Advice - In The Form Of Rants

Fight Scenes?

At 4k, I'm wondering how I got this far without talking about these. Like seriously, how?

But honestly though, how the hell?

To write a fight scene, just like with romance, it helps sooooo much to have experience. Or at least it helps to watch and read media that includes such. And, if you're reading this, I'm pretty sure you've read, written or seen at least one story or scene with a fight in it. If not, I honestly have no idea as to how you've avoided it so well- it's literally everywhere!

Anyhoo, I have a really strange piece of advice for anyone who wants to write a fight scene.

Don't write it any differently to how you'd write a description of anything else.

Wierd, isn't it? What could Akemi possibly be talking about?

Well, what I notice when people try to write fight scenes (and struggle with it) is that they try too hard to make it... different. It shouldn't feel entirely different, just more exciting, tense or whatever you're aiming for.

But, a fight scene (even if the outcome is obvious) should be at least exciting or have the audience anticipating the outcome. Whether the outcome is a core character's death or a few cuts and bruises isn't relevant: it's the scene you're writing for, not the product. If you focus too much on the product, your scene will be rushed, boring or plain bad.

My fight scenes are far from perfect, but I'm sure I can offer some advice. I want to read a fight scene, not have it reiterated to me. This is mainly a problem that writers who use 1st person face- but 3rd person writers are not exempt from this.

No one wants to read:

"Then Alexandrie grabbed her sword and swooosh! Omg she like cut him in half!"

That's absolute, lazy crap. The above not only screams 'amateur', but 'I can't be bothered'. At least try to put more emotion into it. As cringey as the example is, it's still better than the one above.

"I couldn't bare to watch; watching every swing of her blade edge closer to Faustus' head was horrifying- he shoukdn't be subject to this! I didn't want to know what would happen next, but my fingers parted, and I continued my observation of the one-sided match."

(Totally not a shameless plug using my own characters of my own work XD)

Then, how do you write a fight scene?

Just like you would a description- with detail: adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs and all. If your fight scenes don't have these, it's most likely not interesting or engaging. Your audience should be on edge, not deciphering what you meant.