How to Describe Fighting in Writing

When the fighting is under way describe only what the point of view character can see. Heres an example from I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

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Fight Scene Examples 1.

. There is no passion or anger or really any emotion at all. To begin writing sword fights it is only necessary to have a firm understanding of the three kingdoms and a basic idea of the sword family you will be writing about. Careful choreography thinking and re-thinkingand more.

I will say though that its similar to writing a love scene in that you dont need to describe every single move in detail. The way he describes the protagonist thinking te. You want to get the excitement across and convey how it feels for your main character.

I had an advantage. Remember all five senses - the smells sights sounds touch ie pain lack of etc even taste if the smoke is acrid or blood in the mouth I find the. Remember that most people wont come to blows without significant emotional impetusfights are hot-blooded passionate affairs and your writing should reflect that.

It is very focused nearly sterile. The pillars of compelling writing is character emotion plot setting. Okay lets dig in.

You should be supporting these things in everything you write. If youre going for realism 50-page fight scenes a la the Iliad are not what youre aiming at all. To use my own terminology hack and slash thrust and slice and transitional or multipurpose.

But there was one aspect of writing that I was sure would be. This is probably only what is immediately before him such as the enemy weapon stabbing at him. Writing a fight scene shouldnt just be a play-by-play account of each punch and kick.

The clanking of swords the hissing of. Then again being in a fight involves reaction quick thinking and intuition. By showing your character in a violent situation you avoid telling your reader how to feel.

For example here is a fight scene from my novel Point and Shoot in which the protagonist uses an Okinawan style of Karate called Shaolin Kempo which relies on the. Consider the aftermath of the fight. So read a couple of novels by Lee Child the fight scenes he crafts are out of the world.

When I started writing fight scenes I did it by feel. Writing realistic fight scenes can feel like being in one. If your fighting doesnt highlight one of these things its going to feel flat.

Words like Immediately Suddenly - ironically they slow the reader down and get in. For a war keep it personal - describe what is happening but then bring the intensity in who is playing with their crucifix rubbing their head crying for Mum crying Im coming to get you. For example he is unlikely to just mention hes a 17-year-old in the middle of a fight or to describe the manner in which hes speaking panicked angrily slowly etc.

To create excitement mention sounds. Make sure it rings true. I actually prefer working with short sentences that provide the punches.

In writing action scenes the pace must speed up to match that of the scene. Show the dark underbelly of the encounter. You say you want inspiration so I am guessing this is not for an assignment or some short story for an art project.

This is a good example of how tone can affect a scene. For instance this is not the place for long descriptions of a setting or a character. Bring the reader into what makes a fight something to avoid.

Well I will do you one better. Some writers use shorter choppier sentences or even incomplete sentences. When I began writing my first crime novel I knew it would be a challenge.

A lot of times writing the scene takes the opposite. The main character beating up Gavin Rose for his own goodhe doesnt want to do it. The best advice I can give as someone whos writing an 11th century war novel and has something of an obsession with claymore swords is to visualise what the impact of a weapon would do to you if swung in a certain manner and write about that.

In order to do this keep descriptions of anything besides the action to a minimum. Keep the story moving. Two people fight without waking or.

In short write about the chaos of a real fight. The three kingdoms are. Avoid a blow by blow description of each character action as this will feel too technical.

Treat every fight scene like a conversationone that uses blows instead of words.

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