the misery of fight scenes

BethS said:

Those are fantastic. Which is pretty much what I always think whenever I see samples of your writing. I don't get "unpublishable." I just don't.

Click to expand...

+1

Fight scenes are fun and entertaining, but in my opinion in order for them to really work the reader has to care about the character(s) involved.

I like writing fight scenes as much as any other part of the story. They serve a purpose like all the other aspects of the story, so I don't single them out to fret over.
I love action/adventure movies so I enjoy a good fight.

When I write, I see the action as though I were watching it take place, or sometimes as though I am the character involved. So I feel what's happening. This produces vivid writing.

I find it's best to research them, look at fight scenes from movies and other books and then research the styles of fighting and them putting your own twist in them as your style of writing. I could show you a small section of the book I wrote so you could see one of my fight scenes if itll help you.

Harlequin said:

Ranged and gun fights generally are fun to read--space for dialogue and tension and thought. Melee is just... Very immediate.

Click to expand...

Interesting thoughts. I go out of my way to avoid ranged weapon fights in my writing, but I see what you mean about the extra space. It makes me think of two cowboys shooting at each other from behind barrels, shouting insults and cussing. I'd love to hear more viewpoints on the benefits of gunfights as opposed to melee fights.

So far, I prefer my combatants to be up close and personal, with the story hopefully crafted in such a way that the fight was inevitable all along. Sort of like an explosion of emotion between two characters on the page expressed with fists and knives and whatever.

BethS said:

--Remember that a fight is also a conversation, even if no words are spoken. There are motives and agendas involved.

Click to expand...

I love this advice. It's how I think of my own fight scenes.

I also am very very lame at writing fight scenes, but one book that helped me a lot with planning and choreographing them is Action! By Ian Thomas Healy. It kind of breaks down the pieces of a fight scene and gives you a slightly different way of looking at it. It helped me out, that's more sure. The pressure / difficulty of fight scenes was removed from the actual writing part and instead placed in the planning part, but it was still handy.

I just finished the fight scene that is the climax for my next book (Dojo Wars). Turned out well.
One more chapter and the first draft is done!!

Good thread. Wish I could offer some useful advice. Basically, I fumble around until I've got the fight down. Then I backtrack and work at sticking to my guy's POV.

Abercrombie helps. Love his stuff.

BethS said:

Those are fantastic. Which is pretty much what I always think whenever I see samples of your writing. I don't get "unpublishable." I just don't.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

There's a difference in philosophy. For me, fight scenes are easy. Whenever I daydreamed about my novel or hit a snag or road block I would just write a fighting scene for fun. I'd take a main character, create a new one, and have them go at it. It mostly got my juices flowing but many of them ended up staying in my MS. I would write the fight, then try and figure out how to connect my existing story to it, what happened, what got them there, and suddenly a few paragraphs or pages of fighting turned into 5 chapters of plot and more mellow action.

There's a fight scene in my novel that was 16 pages on microsoft word, and that was just one fight! Its longer in the actual paperback but i havent counted quite yet.

I crib a lot from youtube vids. I did a lot of research into how spears are used, and what fighting styles utilize them for my story, so I could better understand my main character. I watched videos of instructors demonstrating attacks, defenses, counterattacks and the like, and that familiarity made writing fight scenes easier.

xanaphia said:

I crib a lot from youtube vids. I did a lot of research into how spears are used, and what fighting styles utilize them for my story, so I could better understand my main character. I watched videos of instructors demonstrating attacks, defenses, counterattacks and the like, and that familiarity made writing fight scenes easier.

Click to expand...

Youtube is very helpful. Especially for sword fighting accurately.

For me it gets easier every time I write them. What I do when I'm getting ready to write a fight scene is go to my son's DoJo and watch the adults sparring, flipping, and throwing each other around. Filming it helps too. Also as others have suggested, watch movies and focus on the fight scenes. Watch them several times if you need to. Troy, Return of the King, Scorpion King, Bad Boys, Fight Club are all good examples of well executed fight scenes. Also pick up some Jackie Chan for some slick moves.

Harlequin said:

I've seen all those films, but films are visual and engage me differently.

Click to expand...

Will the fight scene in a film have the same effect if you turn off the sound? Try watching the same scene and put on classical music or Spice Girls.

I want everything I write to pull double duty, narratively speaking, and I struggle to make fights do that.

Click to expand...

A fight scene in prose should only, in my opinion, give glimpses of the fight; the sheer adrenaline, the emotions, and the impact on the POV character. It's not important to give a blow-by-blow because that will be turgid to read.

Concur that there isn't a lot of thinking that goes on in real fights. And the feelings of a real fight are difficult to understand, or describe, if you haven't been there. I'm an advocate of being in a fight as valuable background research for writing fight scenes, at minimum to help you capture the unique and contradictory blend of fear and excitement; confusion and heightened sense.

There are opportunities for this no matter what kind of fight you are writing (in the US, at least). A lot of boxing/MMA gyms will let you spar pretty early (and with at least a measure of safety). A number of firearm training groups now use airsoft or simunitions, so you can even have a simulated gunfight.

These experiences will give you a little help in describing the action, and a lot of help in describing the subjective experience from the character's POV.

I've had trouble writing them myself. All I can really think to suggest is to think about how real fights take place. Some fights are long, while others are short. Some are just punching each other in the face, while others involve yanking someone around by the hair.

Interesting thread. Fight (and combat) scenes are intrinsic to my works as I am an action adventure novelist, and writing them comes fairly easy to me. I'm also a military veteran, and have fought in novice class MMA matches so I can write a lot from first hand experience.

I actually love writing fights. Especially the build-up, the tension, and then noting down all the finer little details, the way someone's arm moves - facial expressions - getting the pacing right. It's not the easiest thing, but when done right it's so good to read

I love them, not so much writing them. I used to get very granular with them, blocking them out almost as carefully as you would for a film. I've since grown to appreciate something more impressionistic. There are all kinds of approaches. I recently finished a book about superheroes, which features a few brawls. In my head they sort of blow out like they would in a comic book, but emerge more restrained/suggestive in the prose.