friend told me to stop forcing fight scenes into my stories

I was writing this fanfic for Attack on Titan. Every chapter had a big action set piece. My buddy read through my first three drafts and said 'your characters are just stuntmen.' Hit me hard. Realized I was skipping all the quiet moments between fights. The conversations, the planning, the dumb jokes. Changed my whole approach after that. Now I write scenes where nothing explodes. Feels more real. Has anyone else gotten feedback that totally flipped how you write?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_patel1920d ago

Oh man, this hits hard @miller.paul! I had a similar moment last year when a beta reader told me my characters never breathed. Like, they'd go from one intense scene to another without a single pause to just exist. Was writing this post-apocalyptic thing where every chapter was life or death. She pointed out that real people crack jokes between disasters or stare at the ceiling for ten minutes after a bad day. Totally rewired my brain lmao. Now I make sure my characters have moments where they're just like, eating a sandwich or arguing about what music to play in the car. Feels way more human that way.

miller.paul20d ago

My 2008 spy thriller had 12 gunfights before page 30 and my editor called it a Michael Bay audition tape.