Magical Fight Scenes

[Critical]

The conventional wisdom is not to describe fight scenes blow by blow. But when each participant can do fantastic things like shooting fireball from their hands and calling down lightning, how can you not describe them?

 

[ChaosTitan]

The conventional wisdom is not to describe fight scenes blow by blow. But when each participant can do fantastic things like shooting fireball from their hands and calling down lightning, how can you not describe them?

I think you're taking "conventional wisdom" a little too literally.

Not describing a fight scene blow-by-blow doesn't mean don't describe the fight at all. It means don't list each punch, kick and stab like you're listing things on a menu. Don't make it mechanical.

Good fight scenes show you the action, but they also give you the emotional reaction of the characters involved. Good fight scenes are visceral and emotional and some of the best I've read make me wince and cringe along with the characters.

 

[Critical]

I think you're taking "conventional wisdom" a little too literally.

Not describing a fight scene blow-by-blow doesn't mean don't describe the fight at all. It means don't list each punch, kick and stab like you're listing things on a menu. Don't make it mechanical.

Good fight scenes show you the action, but they also give you the emotional reaction of the characters involved. Good fight scenes are visceral and emotional and some of the best I've read make me wince and cringe along with the characters.

Could you please list some of those fight scenes?

 

[Linda Adams]

Just read Jim Butcher or Tamara Pierce. Plenty of fight scenes with magic.

 

[serabeara]

I'd just check out the urban fantasy genre in general. Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Simon R Green, I could list a bunch of names...there's always an interesting mix of magic and weapons (and magic weapons) in UF fight scenes.

 

[third person]

The more you read, the easier this becomes.

 

[Critical]

I've read Jim Butcher.

Are you saying blow by blow with the occasional asides about how the POV character feels is the key?

 

[Stormhawk]

There's one in the middle of this short story - I tried to go for a good mix of blow-by-blow and emotion.

 

[ChaosTitan]

I've read Jim Butcher.

Are you saying blow by blow with the occasional asides about how the POV character feels is the key?

The key is finding a balance. You don't want asides, you want the emotion/reactions to meld into the action. It all circles back around to "show versus tell." Don't just tell me what this character is doing; show me what they're doing and how it's affecting them.

serabeara listed some good authors to try, and I'll add Jaye Wells and Rachel Vincent to the list. As third person suggested, the more books you read with this kind of fight scene, the easier it will be to understand how it's done.

 

[A.V. Hollingshead]

The "don't write blow for blow" rule came into play because people wrote fight scenes that were static, pointless, and often confusing. They read like this: "John stabbed at Dave, who dodged it and thrust his sword to John's side. John sidestepped, quickly pushing his sword into Dave, who was grazed by the blade. Dave held his sword high and began to lower his sword, but John quickly stabbed him in the gut. As Dave fell, he dropped his sword, cutting deep into John's shoulder." This is boring back and forth. John does X, Dave does Y, John does Z, Dave does X, and so on.

A fight should have more emotion to it. Vary your sentence structure a bit more. Quick blows in short sentences. The feel of the blade embedded in your shoulder, blood loss making you light headed, the blurred vision before you die... expand on those, keep the sentences a bit juicier here. And then an action. Reaction. Perhaps a line of dialogue to keep the paragraph from being dragged out. It just means don't only describe action. Describe everything else in relation to the action, but if you're just saying he stabbed, she stabbed, it's going to be very repetitive, very quickly.

 

[Linda Adams]

I've read Jim Butcher.

Are you saying blow by blow with the occasional asides about how the POV character feels is the key?

Think of as a scene with conflict, suspense, tension, and a lot of things going wrong for your character--because, really that's what it is. The biggest problem I've seen in critted pieces is that people tend to rush through the action. They want it to be fast, so we end up with three or four sentences of a fight and it's over. Except it's not fast--it's hardly even rates as a speedbump because so little of anything happened. The characters weren't even in mortal peril; they just punched each other a few times. So it's not occasional asides, but building of the danger and suspense and making the reader think this situation is going to go very bad. Part of the excitement is wondering how the character is going to get out of it.

 

[n3onkn1ght]

The conventional wisdom is not to describe fight scenes blow by blow. But when each participant can do fantastic things like shooting fireball from their hands and calling down lightning, how can you not describe them?

'Description' is what you use when you're talking about Ionic columns. Don't describe fight scenes -- live them with your character.

 

[Mr Flibble]

A fight should have more emotion to it. Vary your sentence structure a bit more. Quick blows in short sentences. The feel of the blade embedded in your shoulder, blood loss making you light headed, the blurred vision before you die... expand on those, keep the sentences a bit juicier here. And then an action. Reaction. Perhaps a line of dialogue to keep the paragraph from being dragged out. It just means don't only describe action. Describe everything else in relation to the action, but if you're just saying he stabbed, she stabbed, it's going to be very repetitive, very quickly.

I agree - and to expand a tad:

I have seen something called the rule of three (It's not a rule! It's a guideline! It's somewhere to start, m'kay)

Goes like this:

For each action: John whacked Dave in the face with the frying pan.

You also have two more sentences that are reactive/emotive: Dave's nose exploded in a mess of blood and searing pain. He tried to say 'Oh shit' but it came out 'ugh snuzz' as his ruined nostrils clogged his voice.

Okay yes, very terrible examples, but that's the gist. Like I said it's not a rule. That'd get just as boring as the blow by blow. This is a starting point to see what will work with your pacing. For each action you should at least be thinking of the reaction/emotion that results (it doesn't have to be reaction of a person - it could also say be the effect of fire melting stone or whatever). Good time to use your five senses too - the smell of sulphur, the whizz of that boulder going over your head etc. Sometimes it goes in, and sometimes it doesn't. But you should be thinking of it.

Works just the same with fireballs as with frying pans. Although I'm always tempted to use a fireball to blow everything up, but that's me

 

[Atlantis]

The conventional wisdom is not to describe fight scenes blow by blow. But when each participant can do fantastic things like shooting fireball from their hands and calling down lightning, how can you not describe them?

I'm writing a magical fight scene at the moment which takes place deep under the ocean between mermaids who are all riding different looking sea serpents. The trick with these type of fight scenes is to put in just enough description that the reader will be able to visualise things. It's easy to go over the top with description in magical fight scenes.

In my scene I had to find a way to describe the sea serpents without going over the top. I called one "A massive, shark like creature" and that was it. I could have gone into way, way more detail and described the shape of its jaw, its eyes, its tail, its scales...but imagine reading twenty odd pages of that sort of description. It's too much. So I wrote a short sentence that gives the reader a glimpse of what it looks like. They can fill in the rest. Good luck with your scene!

 

[NeuroFizz]

If a character lights his farts, do those fireballs count as a magical power? (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Good points upstream. As for the "rule" of three, the action-reaction(s) concept is a good one. But you also have to consider the pacing of the scene. What else is happening in the scene? What role does the fight play in the scene? Is it the entire scene or just a small part? There are some instances in which a fight is over quite quickly, which may be better with a bang-bang-bang description with the reactions following.

Which brings on another point. Most real rights are over relatively quickly because a fist impacting a face usually causes some damage. The same could happen with magical fights. In fiction and movies, many fights go on far too long, the characters shake off devastating blows like they are mosquito bites, and there is no lasting damage from the multitude of blows that are landed. Take some license, but put in some reality as well.

And if there are injuries, please don't forget them in subsequent chapters. Unless magical fighting powers are accompanied by magical healing powers.

 

[Linda Adams]

And if there are injuries, please don't forget them in subsequent chapters. Unless magical fighting powers are accompanied by magical healing powers.

Good point! There is nothing more annoying than a character who breaks a rib in a fight and then acts like nothing happened in the following scene. I wish I had magical healing properties like that!

 

[Critical]

Thanks for all you're comments, everybody. They've really been helpful.