Fighting scene in a novel.

Horizon209

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When writing a fighting scene, what do you focus on more? the movement and describing the fight or what the character will do and think during the fight?
 

Nahrenne

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When writing a fighting scene, what do you focus on more? the movement and describing the fight or what the character will do and think during the fight?
I think the more fluid way is the actions.
Then again, I'm not very good at fighting scenes in general, so...

orz

X
 

CarburetorThompson

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I don’t try and write what a characters is thinking unless I can do it in one sentence or less. Unless a character has bullet time, a fight (assuming hand to hand/ melee not some wizard battle) isn’t a place to be thinking, it’s much more about instinct. I try to use good descriptive words, and keep flowery language to a minimum to make the sentences as short as possible so it reads fast, much like how many fights are.

Now if you’re doing something like a dog fight between planes, or a fight between two spaceships or something you can disregard all of that.
 

doravg

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I don’t try and write what a characters is thinking unless I can do it in one sentence or less. Unless a character has bullet time, a fight (assuming hand to hand/ melee not some wizard battle) isn’t a place to be thinking, it’s much more about instinct. I try to use good descriptive words, and keep flowery language to a minimum to make the sentences as short as possible so it reads fast, much like how many fights are.

Now if you’re doing something like a dog fight between planes, or a fight between two spaceships or something you can disregard all of that.
Thank you, I was wondering how to describe a fight scene that was coming up in my novel. Your advice helps me a lot.
 

lambenttyto

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When writing a fighting scene, what do you focus on more? the movement and describing the fight or what the character will do and think during the fight?
I usually write them in a blaze as fast as I can. It gives the scene urgency. I have a lot of single word paragraphs and quick thoughts interjected within. Although some books do really well by pausing the action entirely and getting into the headspace of the characters through the narrator. Another cool truck is to make the fighting more abstract to maintain that character headspace. The Wheel of Time does this beautifully.
 

BearlyAlive

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Seems I'm the odd one as I tend to ignore both action and thought and focus more on the intend behind both of those.
 

Jemini

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When you're writing a fight scene, you need to be very "in the moment." You are trying to portray the feel of how someone who's really in a fight feels, and that means everything past or future shuts down for them, and all irrelevant details go out the window. All there is will be the action being performed right now, and maybe a little fear and anticipation of what could happen. The closest they would get to predicting future actions is trying to guess what their enemy might do, not how they themselves plan to go about things.

What you should focus on is movement, emotions (limited to various shades of fear and/or anger), feelings of physical exhaustion, and feelings of physical pain.
 

yurinium

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For me, I'm focusing on the sequence of movements. Something like the step-by-step actions between the two (or more) fighters. Kind of like a real-time action in video game scene, I'd say.
 

Feanor

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This is how I write my scenes:

MC bolted towards his enemy, aiming for his unprotected torso with a straight punch. Enemy's reaction speed is high, so he was able to see the punching motion and easily dodged it, but MC took advantage of the momentum to grab his enemy by his arm and threw him judo-style. The enemy slammed to the ground with a heavy thump, spitting blood as his ribs pierced his lungs. MC, in the heat of the battle, ruthlessly punched through the enemy's face until he wasn't moving anymore. THE END.

Okay, that was a bit lame. If you want a REAL description of a fight scene, I suggest you read Solo Leveling. The battles in that novel are fantastic!
 

Marunikyu

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Sorry but at the end of the day, for any question of this type I think it's best if you just go read & analyze a good scene from a novel you really like. At least this way you'll develop your own understand and generate your Way of novelists. Such Dao might bring good karma. Good luck. 🙏
 

Maze_Runner

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When writing a fighting scene, what do you focus on more? the movement and describing the fight or what the character will do and think during the fight?
Just kinda balance it but generally the movement and the fight itself.
Sorry but at the end of the day, for any question of this type I think it's best if you just go read & analyze a good scene from a novel you really like. At least this way you'll develop your own understand and generate your Way of novelists. Such Dao might bring good karma. Good luck. 🙏
Also, great advice
 

NitroxDarks

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Let me be clear, when you read smut, do you enjoy reading something bland and lazily explained or you like to feel like you can imagine it yourself ever so vividly with how it is portrayed? Like that, it has all what it needs to make one feel they are in one even if the battle escalates to extremes, even if not all the time or completely.

I've been in light and stopped fights when I was a kiddo, from 6 to 11 yo, and I can only remember wanting to make the other tumble down without me even having to even touch them anymore before they could gravely injure me instead Q_Q. No, my neighborhood wasn't a bad one, it was just with a couple of guys...
 
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