Writing How to write a badass fight?

[D4isuke]

I know things about show, no tell rule in narrating the story, but what if the concept of a certain scenario is a fight scene when like a MC who has the professional swordsmanship skills against the multiple guys who had mediocre skills?(Just imagine if you watch a certain fight scene of the movie "Rorouni Kenshin") Is writing a choreography really need to be detailed? Or just use the context of how a "turn-based" combat work like, but in realistic way?

 

[Jamminrabbit]

The show, don't tell is not an ironclad rule to begin with. Break it when you see fit. Write a badass fight scene if it tickles your pickle, why not?

I have a go-to rule for writing fight scenes that involve "fast" and "slow" passages.

Fast, to describe only the action. Write from sense of sight and hearing, or what can be discerned from the moment. Avoid using fluff or purple prose.

Slow, to describe moments of reflection, internal thoughts, etc. The slowdown passage usually indicates a change of strategy, a lull in the battle, or forced pause by some event.

 

[Jemini]

Well, this seems to be more a question about the "show don't tell" rule as applied to fight scenes rather than the title card about asking how to write it, but here's what I would advise anyway.

You want to know what would actually work in a fight to start with. A lot of movie coreographed fight scenes, especially from back before 2000, are more about showy moves than considering what would actually work. At the same time though, despite this, they DID still keep it somewhat grounded in looking like an actual fight. Think about the difference between the Darth Vader Vs. Luke lightsaber fight in Empire Strikes Back Vs. kids playing with sticks (or the Last Jedi Throneroom fight scene.) In the Empire Strikes Back fight scene, the sword work was simple and the strikes were actually aimed at the person while the lightsabers only clashed because the person being targeted successfully parried. In the other case, you have people swinging at nothing and just hitting their swords together. The latter is always going to be far more poor as a fight scene even if flashier moves are put in. The reason for this is that those flashy moves are not going to have any real purpose to them, and it will break the immersion.

You compare this to the more modern day fight scenes (the last jedi was already mentioned) and instead of this well grounded fake fighting you saw in the earlier era, nowdays you see them go to either one of the extremes. You either have "the last Samurai" with Nicolas Cage, in which the fighting (outside of the training scene) was SUPER authentic and used actual moves historical samurai would have used, or you have "the last Jedi," on the other extreme which had the issues I mentioned before.

Authentic combat maneuvers can be really interesting, because it requires the author to actually explain why the move being performed is significant and it gives the audience the sense that the fight is grounded. Meanwhile, it allows you to portray the bad-assery of the move in what it says about the fighter's personality rather than the destruction it causes. Any writer can write about destructive moves that tear up the landscape, but it takes a skilled writer to dive into the character's mind and mental state for every individual move they perform. It is the character's personality coming out that makes the scene bad ass, and it is the groundedness in realistic maneuvers that helps it to become more engaging to the readers.

(BTW: Grounded does not mean super-powered fighting is off the table. It means that if you are using super powered characters, actually seriously consider the implications of having a character with 10X human strength, or whatever other power they have. In that example, it would either be how due to their strength their blade cannot be parried effectively because they will just brute-force over your parry and push your own sword into yourself and cut you anyway, making the only way to deal with their super strength to dodge everything, or it would be the fact that the super strength caracter wouldn't use a sword because it would just break too easily due to the delicate desings swords have. They might favor a club or a war hammer instead. Or, if you go with the giant oversized sword trope, those huge things have the weakness that regardless of your strength they will pull you off your feet due to the centrifical force generated. So, maybe the superstrength giant sword weilder wears very very heavy armor in order to increase their weight, which is needed in order to be able to swing their sword.)

 

[D4isuke]

The show, don't tell is not an ironclad rule to begin with. Break it when you see fit. Write a badass fight scene if it tickles your pickle, why not?

I have a go-to rule for writing fight scenes that involve "fast" and "slow" passages.

Fast, to describe only the action. Write from sense of sight and hearing, or what can be discerned from the moment. Avoid using fluff or purple prose.

Slow, to describe moments of reflection, internal thoughts, etc. The slowdown passage usually indicates a change of strategy, a lull in the battle, or forced pause by some event.

I decided to write in fast passage when it's all about one-vs-many if the hostile isn't competitively vital like killing the zombies just to survive himself/herself.

If it's one-vs-one if the hostile is vital, I used the slow passages to think about what kind of skills/abilities he/she got, then strategize how to kill that particular man with "logical sense".

 

[Moctemma]

This first video isn't about writing, but it explains the difference between action scenes and fight scenes (two people against each other/one vs many).

This one goes deeper and is about writing, I highly suggest you watch it.

Another one, this shows how not to make a boring one. It helps if you remember the difference between action and fight scenes.

Another one about action scenes.

Of course you need at least a basic level of knowledge about sword fights. I share this video.

 

[gaylolis]

personally, if i want to write a badass scene, and 'cuz I'm too lazy--I just make MC destroy the enemies in one hit, and put all detail onto describing how monstrous that blow was, and how devastating the damage incurred.

in the case of a skilled swordsman, if the gap was high enough, he can just parry the attacks with ease and follow it with flurry of slashes that the enemy couldn't follow. before they knew it, their arteries were severed.

you can just draft it with simple words and emphasize the details you find interesting.

though i'm not really interested about swordfights in detail, i prefer the mc to blow up everything with big guns, guns, and more guns.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

I'm not really good at giving detailed plans on how fights work but i would always visualize hoe the fight would go.

The impact to the strike when each person faught, how a person would handle the fight with many or how he uses the enviroment against the opponent.

Even if it isn't detailed, just give more feeling as to how you make the character cool whenever he is in a fight.

Everyone has an opinion to how the characters fight look cool or badass but what makes it cool is how you make the fight flow and give descriptive ways that affects those around the character.

Like, how the impact of the sword swung causes his enemies to be pushed back, how the character dodges an attack but his cloth being cut, making it he nearly dodge the bullet, how his enemy uses the enviroment against him(i.e. Causing dust to scatter to blind an opponent or going to the enemy's rhythm to fall into a trap).

 

[Jemini]

I decided to write in fast passage when it's all about one-vs-many if the hostile isn't competitively vital like killing the zombies just to survive himself/herself.

If it's one-vs-one if the hostile is vital, I used the slow passages to think about what kind of skills/abilities he/she got, then strategize how to kill that particular man with "logical sense".

Ok, so the issue is a one Vs. many fight? Well, I actually have a resource for that believe it or not. Skallagrim, one of the two biggest medieval community youtubers, posted a video a couple years back of him playing a VR game that very accurately simulates fights with medieval weapons. He's a Hema practitioner (Hema is a historical preservation of European armed combat arts) and has a fair amount of skill at using such weapons. In the game, he winds up facing large groups of noobs who know almost nothing about medieval weapons combat and are just wanting to try out the game and wave around weapons. (There's not a lot to the game outside of PvP, so of course that's what everyone does, and when they see someone doing very well then everyone else wants to gang up on them.)

That's almost identical to what you're looking for here I think, so just watching the video ought to give you a pretty good idea of what an actual realistic fight of that type might look like.

EDIT: BTW, the parts where you see him get mad at people, saying things like "that's not how you fight dumbass" and getting especially brutal with one of the other players is when he sees them trying a spinning slash. It's a weak move that only serves to open you up to attack, so he likes to especially punish the people who do that.

 

[Omnicast]

The MC threw a punch at the villainous villain. The mere air pressure was enough to completely pierce though it's tougher than steel body.

Fight done. Profit.

Oh shit nm, One Punch Man already did it first.

 

[GDLiZy]

What kind of badassery do you want to create, then? I think that there are many ways to write a scene, but we needed some basic information down first to know which is the best utilised.

For me, when I did a group fight(2vs2,2vs4), I usually did it almost turn-based; the trick is to make it flow smoothly to create non-disruptive pacing that gave urgency to the situation. Of course, if you wanted badassery, you may create a look-like-impossible scenario where you put most of the enemies actions first, making it like a net of inescapable attacks, before making use of that arranged hole for the MC to neatly resolve it with his special power(be it knowledge, speed, technique etc).

Still, I think that you should have a goal in your mind to work towards to; like "at the end what would the enemies become, physically and emotionally? how would the readers feel? what purpose does this scene serve?". I found it easier when you have that goal to work towards.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I am a lazy amateur, so I kind of just writes turn based of how my MC is wrecking shit on his opponents and give a downplayed damage report of himself while the corpses of his foes are heavily mutilated, as in there are now more orifices on their heads, throats and chests and a couple of them have their heads barely attached to their bodies via ligaments and skin.

 

[Moctemma]

Am I the only one who makes the OP protagonist lose battles?

 

[Jemini]

Ok, here's another even more massive capability difference one V. many battle (also with Skallagrim.) In this case, it's not just a matter of skill difference. In the previous battle, stats were set to equal and skill was the only thing to make a difference. In this one, the knight just plain has far better equipment than the bandits. (Skall is for commentary on the video, which would help the uninitiated to know what they're seeing.)

 

[NotaNuffian]

Am I the only one who makes the OP protagonist lose battles?

Only if you are trying not to appeal to the average reader in SH, boys here sucks wish fulfilment real hard, unless it is a small loss and a bigger comeback is up.

 

[Moctemma]

Only if you are trying not to appeal to the average reader in SH, boys here sucks wish fulfilment real hard, unless it is a small loss and a bigger comeback is up.

Yeah my story isn't for everyone. The OP powers come with disadvantages and risks, and MC has no experience in battle.

 

[Yorda]

I know things about show, no tell rule in narrating the story

If the fight scene is not really meaningful, and or would be monotonous, I would just tell it with a timeskip. For the most part telling is lazy writing, but there are exceptional cases where it speeds up necessary information that would be awkward or boring or tedious to show.

However, when talking about plot critical fight scenes between major characters actual effort is needed. A fight between major characters isn't merely "kick, punch, kick, punch" or "sword slash, sword block, sword slash, sword block". I believe that fight scenes where the characters' actions represent their inner natures surfacing are great.

For example, a villain character shouldn't just swing a sword, they should beat down on their opponent viciously and show their contempt and hatred with every attack. They should ridicule their opponent verbally as they fight, maybe reveal that they one who killed the protagonist's mother was them all along. Their attacks should be just as cruel as them and representational of what's inside their black heart. Maybe they use the environment, like kicking sand into the hero's eyes or using a trap.

I find creative fight scenes much more interesting than ones with too many restrictions/rules.

Here's a video on fight scenes I thought was great.

Edit: Ohhh, I thought this was an Ellen Brock video. I was wrong. Anyways the guy outlines typical problems with badly written action/fight scenes, and offers suggestions for improvement. I'll summarize all the critical parts here in note form.

-PROBLEM 1- the fight feels separate from the story
-you paused your story to describe a fight, bad
-reveal who your characters are through their actions
-good, your fight is meaningful and exposes new parts of your character or fleshes them out more

"What I think a fight can do for a story is it can either reveal or confirm or change something profound about one or more of the characters who are involved."
-Marie Brennan

-PROBLEM 2- I can't follow the action
-do not go into massive detail here
-bring the setting to life
-maybe give at least one paragraph to describe the fight area
-the environment is part of your fight
-my example, "She felt her foot slide on the loose gravel as she stepped back to dodge."
-you can make a map of the location for yourself so you can choreograph the fight

-PROBLEM 3- The action is boring
-is your fight just kick punch kick punch?
-make it a problem solving scene
-eg. "I want to defeat you to save someone. I want to get past you. I want to prove something to myself."
-get into your players heads
-what is at stake
-in the fight they make their moves, which bring them closer or farther away from victory, and after the moves they have mental reactions to the consequences of their moves, get in their heads

-PROBLEM 4- Too many details
-Let the reader choreograph for you
-write so that your reader is the one imagining the scene

"Show them early on in the fight how each weapon moves through space --- make that vivid and visceral. [...] The reader will then be able to fill in the action while you describe what your characters are saying, what they're thinking, and what's showing on their faces. In other words, help the reader to choreograph the fight so that you can spend your time on the drama."
-Sebastien de Castell

-capture and convey the idea/feeling of the fight

-PROBLEM 5- Visual fights are more interesting
-don't try to play to the strengths of films, because prose has it's own unique strengths
-1- use all your senses, touch, taste, and smell are things that films can't do

-PROBLEM 6- Things feel unrealistic
-it doesn't need to be real, but it needs to feel real
-Add elements of realism
-1- Real fights are fast and brutal
-2- Real weapons are heavy, you will likely want to use your whole body
-3- Training takes time
-4- Recovery time from training and fights
-5- Sometimes people die from an infection, or a spear to the back, they aren't immortal

-PROBLEM 7- There is no reason for this fight
-Build tension before the fight
-good fights don't happen just because it would be cool if they did
-you have to outline what your characters wants
-merely by informing the readers that you have two characters who want different things, and are willing to be aggressive then you have built the foundation for a future fight
-Example, Informing the readers that there is a bomb underneath the table and even the characters don't know, the reader will be on the edge of their seat with tension

-PROBLEM 8- It's too long
-Keep it focused

 

[AliceShiki]

I'm pretty bad at making fighting scenes, so I'll put my advice as a reader primarily.

1) Don't make them too long, it gets boring after a while, especially if there is no plot progression during the fight... If I had to wait for a whole month to see your fight end, chances are, I'll be bored.

2) Make them easy to understand. Some people know a lot about fighting techniques and want to show off the intricacies and details of their knowledge... That's all fine and dandy, but if you aren't clear in showing how those techniques apply to the battle, it will basically read as technobabble.

Like... If you start describing how a character set his sword in the high noon stance, while the opponent then set his own in the low moon stance, and after they got closer, he used a full moon swing to incapacitate the opponent's defense due to the inherent weakness of the low moon stance... I'll skim through the paragraph without taking anything that you said into account, because I don't understand a thing that was just said.

So keep things understandable. It doesn't necessarily needs to be simple, but you need to make it in a way a reader that doesn't know a thing about fighting can enjoy what you're writing.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I'm pretty bad at making fighting scenes, so I'll put my advice as a reader primarily.

1) Don't make them too long, it gets boring after a while, especially if there is no plot progression during the fight... If I had to wait for a whole month to see your fight end, chances are, I'll be bored.

2) Make them easy to understand. Some people know a lot about fighting techniques and want to show off the intricacies and details of their knowledge... That's all fine and dandy, but if you aren't clear in showing how those techniques apply to the battle, it will basically read as technobabble.

Like... If you start describing how a character set his sword in the high noon stance, while the opponent then set his own in the low moon stance, and after they got closer, he used a full moon swing to incapacitate the opponent's defense due to the inherent weakness of the low moon stance... I'll skim through the paragraph without taking anything that you said into account, because I don't understand a thing that was just said.

So keep things understandable. It doesn't necessarily needs to be simple, but you need to make it in a way a reader that doesn't know a thing about fighting can enjoy what you're writing.

...when you said High Noon, all I can picture is McCree started blasting his revolver...

So one does an overhead swing down while the other intercepts with a from the bottom to upwards swing, he disorientates the other guy by showing his ass?

 

[AliceShiki]

...when you said High Noon, all I can picture is McCree started blasting his revolver...

So one does an overhead swing down while the other intercepts with a from the bottom to upwards swing, he disorientates the other guy by showing his ass?

*rolls laughing* I just made some names on the spot to make a point of how technobabble they seem~

 

[BenJepheneT]

I'm pretty bad at making fighting scenes, so I'll put my advice as a reader primarily.

1) Don't make them too long, it gets boring after a while, especially if there is no plot progression during the fight... If I had to wait for a whole month to see your fight end, chances are, I'll be bored.

2) Make them easy to understand. Some people know a lot about fighting techniques and want to show off the intricacies and details of their knowledge... That's all fine and dandy, but if you aren't clear in showing how those techniques apply to the battle, it will basically read as technobabble.

Like... If you start describing how a character set his sword in the high noon stance, while the opponent then set his own in the low moon stance, and after they got closer, he used a full moon swing to incapacitate the opponent's defense due to the inherent weakness of the low moon stance... I'll skim through the paragraph without taking anything that you said into account, because I don't understand a thing that was just said.

So keep things understandable. It doesn't necessarily needs to be simple, but you need to make it in a way a reader that doesn't know a thing about fighting can enjoy what you're writing.

Yo, this is pretty helpful. Thanks a lot. Unsubscribed and reported.