I love to read a well written fight scene.
But writing about a fight is not easy, especially if you don’t have fighting skills.
I’m a 3rd Dan black belt, with a background in teaching. In this blog I’m going to build a set of resources which should help you write good fight scenes.
Writing a good fight scene starts with the plot…
We could relate a good plot to the hours a martial artist would spend in the dojo diligently perfecting technique with cool clarity. By their nature, fight scenes are chaotic and potentially overpowering. Similarly when the creative forces take you over, alongwith great ideas, they can bring chaos to your writing.
To write fight scenes well you need to capture the drama and this is where a structure can help. Some of you may positively abhor the constraints of a framework, preferring instead to free your creative energy, but plotting your work is effective and it can save you time.
There are pros and cons to either route. Whether you review the structure of your plot before you start writing or as you edit your work, the characters and the story must evolve in accord with your original premise. This includes your fight scenes.
There’s plenty of advice available about how to plot a novel: the Three Act Structure, and the Snowflake Model to name but a few. I’m going to focus on writing a fight scene using Freytag’s Pyramid because I think it contributes to the drama of a fight scene through the following stages: situation, character challenge, emotional response, actions and consequences.
Situation
The setting is described, the characters are introduced, and the reason for the conflict becomes evident. If the fight is an opening scene, this needs to be stated succinctly. With any fight erupting later in the story, the reader should know clearly what led the character to this point: how, what, why, when, and where.
Write the fight from whichever point of view you’re using to tell the story, because the reader needs to experience the fight from this character’s perspective. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to assume you’re writing in the third person.
Depending on the needs of the plot, you can establish the character’s situation from a range of perspectives: physically, psychologically, emotionally, socially or spiritually. This then sets the scene for the fight.
It’s an advantage if you can introduce any description about the setting before the fight starts, because trying to do so in the midst of a fight can detract from the drama. If you’re introducing a description of the setting during a fight, make it part of the action, and use it to tell the story.
Character Challenge
The challenge to your character should be clear and significant. It may be that their opponent is more skilled, or intimidating because they look much stronger. It may be the weapons involved. For example, the enemy has a sword, and they have only their bare hands, or it may be that they are outnumbered.
You must have a sound understanding of your character’s personality traits and experiences, so that you know how they are likely to respond and why. Their response to the challenge should be in keeping with their personality traits and experiences established up to that point. Even experts have dilemmas, so consider the nature of their challenge and communicate it.
Don’t be afraid to give your character some tough knocks. Fights are tough and gritty, no one wins all the time, and being floored by a hard punch is highly likely. The impact can be brutal, but if your character gets back up and takes the fight back to their adversary, that tells us so much about them. Compare that to the individual who sails through everything unscathed – where’s the drama?
Similarly, resist the urge to tell the reader how capable this person is. It’s better if the reader concludes for themselves whether they are skilled or not by the way in which they overcome the challenges presented to them. Discovering the depths of a character through the developing storyline is more intriguing for a reader than being told what to think by the author.
Emotional Response
Don’t imagine a well written fight scene is all about action. Our emotions are at the heart of any response we make. To survive and evolve as a race we’ve had to quickly detect significant dangers and advantages. Emotions enable us to do this. When your character is engaged in fighting, their emotional response should underpin every realised threat and every opportunity.
While it’s tempting to make heroes invincible, heroes don’t lack fear, they act in spite of their fear. Consider the character who is in a gun battle, bullets are flying everywhere and she’s forced to take cover in a hole in the ground when she hears her best friend calling for help. Setting her chin, she climbs out and charges the soldier who is pointing a gun at her. In this example, the character feels strong willed, but her emotions have not really been revealed.
Compare the scenario of a character who is in a gun battle, bullets are flying everywhere and she’s forced to take cover in a hole in the ground when she hears her best friend calling for help. She’s so scared that for a moment she freezes, is unable to face the bullets and yet unable to flee because she knows her friend is in danger. Then a terrible anger starts to build in her chest. Sobbing with fear and rage, she climbs out of the hole and charges the soldier who is pointing a gun at her.
Which scenario is more likely to evoke an emotional response in the reader?
We’ve evolved as social animals due to our trait of empathy. Empathy enables us to recognise the emotion that another member of our social group is feeling. Responding to this emotion enables us to understand their needs and this in turn paves the way for social engagement and cooperation.
Writers can use the reader’s empathy trait to engage them with the characters in their story. When your reader recognises the emotion an individual is feeling, they are more likely to want to know what happens next. Now you just have to keep them engaged.
Don’t shy away from revealing emotion in your characters, even if it makes them appear vulnerable. This is what makes us human, and this is where you begin to build vivid three dimensional personalities that can truly engage the reader’s interest.
If you would like more information about any item mentioned on this webpage, contact me at: writingaboutfighting@gmail.com
If you would like more information about any items mentioned on this webpage, contact me at: writingaboutfighting@gmail.com
Action
The action, when it comes, should not be a detailed description of every move and counter move as your character fights. This feels laboured. I believe most writers do this because they are trying to help the reader imagine what is happening. But the human brain is very good at filling in the gaps, and in the midst of a battle we don’t perceive an attack in all its detail. Give the reader too much information and they will skip the description, looking for the ‘so what’ moment. If your reader starts to do that, you’re beginning to lose them. Identify the core facts and deliver them.
For example: ‘the blade sliced towards his neck.’
As opposed to: ‘the blade of tempered steel, described a cut at 30 degrees to the perpendicular, presenting the honed edge at the perfect cutting angle to maim or kill.’
While in the first example, everyone may have a different image in their mind of that scene, they will all understand what is at stake. In the second example, for all the writer’s attempts to communicate clearly the nature of the threat through technical detail, it doesn’t paint a vivid picture.
Incorporate the emotion the character is feeling into how they are fighting. The action should also reflect the individual’s physical abilities and their nature. If someone is cruel, this should be demonstrated by their behaviour in the fight. If they’re highly skilled, that should be evident by the impact of their actions on their opponent.
If you’re going to introduce weapons, you need to know how they are used. Different weapons create different dynamics. For example, if you have someone with a sword against someone using a knife, the striking distance for both opponents is different. From a range point of view the swordsman is at an advantage, but if the fighter with the knife gets inside the swordsman’s defences, that will change – you just need to know how they might get past the sword…
If you’re going to introduce more opponents, you need to understand the dynamics of multiple attacks and how to combat them.
If you’re serious about writing fight scenes, it’s worth joining a martial arts club. Find out what interests you. Think about what style of fighting your characters would be likely to use. If you’re writing a medieval novel you could join a re-enactment group. Watch good fight scenes and think about how you would feel if you were one of the fighters in that scene? As your opponent draws back their fist, how would you respond to that and why? Do you hit them in the face before they can land the punch or do you back off trying to work out how to deal with it?
There are many arguments online about which weapon or which martial art is best. Ultimately, when you’ve learnt all the techniques of your particular discipline and what they have to teach you, how you use that martial art is down to you. The same goes for writing. You can tell ten authors the same facts, but how you make them work is unique to you, to your imagination, dedication and persistence.
Consequences
All actions have consequences and so does good plot development. The character has been challenged by a situation. They’ve responded, and reacted accordingly. As a result the initial situation has changed, and it should be clear how it has changed.
It may be an internal process, such as the person now realises, no matter how scared they are, they can stand up to a bully, and they’ve gained in self-belief.
Alternatively, winning the fight may mean they’ve vanquished the opposition, and they can proceed with their quest. Explore this new situation, reveal how the next challenge is emerging, and the story will continue to evolve.