How long are your fight scenes, and how you can make it longer?

[hastalavista]

Hi!
I was always wondering why a fight scene in an anime would be so short in a novel. I looked around the internet and knew that most authors don't describe hand to hand fight, Brandon Sanderson as well said that if you were to describe every part of a fight it will end up boring... So, what are your ways to write a long engaging fight scene, and do you think that long fight scenes are necessary for action novels?

 

[C.Sunlight]

Fight scenes don't nessecary need to be long as the quality is up to par. Some extremely short fights in anime are up there at the top of my list.

As for an engaging fight... Your best bet is to only describe the turning points of the fight (excersise that inner poet and do a lot of figurative language), while also doing your best to make people feel invested in the result. The best way to do this is always having characters of good quality, although it can get even better if it's a battle of ideologies, revenge, etc.

Just make interesting, believable human characters (that aren't tropes) and write that fighting scene. It will be fine as long as the characters are good. Sure, throwing a black hole at your enemy is cool, but it doesn't mean anything until you realize that the guy throwing the black hole spent an inordinate amount of effort to create it to finally avenge so and so. (Not the best plot, but it's just an example, so eh.)

 

[LostLibrarian]

I don't try to write long and engaging fight scenes. It'll end up as either a boring move-to-move recreation or as something that feels "too detailed" where I as reader would skip through. Most of the time fights are just that boring in a novel (I always remember helms deep and how short it was in the books).

Instead I try to give the fights in my novel some meaning behind it. "His first kill", "His first command", "His first wound", "The need to protect someone else", or just the fight as accumulation of the themes inside the novel ("good vs evil"). With that you can "draw out" the fight with the thoughts and/or reactions of the people in battle. The realization after their first kill, their struggle to stay standing because they want to protect X, whatever. All the stuff the anime would either cut out or present as really bad voice over.

The big advantage of a novel is that time isn't ticking away. So you can use 1 page for 1 second without breaking the flow of the story. And so I mostly focus on the things "around the fight" to make the fight itself more interesting...

Though with all that said... I'm also writing more of drama/adventure and less of an action story...

 

[JayDirex]

that if you were to describe every part of a fight it will end up boring.

100 percent correct. When writing a fist fight, or two martial artist, the key is to use strong INDIVIDUAL action words that describe in a concise way, as opposed to ridiculous over description such as, "he blocked with his left and threw a right, but she blocked that and spun" -_- NO, that is wordy and boring and no one wants to read that.

Examples of fighting Action words: Forced, slammed, kicked, forward kicked, spinning elbow, dropped, threw a one-two combo, slashed, parried strikes back and forth. etc

Below is an example of a fight scene from one of my stories on SH. notice the key words that describe the action:

Lilia raised her rifle and smashed it against Ko’s face. He absorbed the blow but lost momentum while parrying strikes back and forth with the blitzing Rifle Girl who offered no opening in her attack, and worse. Three armed Turks suddenly emerged from the entrance and ran straight toward him. But on pure reflex he gripped Lilia’s rifle with both hands.

“What? Get off!” Lilia screamed and forward kicked Ko. But as she struck he hip tossed her sideways, forcing her to fire a three round burst from the rifle, gunning down the first Turk charging at Ko.

____

you see what I mean? Use precise verbs to convey the action.

 

[hastalavista]

Fight scenes don't nessecary need to be long as the quality is up to par. Some extremely short fights in anime are up there at the top of my list.

As for an engaging fight... Your best bet is to only describe the turning points of the fight (excersise that inner poet and do a lot of figurative language), while also doing your best to make people feel invested in the result. The best way to do this is always having characters of good quality, although it can get even better if it's a battle of ideologies, revenge, etc.

Just make interesting, believable human characters (that aren't tropes) and write that fighting scene. It will be fine as long as the characters are good. Sure, throwing a black hole at your enemy is cool, but it doesn't mean anything until you realize that the guy throwing the black hole spent an inordinate amount of effort to create it to finally avenge so and so. (Not the best plot, but it's just an example, so eh.)

Wow, that was extremely beneficial. So much good info are there, it's the summary of the long posts I read on google.

 

[hastalavista]

I don't try to write long and engaging fight scenes. It'll end up as either a boring move-to-move recreation or as something that feels "too detailed" where I as reader would skip through. Most of the time fights are just that boring in a novel (I always remember helms deep and how short it was in the books).

Instead I try to give the fights in my novel some meaning behind it. "His first kill", "His first command", "His first wound", "The need to protect someone else", or just the fight as accumulation of the themes inside the novel ("good vs evil"). With that you can "draw out" the fight with the thoughts and/or reactions of the people in battle. The realization after their first kill, their struggle to stay standing because they want to protect X, whatever. All the stuff the anime would either cut out or present as really bad voice over.

The big advantage of a novel is that time isn't ticking away. So you can use 1 page for 1 second without breaking the flow of the story. And so I mostly focus on the things "around the fight" to make the fight itself more interesting...

Though with all that said... I'm also writing more of drama/adventure and less of an action story...

I'm planning to do this. I already prepared meaning behind every fight that would suit both sides. Still some parts of my series are fight drove, which gave them great meaning but they need heavy of shortening.

 

[Amarathia]

In general, it takes longer in anime to show all the details of a fight than it does to describe in a novel, cause' it will never provide as many specific details into every aspect of the fight. Cause that would make it cluttered and hard to read.

And no, I don't think there HAS to been long fight scenes in an action novel to make it interesting, but I do enjoy a smattering of epic/complex battles scenes. Although not to the point I want a story I read to be more than 70% action content. You know' like those action stories that spend XX chapters describing new powers and items that made them more OP, or the ones that use excessive narrative to explain every little genius strategy the MC used and how the villain underestimated them? I find those boring.

Actions novels I enjoy always had a mix of longer/shorter fight scenes.
When I write my own I try to make them interesting and relevant to the story.

I include a number of different strategies, unique opponents and weapons, and examine how different characters approach a conflict. Are they scared, running a lot, developing a plan mid-battle, confident? Fight scenes might include rescuing other characters, teamwork, going on despite injuries...it's entirely possible to include a few longer fights depending on the complexity of the situation.

However, I would never force a fight scene to go longer than it needs. Part of the importance of an action scene is to ramp up the story pace and tension, bad and excessively long fight scenes will do the opposite; readers will zone out and skim through boring play by plays.
You want to make the way you describe action flow quickly by using simple words that have impact.

Here is a rough example of how the same scenario that could either be a short or long action scene...

Let's say MC is breaking out of a jail cell. He steals the keys from a guard and knocks them out as he escapes. The act of facing the guard doesn't need to take more than 2 sentences unless this guard somehow retaliates in an interesting way.

So now let's say this guard had a hidden weapon in his boot, he shakes off the MC and goes and gets MORE guards, who the MC then fights off as he escapes from the jail, facing different challenges as he goes -oh and he also gets stabbed in the shoulder-. In this situation, he NEEDS to escape by sunrise, otherwise his sister is somehow going to die by 10 am the next day. The author spends 1 chapter describing this drawn out conflict. It also includes brief blurbs of the MC hiding behind crates to avoid being caught and thinking about how to save his sister after he gets out while punching ppl in the face.

On the other hand, if this scene spanned a chapter when there was no real importance in the MC getting out fast, and it was easy for him to do...then it would be boring. Readers would wonder why the author is detailing a jail break against normal humans when the MC usually fights lvl 1000 dragons.

So...the power is all in your hands.

 

[hastalavista]

100 percent correct. When writing a fist fight, or two martial artist, the key is to use strong INDIVIDUAL action words that describe in a concise way, as opposed to ridiculous over description such as, "he blocked with his left and threw a right, but she blocked that and spun" -_- NO, that is wordy and boring and no one wants to read that.

Examples of fighting Action words: Forced, slammed, kicked, forward kicked, spinning elbow, dropped, threw a one-two combo, slashed, parried strikes back and forth. etc

Below is an example of a fight scene from one of my stories on SH. notice the key words that describe the action:

Lilia raised her rifle and smashed it against Ko’s face. He absorbed the blow but lost momentum while parrying strikes back and forth with the blitzing Rifle Girl who offered no opening in her attack, and worse. Three armed Turks suddenly emerged from the entrance and ran straight toward him. But on pure reflex he gripped Lilia’s rifle with both hands.

“What? Get off!” Lilia screamed and forward kicked Ko. But as she struck he hip tossed her sideways, forcing her to fire a three round burst from the rifle, gunning down the first Turk charging at Ko.

____

you see what I mean? Use precise verbs to convey the action.

wow, I can see the difference, I was looking for words level advice, your work might be a great learning source for me, so many thanks!

 

[Moctemma]

Fights in novels are short for two reasons. The first is using concise short sentences to speed the reading, changing the speed of the events in the readers mind. Just like JayDirex pointed out. The second is because you have to treat your fight scene as any other scene; you can't repeat yourself. The visual media can barely prevent boring people by using sound and images, but it's still bad for your movie to have a guy shooting the same way the entire movie. Good examples of fight scenes where the shooting and punching becomes something more are the fight scenes in Jackie Chan's movies and John Wick (except the scene in the third movie with the actress, I forgot her name).

The last fight scene I wrote was 700 words, though it could be improved and reduce 50.

I forgot. I recommend you read The Girl Who Ate a Death God, I loved the fights and is here on ScribbleHub, except the first and last 3 chapters.

I recommend watching this video.

 

[hastalavista]

In general, it takes longer in anime to show all the details of a fight than it does to describe in a novel, cause' it will never provide as many specific details into every aspect of the fight. Cause that would make it cluttered and hard to read.

And no, I don't think there HAS to been long fight scenes in an action novel to make it interesting, but I do enjoy a smattering of epic/complex battles scenes. Although not to the point I want a story I read to be more than 70% action content. You know' like those action stories that spend XX chapters describing new powers and items that made them more OP, or the ones that use excessive narrative to explain every little genius strategy the MC used and how the villain underestimated them? I find those boring.

Actions novels I enjoy always had a mix of longer/shorter fight scenes.
When I write my own I try to make them interesting and relevant to the story.

I include a number of different strategies, unique opponents and weapons, and examine how different characters approach a conflict. Are they scared, running a lot, developing a plan mid-battle, confident? Fight scenes might include rescuing other characters, teamwork, going on despite injuries...it's entirely possible to include a few longer fights depending on the complexity of the situation.

However, I would never force a fight scene to go longer than it needs. Part of the importance of an action scene is to ramp up the story pace and tension, bad and excessively long fight scenes will do the opposite; readers will zone out and skim through boring play by plays.
You want to make the way you describe action flow quickly by using simple words that have impact.

Here is a rough example of how the same scenario that could either be a short or long action scene...

Let's say MC is breaking out of a jail cell. He steals the keys from a guard and knocks them out as he escapes. The act of facing the guard doesn't need to take more than 2 sentences unless this guard somehow retaliates in an interesting way.

So now let's say this guard had a hidden weapon in his boot, he shakes off the MC and goes and gets MORE guards, who the MC then fights off as he escapes from the jail, facing different challenges as he goes -oh and he also gets stabbed in the shoulder-. In this situation, he NEEDS to escape by sunrise, otherwise his sister is somehow going to die by 10 am the next day. The author spends 1 chapter describing this drawn out conflict. It also includes brief blurbs of the MC hiding behind crates to avoid being caught and thinking about how to save his sister after he gets out while punching ppl in the face.

On the other hand, if this scene spanned a chapter when there was no real importance in the MC getting out fast, and it was easy for him to do...then it would be boring. Readers would wonder why the author is detailing a jail break against normal humans when the MC usually fights lvl 1000 dragons.

So...the power is all in your hands.

So the fight scenes need to be logical and reasonable, even if there were dragons by the gate. I will save your examples as well, they will help a lot in planing my fights.

 

[hastalavista]

Fights in novels are short for two reasons. The first is using concise short sentences to speed the reading, changing the speed of the events in the readers mind. Just like JayDirex pointed out. The second is because you have to treat your fight scene as any other scene; you can't repeat yourself. The visual media can barely prevent boring people by using sound and images, but it's still bad for your movie to have a guy shooting the same way the entire movie. Good examples of fight scenes where the shooting and punching becomes something more are the fight scenes in Jackie Chan's movies and John Wick (except the scene in the third movie with the actress, I forgot her name).

The last fight scene I wrote was 700 words, though it could be improved and reduce 50.

I forgot. I recommend you read The Girl Who Ate a Death God, I loved the fights and is here on ScribbleHub, except the first and last 3 chapters.

I recommend watching this video.

I'm watching the video, and I was looking for a good fighting novel to study, thank you!

 

[Macronomicon]

Strangely, I've found some people that like verbose, detailed fights, as long as they are tense and creative. Also in my stories, magic tends to be used in very specific, non-skimmable ways, so sometimes I have to devote a whole paragraph to how a particular effect was achieved. they don't simply blast a fireball, they replicate a chemical concotion primed to explode at a specific spot, they don't cast wall of air or sculpt stone, they switch the hardness of steel and air, alling them to make a foam steel or air-wall, or raise the magnetism and conductivity of air, as well as it's mass in mid-flight in order to breathe lightning. The character doesn't have a lighting breathing ability, and instead have to synthesize it by gathering up a bunch of disparate abilities. This has to be described in detail because my readers are magic buffs and love seeing how such things could be done.

 

[atgongumerki]

The way I see it:

When entering a fight each character has the desire to win fast. (As long as it is not a sparring or training match.)

So if you have a long fight you need to explain the circumstances.
For example, the 2 parties are throwing rocks at each other's tanks, so it can take a while.
The next step is to make the rock-throwing interesting.
I would never explain every single throw, but if you don't, you have to convey the passage of time!
In cases where I have drawn out fights, I describe the beginning, the end and the interesting parts.
Interesting as in, funny failures (if you want to go there), one of the fighters dislodging their arm while attempting to throw a rock; progress, a stone jamming the tread of a tank, a stone breaking through the armour after 5 billion rocks hit the same spot, ...;
how this progress changes the overall situation of the fight, due to the jammed tread the red team had to abandon their flanking manoeuvre;
and of course, when a combatant drops out of combat, as Joe fell asleep he can no longer participate in rock-throwing.

 

[Polarize4777]

You can also use a logic battle between two fighters to show a fight scene as they are thinking about their maneuvers and then describe the fight shortly after as the scene take place. It makes for a cool fight scene as things are taken into consideration and then display as the character either looks for opportunity or back off and take a different approach. Fighting can be more than just a one two combo, it can take some thought processes unless you are a 10 years or 20 years fighting master who have engage in fighting regularly enough to know how to handle any fights, but even then it would still take some assessments before a fight can be engage. Stick to active words instead of passive words when describing an action scene, it will have more impact as the audience is reel in with the constant action involve instead of passive description.

 

[gaylolis]

most of my fight scenes involve talk no jutsu or just a quick roflstomp.

i prefer my characters to solve conflicts through diplomacy than violence

or if they have to be violent, just make it quick and pull everything out from the roots. it's more about the consequences than the process for me.

i don't like to make it long, since my chapters tend to be short. i will only put what i deem necessary and skip the rest.

 

[Bugi]

Hi!
I was always wondering why a fight scene in an anime would be so short in a novel. I looked around the internet and knew that most authors don't describe hand to hand fight, Brandon Sanderson as well said that if you were to describe every part of a fight it will end up boring... So, what are your ways to write a long engaging fight scene, and do you think that long fight scenes are necessary for action novels?

I actually made 1 whole chapter of fight scenes!

 

[DubstheDuke]

Well, my novel's fights....

In the early novel, they were mostly RPG based, with a lot of numbers and rolls, but in the later section of the novel my main characters "outgrew" that type of fighting, because they became so ridiculously overpowered that it didn't even matter.

My fights were certainly much longer at first, as they were even fights, but they still were very short.

Now, if I look at fights among other characters in my novel (Non mc characters), these fights are also pretty damn short. The longest fights are only maybe 2 or 3 pages at max.

I suppose this is partially because my fights are pure fights.

There is not a lot of dialogue. This goes on either before or after the fight for me. Many animes and mangas tend to fill a fight with dialogue, but I kind of despise that sort of thing. When youre at the fight, just fight. That's all.

2nd, because it takes only a few sentences to describe a series of motions, which would take much longer to play out in an anime or in real life.

If I really want a fight to be long, I have to add in a ton of mechanics and new things to the fight, and be constantly introducing these elements. My brain can only think up so much stuff, so eventually it will come to an end. Though, this is only referring to individual fights.

What about the more long term grand scheme battles?

These are much different, but not that much so since my mcs are completely overpowered.

I had one arc that was a war arc. And this war lasted an entire Volume. There were many developments, and plenty of fighting throughout the volume, however one thing to note is that even the fights here were only prolongued because there were many people fighting at once.

But as far as individual fighting which doesn't have twists and turns like a war does, I often find that it only lasts a few lines before someone dies. I am trying to introduce a real big long fight to the end of the Volume I am currently writing by having an enemy which starts out weaker than the character they are fighting, who is being extremely careful and thus does not immediately finish them off, but then powers up significantly to make it a much better fight. I have a lot of ideas going into this fight to make it longer than most, but even then it won't last more than a chapter. (My chapters are around 3k words)

 

[Nanakawaichan]

I wonder if I'm the only one who like to write detailed fight scene. At my last novel I write about hand to hand fight. When the other combination of sword and magic fight. There's some conversations and thought between it to keep the story flowing or you can add the other reaction or effect (like how messy the room after the fight, the crack that caused by the attack, smoke/dust if caused by an explosion) to describe how fierce your battle are.

I had one arc that was a war arc. And this war lasted an entire Volume. There were many developments, and plenty of fighting throughout the volume, however one thing to note is that even the fights here were only prolongued because there were many people fighting at once.

Writing a war scene surely confusing. I ended up write how the battle started and how it's ended while the other is about how long the war is and what his strategy.