Reading: What Makes you Skip a Fight Scene?

Mr. Mask · May 3, 2013

One thing I've noticed myself doing, is skipping fight scenes. Naively, I assumed it was something rare to do, to skip reading through a fight and see what the results are. Apparently, this was incorrect.

Do any of you skip reading the fight scenes? If so, what causes you to do it? How often do you skip them? Do you skip completely, or do you skim through it?

As for my reasoning, I rarely find fight scenes which can keep my interest. Most I've read seem flawed, to me. So, I skim, or skip it altogether, if it isn't a short scene.

I'm interested to hear your opinions on the subject. Looking forward to discussing this.

Kerosene · May 3, 2013

- If the writer isn't good enough to carry the fight without losing me.
- If I don't care about the fight--as in, I don't care for the character or the reason for the fight.
- If the fight is congested with nerdiness. (fighting arts, techniques, weapon fetishes, magic)
- Longer than three pages.
- When there is no reason for the fight, as if the writer got bored or is tagging on a fight because they want to.
- Battles.

A good writer will be able to keep me pinned to the page during the fight.

If you have doubts, make them absolutely worthwhile/necessary, short and to the point, clear and focused.

chloecomplains · May 3, 2013

Oddly, this has come up in discussion with both my beta readers this week. We all agreed that we skim. For me, they don't add anything to the experience. There are always exceptions, but most of the time I don't need to know anything more than the end result. I don't read for action scenes, I read for plot.

I know it's completely unacceptable, but I'd love, just once, for a fight scene to read, "[story story story] Steve and Dave fight. Dave stabs Steve in the eye and Steve cuts off Dave's arm. [story story story]."

kuwisdelu · May 3, 2013

No option for "I don't generally read books with fight scenes"?

everywriter · May 3, 2013

If a fight scene is boring in a book, then the rest of the book is REALLY boring, and I never make it to the fight scene. I don't think I've ever skipped a fight, but I have closed many books after the 1st or 2nd chapter.

njmagas · May 3, 2013

I skip fight scenes if they are really convoluted. If the author can't make me picture the fight in my head, then I usually skim it over.

nomadictendencies · May 3, 2013

I almost always skim and occasionally will skip the entire scene [especially if the fight scene is slowing down the pace of the novel]. Although I feel it's become habit. The few that I do read are the ones that I think are 'tight', concise and keep the narrative moving.

Roxxsmom · May 3, 2013

I tend to skim or skip them if they seem to be too long and are more focused on showing me the author's detailed, blow by blow knowledge of combat techniques--especially when there is lots of obscure terminology tossed out there, like:

"He shifted his weight and disarmed his opponent with a flying wedge kick, then followed up with a half grunthack to the groin. He widened his stance, assuming the third posture of the Sen'Rei mystics..."

I want there to be some emotion there and to have a feeling for what's at stake.

BunnyMaz · May 3, 2013

For me, any time it feels like the scene is just the writer masturbating onto the page, I tend to at least want to skip it. I'll usually skim, to make sure nothing important happens, though.

Also: unnecessary cliffhangers. Episodic cliffhangers work on TV because you have, to some degree, a captive audience. And in books it can sometimes work. If you end a chapter at a cliffhanger and drop me into the next chapter in the middle of interesting plot or character development, I'll enjoy reading it fully because I want to know what happens in both. But if you drop a cliffhanger for the sake of dragging me into a chapter about a battle or impending battle, you better accept I'll skip almost all of that chapter you thought was so important, because I do not care about fight scenes. Not when I'm aching for more plot.

SkipDetour · May 3, 2013

It ain't the fighters. It's the writers!

People keep telling me that I should make it a point to write about something about which I truly know something--or better yet, know a great deal. Regrettably, I know a helluva lot more about fighting than I do about writing. The watchword is "short". Fights don't last very long. Usually opponents don't square off to do combat formally under any rules. The idea is to get in first preferably with a sucker punch or kick. When a writer takes 2 or 3 pages for a fight scene, I just know he or she doesn't know anything about fighting. Add knives or guns and it's yet shorter. So I see a paragraph or certainly no more than a page devoted to a fight scene. That second and third page might be devoted to the ER or intensive care if a writer insists on boring the reader. Use that literary talent you have and of which I am so very envious in a short narrative.

Great question

Skippy

Mr. Mask · May 3, 2013

SkipDetour said:
People keep telling me that I should make it a point to write about something about which I truly know something--or better yet, know a great deal. Regrettably, I know a helluva lot more about fighting than I do about writing. The watchword is "short". Fights don't last very long. Usually opponents don't square off to do combat formally under any rules. The idea is to get in first preferably with a sucker punch or kick. When a writer takes 2 or 3 pages for a fight scene, I just know he or she doesn't know anything about fighting. Add knives or guns and it's yet shorter. So I see a paragraph or certainly no more than a page devoted to a fight scene. That second and third page might be devoted to the ER or intensive care if a writer insists on boring the reader. Use that literary talent you have and of which I am so very envious in a short narrative.

Great question

Skippy

I hear you on that, Skippy. When I work out my fight scenes, I start by counting the number of seconds they take. If two people fighting takes more than five seconds, it's unusual circumstances.

Chris P · May 4, 2013

WillSauger said:
- If the writer isn't good enough to carry the fight without losing me.
- If I don't care about the fight--as in, I don't care for the character or the reason for the fight.
- If the fight is congested with nerdiness. (fighting arts, techniques, weapon fetishes, magic)
- Longer than three pages.
- When there is no reason for the fight, as if the writer got bored or is tagging on a fight because they want to.
- Battles.

All of these, except I tend to read battle scenes.

JoNightshade · May 4, 2013

Like any other part of the book, if it's not advancing the plot or developing character, I get bored. I think too many writers tend to separate out the development from the fight.

Kind of like sex scenes, actually.

Bufty · May 4, 2013

If waiting in the narrative were a fight were so badly done I wanted to stop reading I would doubt the ability of the prior writing to even take me that far.

Sonsofthepharaohs · May 4, 2013

Well, I find fight scenes boring in films or tv shows too, so it's no wonder I don't relish them in books. You can have all the flashy cgi you like, make it beautifully choreographed, fast and furious and full of tension, and I'm still checking my watch. I just wanna know who wins. If i don't care enough about one (or both) of the characters, I don't even give a toss who wins. I'll find out later, when it becomes important to the story.

Buffysquirrel · May 4, 2013

I'll skip or skim anything that doesn't engage me. It's not exclusive to fight scenes. I usually chose film fight scenes as my moment to go put the kettle on, though. They always seem to go on way past what the human body is capable of enduring.

dpaterso · May 4, 2013

I don't skip 'em, so the author better keep engaging me, or it's throw Kindle across room time. Which is a metaphor for, poor delivery, lost me, next. I've found that yawny fight scenes are usually marked by too much deliberation and not enough desperation.

-Derek

JoNightshade · May 4, 2013

Kallithrix said:
Well, I find fight scenes boring in films or tv shows too, so it's no wonder I don't relish them in books. You can have all the flashy cgi you like, make it beautifully choreographed, fast and furious and full of tension, and I'm still checking my watch. I just wanna know who wins. If i don't care enough about one (or both) of the characters, I don't even give a toss who wins. I'll find out later, when it becomes important to the story.

Interesting - I usually quite enjoy fight scenes in movies. I love Chinese martial arts flicks, for example.

But you reminded me that I don't like them in comics, either, which is probably really weird. Drives my husband crazy when he sees me flipping quickly over the big splashy fight scene double page to get back to the story.

Linda Adams · May 4, 2013

I like fight scenes. I'm an action writer!

But if they're too violent, I'll stop reading the book NOT the scene. I don't want to read about fingers being cut off or eyes being gouged out (which is evidently a trend in thrillers).

Sonsofthepharaohs · May 4, 2013

Linda Adams said:
I like fight scenes. I'm an action writer!

But if they're too violent, I'll stop reading the book NOT the scene. I don't want to read about fingers being cut off or eyes being gouged out (which is evidently a trend in thrillers).

Heh, funny, because that's probably one of the only things that MIGHT pique my attention long enough to make me keep reading, lol

Lissibith · May 4, 2013

I enjoy fight scenes, so generally the thing that'll make me skip or skim is the writer having botched a previous fighting or tense scene. I'll give a lot of writers a second chance, but a badly done fight scene can go SO wrong (so boring, so confusing, so over-the-top) that for me they get one chance to handle it decently in their book.

shadowwalker · May 4, 2013

Roxxsmom said:
I tend to skim or skip them if they seem to be too long and are more focused on showing me the author's detailed, blow by blow knowledge of combat techniques--especially when there is lots of obscure terminology tossed out there

Agreed. Fight scenes are very much like sex scenes in this regard - if it's too involved in the technique and not telling me how the characters are reacting and thinking and feeling about what's going on, I'll skip ahead. I don't want to read a martial arts manual in the middle of a novel.

Snowstorm · May 4, 2013

If the scene is too complicated in its action and drags on too long, I'll skip it. I want action in my novels, but I'm talking about plot.

AshleyEpidemic · May 4, 2013

I tend to avoid skipping fight scenes. They are something I enjoy immensely. That's does not mean that's everyone does a fight scene well. In a fight scene I want things to constantly keep moving and I want there to be tension. During a fight I don't want to be distracted by a character thinking too much. It isn't realistic, you don't have much time to think if you do, either you or your opponent currently has the advantage.

I recognize I am different than most people. I am more likely to skip over a lengthy exchange between two people, even if there is some great internal stuff going on, than skip a fight scene.

Keep in mind, I almost never skip anything.

Princess Marina · May 4, 2013

The fight scene has to be humanised for me if you're talking about a full battle scene, then I need to care about some of the protagonists. If I don't care if they live or die, then why should their officers and comrades. I prefer some assumption of my ignorance. I don't want to be told they set the cannon off, I want to know they scrubbed it out with wet moss and recharged it and that it smoked and the stench was acrid.

I want the blood and gore but I want to know the fighters were aching to go to the loo and thinking of the women they left behind. I don't want to imagine them in pristine uniforms behaving exactly as they should. If the author tries to describe the battle scene from a high lookout and doesn't include the people involved, then I tend to glaze over. I'd rather read Wellington Or Caesar. At least Wellington wrote beautiful prose and Caesar wrote interesting but biased propaganda for himself.

George Orwell's Second rule of good writing :=Never use a long word where a short one will do.

Reading: What Makes you Skip a Fight Scene?

Do you Skip or Skim Fight Scenes?

Yes, all of them with rare exception.

If they drag on for too long, yes.

If I find them boring, yes.

If they're too violent, yes.

Sometimes.

No, I never skip fight scenes.

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