Fast and furious vs. increasing tension…
While my novels have plenty of action scenes, I’ve never tried to compete with Hollywood’s. Forget the soundtracks, special effects, and other audiovisual aspects of Hollywood movies. I’m analyzing something both books and movies can offer—many do in fact—fast and furious action over action, over and over again. As a writer, I prefer to build tension leading to those action scenes being the climax of that tension, not the be-all and end-all of the story.
This is evident even in my sci-fi novels (Rogue Planet is a prime example), but it’s also seen a lot in my mystery and thriller novels. For example, in Intolerance (a free PDF download—see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page), the tension builds ss the three cases involving Esther Brookstone evolve and culminate in action scenes.
The fundamental question is whether a reader savors more the buildup than the action scene itself. This reader does! In fact, I also prefer movies that do that too. I only saw “Fast and Furious” movies in previews, but that was enough for me to decide they weren’t for me. Likewise, I’m turned off by any book that tries to emulate an action flick.
I suppose one could argue that movies’ audiovisual media lends itself more to action, but I think that’s just a cop out. A famous director said he liked to blow up things. I prefer to know why someone wants to blow up things, and how good people can step forward and try to stop it.
For writers, this is a question of style. For readers, it’s more about a preference for complexity—real life is complex, so complexity in fiction mimics real life, a prerequisite for any good novel. It’s a question of preferring depth to shallowness.
It’s still a free country, so both sets of readers are free to follow their own preferences. I hope I’ve made mine clear. They’re reflected in my fiction, for better or worse. I never do shallow, not even in a short story!
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Defanging the Red Dragon and Intolerance. Hey readers, want free novels? You have two to choose from here, #6 and #7 from the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. (See the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.) I’ll be publishing #8, The Klimt Connection, very soon, but maybe you have some catching up to do? Of course, the first five novels are available in ebook format wherever quality ebooks are sold, and the first three novels also have print versions. Lots of Esther’s adventures to choose from!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
