# Writing fight scenes



## Aldino (Apr 16, 2012)

I'm currently working on a sci-fi/fantasy novel. Of course my novel features a good many scenes of hopefully page turning action, but what I am really wondering is how other people write fight scenes in books.
My method typically uses choppy but detailed accounts of the action or fight from a third person perspective. However as my novel progresses I fear my method is too repetitive for extended scenes of action. 
The scenes are starting to get stale and repetitive with the action sounding like a script from the Bourne Trilogy. (He did this and then the other guy did this) And so on.
But back to my original question, how is it that you write an effective and gripping fight and or action scene. You don't have to be a book writer to answer this, anyone who writes anything from comics to fanfiction is welcome to add to the conversation.


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## Bipolar Bear (Apr 16, 2012)

A good way to describe them is to put as much detail into the scene as possible. For example: "He launched a right round-kick towards my head, but was lucky enough to get my arm in there and deflect the blow with my elbow. I then returned the favour in kind and threw another round-kick to the side of his face, leaving him with a blood-red outline of my boot on his cheek."

That's how you write fight scenes. If you want a lot of good examples, read 'Fight Club' and 'Skulduggery Pleasant'. Those books have excellent examples of fight choreography, which have been written in plain text.


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## Mxpklx (Apr 16, 2012)

I have a horrible time writing fight scenes. Though my book with my favorite fight scenes would have to be the Halo Novels. But I don't read much so that's my only example.


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## Aldino (Apr 16, 2012)

I have already read the Halo novels but I'll see if I can find the books you mentioned at my library, Foxy.


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## Aden (Apr 17, 2012)

Foxecality said:


> A good way to describe them is to put as much detail into the scene as possible. For example: "He launched a right round-kick towards my head, but was lucky enough to get my arm in there and deflect the blow with my elbow. I then returned the favour in kind and threw another round-kick to the side of his face, leaving him with a blood-red outline of my boot on his cheek."



Eh. That kind of writing is likely to drag. Detail is fantastic and is good for immersion, but fights have a rhythm of their own. Write briefly during fast parts, heap in lots of detail during build-up or slow parts. It's not a football match; going through the motions with the dry, detailed play-by-play is a great way to get people to lose interest in the action.

"His foot lashed towards my head, and the only thing that brought my elbow up in time was luck. I let out a grunt as my forearm bore the impact, then regained my balance and hurriedly mirrored his move while his foot was still returning to balance his weight. My reward was a slight pain at the top of my foot as it caught him below the ear. He fell to the floor with an angry growl."

\I don't claim to be good at this, but I know what I like


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## M. LeRenard (Apr 17, 2012)

Aden said:
			
		

> Detail is fantastic and is good for immersion, but fights have a rhythm of their own.


Right.  General rule of thumb is that the rhythm is dictated by the mood you want to get across, and this rule applies to fight scenes as well.  If something's important, you isolate it to its own paragraph.  If you want a quick pace, you write short sentences (or just add lots of commas) and short paragraphs.  Detail is good, but only if you bear that basic rule in mind.  If you want to, you might even work without complete sentences.  I'll stick with our running example, here.


> A roundhouse kick.  Missed my head, hit my arm and stalled us both for just a second.  I recouped quicker and returned the kick.  Connected just under the eye.  His face shot back up, bloody-cheeked.  He was too pissed to notice.


Whatever.  You get the idea.
Also, work hard to make sure it's easy to follow.  There's nothing more frustrating than a fight-scene you have to read twice in order to understand.  Just one event after the other, and never interrupt it for any reason.  You want it to follow how the character is thinking in such an adrenaline-filled time, so he's not going to be having any particularly philosophical thoughts or inner monologues or anything like that.  I like what Stephen King does, where when a character is really afraid of something, he'll often throw in some crazy thought that just pops into the character's head, some totally inappropriate connection to something harmless and distant (I'd find an example, but it's late and I'm feeling lazy).  I think you probably could make something like that work in a fight scene, too, though you'd have to make it incredibly brief.
I mean, the big question here is, have you ever been in a fight?  If not, it's difficult to reconstruct exactly how it feels with words.  But you can at least imagine it and make a few educated guesses.


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## Aldino (Apr 17, 2012)

M. Le Renard said:


> I mean, the big question here is, have you ever been in a fight?  If not, it's difficult to reconstruct exactly how it feels with words.  But you can at least imagine it and make a few educated guesses.



I've had to defend myself more times that I would like to admit. However I never thought of channeling how I felt at that moment into my writing, I will try that though, Thank you.


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## Furryjones (Apr 24, 2012)

My book is full of exciting fight scenes, but there isn't much more I can suggest to you that hasn't already been said. I'll say that a fight scene must be organic in its flow. Don't stray too far from the scene itself until it has come to its conclusion. I don't have much experience writing hand to hand combat as most of my fight scenes involve medieval weaponry, but be descriptive. Let the reader know exactly what is happening, from the tiniest movement to the crushing impact of successful blows.


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