Before we launch into this, a caveat: what I will discuss here is a more critical technique for screenwriting than for novels or short stories.

As I outline in this post on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I firmly believe that the strength of the written story, even in an action sequence, is the insight it affords into what a character is feeling and thinking, what is running through his mind, what is motivating him.

If you are writing a novel, that’s what your medium can offer that the screen cannot, and it’s more important (at least to me, as a reader) than cool descriptions of intense action.

Don’t let secondary things overpower primary things.

That said, novelists can, and should, think of setting as an opportunity to incorporate new and different things into an action scene, to make it fun and memorable.

For instance, a fight could go a myriad of different ways based on where it is taking place–just ask Jackie Chan. Objects found around the characters can be incorporated into the fight in creative ways as weapons, or they can pose obstacles that make maneuvering in a fight more tricky.

In my own fantasy novels, I tend to recycle spells. That feels realistic to me, as characters would only know and feel truly comfortable with a limited number of incantations, as magic isn’t always going to do what you think it will–not in Herezoth.

I keep things fresh with each battle scene by using those spells in different ways, partly based on setting.

Now, I began this series on setting with the Shire and The Lord of the Rings. It’s only fitting I should end it with Tolkien as well: this time in Moria.

The stand-off between Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge in Moria is so epic! That’s in no small part to the setting–the darkness, the pit, the bridge, the “drums in the deep.”

How Tolkien incorporates setting into that battle is incredible. The bridge enables Gandalf to hold back the Balrog–the Balrog has no way to get around Gandalf to the rest of the Fellowship except to go through him. Gandalf eventually breaks the bridge, cutting the Balrog off . . .

It’s masterfully done. Every writer can learn from what Tolkien does with setting in that scene.

Honestly, there are few writers I know who utilize setting to its full capacity, especially regarding action and influencing the plot, than Tolkien does.