I'm BORED with action scenes...

[Heliotrope]

Ah.

Ok, let me use a movie example for a moment, only because I want to understand this better. I'm going to chose two movies with similar styles, and even have the same actor:

Gods of Egypt with Gerard Butler

Gods of Egypt Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Gerard Butler, Brenton Thwaites Movie HD - YouTube

And 300, also with Gerard Butler.

300 (2006) Official Trailer #1 - Gerard Butler, Lena Headey Action Movie - YouTube

Gods of Egypt was a horrible derivitive flop. 300 was a gigantic success.

Why?

In my own, personal, humble opinion, I feel that the writers/directors/producers of Gods of Egypt relied too heavily on the "Awesome" and not enough on what makes a good story. Where 300 had a nice balance of awesome, which was highlighted by a much better story?

 

[FifthView]

Helio, it seems as if you didn't think Gods of Egypt was a very awesome movie. I can't help thinking that you already have the answers to your questions about The Awesome.

In my own, personal, humble opinion, I feel that the writers/directors/producers of Gods of Egypt relied too heavily on the "Awesome" and not enough on what makes a good story. Where 300 had a nice balance of awesome, which was highlighted by a much better story?

"awesome, which was highlighted by...story."

I think the story is the whole shebang, everything together.

It's not "characters (and all they think and feel, and all their growth)" are the story and the Awesome/world/context is merely thrown onto the story like a splash of paint and glitter. Or a mere backdrop. I think this is what Demesnedenoir was getting at when describing the idea of that negatively connoted gimmickry–that it's not organic, it's just thrown on like a splash of paint.

I don't believe Sanderson's idea of The Awesome was meant to be considered separate from the importance of character development.

But I do believe that a focus on the context for character development is as important as a focus on the characters being used for a story. I personally find basic human psychology to be rather mundane, common, and so forth. For example, falling in love may seem extremely novel when it happens the first time, but the very same experience has happened billions of times in human history. So it's the context in which it happens that makes the depiction of falling in love so interesting. (How did cavemen do it? Heh. Romeo and Juliet fell in love in a situation unlike what most of us experienced when falling in love for the first time. And so forth.)

So my idea of thinking about The Awesome was inspired by the question of boredom when writing and also with an idea for how to make action scenes (or any scenes, probably) more interesting for readers, to keep them turning pages and keyed into the story. (What will become of Romeo's and Juliet's love, given their milieu?)

 

[Chessie]

I'm gonna pull way back and say thanks to Helio for this link. Reading dozens and dozens of authors agreeing that first drafts are going to suck finally seemed to get through to my pessimistic "logic" brain. Hammer and chisel'd a chink in my skull for some light to get through. I wrote 2200 words today, and if that doesn't sound like much, I can't even remember the last day where I broke 2000... Even had some lines I liked. "Every detail was drawn through her senses like needle and thread through flesh." Nice. (?)

I wish I had real advice for you, Dragon, but I think I've become a lot more anxious about my writing at 25 than I was 15. (Mostly, I think, because I was under a lot more illusions about its quality back then.) I think we need to let go of the "perfect", the "great", and even the "good", and embrace the goddamn rough draft.

I'm trying very hard to put that into practice with this story. I'll let you know if the lesson ever sticks.

Yes! Focus on the story not words. That's my biggest thing lately. I tell myself this when I get stuck now. And you know what? This story is turning out to be interesting. I have yet to look at a Thesaurus (did have to fix a few sentences that were awkward). I'm happy with the tone, the pace, the characters. I'm totally entertaining myself because I'm not thinking of pretty words...I'm following my gut and letting my creative voice have its way. The result is something that may or may not attract a trickle of readers. But I'm already proud of it. It's ME.

And in tying this back to the OP, being US is something that takes a long time to figure out. I've been writing all my life and just now in middle age am I mature enough to understand what storytelling is. It's not about the words. It's not about awesome (sorry, FifthView). It's about entertaining people on the other side of those pages. It's about honing our creative voice and tastes that are unlike any other person's.

 

[Heliotrope]

Yes, thank you Fifthview, that makes perfect sense.

What makes your love story different than the million of other love stories? What makes your love story more awesome, interesting, engaging? So that could be a combo of many things, including setting, magic, obsticles, antagonist...

I get it. That makes sense.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Tricky, i haven't seen GoE. I do not think there is one answer. 300 absolutely failed for a lot of people, but also worked for alot. This likely depends some on whether you went in thinking "history" or "adaptation of graphic novel". The thing about 300 is the real story is Awesome.

My inclination is that its story that must carry the awesome... But then comes Avatar... Clearly to me, awesome carried story here. The story is tripe, not just unbelievable, but rather overt propaganda and ham-handed cliche... Or, tried and true LOL. There was absoluetly nothing new about the story except the fantastic FX and setting. That was enough. I doubt there is asingle answer over all, might be an answer with 300 vs GoE but having not seen one? Give your thoughts, LOL.

 

[Chessie]

300 had some AWESOME eye candy though.

Ahem.

Carry on!

 

[Heliotrope]

I felt the same about Avatar as you... which goes to prove I guess that true Awesome is all a lot of people care about lol.

My husband and his super heroes/Transformers obsession is case in point.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Oooh, super heroes and transformers... duuuude, uuugh. I like the occasional Bat Man... but the real supers just drive me frigging batty, although I enjoy Watchmen. Even seeing "Marvel" causes a gag reflex these days. I flat out refuse to watch a supers movie, although I did watch a Mutant Turtles with my daughter... but she begged, LOL.

I felt the same about Avatar as you... which goes to prove I guess that true Awesome is all a lot of people care about lol.

My husband and his super heroes/Transformers obsession is case in point.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

300 had some AWESOME eye candy though.

Ahem.

Carry on!

I assume you mean the blood and gore. I'm sure that's it.

 

[skip.knox]

And I thought 300 was nothing but empty noise. Downright operatic, in its sets, acting, dialog, all of it. The actual story is so memorable in its own right; Frank Miller, as is his habit, decided that everything needs frosting. Then the movie people decided the frosting needed icing.

In other words, write your book. If it's good, someone will like it, but someone else will think it stinks.

 

[skip.knox]

>Skip writes for that audience.

In my defense -- and I realize I was not attacked! -- I wrote the battle scenes because I had to. I have no idea if I'm any good at it. I'm sort of with FifthView on how I relate to my stories. I get an idea, then I want to see if I can manage to pull it off. It's not because of any deep emotional resonance.

I have this alternate history world, so right off the bat I have these events that have happened. I didn't make them up, though I do play with them. With my WiP, the foundation is the Battle of Adrianopolis in 378AD. Five Roman legions were wiped out by the invading Goths. They even killed the Emperor, then rolled up to Constantinople. But the barbarians couldn't figure out how to besiege a city with 30-foot walls, so after a few days they shrugged and went to loot Greece instead.

Swap goblins for Goths and there you go. Since this was the seminal event for Altearth (it was the same world before; changed after), I figured I ought to tell the story. I should have chosen something less ambitious for my first novel, but then again I'm not sure, as a noob, I would have been able to keep control of *any* story.

Anyway, given the epic scope of the historical event, I was pretty much doomed to write a big battle scene. That turned out to present two interesting challenges. One, how to narrate it coherently--lots of things happening on lots of different fronts--without falling back to an omniscient POV. My guide there was Tolkien narrating the battle at Minas Tirith.

The other challenge, which is related, was how to draw the reader into the battle, to feel the dust and heat and exultation and terror. I did have to work out the mechanics of the battle, but for the most part those details remain off the page. Knowing them was necessary to work out timing and placement of characters on the field, but that was about it. As for awesome-osity, the real work there happens prior to the battle. If I got you to care about the characters, you'll see the battle as awesome. If I didn't, you won't.

Other sources of inspiration when it comes to writing battles--Tolstoy and Thucydides. Polybius is good, too. And sometimes Livy. But especially with Tolkien and Tolstoy, don't just read the battle scene. Read the development of the characters leading up to the battle. That's what makes the scene itself so moving.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I found 300 to be... hmm... a semi-entertaining fanciful gore fest? It was different enough that I appreciated it, and I went in with no expectations... I knew it wasn't history, but I had no clue about Frank Miller... I did not pay to see it, so that helps, LOL.

 

[Chessie]

Well, as someone who read those scenes, Skip, I'll say you're good at them. And also yes, your manuscript does call for battle scenes. Do you enjoy writing them though? What I'm getting at is that maybe not all fantasy books require battle scenes but a historical epic such as yours does. That's the audience you're writing for, right? Idk lol.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Wow, what a thread.

I can agree with or at least see the point of everything said so far. This topic is especially meaningful for me, because I have a difficult time writing action scenes in a non-BORING way in the first draft.

My solution is to not try to make the action scenes interesting in the first draft. If I let myself get too caught up in a scene, it will make the completion of the first draft take even longer. I want the feeling of satisfaction that comes with completing a step in the process. It is so difficult for me to complete anything! Realizing this about myself was the first step in doing something about it. So I focus on finishing whatever stage of the process I'm on currently. Reaching a milestone is what motivates me to try to reach the next one. Getting to the end of the first draft more quickly is more important than trying to polish scenes as I go.

For my WIP, I initially wrote 20K words as an outline. It was all "telling." I thought it had the potential for Awesome. I wrote a first draft of a novel based on the outline. I don't remember exactly how many words, but it was somewhere between 50K and 80K. After distancing myself from it and reading it through, I realized it was not Awesome. It was Stupid. Bad.

So I tried making changes to characters, to setting, to plot. I only made it worse, which made me think maybe I was not skilled enough to write the story. I considered giving up. It's not in me to give up writing completely, but maybe I should try a different story. But there was a kernel of the story I'd outlined that desperately wanted to take seed and grow. I'd failed to nurture it properly, and it failed to bear fruit.

I studied my own story. What was working and what wasn't? Why did parts work and others not? What parts of the story were there because they served no other purpose than I thought they would create Awesomeness? Cut. Gone. In my attempt to achieve Awesomeness, I had fallen into the pit of Gimmickry.

After a few more drafts, each running 50K to 100K, I had an 80K draft that I thought might be Awesome. I sent it to some beta readers. They politely told me I was wrong. My protagonist was emotionally constipated, and they didn't care for him.

Damn.

I did not want to change this character. But the character did not work as a protagonist. So what to do?

My decision was to not use that character as a POV character (or at least not the only one). After some thought, I went with multiple POV characters. Each change of POV is a change of chapter.

I discovered that I'd not been giving these secondary characters their just due. I'd stereotyped some of them, not carefully considered the motivations of others. When I wrote from their POVs, I learned so much about them. Scenes that had been dull before became interesting. In many cases, the events I wrote about were no different than what I'd written about before, but seeing them through the eyes of another character made them feel more important. The new POV character felt events to be more important than had the original protagonist, who hardly cared about anything or anyone, including himself. He'd been going through the motions. He'd been a vehicle for the story, but the story didn't matter. It couldn't be Awesome because he didn't see Awesome. He only saw Despair.

So there's something to be said for choosing the right character(s) to tell the story you want to tell.

With all those added POV characters, my WIP has gone from a 20K outline to an 80K novel that sucked to two 100K books that I feel excited about. The first volume has gone to beta readers (a different group from before) and they are thanking me for letting them read it, which the first group definitely did not do.

It's taken four years to reach this point with the project. At many points along the way, I thought maybe I was not skilled enough as a writer to pull off what I'd attempted. I'm not finished yet, but I now feel like I'm on the downward slope.

I'm telling you all this because you've voiced more in this thread than simply a question of how to make action scenes less BORING. But to come back to that, let me add this: Eight drafts written, and I'm still seeing scenes that could be improved. I tend to write unnecessary detail in action scenes. I'm a firm believer in making multiple passes over a story, each time focusing on only one kind of editing. So after I make changes based on my beta reader feedback, I'll make a pass through the story looking one more time for action scenes with too much BORING detail. I plan to replace BORING sentences that describe action with sentences that show the effects of those actions, or with dialogue about those actions and their effects, or with thoughts/feelings of the POV character about the action.

A shadowy figure sprang at her, claws slashing at her throat. Her mind froze. Her right arm didn't.

She flinched when the red spray chilled the back of her hand, felt faint and thought she might collapse too as the goblin's eyes lost their focus and his knees buckled. She yanked her hand free of the implement of death, not wanting the touch of that hot steel reminding her of what she'd become.

Only then did her brain register the goblin's cry of alarm. Muffled shouts that echoed it from around the bend ahead told her she couldn't think of herself as a murderer. This was self preservation. She'd have to wipe off the tell-tale blood later, deal with her hatred of that dagger some other time, pull it free now of the dead flesh that still gripped its stained blade. She pictured the hilt as a flower stalk as she plucked it and ran, the shouts of the goblin's friends growing gratifyingly fainter with each stride.

vs

A goblin jumped out of its hiding place and slashed at her with his claws. He cried out as she stabbed him first. His blood sprayed and he collapsed to the ground, the dagger still stuck in him. Shouts echoed from around the bend in the hallway. Probably more goblins and probably coming soon to investigate. She grabbed the dagger out of the corpse and ran the other way.

Another problem is if you have lots of similar action scenes. Then you have to get more creative with the second and subsequent scenes, to not repeat the first.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Repetition is (potentially) something I will face in book 2, and that can be a killer. I call it the Blood Sport Effect, a shout out to Jean Claude! heh heh. Any sport movie with a long season falls into this category, too. It's the tournament conundrum... how do you frame every combat in an interesting way? Only so many can be personal, you can only kick ass or get your ass kicked in so many ways (especially in a tournament situation), and by God, that last fight must be the best, win or lose. Watching how movies deal with repetition can hand out good advice for how to handle them in a novel.

Wow, what a thread.

I can agree with or at least see the point of everything said so far. This topic is especially meaningful for me, because I have a difficult time writing action scenes in a non-BORING way in the first draft.

My solution is to not try to make the action scenes interesting in the first draft. If I let myself get too caught up in a scene, it will make the completion of the first draft take even longer. I want the feeling of satisfaction that comes with completing a step in the process. It is so difficult for me to complete anything! Realizing this about myself was the first step in doing something about it. So I focus on finishing whatever stage of the process I'm on currently. Reaching a milestone is what motivates me to try to reach the next one. Getting to the end of the first draft more quickly is more important than trying to polish scenes as I go.

For my WIP, I initially wrote 20K words as an outline. It was all "telling." I thought it had the potential for Awesome. I wrote a first draft of a novel based on the outline. I don't remember exactly how many words, but it was somewhere between 50K and 80K. After distancing myself from it and reading it through, I realized it was not Awesome. It was Stupid. Bad.

So I tried making changes to characters, to setting, to plot. I only made it worse, which made me think maybe I was not skilled enough to write the story. I considered giving up. It's not in me to give up writing completely, but maybe I should try a different story. But there was a kernel of the story I'd outlined that desperately wanted to take seed and grow. I'd failed to nurture it properly, and it failed to bear fruit.

I studied my own story. What was working and what wasn't? Why did parts work and others not? What parts of the story were there because they served no other purpose than I thought they would create Awesomeness? Cut. Gone. In my attempt to achieve Awesomeness, I had fallen into the pit of Gimmickry.

After a few more drafts, each running 50K to 100K, I had an 80K draft that I thought might be Awesome. I sent it to some beta readers. They politely told me I was wrong. My protagonist was emotionally constipated, and they didn't care for him.

Damn.

I did not want to change this character. But the character did not work as a protagonist. So what to do?

My decision was to not use that character as a POV character (or at least not the only one). After some thought, I went with multiple POV characters. Each change of POV is a change of chapter.

I discovered that I'd not been giving these secondary characters their just due. I'd stereotyped some of them, not carefully considered the motivations of others. When I wrote from their POVs, I learned so much about them. Scenes that had been dull before became interesting. In many cases, the events I wrote about were no different than what I'd written about before, but seeing them through the eyes of another character made them feel more important. The new POV character felt events to be more important than had the original protagonist, who hardly cared about anything or anyone, including himself. He'd been going through the motions. He'd been a vehicle for the story, but the story didn't matter. It couldn't be Awesome because he didn't see Awesome. He only saw Despair.

So there's something to be said for choosing the right character(s) to tell the story you want to tell.

With all those added POV characters, my WIP has gone from a 20K outline to an 80K novel that sucked to two 100K books that I feel excited about. The first volume has gone to beta readers (a different group from before) and they are thanking me for letting them read it, which the first group definitely did not do.

It's taken four years to reach this point with the project. At many points along the way, I thought maybe I was not skilled enough as a writer to pull off what I'd attempted. I'm not finished yet, but I now feel like I'm on the downward slope.

I'm telling you all this because you've voiced more in this thread than simply a question of how to make action scenes less BORING. But to come back to that, let me add this: Eight drafts written, and I'm still seeing scenes that could be improved. I tend to write unnecessary detail in action scenes. I'm a firm believer in making multiple passes over a story, each time focusing on only one kind of editing. So after I make changes based on my beta reader feedback, I'll make a pass through the story looking one more time for action scenes with too much BORING detail. I plan to replace BORING sentences that describe action with sentences that show the effects of those actions, or with dialogue about those actions and their effects, or with thoughts/feelings of the POV character about the action.

A shadowy figure sprang at her, claws slashing at her throat. Her mind froze. Her right arm didn't.

She flinched when the red spray chilled the back of her hand, felt faint and thought she might collapse too as the goblin's eyes lost their focus and his knees buckled. She yanked her hand free of the implement of death, not wanting the touch of that hot steel reminding her of what she'd become.

Only then did her brain register the goblin's cry of alarm. Muffled shouts that echoed it from around the bend ahead told her she couldn't think of herself as a murderer. This was self preservation. She'd have to wipe off the tell-tale blood later, deal with her hatred of that dagger some other time, pull it free now of the dead flesh that still gripped its stained blade. She pictured the hilt as a flower stalk as she plucked it and ran, the shouts of the goblin's friends growing gratifyingly fainter with each stride.

vs

A goblin jumped out of its hiding place and slashed at her with his claws. He cried out as she stabbed him first. His blood sprayed and he collapsed to the ground, the dagger still stuck in him. Shouts echoed from around the bend in the hallway. Probably more goblins and probably coming soon to investigate. She grabbed the dagger out of the corpse and ran the other way.

Another problem is if you have lots of similar action scenes. Then you have to get more creative with the second and subsequent scenes, to not repeat the first.

 

[skip.knox]

> Do you enjoy writing them though?
As much as I enjoy writing any scenes. I find writing to be difficult, in many different ways.

>That's the audience you're writing for, right?
I don't write for an audience. To be more precise, I write first of all for clarity, then for emotion and resonance. Which I guess would be my emotions and what resonates with me. I would not begin to pretend I know how it's going to be received by others. Then my beta readers give me feedback and lots of times they are correct, so I suppose I revise for them (though I'm still in the room). I pretty much specifically do not write for history buffs, nor for fans of battle scenes. I guess I do write for one military reader, though. A general. I write for General Audience.

Leaving now, as I cannot possibly sink lower into the Pond of Pun.

 

[Caged Maiden]

What are your favorite scenes to write, DotA?

My favorites are characters arguing, and graphic intimate scenes. I'm not saying I'm especially good at them, but that I enjoy writing them. I love being snarky and sarcastic, especially when people don't see eye to eye on an issue (even better if they don't like each other), and I love to make love scenes uncomfortable and honest (like real life, HA!).

I prefer bloodletting when there is no battle. Quiet, dramatic deaths. My absolute favorite is when characters hurt each other on purpose with words. Like when they're making a point about the other person and display some cruelty in their honesty.


Find the scenes that really make you excited, and try to swap out the things you find dull or difficult for some of the ones you think are really fun and interesting. One of my crit partners told me years ago, "This fight scene is okay, but it might be better as just an argument. That's where you really shine." And I took those words to heart. I have very few physical confrontations, and when I do have them, emotions and life or death play a big part of the scene. I do not do battles, I do not write many characters who even use weapons, in fact. Because as soon as I put a weapon in a character's hand...they start to use it and then my writing becomes like a monotone ring announcer. And I hate that. So, rather than a weapon, I put other things into my characters' hands. Secret messages, a guitar, a child, a cigarette, or part of another character. Anything to keep them tense and talking, but not stabbing and shooting. Of course, I have some stabbing and shooting too, but it's a last resort for me as a writer, and so it becomes a last resort to my characters.

 

[Chessie]

What are your favorite scenes to write, DotA?

My favorites are characters arguing, and graphic intimate scenes. I'm not saying I'm especially good at them, but that I enjoy writing them. I love being snarky and sarcastic, especially when people don't see eye to eye on an issue (even better if they don't like each other), and I love to make love scenes uncomfortable and honest (like real life, HA!).

I prefer bloodletting when there is no battle. Quiet, dramatic deaths. My absolute favorite is when characters hurt each other on purpose with words. Like when they're making a point about the other person and display some cruelty in their honesty.


Find the scenes that really make you excited, and try to swap out the things you find dull or difficult for some of the ones you think are really fun and interesting. One of my crit partners told me years ago, "This fight scene is okay, but it might be better as just an argument. That's where you really shine." And I took those words to heart. I have very few physical confrontations, and when I do have them, emotions and life or death play a big part of the scene. I do not do battles, I do not write many characters who even use weapons, in fact. Because as soon as I put a weapon in a character's hand...they start to use it and then my writing becomes like a monotone ring announcer. And I hate that. So, rather than a weapon, I put other things into my characters' hands. Secret messages, a guitar, a child, a cigarette, or part of another character. Anything to keep them tense and talking, but not stabbing and shooting. Of course, I have some stabbing and shooting too, but it's a last resort for me as a writer, and so it becomes a last resort to my characters.

Ohhh, wow. There's so much that could be done with the last part of your post here, Maiden. HAHA. Have you considered writing fantasy erotica? It's a thing, you know.Stabbing and shooting and...LOL!!! Buuut...ahem. Ha. You make a fine point that I agree with 100%. Battles need not happen in order to solve issues with violence and as Malik said upthread, violence works very well at solving problems. But violence can come in many forms. DotA likes knives. So much can be done with that: a dagger up to someone's throat, a stabby here, a slice there, etc. That's up close and personal (and by no means am I advocating violence in today's terrible fallen world). Just saying that there are other ways of doing it besides battles.

For example, just last night I had a brilliant idea come out of the blue. My MC needed to get her point across to someone she was interrogating, so she had her servant put the dude in a headlock. They were all in a carriage, small space, so I got to make it a bit personal and she was very naughty throughout the whole thing. Violence. No battle. So it can be done and you can enjoy writing it, too.

 

[Heliotrope]

Because I write kids books I can almost never resort to physical violence as a way of solving problems. Partly because it's market policy and partly because of my own morals. I want to write books parents and teachers feel good about letting kids read.

So I can have some fighting, if it is against monsters in self defence, with no blood or gore. But no human to human violence.

I have to get pretty creative at times but there are infinite ways of solving problems that don't require a weapon.

That's one of the challenges though of writing for kids. Make it high energy and engaging with No violence or blatant romance. (The most that can happen is an innocent first kiss at the end).

*note: I can attest to the fact that maiden could make a killing at fantasy erotica. She writes fantastic romance and her intimate scenes are some of the best I've ever read.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

What are your favorite scenes to write, DotA?

My favorites are characters arguing, and graphic intimate scenes. I'm not saying I'm especially good at them, but that I enjoy writing them. I love being snarky and sarcastic, especially when people don't see eye to eye on an issue (even better if they don't like each other), and I love to make love scenes uncomfortable and honest (like real life, HA!).

I prefer bloodletting when there is no battle. Quiet, dramatic deaths. My absolute favorite is when characters hurt each other on purpose with words. Like when they're making a point about the other person and display some cruelty in their honesty.


Find the scenes that really make you excited, and try to swap out the things you find dull or difficult for some of the ones you think are really fun and interesting. One of my crit partners told me years ago, "This fight scene is okay, but it might be better as just an argument. That's where you really shine." And I took those words to heart. I have very few physical confrontations, and when I do have them, emotions and life or death play a big part of the scene. I do not do battles, I do not write many characters who even use weapons, in fact. Because as soon as I put a weapon in a character's hand...they start to use it and then my writing becomes like a monotone ring announcer. And I hate that. So, rather than a weapon, I put other things into my characters' hands. Secret messages, a guitar, a child, a cigarette, or part of another character. Anything to keep them tense and talking, but not stabbing and shooting. Of course, I have some stabbing and shooting too, but it's a last resort for me as a writer, and so it becomes a last resort to my characters.

Hmmm...

I generally like writing dialogue, especially when there's a lot of tension in play. Character A is trying to convince Character B to do something they don't want to, Character X is hiding something from Character Y. Arguments, as you said. Generally, i like writing conflict/tension-filled interactions between characters. Hmm...anything really emotional. Fight scenes have to be very personal for me to enjoy them.

I love awkward scenes between characters. This can be anything--even a scene where two characters are mad at each other and not speaking to each other... I love developing relationships, which are complicated and difficult and full of tension and conflict.

This sounds weird, okay, but...I do like torture scenes. They're harrowing and difficult, but I like them. Partly because they're so harrowing. If told from the POV of someone who's watching someone they love tortured--even better.

Any scene where there is intimacy and emotion, especially if it's awkward and uncomfortable. Believe it or not, a patch-up scene after a battle is really good for this. First aid is weirdly intimate and there can be a ton of emotions going on in the cooldown after a fight. You can use it to build sexual tension, you can use it to reveal the vulnerable side of a character, you can use it to show a softer side to a hard character, you can use it to reveal basically any new side of a character. It's also a good opportunity for dialogue, which can be whatever you want.

That's what i'm more interested in, really. The buildup to and aftermath of a fight, rather than the fight itself.

I also enjoy the occasional scene where my character is alone with their thoughts. Having a stormy mess of conflict inside their head, or raging against their circumstances...Especially if they are trying to figure out another character's actions or words. Almost the best kind of argument is a character arguing with herself.

In a complete turnaround from all of that: I'm a nerdy worldbuilder and I love settings above all else. In every scene i consider the setting. The mood, the lighting, the smells. I've actually had scenes not work for me because the setting wasn't clear in my head. For me, the setting frames a scene, setting the backdrop, and is as much a part of it as the characters.

Finally. You say you enjoy writing graphic intimate scenes. Now, the general view around me was (and is) that anything sexual in a book was just porn and irrelevant to the story, and that sex scenes could always be left out. As one of my friends put it (paraphrasing because this was forever ago and no way would i remember her exact words), "I mean, if a couple's living together, we're going to assume it's happening. You don't have to show it." And I thought this way for a while but recently i realized this is absolutely NOT the case. There is so much character you can reveal, so many emotions. It can even be an important stage in a character's emotional development. There are so many things you can do with it, so many complicated dynamics of emotion; the amount of potential in a good writer's hands is staggering. Now, my last Top Scribe entry was literally the most intimate thing i've ever written and I'm firmly on the side of being tastefully metaphorical. Stuff that's graphic doesn't appeal to me, never has. But I do have a new appreciation for intimate scenes if done well; lumping them all as just porn is rather insulting.