All language subtitles for Masterclass - David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing - 10.Writing Action

Action can be just for action's sake.

You want a jolt of adrenaline and get

the reader kind of juiced again if maybe

the it the story had flagged a little

bit. So all of a sudden you just throw,

you know, a strike right down the middle

and see if they can hit it. But action

can also convey information about a

location, about someone's motivation,

about someone's special skills. Um, Will

Roby is an assassin, you know, so

obviously in the in those books, there's

a lot of action taking place, but action

conveyed through Will Roby shows his

sense of professionalism, the special

skills that he has, the way he goes

about his work, as any of us would with

our job. He has certain tools, he has a

plan laid out, and he has to execute on

that plan under pressure. uh and then

exit cleanly. So when I do an action

scene where he goes in and does a hit

and you know he sets it up and I show

you the setup and I show you the

execution then I show you the egress

getting out safely because that's all

part of it. You know it's not a success

if he gets killed you know in the middle

of it. All that shows is really a

character study in Will Roby even though

people might say oh that's pure action.

No what did you learn about Will Roby in

that scene? Well he's incredibly

professional. He knows exactly what he's

doing. He puts a lot of prep work into

this. It's almost like as you prep a

stage, you know, as you all as as we're

doing right now, you prep a stage,

everything has to be right down to the

last detail and that enhances your

chances of success or not. Same could be

said for writing a novel. No detail is

too small for this guy because he knows

that it's really in the small details

where you get tripped up. And it's not

just he would lose his job. If he makes

a mistake, it means he's going to lose

his life. So action for me, particularly

with the World ROI series, is a way to

really flesh out and deepen his

character,

you know, and for for putting together

realistic fight scenes, I think you

again have to draw a um a perimeter

around what's believable and plausible

and what's not. And for me, um I want to

I want to have a visceral feel about the

effect. When somebody's in a fight, both

people are probably going to get some

consequence to it. They're going to get

hurt. Somebody's going to get gun shot

or knifed or hit or bruised or wounded

in some way. So, it shouldn't the

totality of it shouldn't be on one side

or the other. And I like it where I like

to slow down action scenes. Um, I don't

want them to take place too fast. You

know, this is not a Bruce Lee movie. Um,

so everybody gets to really feel up at

the emotional level of what's going on

in the scene. These are human beings.

These are not robots going at each

other. So, what does it feel like to be

hit in the gut or have a kidney punch or

somebody smash you in the throat and so

you can't breathe or being slashed with

a knife or shot even in the oblique. Um,

so those things have consequences and

you need to allow the moment to have its

moment I guess and not just gloss over

it. I give an example. I I saw the movie

Unforgiven. It's been over 20 years now.

And in that movie, Clint Eastwood was,

you know, the hero obviously. And um in

most Clint Eastwood movies like the

Spaghetti Westerns, you know, he'd jump

off his horse, he'd shoot 12 guys, jump

back on his horse, light his little

cigar, and he'd ride off into the

sunset. And that's the way it was. And I

don't really remember those movies all

that well. In Unforgiven, he was

fighting the guy at a distance, and he

shot the guy in the belly. And those are

slow burners. Those are that's slow

death in the belly. And all you do is

just an internal hemorrhage.

And a guy the guy took about a half a

day to die and we saw it all. In fact,

he and Clint Eastwood were having a

conversation back and forth about it.

And you could see the impact it had on

Eastwood who just killed this guy, but

he took a long time to die and you see

the suffering and agony of it. So that

movie was over 20 years ago. I still

remember that scene. Why? Because he

slowed it down. If it was like bang, the

guy was dead, I would have forgotten it.

That's what I mean when as a writer, you

have to understand the consequences of

the action scenes on flesh and bone. Um,

and it shouldn't just be a tank, a human

tank moving through a scene. Slow it

down. Understand what this means to both

sides. Understand that both sides are

going to be impacted by it. So, the

fight scenes, you know, slow them down.

Don't rush them. Let the people give

those fight scenes and those action

scenes the do that that they they should

be given.

Action sequences are really important,

but you have to be very visual. Readers

are counting on you to tell them.

Readers are counting on you to tell them

exactly what they're seeing. I like to

choreograph things, you know, whether

it's going down to Lafayette Park and

choreographing what the park was like

and where I could put a bomb there or a

sniper sequence, you know, what's the

what's the sight lines, how far is the

distance, how long does that person have

to make the shot, and where is the

target going to be. And when you fire

long distance, you're not firing at a

target. You have to take into account

the rotation of the earth. So the bullet

going up and the bullet's going down.

It's not this. Otherwise, it would just

go right into the dirt. So, I like to I

like to sort of um visualize what I'm

trying to accomplish. When I wrote the

scene with Long Road to Mercy and this

idea of forcing a human being through

you and out the window, I actually, you

know, grabbed like a long pillow and

just, you know, trying to decide how am

I how can I describe this best? So, with

complicated action scenes, sometimes

just get get out there and try to do it

to the extent you can. Choose the words

carefully, you know, and if you have to

use a few more, there's nothing wrong

with that because it's just going to

help the reader, you know, be able to

paint this picture and make it a lot

more vital.

I like uh to have to ground all of my

action scenes in a real visceral sense

of reality. Um, so if Will Roby in the

hit with all of his skills that he had,

he almost died and he was horribly

wounded, you know, he mangled his arm,

was totally burned up. So, you know that

uh even though he survived it and the

reader could say, "Wow, it was amazing

the guy survived it." But then it's

tempered by the fact that yeah, but he

almost died and he's really badly beaten

up now and he's got his arms all burned

up. So then all of a sudden it takes it

out of Superman status and it brings it

down to the human level. This guy

bleeds. you know, he didn't get out of

that unscathed. Um, and that makes it

realistic. So, when you build that

scene, you have to you have to build the

diameter. You have to build a perimeter

of that. Here, here is plausible and out

here is sci-fi. You know, you never want

to get out to sci-fi unless you're

writing sci-fi. If you're writing a

thriller, you just don't want to get

there. You have to make it plausible.

So, you have to rely on how you built

the character. What special skill sets

do they have? What is the situation

where maybe they could use something

there that you set up that helped them

survive? But I think even if somebody

has a special skill set like a Will

Roby, what makes it believable and

plausible is if there are consequences

and repercussions to that person even

though they did survive it, almost died,

horribly wounded, mangled arm, burned

up, then all of a sudden people are

like, "Yeah, you know, he almost bought

it." And um and I I get it. I don't

think that was implausible because guy

almost died and he didn't get out of it

unscathed. There were consequences in

that scene for him. So, as a writer,

when you're putting that together, be

wary of that. Nine times out of 10, if

you show that there's an injury or a

wound or some type of consequence of

someone in an action, scene getting out,

readers will give them the benefit of

the doubt, saying, "I get that. It's not

like they walked through a room and

knocked out 14 guys, you know, and never

got any punishment. That's unbelievable.

Nobody's going to buy that." Um, but if

he went through and beat up a bunch of

guys and and got the crap kicked out of

him and almost died and maybe the last

guy was going to kill him and then he

got assistance somebody else that

actually saved his butt, that's a lot

more plausible.

The next action scene that sort of shows

how you slow things down is the very

first chapter in the innocent. To give

you a setup, Will Roby is in Edinburgh.

He's in underground Edinburgh, old

Edinburgh. and his job is to take out

five guys that are down there. The one

target and he's got four bodyguards. So,

he's substituted himself uh for the

guide on this underground tour. And what

you're about to read is how he

accomplishes his mission and taking out

five different people.

He slowed. They caught up to him. Their

lights swept across his back. He heard

their collective breasts, their smells,

sweat, cologne, the garlic they had in

their meals, their last meals, or mine,

depending how it goes. It was time. He

turned. A deep knife strike took out the

point man. He dropped to the floor,

trying to hold in his severed organs.

Roby shot the second man in the face.

The sound of the suppressed rounds like

a hard slap. It echoed off the rock

walls and mingled with the screams of

the dying men. The others were reacting

now, but they were not truly

professionals. They prayed on the weak

and the poorly skilled. Roby was

neither. There were three of them left,

but only two would be any trouble. Roby

hurled a knife and its point ended up in

the third man's chest. He dropped with a

heart split nearly in half. The man

behind him fired, but Roby already

moved, using the third man as a shield.

The bullet hit the rock wall. Part of it

stayed in the wall. Part of it

ricocheted off and found purchase on the

opposite wall. The man fired a second, a

third time, but he missed his target

because his adrenaline had spiked, blown

his fine motor skills, and caused his

aim to fail. He next executed a

desperation spray and prey, emptying his

mag. Bullets bounced off hard rock. One

slug hit the point man in the head on a

ricochet. It didn't kill him because he

had already been let out and the dead

could not die a second time. The fifth

man had thrown himself to the hard

floor, hands over his head. Roby had

seen all of this. He dropped to the

floor and fired one shot into the

forehead of man number four. Those were

the names he had given them. Numbers,

faceless, easier to kill that way. Man

number five was now the only one left.

Five was the sole reason Will Roby had

flown to Edinburgh today. The others

were just collateral. Their deaths

meaningless in the grand scheme. Number

fives rose and then backed up as Roby

got to his feet. Five had no weapon. He

had seen no need to carry one. Weapons

were beneath him. He was no doubt

rethinking that decision. He begged. He

pleaded. He would pay an unlimited

amount. Then when the pistol was pointed

at him, he turned to threats. What an

important man he was, how powerful his

friends were, what he would do to Roi,

how much pain Roby would suffer. He and

his whole family. Roby did not listen to

any of it. He had heard it all before.

He fired twice, right and left side of

the brain. Always fatal as it was

tonight. Number five kissed the stone

floor with his last breath hurled an

expletive at Roby that neither of them

heard. Roby turned and walked through

the same cliff as a tour guide. Scotland

had not killed him. He was thankful for

this.

That is an example of an action scene

helping to define and deepen a

character. So, it's not just what he

does with his hands and his aim and the

guns and the knives and all that. It's

his thought processes going through it.

You know, he talks about he gives

numbers to these guys, nameless, because

it's easier to kill them that way. He's

impervious to the pleas from this guy.

He was a really bad guy. He had killed

lots of people in his life. Impervious

to his pleas of mercy, because he'd

heard it all before. So, you understand

where Will Roi is coming from. This is a

guy who's hardened, who has seen it all,

done it all, and nothing's going to get

to this guy ever again.

That's in the first or second chapter of

the novel. So, right from chapter 2, you

understand what this guy can do. And you

also understand mentally and emotionally

who he is. He's a rock. He's not a guy

you want to run into in a dark alley.