Battlescene

P.C Greene · Jul 2, 2007

Hey, im up to the stage in my first book, and, sadly, its the battlescene, and, i have no idea how to write it to be honest with you.

Any tips would be great, the battle scene is like that out of lord of the rings, so that style of fighting, help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Willowmound · Jul 2, 2007

Read a book...no read lots that have them.

May I recommend Bernard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy?

Man, there're some great battles in there.

III · Jul 2, 2007

Personally, I start with an outline of the battle - who's involved, who's fighting who, where each part of the battle takes place, how long each fight lasts, who wins, who dies; that way I have a framework from start to finish.

Next, I take each section of the battle and try to visualize it as much as possible - this usually takes a few days and I just jot down notes, filling in the skelleton of the outline.

Then I write a first-draft of the entire battle and spend a few days revising and enhancing it.

Finally, I put it aside for a week or two so I can have a fresh read of it and do another round of revisions.

This just works for me, but hopefully it's helpful for you.

P.C Greene · Jul 2, 2007

Wow, thats a fantastic idea, thanks a lot, this i will definately use

Dave.C.Robinson · Jul 2, 2007

III said:
Personally, I start with an outline of the battle - who's involved, who's fighting who, where each part of the battle takes place, how long each fight lasts, who wins, who dies; that way I have a framework from start to finish.

Next, I take each section of the battle and try to visualize it as much as possible - this usually takes a few days and I just jot down notes, filling in the skelleton of the outline.

Then I write a first-draft of the entire battle and spend a few days revising and enhancing it.

Finally, I put it aside for a week or two so I can have a fresh read of it and do another round of revisions.

This just works for me, but hopefully it's helpful for you.

I follow a fairly similar structure myself.

I start by working out the battle either in my head or on paper. This is where I determine things like the structure of the battle, what actions happen, how long they take and all the other aspects. This gives me what I call a "war-gamer's eye-view" of the battle. Once this is done I can move it into the story.

Most of what I figure out in that first stage never makes it into the manuscript. I take the characters I'm going to be following through this battle and fit them into the existing structure. I already know the battle as a whole, but now I need to fit it into the story. Next I take the battle and write the scenes of what happens to the characters who are taking part.

This keeps the action close and the reader interested (not all readers want to follow great huge battles, but they should want to follow the characters). Any other details can be woven into the story when and if they become important.

job · Jul 2, 2007

If you are not a soldier yourself, what you might do is find some folks who have been in battle and let them tell you what it is like.
Y'know ... sweating in the same clothes and getting crotch rot and being hungry and tired and not getting any sleep ....

Echoing the comment above ...
while overall battle plans are necessary to the writer's understanding of what's going on -- I don't know how much they have to do with the individual soldier's experience. The guy on the ground doesn't know what's happening sixty feet away, let alone on the other side of the field.

Finally -- real one-on-one fights are very short. Unless everybody is running around in armor, the fights are over in a minute or two. Only on TV do they last from the cheetos commercial to the Pontiac spot.

Lyra Jean · Jul 2, 2007

ooh, there are going to be battles in my novel. Thanks for starting the thread.

althrasher · Jul 2, 2007

I take a different approach. I focus on each individual action, and try to get a feeling for what's going on with each person--their emotions, their struggles, what they can see. I don't know if that's the way it should be done, but it's how I went about it, and it seemed to go OK. Even though the massive picture of the battle isn't there, I think the spirit of being embroiled in combat is much more important.

Willowmound · Jul 3, 2007

Make sure you know your weaponry and the current way of fighting.

Being part of a Dark Age shieldwall would be very different from being shelled at the Somme in 1916.

Popeyesays · Jul 3, 2007

I started by drawing out the scene of the battle from an overhead tactical view. That did for outline as I drew in the forces involved, a few notes and it was time to start writing.

Regards,
Scott

Inky · Jul 3, 2007

III said:
Personally, I start with an outline of the battle - who's involved, who's fighting who, where each part of the battle takes place, how long each fight lasts, who wins, who dies; that way I have a framework from start to finish.

Next, I take each section of the battle and try to visualize it as much as possible - this usually takes a few days and I just jot down notes, filling in the skelleton of the outline.

Then I write a first-draft of the entire battle and spend a few days revising and enhancing it.

Finally, I put it aside for a week or two so I can have a fresh read of it and do another round of revisions.

This just works for me, but hopefully it's helpful for you.

I'm going to apply this technique to my own battle writing. V-8 moment: why didn't I think of this??? Super thanks!

Vomaxx · Jul 3, 2007

There is more than one discussion of this topic in the SF/Fantasy section.

josephwise · Jul 3, 2007

Battle scenes are primarily long action sequences, thus it's easy to drag them out and make them boring.

A good way to avoid this is to jump from one place to another within the battle, often enough to keep the reader's interested, but not so often you make them dizzy.

For instance: there's a canyon to the north where a bunch of guys are trying to flank the enemy, but they have to be sneaky. Things are going well until someone sees them. Then you switch to the eastern precipice where the archers are having trouble seeing their targets because of smoke. They're ordered to fire anyway, blindly, and will surely hit some of their own men. Then you switch again.

End each section with a cliffhanger, and come back to it later. I've read it often, and it works well.

Dave.C.Robinson · Jul 3, 2007

I used a similar technique of cutting between different viewpoints for a naval battle scene and it worked well for me. Each set of characters was doing a different thing and I tried to cut it like a movie.

Dancre · Jul 3, 2007

andMore said:
Hey, im up to the stage in my first book, and, sadly, its the battlescene, and, i have no idea how to write it to be honest with you.

Any tips would be great, the battle scene is like that out of lord of the rings, so that style of fighting, help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

I had the same problem, but mine was sword fighting so . . . I grabbed a copy of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and play/paused and wrote down sword fighting move they made, then I incorporated some of it into my novel. It came out really nice. very swausbuckley.

kim

Willowmound · Jul 3, 2007

Very realistic too, or so I'm guessing.

(yes, sarcastic. you could tell. 's all right

)

Battlescene

P.C Greene

Insanity is a state of mind

Willowmound

Lightly salted

III

rockin the suburbs

P.C Greene

Insanity is a state of mind

Dave.C.Robinson

... with the High Command

job

In the end, it's just you and the manuscript

Lyra Jean

Two years old now.

althrasher

Prodigal Muser

Willowmound

Lightly salted

Popeyesays

Now departed. Rest in peace, Scott, from all of us

Inky

Eat, Sleep, Write...

Vomaxx

josephwise

Dave.C.Robinson

... with the High Command

Dancre

Just have fun.

Willowmound

Lightly salted