Writing the Fight

As with most topics in writing, you don’t need to know how to fight to write a fight. It helps if you have some knowledge of the subject matter, some familiarity with the practice, but that should always be the framework, not necessarily the focus.

My four points that guide a fight scene:

1. Does this move the plot forward?
2. Are the motivations clear?
3. Where does culture overlap?
4. The technicality of it all.

How does this move the plot forward?

Fights are a favorite in media of all kinds, but they don’t happen independently of the rest of the story. You can have the coolest visual ever and know exactly how to describe it, but if it feels misplaced, the reader can really struggle to get invested.

1. How many times have you read a fight where the escalation feels forced or uncomfortable? Or you only realize halfway through the page that they’re physically attacking each other?
   1. I should not be surprised to realize someone has a sword in their hand (unless that is the point, in which case, it should get a moment of recognition).
2. Think about how long it takes for a physical altercation to begin in our culture. Have you ever seen a fight, let alone been in one?
   1. The first punch is a big deal.
   2. Your focus is on the emotions that create tension that lead to violence. Lots of little steps!
3. I don’t need to be inside your antagonist’s mind, but I do want to know how they’re doing in this scene, just as much as your protagonist.
   1. Was this part of their plan? Are they confident? Were they taken by surprise?
   2. If all of this is delivered from the protagonist’s perspective, it could be wrong. How clever is your antagonist? Are they hiding fear under confidence? Confidence under fear?
4. Adrenaline gives you a beautiful chance for some small, quiet foreshadowing.
   1. Chaos can free you to put pieces where you need them without having to identify exactly how they got there (within reason).
   2. Don’t be afraid of the pauses – it doesn’t take long to show your audience the stakes and the fear and the confidence – reinvestment is golden.

What is revealed to the reader and characters?

Conflict is a beautiful, delicious thing. It can carry a lot of information, but don’t be too greedy or generous. You can have multiple conflicts tied up in one, or one conflict discovered to be many – it comes down to the plot, but here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Revelations are so good, and fights are a great place to do it.
   1. Do we discover a master martial artist? An unknown ability? Is a spy discovered in our ranks, is someone found to be not as they were before?
2. Does the character know of their abilities in advance?
   1. If this was a secret, what exactly forced their hand and why? Was it reflexive? Who witnessed this? Will they return (or try to return) to the way they were? Have they done this before? Do they think of those they’re with disdain, fear, love, trust, loathing? Are they protecting someone, showing off, buying time?
3. People are complicated, and there is so much they can experience at one time – the shift and change of emotion is where conflict lives.
   1. Don’t feel like you need to outline every emotion, but give the reader a map – confidence turning to dread; surprise turning to anger; amusement turning to fear. All of these feelings have physical descriptions you can use instead of simply stating the emotional state – show the emotion.
4. Don’t be afraid of the pause, but this is not the time for exposition.
   1. People make hasty choices, sometimes bad ones. They might have to double-back, they might misunderstand information, and they might just need a moment to get their bearings to find another target.
   2. In a fight, short sentences are your friend. Things happen quickly and the meter and rhythm of your sentences can help the escalation.
5. Every action has a cascade of reactions.
   1. Who knew (or suspected) the revelation? Was it an accident or a deft maneuver on their part? What kind of response do they anticipate? How does it change the nature of relationships moving forward? Will this fight result in injury or death intentional or otherwise? Does that change their view of themselves or others? How do others’ opinions change? Does it match their expectations?

How does the conflict show the culture of your world?

Remember that your fight doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Everyone makes choices and interprets action based on their social and cultural upbringing. We interpret differently even in our shared culture. What one sees as friendly, others see as manipulative.

1. Unless you are a prodigy, it takes significant time to master a style of fighting, with or without weapons. Multiples compound that.
   1. Your story doesn’t have to be smothered in realism, but this is that fine line where a lack of realism or explanation can pull your reader out of the story.
   2. No matter how badass a 12-year-old is, physics says “no” to them punching out an adult twice their size (unless magic is involved).
2. If training has a focus on discipline, it might be more difficult to get into a fight. Or maybe it shows the inevitability of one, and can end it immediately. As the mover and shaker of this world, you tell me why it makes sense.
   1. Failure means the chance to innovate – conflict within the conflict!
   2. Alternatively, does the fight end? Is it dishonorable to continue if someone is not entirely prepared?
3. Fighting is often a public or semi-public affair. What kind of expectation of witnesses do your people have?
4. Is, or was, there a purpose for this kind of violent training? Are your people always at war? Has there been a thousand years of peace? What was the situation that led to this education?

Let’s Get Technical!

As I said at the beginning, there’s no need to know exactly how to blacksmith a sword (looking at you, Terry Pratchett), but everyone can appreciate some easily researched truth. Attach the emotion and motivations of your characters, the culture, everything around it and you’ll have an easier time honing in on what you need.

1. I cannot tell you how much I love when someone has to make stupid choices because they ran out of bullets or their blade broke or a potion got smashed in a backpack. Desperately emptying the clip and then throwing the gun? A beautiful trope. Give me more of it.
2. Did you know that some swords were often held by the blade (with leather or armored gloves) and used to grab someone with the cross guard to bring them close enough to murder?
   1. Did you know I’ve never yet read a book in which that happens?
   2. Did you know that in the hands of an expert, a heavy sling bullet or stone could reach speeds of up to 100 mph?
3. Is your character lost with a gun but deadly with a knife? Can they wield a chair leg like a boss but cannot keep a shield high enough to matter? Give me the delicious character facts! Show me how real they are and how much I can relate to them!
   1. If they’re injured and have to work around it, even better. Overhead attacks are out, but underhand is still possible? Do it!
4. Don’t get too worried about “the squicky”.
   1. Consider your audience. Fade-to-black is always an option.
   2. If something dark and horrible is happening to your character, it’s possible they don’t know exactly what it is. You can describe around a mess without needing to wade into it.
5. I do recommend you do some general study of anatomy and injuries.
   1. Rifling on a bullet makes the spin, which is why they do that mess of damage.
   2. Sharp blades do (technically) less damage than dull ones.
   3. Disease and infection are very much a problem.
   4. Despite our medical innovations and technology, there’s a reason three-bladed knives are still very illegal.
6. Don’t be afraid to play with your action verbs – build me a word picture.
   1. Does the weapon match the user? Are they both broad and heavy; narrow and lithe; quick and decisive; short and blunt? Or does the huge, hulking woman use a thin, whipping rapier? Is she good with it?
   2. A weapon can crash, dance, whip, scream, laugh, stumble, wobble, flick, serenade, chop, and lumber.
7. A fight will not take all day. If it lasts more than a minute, you’ve probably already lost.
   1. An axe might weigh only 4 lbs., but that gets heavy after a few minutes of homicide’ing.
   2. Experts have patterns layered into their muscles, but amateurs don’t follow the rules. Chaos confuses everyone, but especially those looking for order.
   3. Real and useful muscle isn’t bulky; it has plenty of fat to feed it, so your strongest characters won’t necessarily be the most defined.
8. The most important question of all: do you like what you wrote?

To Recap

we talked about how fights can and should move the plot forward and that there can be dozens of little steps that lead to the big clash. How fights are an excellent place for conflict-within-the-conflict; revelations and emotional shifts that don’t require dumping a box of exposition all over the table. I hopefully convinced you to tell me more about the culture of your world and where the characters fit into it. And we discussed some of the technicality you can use, whether with action-verbs, types of injury, weapon choices, and training.

It’s so important to like your fight scenes. Violence for the sake of violence is a tragedy, but art comes in all mediums.

I hope this gave you some inspiration and guidance for writing your fights, and I look forward to reading them!

Morgan Barca has presented multiple times at the Roanoke Writers Conference and offers both this class and a highly-interactive fantasy world-building program.

A big shout-out to Ryan McGuire from Pixabay for the header image.