posted
I'm editing over some fight scenes and I'm finding a lot of "this happens, then this happens, then this happens". I know I need to pace it out, so it flows and is more enjoyable than a list of actions, but the whole situation brought up an interesting problem that probably is prevelant in most of my work. So my question is, anyone have some good advice about writing a fight scene?
Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
For me, fight scenes took a lot of practice. In the novel I just finished and am about to start shopping around (YAY!), I got a lot of practice with fight scenes. I feel a lot more comfortable with them now; here are a few things I learned.
1. Stay in POV. Things that happen are colored by perspective, so if you stay in a character's POV, showing us their reactions and attitudes, it won't seem so mechanical.
2. Have you ever played the piano? I used to, and I can only describe the change in flow that happens in a fight scene as staccato. You vary the pace by varying the sentence lengths. You can even use sentence fragments. The shorter the sentence, the faster the action. Break it up with a longer but poignant sentence that really shows us the cost of this fight.
3. Read fight scenes. Actually, this should probably be #1. Go find some authors you enjoy and read their scenes. Over analyze what they do and try to incorporate that into your work.
4. Get detailed, but don't get lost in the details.
posted
Here is something I posted recently in another forum. It's actually a fan fiction so I cannot post it here but read it if you want. It has plently of action sequences; practicing description of physical movement was the dominant reason for writing this story.
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