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dbz 77

Topic: Choreographing Fight Scenes

Does anyone have any ideas on choreographing one-on-one fight scenes in stories?

Michael

#1 Oct 17th 2006, 10:29pm

lronMaiden

don't try to describe as much as possible, is the main rule.

#2 Oct 17th 2006, 10:46pm

Raven O'Connor

One thing that I've learned in writing fight scenes is to bring the scene around the core action. Use strong verbs (i.e word pictures like crack, whip, parry) to build a vivid picture of the scene. And another thing to consider, is describing the action-reaction rhythm. For example, if you punch someone, he or she would react either by punching you back or exclaimed in pain. Just don't describe the fight scenes too detail. It will feel dragging, which I'm sure is not what you're aiming for.

#3 Oct 18th 2006, 4:45am

Knightmare Elite

I've been debating on how to go about a fight scene for months. Fast action really isn't my thing but I really need to write a fight scene in an upcomming chapter. I don't want it to be boring or too tedious with extra detail. I've been thinking about the less is more approach, but it's hard for me to skimp on the details. I'll hopefully find a middle road, but I'll still check back for suggestions if anyone has any.

#4 Oct 18th 2006, 6:52pm

Bloodflower

This sounds kidn of crazy but I'm working on a Trojan War from Cassandra's POV story at the moment. When I was doing my first draft -- I'm a fencer, see -- I actually sat one of the guys in my class down, explained what I wanted to happen in the momentous Achilles-Hector fight as Homer tells it and we choreographed it step-by-step...and that eventually went into the piece. It wasn't very good, of course, again because of that detail.

I think the hard-boiled approach is definitely the best way to approach a fight.

#5 Oct 19th 2006, 9:39pm

Dice Darwin

Manipulate the speed of the action by adjusting the amount of description.

Long, drawn out descriptions give a "slow-motion" effect, making the reader focus on a certain image for a longer period of time. Shorter (but still powerful) desctiptions speed up the pace considerably, since they're read faster -- putting images into readers mind rapidly. Too much of either style is bad, so be sure to mix it up.

Also, be sure to have a realistic amount of damage done as the fight goes on. If its a sword fight, someone should be cut eventually, and that should affect their movements. If its a hand-to-hand fight, your characters should have bloody noses, black eyes, bruised knuckles, and other injuries.

And one-sided fights are horrible. If one of the two fighters is that weak, then you shouldn't waste more than a paragraph describing the whole fight. No sense in annoying your readers. Try to have both characters hurting each other, keeping the outcome of the fight a mystery for as long as possible.

Keep their physical limits in mind. If you have a strong character who lacks quickness, don't all of a sudden have him parrying everything in sight. And if you have a quick character who isn't strong, don't have him lifting and slamming people twice his size.

There's actually a forum for this in the action forum section, created by WyrdWolf. For anyone who doesn't know, he's the writer of the "How to Write a Fight Scene" essays. He's offering to help anyone with any type of action scene, so you should check it out.

- Snake Eyes of aka Meteor-Infinity

#6 Oct 21st 2006, 8:27pm

Knightmare Elite

You've made some good points, I have thought about the physical limitation side of things. There's so much thought process involved in a 'simplistic' fight scene. Ah, the joys of being a writer.

#7 Oct 24th 2006, 7:18pm

Lord-of-Fools

Short, simple, impact-filled sentences. I'm more of a drama-writer myself, but think back to the Return of the King (assuming you've read it)-- remember the scene where the ring is destroyed. It's two short paragraphs long. Blink and you miss it, but astounding stuff!

#8 Oct 25th 2006, 3:31am

Lowell Boston

For me what's important is expressing the confidence of the fighters and their strategy. Are they trained or untrained, do they have a plan for the fight? - for example, they know they are outclassed, out numbered, but still have a strategy and a chance to win.

Weapons and fighting style are secondary to guile and cunningness. The mind is the most dangerous weapon. The best fight scene are those where the hero out thinks their enemy.

#9 Dec 30th 2006, 8:52pm

Takiyana

try to slow down what's going on, write what the characters are thinking, what their planning. thoroughly describe the actions, strong verbs, all that stuff. make sure to make it as realistic as possible, like of they get stabbed in the chest, don't make it to where their just stiff. give them motion, sounds, even a light grunt will do. that's the vbest i can tell you, good luick.

#10 Mar 02nd, 3:50pm

Otseis Ragnarok

Fight scenes? try writing in a morepresent tense. ignoreemtions, go by actions. What they are DOING , not what they are thinking...

#11 Mar 08th, 7:09am

Takiyana

then that just makes the whole thing lifeless. yes, their fighting, action is going on, but it is always good to have the reader know what is going on! for me its a bit difficult to explain seeing as how i am no good with words, but any good writer knows that theres more to it than shooting guns and swinging swords. i'm not saying ignore the actions completely, make sure you put in a good balance between thought and action. That makes a good read.

#12 Mar 09th, 6:47pm

Otseis Ragnarok

Well, all I'm saying is there should be more action than anything else.

Thoughts amd emotions are good, but don't emphsize it. If you do, the action slows down and that isn't good. {usually}

#13 Mar 26th, 4:58am

Takiyana

of course, that makes perfect sense.

#14 Mar 26th, 1:12pm

K. Mason

If you're dead set on actually describing it, word choice is all important. Use a thesaurus.

#15 Mar 29th, 9:49am

Takiyana

that's a great suggestion; i'm always having difficulty withthe right words.

#16 Mar 29th, 9:54pm

Justin A Caynon

Mix in the extreme details with fast descriptions using strong words. Fights that have more hand to hand in them are usually easier, when you have to deal with gun fights it makes it extremely hard to describe much. Word choice and diction are the things that are going to make this hard, once you get that down and learn the rhythm and pacing thing, it will be a lot easier.

#17 Apr 08th, 12:43am

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