A Small Trick to Writing Big Action Plot

As a lover of SFF, I’m a big fan of what I call “action plot.” To me, a story isn’t complete without a good fight with the fate of the world, or at least a community, on the line. When I started writing, I was ready to translate what I consumed into my own stories. But as I typed out words, I felt like I was trying to stick together crumbs to make a cake. Sure, I can make my characters kick and punch stuff, but a single fight that barely lasted a page (and took me a long time to write) didn’t feel big enough. I wasn’t producing massive battles between good and evil or complex magic systems like some of my writer friends could, seemingly without effort.

Writing rhetoric tells us there are two types of writers: plot-driven and character-driven. As a new writer, I didn’t consider myself good at either, but at least I could picture characters, so I resigned myself to the character category and writing “small” focused stories. And yet, it felt uncomfortable because—hey! I didn’t go to the movies for the characters. I went to watch everyone hack at each other in that big final battle.

I really, really, really wanted to be good at action plot.

I really, really, really wanted to enjoy reading what I wrote.

I needed to find a way to create action plot without breaking my brain, and in my search I made a crucial discovery that I hope will help you with your own stories; whether you call yourself a character- or plot-driven writer, or just wish labels would go away.

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The Secret for Crafting Action Plot

“Big” action plots are made up of “small” actions.

Big Action Plot: when the audience feels that the action can’t get any more dramatic. Battles, car chases, explosions, a community pushed to its limits….

Small actions: Actions that we do in our every day lives, or actions that we can easily envision ourselves doing.

Have you noticed how few battles there are in stories we all consider to be “action-packed”? There’s the dramatic scene at the end of the story where the protagonist faces the antagonist. And before then, there’s usually only one, maximum two, other action sequences to show off the protagonist’s abilities and/or the areas they need to strengthen.

This leaves 90% of the story to small, every day actions.

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How I Discovered this Secret for Action Plot

Before we talk more about Small Actions, I want to illustrate this principle by sharing how I made this realization.

I made this discovery while listening to the audio book of The Hunger Games on a car trip. I have read The Hunger games any number of times before listening to the audio book, and in my mind, it was the most fast-paced, high-stakes, action-packed plot in literature. (You can argue with me about that, but that was what I thought.)

But when I listened to that audio book, to that narrator who was, let’s say, less than brilliant, I couldn’t help noticing how much time was spent in flashback. There are pages at a time when there is barely any dialogue. Definitely not what I would have called an action plot.

Let’s take a look at what happens in the first few chapters:

• 1. Katniss walks into the woods.
• 2. Gale and Katniss eat, then go fishing.
• 3. Katniss and Gale walk through the district selling their goods.
• 4. Everyone stands in the square listening to a speech
• 5. Action Plot: Katniss runs to the stage to stop her sister from going to the Hunger Games. This lasts only a few minutes.
• 6. Peeta Mellark gets drawn, and we get our first flashback.
• 7. Katniss and Peeta are taken into the building where they say goodbye to family and friends.
• 8. They board the train where they eat dinner.
• 9. They watch the replay of the Reaping ceremony on TV.
• 10. They help a drunk Haymitch.
• 11. Action Plot: They confront Haymitch and demand that he helps them. Action beats: one bottle knocked over, one punch thrown, two knife throws at inanimate objects.

I labeled two of the above with “action plot,” but if you notice, they aren’t much bigger than the other actions. Running. Throwing. The situation is extraordinary, but the actions not so much.

When I realized this, a lot of the stress of writing action plot left me. Instead of fretting about how my characters weren’t doing enough, or how unexciting my scenes were, I can concentrate on making the story important to the characters.

Because when the story is important to the character—when it feels life-changing to them—that’s where the excitement of action plot comes from.

So how do you do that?

Stakes and Subtext in Action Plot

Action plot takes on urgency when the events happening matter to the characters. Stakes and subtext are two ways you can create this urgency.

Stakes get talked about a lot in writing circles. This is when you ask the question: What will happen if they DON’T do this? What will they lose? What will change after they take action?

The answer to these questions give your action plot a sense of urgency. Your character needs to complete this, or else something bad will happen. In the list above, one of the small actions Katniss and Peeta do is help their drunk mentor. This action doesn’t seem like much in isolation, but Haymitch is their only ally during the life-and-death Games, so helping him is the most important thing they can do at the moment.

Subtext is another strategy to bring importance to the small actions. Subtext adds extra meaning to the events unfolding on the page. In chapter 1 of The Hunger Games, Katniss goes out into the woods to gather food. This is something she does every day, but this hunt has added meaning because it is supposed to be a day of celebration, and she wants to bring home something special for her family. Likewise, Prim’s gift of a goat cheese holds meaning as a thoughtful gift. This added meaning elevates mundane actions to events that matter to the character and, in turn, to the reader.

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Three Categories of Small Actions

I’ve come up with three general categories of small actions your protagonist can take. These categories are by no means comprehensive, but can serve as a good starting point when writing action plot.

Planning for an Event

Hopefully in our daily lives, these events are happy, but the steps of planning can be utilized in Action Plot.

The protagonist knows that something is going to happen and does their best to prepare for it. In chapter one of The Hunger Games, everyone in District 12 knows that there will be a reaping and that two children will be taken to be killed in the arena. Katniss prepares for this by refusing to let her younger sister take any of the Tesserae (so her name doesn’t go into the drawing more than once), and then by hunting so her family has a good meal when, ahem, they are spared from going to the Games.

Some actions that can fall into this category:

• Arguments (over what to do)
• Discussions
• Making lists
• Finding out vital information
• Buying supplies
• Learning who is an ally and who is a deterrent
• Creating a list of tasks that need to be completed during the event
• Asking for favors

Learning something new

When accomplishing a task you have never done before, there are always new things to learn. This “something new” can range from as simple as refreshing/practicing a skill you already have all the way to delving into a completely new topic. In most stories, the protagonist lacks certain abilities to achieve their story goal, so a certain amount of learning takes place.

Some actions that can fall into this category:

• Figuring out what you need to learn.
• Finding a mentor and/or materials to learn from.
• Trying, failing, trying again (try/fail cycles)
• Practicing.

Recovering from Difficulties

Sometimes it feels like life is nothing but recovery. In Action Plot, you can spend a lot of page time helping your character recovering and regrouping after the “big” events, all while planning for the next.

Some actions that can fall into this category:

• Conversations with family and friends
• Arguments with family and friends
• Distracting yourself to avoid the subject
• Self-soothing
• Engaging in the other two categories

I hope Action Plot is no longer intimidating or out of reach for you. If you ever feel like your story doesn’t have enough “big” action, remember that small actions are just as powerful, if not more so since your readers can more easily relate to them.