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Thuro

Thuro

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Hello AW'ers. First time poster, less-than-long-time lurker. First of I'd like to say nice forum. Its really nice to have a place where pro's and newbie writer's like me can hang out.

Secondly I'm posting to ask a question. Is there a guide to writing battles somewhere on this forum? I'm excellent at writing things like large scale battles but when it comes 1 on 1 duking out I fall short. So any help would be appreciated. Thanks for the help and making the community mcallister.
 
Booker

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Welcome to the community Mcallister and AW


I'm an expert in other fields but just' you wait.....soon they'll come
 
Kerosene

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Welcome!

There's a google custom search bar at the bottom of the page. Search whatever keywords you might have and you'll probably get a couple dozen threads talking about fight scenes.

IMO, large scale battles are boring and tedious to read. It's on my list of "What I skip".
Fights, as in 1 on 1, don't mix well with literature--not impossible, I find Brandon Sanderson to do them well, but very hard to pull of well. It's already hard for the reader to follow a single action, let alone a set of them in sequence.
My quick and dirty tips:
- Avoid blow by blow. "He slashed. She ducked. He turned in, and stabbed for her gut. She spun and whipped her knife around to his throat." That stuff gets tedious and boring quick. Try short spurts of actions, layered between dialogue, introspection, description and blocking.
- Focus more on the goals and motivations before the fight, and what resulted after it--possibly, how the fight is being carried out during so, like a boxing announcer explaining moves. All this greatly helps the fight outside of the actual combat.
- Use fights as the "last resort". The characters can only fight to live, or to save the princess and so on.
 
regdog

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Take some time and read the Newbie Guide and the Stickies found
at the top of Forum pages. They are your best guide to learning about
Absolute Write.


Please read the FAQ about posting photos.


In fact we have lots of brilliant FAQs check them out.


Members who want to start a thread in Share Your Work to have work critiqued need
50 posts. Don’t make a mad dash to reach your 50 posts. That is frowned upon and can lead to your posts being deleted.
Take some time to greet fellow newbies, critique other members’ works, or join a discussion.


Announcements, Events and Self Promotion is for active members only. All obvious spam will be deleted on sight!
 
Hoplite

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Welcome to the cooler, Thuro! I've read many Bernard Cornwell novels and he frequently has battle scenes between armies, small raiding parties, one v. one, etc. I suggest reading Saxon novels or The Grail Quest series, though his Richard Sharpe series takes place in the Napoleonic era if that's more what you're looking for.
 
Izz

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Welcome to AW, Thuro, the best writing place on the nets! :welcome:

Yep, AW is a great place. As Will suggested, using the custom google search bar will probably yield the information you're after. If it doesn't, why not start a thread on the topic in the appropriate room? :)

See you around the boards!
 
Thuro

Thuro

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Thanks for all the suggestions and welcoming's guys. I read the faq, newbie guide, etc a long time ago but thanks for pointing it out to me.

I'll probably be around for a long time.
 
rwm4768

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Welcome. If you go to the Google custom search at the bottom left of the page, you can find a lot about battles. We've had quite a few threads on the subject across various genres.
 
L. Y.

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Welcome to the Water Cooler!

:welcome:

AW is a huge place, and there's a lot of information to be found here. Take your time and browse around to get a feel of the various forums.

Feel free to stop by Jed's Newbie Pub at the top of the New Members forum. It's a friendly place where you can hang out, have a virtual drink, and strike up a conversation with other members.

Here's a link to some of the most commonly asked questions in the FAQs, and another for the Absolute Write Dictionary to help you get started. And don't forget to check out the Newbie Guide.

Enjoy your stay. :)
 
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