Here's my thought of the day: I need to finish a fight scene I started writing a while ago. I've done a little research on fight scenes, but nothing major, and what I found was very opinionated. Though it made sense to me. Here's what I learned about writing fight scenes from Jenna Moreci:
Ditch the technicalities
Powerful Verbs
Onomatopoeia
Skip the Play by Play
Pick up the pace (short sentences)
Variety (make each fight scene unique)
Create disadvantages
Make wounds matter
Visualise the fight scene before writing it (consider getting in the mood with music)
Get inside the character’s body and describe sensations and feelings
I think there's a lot to unpack here. For one thing, does it make sense to completely ditch the technicalities? I think not. A good fight scene won't bombard the reader with technicalities, but that doesn't mean you have to completely do away with them. In a previous book, my character performs a flying double side kick. I call it a flying double side kick, because that's what it is. But using those technical words doesn't detract from what she is doing; in fact I think the name of the move is rather descriptive in a way that allows the reader to visualize what is happening. So do away with technicalities, but at the same time, use them when they help inform the reader in a descriptive way of what is actually happening in the fight.
Powerful Verbs: this is a no-brainer. My character hits the bad guy. No no no! She slaps the bad guy, shoves the bad guy, socks the bad guy over the head. In this way, you also do away with technicalities, because more often than not, technical jargon for fighting moves are devoid of powerful verbiage. One of my characters is a fencer. I did some research on fencing and learned that when they shuffle their feet forward while in their side stance with arms up and blade at the ready, it is called marching. MARCHING? Talk about the absolute last word you want to use when describing how a character is moving during a fight. But, because I did the research, I really wanted to show that my character was an expert at the fighting style. So I had my character reflect on this absurd word while he was training, and thus I successfully used my research to reflect the moves accurately, while still using powerful verbs, like shuffling, charging, and advancing during an actual fight.
Onomatopoeia. Thwack! Smack! Thud! Thwip! I looked it up, and it comes as no surprise that my top search results were about Batman. Onomatopoeia is more common in comic books, but I think, with a fair amount of variety using these other tips, that a well placed Onomatopoeia descriptor would work quite nicely.
Skipping the play by play is not something I naturally do. On the contrary, the play by play is what drives my rough drafting. I feel like this is one of Jenna's tips that doesn't jive with me.The enemy does this, the hero does this in response. How do you write a fight scene without the play by play? Well, for me, I have to go back and read my draft later and take it out. But only when it starts to feel like my characters are getting mired in the blow by blow. If the play by play is effecting the flow of the action, it has got to go. But if you don't know how to write the fight scene without it, just let yourself write it that way to start with. You can always smooth out the edges later.
Using shorter sentences for fight scenes is also a no-brainer. It can be hard to pick up the pace without sounding stilted though. Shorter sentences can be awkward, lack details, and fall flat. Don't write short sentences for the sake of writing short sentences. Just look for long convoluted sentences while you are revising and shorten them up.
I like the idea of making each fight scene different in some way. Variety really is the spice of life. The last thing a reader wants is to know how the fight is going to go before it even starts. If all the fights are the same, if will start to feel like there aren't really any stakes. An easy way to accomplish this is to really get into the setting of the fight scene. What about that specific place will make the fight unique? How would the fight scene change if it happened on a hill? Inside instead of outside? In a dark place instead of in the daylight? Make each fight scene unique to keep your reader engaged. In a recent book I wrote, I had two fight scenes take place in the same general setting, but each fight scene was in a different place inside that setting. Each fight scene then had some similarities, such as who the characters were fighting. But I made each fight unique with specific details, like the state of the rooms and making one fight a hand to hand combat fight while the other was a mounted battle type fight. I think the two fight scenes are distinctly unique and all in all the end of the book was very exciting because of these two fight scenes that happen back to back.
Create Disadvantages. This makes me think about a manga comic I read a long time ago, where a swordsman with a giant sword had to fight an entire entourage of enemies. Boy did he have a disadvantage! Sheer numbers can be a disadvantage in a battle. But on a smaller scale: your character recently twisted his ankle on a tree root while running for his life; your character just fell off a short cliff and now has a concussion and a banged hip; Your character's weapon is on the other side of the battlefield. Your character's mount just died and now he has to traverse the battlefield on foot. With this tip, I think it would be wise to plan out the disadvantage before hand, so that it doesn't come out of nowhere when the fight starts. Instead, if the disadvantage is something the reader knows is coming, it won't feel so contrived. Don't create a disadvantage for the sake of disadvantages. Make them count, but don't make it feel contrived.
I think visualizing a fight scene before writing it has the benefit of not only making sure you know what is going to happen as the writer, but also making everything that happens feel more well described because the writer has really imagined it happening. I'm the kind of writer that stays true to my characters, and I like to let my characters do what would make sense for them to do. But when it comes to a fight scene, I think it's more important to map it out completely than to let the character be spontaneous in the middle of the fight and do something that I wasn't anticipating. Visualize it first, keeping in mind all the spontaneous things your characters might do, so that you can describe it like you really witnessed it.
Make wounds matter! Of course, it's a fight. Your character should get injured and then have to deal with the injuries. And as a bonus you can get inside your character's thoughts and feelings while your character suffers the injuries to take care of the last suggestion on this long list. Different people are going to go through a fight differently. Some of them will panic and others will be level-headed. Getting into your characters thoughts and feelings is a great way to develop your characterization while ensuring that your fight scenes are amazing and fun to read.
There is a lot to think about when writing a good fight scene. I have my work cut out for me. It's time to revise my fight scene that I have so far and then finish it!
Until next time, this has been another glimpse at A.C.'s Desk. Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment