Fight Tips for the New Year (FightWrite™)

A new year often brings new writing and precious progress. If you have a fight scene in your work, these tips might help you along. Even the most seasoned fighters (and writers) need a little coaching.

(Writing Advice That Gave Me Goosebumps (FightWrite™))

Vomit it out. No matter how bad you think it is, get the fight on paper. An idea can be a great story, but only a rough draft can become a finished work.

Why, Where, Who, You, Who. Why the fight is happening determines the stakes. The stakes determine the speed and intensity of the fight. Where the fight happens determines usable space, strategy, appropriate weaponry as well as objects that could be used as weapons of opportunity. Who your character is will tell you their temperament, history, size and training. This will determine how they will respond to aggression. You should always write within your ability. If writing fighting isn’t your thing, focus on the sensory details. The last who is the most important participant in your fight scene: the reader. Your reader shouldn’t have to know how to fight to follow your fight scene. Keep the reader in the fight.

Less is more. Don’t feel the need to put in every tiny bit of movement. Think like a sports reporter and only hit the highlights. Keep the greatest focus the movement the story needs.

Comics are king. Write only the movements you would see depicted in a graphic novel/comic book. Illustrated stories are expensive to create. Each page is premium real estate where only the most important movement can be drawn. That movement tends to be gross motor as it is easier to depict. Small movements are only drawn if it changes the entire scene.

Start with the intended injury. Fight movement is determined by the damage intended. A character shooting a bow will move differently than one who means to punch. Even if both the arrow and punch miss, the movement of the archer and puncher will be the same. Knowing the injury also gives you a sort of map to follow. It’s easier to get where you’re going if you know where you will end up.

If you’re stuck, take one step back from the injury. If you are having a hard time blocking the movement, take one step back from the final movement, whatever that movement is. Then take one step back from that movement. Now you have two linked movements that lead to your injury goal/final movement. You can write toward those movements or keep moving back from them.

Bring on the pain. Have you ever seen someone else get hurt and wince yourself? That is a function of mirror neurons. Your brain was firing as you were the one hurt. When you add in descriptions of pain, you can impact your reader’s mirror neurons which can put their brain in the fight. Also, pain is a universal experience. No matter how different your character’s backstory and your reader’s background, the two can connect over the shared experience of pain.

Choose well. Know the healing time and long-term physical implications of your injuries. Be sure that your character can carry on in the next scene as needed with the dialogue you need and the injury you’ve chosen.

Yes, you can. You can write dialogue in fight scenes. It happens in real life. Ask any first responder who has been in live combat. There is verbal communication all the time.

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Work in threes. For pacing your fight scene, write two or three movements then give the reader a break. Examples of breaks are going into character’s heads, describing surroundings or even starting a new paragraph. Anything that makes the reader step back from the action mentally or visually is a break.

Tell the fight.  After you write your fight scene, step away from it for an hour then, without looking at the scene again, record yourself telling what happens in the fight like an eye witness.  This will help in two ways. One, it will help you edit the scene. If you didn’t mention certain movement, that movement probably isn’t essential to the scene. Consider cutting it. Two, in the telling, you will likely pace the scene naturally. For example:

Sam threw a left hook. He landed it right on the jaw. Kris spun around, dizzy, then spit blood. Sam threw another punch and another. Kris finally hit the ground.

The underline portions are active fighting. Everything else is a break. 

Any fight technique I know I learned by imitating the movement of my sensei/coach. We can do the same with writing. Find an author whose fight scenes you love and write your fight scene as if you are that writer. Copy their pacing, their voice, their style with your own words. The more you copy their style, the more your own will emerge.

I hope this is useful. If there’s something you are stuck on in your scene, check out my blog or reach out to me personally via IG @fightwritecarla. I’m happy to help. Until the next round with FightWrite on the WD Blog, get blood on your pages.