Portraying romantic intimacy
I dunno why, but every time I try to work on romantic scenes, they feel… I dunno, stiff.
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Finding the motivation to keep writing. Not to start writing; the beginning of whatever project I’m working on always goes by quickly. After the beginning, whatever enthusiasm I have seems to taper off until it’s almost nonexistent.
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Getting people to actually read the dang stuff.
Anyway, as far as writing action scenes go, here’s my advice (this is something I tend to get complimented on, even though I don’t particularly like writing).
My secret is to try and match the kinesthetics and energy of a Michael Bay action scene. I’m a very visual thinker so I believe that helps me a lot.
As far as romance goes: focus on the thoughts and feelings rather than the physicality. Oh, the latter is important, but it’s not what makes something romantic. If someone is standing right behind you, the difference between ‘someone is just close to me’ or ‘way too close, buddy’ or 'OMG THEY’RE BREATHING ON MY NECK~" is entirely feeling.
For romantic tension, my number one tip is to illustrate the character doing something differently around the character they have the tension with. This might be as simple in the prose as referring to them by their real name as opposed to, say, superhero name. Or it could be repeatedly noting, say, their hair color and eye color. Or how they stand, or how they move. Something that says ‘this character has their eyes on this other character’.
edit: I mean, I don’t particularly like writing action scenes! Talk about a slip of the tongue…
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Procrastination. Whenever I set a whole day aside for writing, I end up spending maybe 2 or 3 hours writing, and the rest of the day watching random youtube videos. 
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Finding typos.
Writing romantic scenes.
Getting WIP’s finished one at a time instead of working on a few at once. (Too many ideas to write down 
)
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I’d say my biggest problem is a mixture of two things. My complexity addiction, and my laziness.
When I think of a potential option, I can’t help but implement it. This inevitably leads to massive scenes and a ridiculous number of branches that I can barely wrap my head around all the things that I have to keep track of.
Add to this my laziness which makes it hard to sit down and write for more than about an hour at a time with frequent tabs over to YouTube, and you have really long production times.
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Same for me. In all my stories has a character with problems like that. Idk why I keep doing this and sometimes I don’t even notice that I’m doing it.
Describing places, armor/clothes and some objects is also a difficulty. I think I’m ok with expressions and action, but those three is a hell for me. And now fight with swords perhaps enter this list as well.
I think I’ve to search more.
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Yup, I procrastinate a lot and mostly don’t feel like writing at times. This makes me scared for my future as an Author, when I was younger I could write, write, and write as much as I want. Now? Not so much.
Another problem is dialogue length. I feel like I’m writing for a year but when I look at it, the conversations between characters seem really brief and sometimes I feel I don’t describe something enough.
And then there are times where I do way too much. Rip.
@GenecoInheritor @K4therine The torturing your characters thing is a problem?! Oh crud, I have it too.
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Well, I don’t see it like a problem, but maybe for some readers is a problem. Who would play a game which the MC has social anxiety disorder and has panic attacks sometimes?
@K4therine Everyone who reads my writeups in Monsters and Guenevere, probably. Because every single character I write has some sort of psychological disorder. 
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My biggest struggle is to believe in my own writing. John Steinbeck in the 1960’s said to succeed in writing it is really important to believe that what you write is the most important thing in the world and failing that, you have to hold onto that illusion, even when you don’t believe it.
So, ya, believing in myself and my writing is the hardest thing to do all the time.
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Really? That’s good. Sometimes I feel like I’ll loss readers if I put things like that. Just one more thing that makes me feel insecure.
My soulmate writer 
I don’t do it with every single character because I mostly put problems that I have. It begins when I wanted to show my friend how I really feel about everything and now is just because I like, idk.
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@K4therine Yep, really. I’ll have to make a bunch of posts about all their issues sometime.
Total coincidence, but I happen to have instant messaged someone with Social Anxiety Disorder a lot today about the subject. I probably should say this to him too, but…dealing with that much anxiety and self-hatred, and still getting up in the morning and living your life and not offing yourself, makes you probably one of the strongest people I know. And more than good enough. 
I do have a self-insert too-gotta get that anonymous free therapy somehow.
But yeah, I do every single character, not only because that’s where my interest lies, but because I really can’t write neurotypical characters. I guess you could consider that a struggle as a writer.
Well, now you’re showing the world. 
Or at least the COG community. 
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Oh, thanks 
I just know I’ve to keep trying and that’s what I do. Even when things don’t makes any sense to me and when things get too hard, I write or listen music. It’s helpful sometimes.
Yes! Not yet, really, but soon! I’m very very excited and also very very very nervous 
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Besides my god awful English grammar, my overly use of descriptions, oh and my readers demand certain things I’m not comfortable to write about. That are things I struggle with as a sort of a writer.
Subtlety. Both in terms of how I write characters and the fact that I can barely spell the word itself.
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I’m sorry, I’ve never seen that phrase in my life. Perhaps you mean “constant and never-ending editing”? Because that, I know.
My biggest struggle as a writer? That’s gotta be action scenes.
They’re notoriously difficult to write, and for good reason. What you as a writer imagine in your head isn’t necessary what a reader will be imagining.
liek if u cr y evry teim
So what I do to overcome this is that I force_myself into writing it like a screenplay (even though, generally action movie screenplays don’t have action scenes but that is not my point), you gotta pretend like you’re describing the fight scene to the director so they know how to film it. You gotta be crystal freakin’ clear about what’s occurring and keep is simple, no flowery dialogue or anything that could confuse people, otherwise the director (the reader) could get confused and film the wrong thing (imagine it incorrectly) and get frustrated with you.
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I keep finding myself editing when I’m wrting and then not writing all that much when it’s all said and done. By then my steam is gone and I lost the feel of the scene.
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Oof.
I would really recommend not writing action scenes in that way. Action scenes are not blow-by-blow storyboards. For example, I find the link posted earlier by @needs-to-be-loved that demonstrates two examples that aren’t particularly good. Child especially suffers from that kind of written storyboarding (but he can ‘get away with it’ because Reacher is incredibly smart, handsome, rational and perceptive).
You know what happens when I read someone giving me an exacting physical description of a fight? I start skimming. I blank. It’s boring. I start filling it in in with my own images anyway.
More words does not mean more clarity. In fact, more words is antithetical to clarity.
Let’s look at a screenplay of one of my favorite fight scenes.
Luke ignites his lightsaber and screams in anger, rushing at his father
with a frenzy we have not seen before. Sparks fly as Luke and Vader
fight in the cramped area. Luke’s hatred forces Vader to retreat out of
the low area and across a bridge overlooking a vast elevator shaft.
Each stroke of Luke’s sword drives his father further toward defeat.The Dark Lord is knocked to his knees, and as he raises his sword to
block another onslaught, Luke slashes Vader’s right hand off at the
wrist, causing metal and electronic parts to fly from the mechanical
stump. Vader’s sword clatters uselessly away, over the
edge of the platform and into the bottomless shaft below. Luke moves
over Vader and holds the blade of his sword to the Dark Lord’s throat.
The Emperor watches with uncontrollable, pleased agitation.
That’s a screenplay. Honestly, that’d be passable for a story if it was written in third-person omniscient. But only passable, I bet an editor or a reader would say ‘this reads like a screenplay’. Novels are different to screenplays.
If you were writing this as a story – say, focusing on Luke as the viewpoint character – how much detail would you need? But, more than that, how much would be warranted and how much would be necessary? IMO, the only bit you’d really focus on is how…
he’s driving Vader back, driving him back, driving him back, that Vader’s implacable strength is forced to advance backwards just to try and gain an inch of space, and then he’s swinging down at that hated red saber again and again and again and again–
And Vader’s hand spins away down the shaft, and Luke’s bright emerald blade is at his throat. He’s aware of his ragged breathing and the mechanical rasp of Vader’s, of Vader’s sword arm held in front of him as if he’d have more luck with deflecting with the stump than his entire hand. Smoke curls from burnt, severed electronics, stings in his nostrils.
And in that moment, he remembers that he’s not standing over a monster, but a man. A beaten, frightened, defeated old man. His father.
Somewhere, the Emperor – that cold, decrepit shadow has finally risen from its throne – is laughing, congratulating him.
And Luke remembers. Never.
The audience/reader doesn’t need to imagine every swing of the saber precisely, they don’t need to know how far Luke pushes Vader back for or for how long. The details in that screenplay are only the ones necessary for the actors and crew to know the point of the scene and the important things. Luke draws on his hate, he beats Vader, he cuts off his right hand specifically to match to Luke’s hand, Luke has won so thoroughly that he could kill Vader with just a twist of his wrist…
But I guarentee you saw it differently to how it appeared on film. For example, I doubt Vader took the very obvious dive onto the railing he does on the film.
I don’t want you to think I’m picking on you here, but this is a big thing. This is more me taking the opportunity to cover what I said in detail, when I said it should be like a Michael Bay film. I’ve read a lot of fiction, particularly online fiction, where there’s this idea that action scenes need to be long and in-depth and we need to know how each character moves all these details that are, ultimately, irrelevant.
There’s only really one work I’ve read recently where a hyper-detailed fight worked for me, and that was because it was about an intelligent, perceptive woman watching the woman she loves fight a duel to first blood. So she’s taking in every little detail because she’s terrified and anxious and all she can do is watch. And then prose notes ‘it must’ve only taken about two seconds’ after all that detail, you feel like you’re breathing the sigh of relief with the protagonist.
Another one I’ve read recently where more details worked better than less, was where a man exploded with rage against his friend and the prose of him being like ‘reaching for her elbow where he could bend it back, snap it, break it’ emphasises more the horror of him trying to maim and kill his friend and the cold anger that grabs him when he’s violent more than, hey, here’s his fighting steps. And, likewise, his detached description of how she uses her left hand to open up his throat so she can press on it with her right fist stresses his disassociation. He’s like ‘Huh, so this is how she’s going to kill me, oh well…’
Again, good writing comes down to feelings. What does this action scene tell us about this particular character?
If you’re trying to ensure the reader is seeing the exact same thing you are when you’re writing, then you’re chasing a dream. Every reader is going to have a different view, even if you do stuff like Child where you talk about weights and half-circles, and so on and so on. Even if you say ‘this is a circle’, every reader will picture a different one. But sometimes you can just say ‘a circle’ and there’s no need to provide any more information. Only detail what’s important.
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