Thought #1: What If Someone Has The Powers To Bring People Back To Life, But They Become Weaker Everytime

Writing Fight Scenes!

- Writing fight scenes are difficult so here are some of my tips that I like to keep in mind. 

- Don’t drag it out longer than necessary. I know that this is sometimes really difficult because it is hard to tell if it is going on too long. When you feel like your grasping for more details to add in, that’s usually a good indicator that you need to stop. I would say a good limit to set for yourself (if you’re a beginner) is around 8 to 10 pages at most. 

- But don’t make it too fast either. Reread it several times to make sure it doesn’t go so fast that your readers will have trouble keeping up. What this means is that you shouldn’t have the entire scene be action after action because it can become muddled really fast, especially if you’re trying to fit it in a couple paragraphs. 

- Somethings to keep in mind when writing a fight scene include: 

Who’s going to win?

Who do you want the readers to want to win?

Is your character trained or not?

Do your characters have weapons?

- If your character is a girl (this applies even more so if they are a small girl), they will not be able to defeat a much bigger man using strength alone. This is seen in a lot of books and it has never been understandable to me. Girls and boys are built very differently, so they have to fight differently. Men can rely on strength. Women have to rely on speed and tactic. This isn’t to say that your girl character can’t be strong, especially if she does train, this is just saying that the average girl won’t be able to hold up in a fight against a man double her size if she is only using strength. If she is small, make her fast so that she can easily dodge him and trip him up. Make her go for the legs, that is one of the best things to do so that you can get them off their feet and giver her an advantage. There are many ways a small girl can win without relying on only strength! 

hi grandma! i’ve written most of my story, but i skipped over the fight scene in the middle bc i was struggling with writing it. do you have any tips for writing fight scenes?

Hi anon!

Ah, fight scenes.

Don't try to focus too much on descriptions of every move in the fight. Writing is not a visual art form and putting too much emphasis on how the characters are moving their bodies (or weapons) will take too much emphasis off why they are fighting. In visual art, like movies, they can use music/facial expressions/lighting to create an atmosphere that keeps you in the moment of why the characters are fighting.

Also, visually? Fights are exciting.

I do have some tips for writing -

Beneath this cut is violence/blood.

Pick your words wisely Why are they fighting? Desperation? Anger? Fear? If you're fighting out of desperation, like a fight for your life then you'd pick words to convey that sense of absolute urgency. Your descriptions would focus on how close you are to losing and your character would always be trying to either get away or end the fight as fast as possible. If anger, your concentrate is like a rage and your words would feel/sound violent and their concentrate is on destroying what they're up against. Etc.

Use the length of your sentences to convey the pacing of your fight. For a fast, desperate fight you would either use shorter sentences or longer ones with short clauses conveying a lot of action. For slower fights, you can throw in more introspection and use sentences as normal.

Keep track of limbs and injuries If someone has been stabbed in the left arm, that's now a weakness. The fight should be changed because of it. Also, nothing worse than finishing your fight scene, getting ready to pat yourself on the back and realizing you gave Bertidude the Bouncer 3 arms.

Create a sense of space for yourself before you start writing or your fight will get out of hand. Unless they're on a literal meadow, there's almost always obstacles and boundaries to your fight.

An example of a fast, desperate fight:

(WHEN I STARTED WRITING THIS I DIDN'T INTEND DOMESTIC ASSAULT BUT IT HAPPENED SO TW: DOMESTIC ASSAULT)

The sting of the first hit hadn't even faded off her face before he was rearing his arm back to strike again. There weren't many options, with his other hand fisted in her jacket and her back up against the wall. He was expecting nothing of her but what he'd always gotten, a meek acceptance of the things he did to her. He wasn't guarding himself, he wasn't braced for attack, he was set to hit her until his arm got tired. But he'd forgotten the knife in her hand, from the vegetables he'd insisted she chop. He'd forgotten it, she'd forgotten it, until the fast-fast beat of her heart felt like it was jumping into her throat and the paralyzing reality that she fought now or she fought never. He wasn't and she wasn't expecting how the knife seemed to quiver in her fist, how the tip of the blade must have struck a bone, how it vibrated up her arm and up his. His fist tightened reflexively and then loosened. He hit he'd aimed for her face landed against the wall. He was gasping, stuck like a pig, leaning into her space, staring down how she was staring down at the slimy string of blood running over her fingers.

Short, fast clauses, a bit of repetition, it was a short fight so far but someone has been stabbed.

A slower, chill fight:

A gentleman provided the opportunity for his opponent to make an ass of himself. Bertitude was nothing if he was not a gentleman, and that was why he had not so much as lifted his arms in attempt to defend himself. Not that there would be much need to defend himself from the jumpy little man shifting his weight from foot to foot in front of him. While most civilized men who found themselves engaging in fisticuffs had the good sense not to use the moves they learned from video games, this clown before him seemed to be doing his best to imitate the character selection screen of a street fighting game. God help them all if he tried for an uppercut, or this whole fight was going to end before it started. Bertie's mother had always told him not to hit a stupid person because they couldn't afford to lose the brain cells. Still, by the time this rabbit of a man finally closed the gap between them, the crowd had gone quiet for lack of gleeful anticipation. They knew, how Bertie knew, that it wouldn't take much more than a solid thump on the head to knock this man flat. He was torn between letting him get a shot in and putting him out of his misery. He hadn't quite decided when the wee bunny man jabbed him in the chest with his fists one after another. A lack of training, experience and sense to be humiliated by himself rendered the attempt to punch him an utter failure. Bertie was practically performing a civil service, punching the restless chipmunk man in the face hard enough to send him falling over backward. He hit the concrete with a spattering of metal sounds, all the bits and bobs attached to his jacket making a ruckus of a noise. The only sound he made was a groan (and not of embarrassment) that could barely be heard over the crowd leisurely working its way back inside.

You’re a regular office worker born with the ability to “see” how dangerous a person is with a number scale of 1-10 above their heads. A toddler would be a 1, while a skilled soldier with a firearm may score a 7. Today, you notice the reserved new guy at the office measures a 10.

Writing fight scenes

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1. Pacing

A fight scene should be fast-paced and intense. Unless it's a final battle with numerous parties, a fight scene that's too long tends to take away suspense. To speed up your pacing, use active voice to describe movement and don't overdescribe your characters' thoughts. Excessive inner monologue will be unrealistic, as people usually have no room to think during intense combats.

2. Character mannerisms

Here's a point that people often overlook, but is actually super important. Through fight scenes, you should be able to reveal your characters' contrasting mannerisms and personality. A cunning character would play dirty - fighting less and making use of their opponent's weakness more. A violent character would aim to kill. A softer one would only target to disarm their enemies, using weakened attacks. A short-minded character would only rely on force and attack without thinking. This will help readers understand your characters more and decide who to root for.

3. Making use of surroundings

Not only the characters, you also need to consider the setting of your fight scene and use it to your advantage. Is it suitable for fighting, or are there dangerous slopes that make it risky? Are there scattered items that can help your characters fight (e.g. nails, shards of glass, ropes, wooden boards, or cutlery)? Is it a public place where people can easily spot the fight and call the authorities, or is it a private spot where they can fight to the death?

4. Description

The main things that you need to describe in a fight scene are :

• Characters involved in the fight

• How they initiate and dodge attacks

• Fighting styles and any weapons used

• The injuries caused

Be careful to not drag out the description for too long, because it slows down the pace.

5. Raise the stakes

By raising the stakes of the fight, your readers will be more invested in it. Just when they think it's over, introduce another worse conflict that will keep the scene going. Think of your characters' goals and motivations as well. Maybe if the MC didn't win, the world would end! Or maybe, one person in the fight is going all-out, while the other is going easy because they used to be close :"D

6. Injuries

Fights are bound to be dirty and resulting in injuries, so don't let your character walk away unscathed - show the effect of their injuries. For example, someone who had been punched in the jaw has a good chance of passing out, and someone who had been stabbed won't just remove the knife and walk away without any problem. To portray realistic injuries, research well.

7. Drive the plot forward

You don't write fight scenes only to make your characters look cool - every fight needs to have a purpose and drive the plot forward. Maybe they have to fight to improve their fighting skills or escape from somewhere alive. Maybe they need to defeat the enemy in order to obtain an object or retrieve someone who had been kidnapped. The point is, every single fight scene should bring the characters one step closer (or further :D) to the climax.

8. Words to use

• Hand to hand combat :

Crush, smash, lunge, beat, punch, leap, slap, scratch, batter, pummel, whack, slam, dodge, clobber, box, shove, bruise, knock, flick, push, choke, charge, impact

• With weapon :

Swing, slice, brandish, stab, shoot, whip, parry, cut, bump, poke, drive, shock, strap, pelt, plunge, impale, lash, bleed, sting, penetrate

Bless your face » Alphonse Elric

Sometimes you just gotta draw some Percabeth, as a treat, you know. (I also really like drawing cool shoes.)

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