So, there's been a lot of lighthearted scenes in my story lately, but now they have to face the B.B.E.G. Problem is, I'm having trouble changing the 'mood' of the story. I feel like having a battle immediately wouldn't feel right? Anyone have a general idea on how to pull that 'mood change' off?
Edit: The story is a fantasy story with comedic moments, but that's not the full focus. There's already a lot of tension built up, and there's already some planning and opinions done by the main cast. B.B.E.G is known but not introduced.
I don't know how to really explain it, but I actually pulled it off... twice. My story starts out primarily as a slice of life, and even when it goes into more action-oriented stuff it keeps up that slice of life feel.
You just have to set the stage for the action WAY further ahead than you would with any other genre, it has to be hinted at that something is wrong and that something is creeping up for a few tens of thousands of words worth of chapters before getting to the actual action scene.
That's how I did it anyway. You can take a look at "Key to the Void" if you want to see what I actually did with it for yourself.
(Ironic thing is that I've managed to keep most of my magic so down-to-earth I have actually got complaints from my readers about how hard it is for them to believe the power gap between the MC and what I have set for one of the major power figures of the world when I have that character demonstrate her power which is worlds apart more fantastical than anything the primary cast can even dream about doing. Kinda funny how that one worked out.)
So, there's been a lot of lighthearted scenes in my story lately, but now they have to face the B.B.E.G. Problem is, I'm having trouble changing the 'mood' of the story. I feel like having a battle immediately wouldn't feel right? Anyone have a general idea on how to pull that 'mood change' off?
ou just have to set the stage for the action WAY further ahead than you would with any other genre, it has to be hinted at that something is wrong and that something is creeping up for a few tens of thousands of words worth of chapters before getting to the actual action scene
Yeah yeah. Try a Rocky montage. Or more accurately, build up some suspense. Your characters are moving in to fight the Big Bad, so they should be nervous, or excited, or whatever. Taking a chapter to discuss how they all feel, to show that they're making preparations, and to give a few hints of their trump cards/Chekhov's guns is a great way to build up some momentum. It also keeps a little bit of that slice of life stuff. A transition. You can just throw yourself into the fight, but it'll feel too abrupt even if the genre didn't suddenly shift. The fight is important, so just saying, 'Oh, you're in THE fight now' will always be weird.
You just have to set the stage for the action WAY further ahead than you would with any other genre, it has to be hinted at that something is wrong and that something is creeping up for a few tens of thousands of words worth of chapters before getting to the actual action scene.
Alright so it seems I didn't put much information, the tension has been there since the early chapters. The enemy is already clear, readers just don't know their personality and the extent of their power. There's already been a chapter where the MCs give their thoughts on the grand battle, along with some plots. After that I put a few fluff chapters since one of the characters got their memory about the B.B.E.G wiped. I just need that one final push for the readers to know 'oh shit this got serious'.
I did read some delinquent centered manga that tends to flip back and forth from light hearted moments to serious action moments.
I guess you have establish an upcoming threat of the arc in a small yet shocking manner but make it clear it's not that the main characters will quickly react to it yet while building up said threat. Like either the protagonists are oblivious or vaguely hearing someone is going to do something terrible and things do happen around them but again it doesn't come soon. Then when least expected, things go south. Quick.
I did read some delinquent centered manga that tends to flip back and forth from light hearted moments to serious action moments.
I guess you have establish an upcoming threat of the arc in a small yet shocking manner but make it clear it's not that the main characters will quickly react to it yet while building up said threat. Like either the protagonists are oblivious or vaguely hearing someone is going to do something terrible and things do happen around them but again it doesn't come soon. Then when least expected, things go south. Quick.
Nah, the MCs know full well that an elder dragon is on their asses but two of them are too arrogant to view it as a threat, two value their life too much and one got his memory wiped by the others because he wanted to do something about it.
Nah, the MCs know full well that an elder dragon is on their asses but two of them are too arrogant to view it as a threat, two value their life too much and one got his memory wiped by the others because he wanted to do something about it.
Rather than a village, make it an entire city. Or even a full country. Even if your protags actually CAN handle something like an Elder Dragon, they Absolutely must pay for that kind of stupidity. Well, that's a great way to earn the Tragedy tag. So pull your punches a little, I guess.
Rather than a village, make it an entire city. Or even a full country. Even if your protags actually CAN handle something like an Elder Dragon, they Absolutely must pay for that kind of stupidity. Well, that's a great way to earn the Tragedy tag. So pull your punches a little, I guess.
Oh, if you've read the chapter, it's not stupidity, it's something else entirely. They literally say they don't give a fuck about the lives of everyone in the damn country except their own and their loved ones. They want the dragon to start burning down the countryside so the king can weaken it and they finish it off with "minimum losses"(at least for them). It's actually a smart move if you consider the alternative which is storming the B.B.E.G's home turf.
And the elder dragon is the size of a mountain and can teleport, so someone will definitely pay. I think I'll do one more fluff chapter before the younglings storm the country.
Alright so it seems I didn't put much information, the tension has been there since the early chapters. The enemy is already clear, readers just don't know their personality and the extent of their power. There's already been a chapter where the MCs give their thoughts on the grand battle, along with some plots. After that I put a few fluff chapters since one of the characters got their memory about the B.B.E.G wiped. I just need that one final push for the readers to know 'oh shit this got serious'.
Ok. So, again, here's how I did mine in a little more detail this time.
In my case, the fight was a 7 samurais style defense of the village everyone was living in. Only, there's a twist. This is the 1st early-life battle for my characters who are still in their infant stage.
So, this means the main cast is not very involved with the preparation stage. They are herded into one of the houses to stay safe. Meanwhile, they are hearing the sounds of battle outside. We cut to the outside where the village magus who has also served as their care-taker up till this point is in a life-or-death struggle against the attacking enemy.
Finally, badly wounded and still being pursued, the magus manages to make it back to the house everyone is taking refuge in while at death's door. The protagonist party jumps in to his rescue demonstrating how OP they are despite being literal toddlers (with the character who has been introduced as a reincarnated leech goddess taking point and doing her best impression of a horror movie creepy baby as she rips out everyone's throats.)
That part under spoilers gave a super short version of the specifics for the actual action portion. The part I did not include up there was that I actually set the action up in such a way that I managed to fit in a lot of slice-of-life into the portion where the people not actively involved in the combat are nervous and what they are thinking about what's going on. Meanwhile, the people who are involved in combat, I de-emphasized the trading of blows as much as possible.
Any actual scene where two combatants encountered each other saw the entire encounter start and finish within 500 words or less. That is the fights that resulted in melee anyway. I spend a lot more time on the struggle for survival and desperately running away while fighting for your life style scenes. These are the more humanizing moments in a slice-of-life combat scenario, and this is how I write combat in a slice-of-life. Slice-of-life is all about humanizing the encounter.
Actually, I think I might have a pretty good recommendation for you. Watch the movie, "Saving Private Ryan." That movie is an absolute gold-tier example of slice-of-life in a VERY action-packed movie. Everything in it, even the combat, gets humanized at every level. The final climactic battle at the end of the movie is a little more action oriented, but everything before it is all about the human element within the horrors of war. That includes and, in fact, ESPECIALLY applies to the opening scene that depicts the storming of Normady. From the moment you see the man kneeling with his ringing ears and the battle scene slows down and he looks over the horrific sights in front of him, it goes from guns and explosions to something very very human as you are confronted with the idea that this is a horrific scene that humans are not meant to be able to cope with.
If you can encapsulate moments like that, it is how you bring slice-of-life into an action scene.
Ok. So, again, here's how I did mine in a little more detail this time.
In my case, the fight was a 7 samurais style defense of the village everyone was living in. Only, there's a twist. This is the 1st early-life battle for my characters who are still in their infant stage.
So, this means the main cast is not very involved with the preparation stage. They are herded into one of the houses to stay safe. Meanwhile, they are hearing the sounds of battle outside. We cut to the outside where the village magus who has also served as their care-taker up till this point is in a life-or-death struggle against the attacking enemy.
Finally, badly wounded and still being pursued, the magus manages to make it back to the house everyone is taking refuge in while at death's door. The protagonist party jumps in to his rescue demonstrating how OP they are despite being literal toddlers (with the character who has been introduced as a reincarnated leech goddess taking point and doing her best impression of a horror movie creepy baby as she rips out everyone's throats.)
That part under spoilers gave a super short version of the specifics for the actual action portion. The part I did not include up there was that I actually set the action up in such a way that I managed to fit in a lot of slice-of-life into the portion where the people not actively involved in the combat are nervous and what they are thinking about what's going on. Meanwhile, the people who are involved in combat, I de-emphasized the trading of blows as much as possible.
Any actual scene where two combatants encountered each other saw the entire encounter start and finish within 500 words or less. That is the fights that resulted in melee anyway. I spend a lot more time on the struggle for survival and desperately running away while fighting for your life style scenes. These are the more humanizing moments in a slice-of-life combat scenario, and this is how I write combat in a slice-of-life. Slice-of-life is all about humanizing the encounter.
Actually, I think I might have a pretty good recommendation for you. Watch the movie, "Saving Private Ryan." That movie is an absolute gold-tier example of slice-of-life in a VERY action-packed movie. Everything in it, even the combat, gets humanized at every level. The final climactic battle at the end of the movie is a little more action oriented, but everything before it is all about the human element within the horrors of war. That includes and, in fact, ESPECIALLY applies to the opening scene that depicts the storming of Normady. From the moment you see the man kneeling with his ringing ears and the battle scene slows down and he looks over the horrific sights in front of him, it goes from guns and explosions to something very very human as you are confronted with the idea that this is a horrific scene that humans are not meant to be able to cope with.
If you can encapsulate moments like that, it is how you bring slice-of-life into an action scene.
Humanization in battle... You know, despite my MC being somewhat heartless, I've written a lot of scenes to humanize him and the villains. Never thought of doing it in combat. Perhaps I can add a small sigh when he sees the entire country burning down, or a small portion where he gets reminded of his past life. I have to keep a sense of detachment since two of the main cast have lived for thousands of years, and have seen entire countries rise and fall. They're in a sense numb to the loss of life, makes no sense for them to care too much. I can definitely do something about the younger ones though.
Sounds like a great way to become the enemy of the country. Have the King sell them out to the dragon. Like in literally every old fairy tale where the maiden gets sacrificed to the dragon. XD. Oh, a love interest perhaps?
Humanization in battle... You know, despite my MC being somewhat heartless, I've written a lot of scenes to humanize him and the villains. Never thought of doing it in combat. Perhaps I can add a small sigh when he sees the entire country burning down, or a small portion where he gets reminded of his past life. I have to keep a sense of detachment since two of the main cast have lived for thousands of years, and have seen entire countries rise and fall. They're in a sense numb to the loss of life, makes no sense for them to care too much. I can definitely do something about the younger ones though.
Ok, just from reading that I think your story might have some problems. If you can't figure out how to humanize your detached characters to draw out those kinds of elements, then you really are not doing a very good job with your story.
A scene like this is, in fact, a golden opportunity to REALLY drag out more from your stoic and jaded characters by playing them against the younger ones as the younger ones act as a foil to them to point out how their long lives and the things they have seen has taken away the humanizing elements from them.
That's the very first thing I thought of without even really trying. The fact you didn't find it easy to see tells me that you might want to work on your characters a little more.
EDIT: On this notion, I now have another movie recommendation. "The professional." It is about a professional assassin who is very used to the idea of killing. He winds up rescuing a 12 year old girl off the streets who wants to hire him to kill someone who destroyed her family (I can't remember the specifics here.) Ultimately, this 12 year old girl brings out the supposedly dead human elements from this professional assassin.
I don't know how to really explain it, but I actually pulled it off... twice. My story starts out primarily as a slice of life, and even when it goes into more action-oriented stuff it keeps up that slice of life feel.
You just have to set the stage for the action WAY further ahead than you would with any other genre, it has to be hinted at that something is wrong and that something is creeping up for a few tens of thousands of words worth of chapters before getting to the actual action scene.
That's how I did it anyway. You can take a look at "Key to the Void" if you want to see what I actually did with it for yourself.
(Ironic thing is that I've managed to keep most of my magic so down-to-earth I have actually got complaints from my readers about how hard it is for them to believe the power gap between the MC and what I have set for one of the major power figures of the world when I have that character demonstrate her power. Kinda funny how that one worked out.)
Ok, just from reading that I think your story might have some problems. If you can't figure out how to humanize your detached characters to draw out those kinds of elements, then you really are not doing a very good job with your story.
A scene like this is, in fact, a golden opportunity to REALLY drag out more from your stoic and jaded characters by playing them against the younger ones as the younger ones act as a foil to them to point out how their long lives and the things they have seen has taken away the humanizing elements from them.
That's the very first thing I thought of without even really trying. The fact you didn't find it easy to see tells me that you might want to work on your characters a little more.
Ah, this is another case of lack of information. I did that in the chapter where the memory wipe happened. Two of the younger ones are also detached because they got isekai'd and view the world as a fantasy book. They don't feel that everyone in the country is real despite them being living, breathing, humans. What you're talking about is shown when the younger character resents the older one for killing them and putting them in a body they don't even want to be in. The older one just goes 'really? That's a shame'. It shows the difference of the gravity of the situation to them. There was also a conversation that showed the difference between the mentality of a Xianxia protagonists and an earth-born one. I haven't found the golden opportunity for a more heated clash of views yet, and it's certainly not gonna happen within the first arc.
Edit: oh you mean bringing out the dead human elements from the older characters? I think that was the focus of chapter 18.
Sounds like a great way to become the enemy of the country. Have the King sell them out to the dragon. Like in literally every old fairy tale where the maiden gets sacrificed to the dragon. XD. Oh, a love interest perhaps?
Tension. You can make the build-up quick, or slow, depending on your story. An example is FLCL. It started off with a boy swinging a bat under a bridge with his friend/girlfriend (idk it's confusing) talking about his life, to a girl on a vespa crashing into him and growing robots out of foreheads (It's very confusing). You need a cause for the tension, then set it into motion.
What everyone above me said: I'd recommend you keep adding ominous suspense here and there (without any dire consequences... yet) before you get to the action arc, and then just before the action arc starts, if you want to whirl them into the action right away, cliffhanger ending on the previous chapter could do the job real well.
i.e. (this is what I imagine is a standard, but can-be-cliche way of transitioning)
[Insert laughs and giggles, hahaha, slice of life feel]--
Out of the corner of his eye, the protagonist saw [Comedic relief character] running towards them.
"Hallo there, [name]!" he called, still in his joyous mood. "What're you running for, got another piece of pie to eat?" (<-- a reference to a running ag)
[Comedic relief character] skidded to a stop in front of them, huffing and puffing. "Guys," he wheezed, "we have trouble."
"What, no pie in the kitchen?"
They all laughed, but their smiles soon died when they saw the grim look in [character]'s eyes.
"No," he panted, straightening up. "The [enemy] is attacking."
//end chapter, start next chapter with a lot of urgency. :D
New example case. I've just been watching a slice of life series called "The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent" ( Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu.) It is the anime series I've been watching, I have not read the source material.
It has a combat scene, and it gets very much to a life-or-death level with a pretty dragged out fight. However, it also applies all of the techniques I was describing which I've used in my own series.
1. Establish the danger WELL ahead of it actually showing up. Any combat that takes place in a slice-of-life series MUST be justified, and it also must somehow serve to drive the story forward in a manner beyond just having an action scene.
2. When the combat happens, the focus is not the action. What you are focusing on is the manner in which the combat drives character development. As such, you actually want to de-emphisise the action and boost emphasis on the more human elements of it. In "Saint's Magic Power," the action mostly consisted of fighting off a few small-fry that just happened to be in a large swarm of overwhelming numbers. The numbers were what posed the problem, but most of them went down immediately. This made the situation very desperate and thus created the scenario that drove the character development in the high-stress situation.
All that said, that's just what I and "Saint's Magic Power" do with it. I can actually think of another slice-of-life that has very distinct and creative action sequences. It's called "Figure 17." So, if you want a good counter-example to the things that I just said then that's the one to check out for you. It also drives in the point that what I'm saying is just one philosophy and one way to do it. My method is a tried and tested one that clearly works, but there are also other approaches that you can use out there.
There are actually multiple ways you can turn your normal slice-of-life to an action depending on which factor you go by.
Preparation, a nomalistic way authors usually do by slowly adding suspence or build-up by doing the same thing but slowly adding the tension and danger of an action. Its usual way of making an action and still balance out the slice-of-life stuff. Authors usually do this if you are the type to build lore and settung to the world.
Build-up, not comparing to preparation as this is also a separate issue. It mainly compromise of adding a tiny bit of action in the story as you progress it into a whole battleground type of action on the later stages. Authors usually do this if they are the type to create an enemy who gets progressively stronger while making the group feel the desperation of the fights getting tougher to defeat.
Shock Factor, putting this into perspective, it delivers a twist in a story, depending on how you apply your own stuff. Such as living a normal life with a girl and suddenly a monster appear and ate her whole, training to get stronger only for the last boss to insta-kill those who you are close with, there are many more as to how you apply to it as there are already examples of such twist being made in mangas or novels.
Monetization, you can unlock this by making cliffhanger at such epic moment and discover that nothing happens and you make another which has no expectations, only to make a shocking discovery of such action later on. You can pay me advice by heading to my paypal and donating to me $69.69 as this can unlock you with a limited edition of 'life advices: The correct way to get isekaied' and 'ways to make a cookie that makes girls wet'. Adding a discount on 'how to make out with my step-sister' only at $9.99.
Well dayum, I read the manga of that and there was a part where it switched to action? Guess I never reached it, must have been somewhat far ahead. Thanks for all the advice... And adding so many shows to my watchlist lmao.
Thanks to everyone else to, I think I have an idea of what to do now. There's already been a couple fight scenes here and there so I may as well deliver.
