𝐓𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀 ( writing tips. )

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credit to @berrybird on tumblr

THIS ONE IS FOR ACTION WRITERS

• sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you're
jumping/falling from. there's a very good reason free-runners dive and roll.

• hand-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. it's exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-hand combat, you're going to tire out very easily.

• arrows are very effective and you can't just yank them out without doing alot of damage. most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. an arrow wound demands medical attention.

• throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. you're giving them the chance to get up and run away. unless you're trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don't throw them.

• everyone has something called a "flinch response" when they fight. this is pretty much the brain's way of telling "get the fuck out of here or we're gonna die" expierenced fighters have been trained to supress this. think about how long your character has been fighting. a character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. a character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond differently.

• ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. a lot of times people think adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it's actually the opposite. adrenaline is what tires you out in and it also affects the fighter's efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. adrenaline keeps you alive, it does not give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponents face.

• swords will bend and break if you hit something hard enough. they also dull easy and require and take alot of maintenance. in reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to repair or replace it constantly

• fights get messy. there's blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on somebody

• a serious battle also smells horrible. there's lots of sweat, but also the smell of feces and urine. after someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. there might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very physcologically traumatizing. remember to think about all of the character's senses when they're in a fight. everything will affect them in some way.

• if your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can't go through the cut you make. you'll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword

• ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. have you ever drawn a bow? it takes a lot of strength, especially when you're shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. draw weight basically means "the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it"

● if an archer has to use a bow, it will probably throw them off a little until they've done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

• people bleed. if they get punched in the face, they'll probably get a bloody nose. if they get stabbed or cut somehow, they'll bleed accordingly. and if they've been fighting for a while, they've got a lot of blood rushing around to help provide them with oxygen. they're going to bleed a lot.

CREDIT TO @basstards FOR MAKING THIS COVER !!