Writing Jackie Chan style fighting.

[LuoirM]

You probably understood from the title. The Jackie Chan style of fighting where it's 90% comedic, he just uses random bullshit around his environment and make-believe. Now I wonder how well that could transfer to word?
Because in images/videos, you can clearly see the environment, you know that here's here. But it's very surprising to see someone actually use it in a way you couldn't have imagine, but in words, you don't just... describe every single thing around the characters right? That's a very big gun Chevkov don't even want to hold. I did try for a brief moment but after like 3 hits I ran out of things to do and end the fight prematurely.

Spoiler: Mine here with Fantasy twist

"Freeze, criminal, you're arrested for not saying good morning to your sister!"

Mei Magmal appeared out of nowhere with Rina's bow; now a wooden stick pointing at Pearl's back like a lethal weapon. In which Pearl sighed, but actually played along raising his hands up in the air in a surrender fashion before muttering something back to Mei:

"e...t....S..l..."

"Huh? Did you say something?" Mei said while lowering her staff to take a step closer.

"Flour Flash." Pearl whispered, reaching his hand over the nearby table and threw flour towards Mei's direction, temporily blinding her.

"cough...WAH! Why was there flou-"

Before Mei could finish the sentence, Pearl's longer legs got behind her knees and he tripped her to fell backwards.

"Elemental Spell: Whirlwind."

Mei was still stunned and almost fell to the wooden ground head first, but Pearl used air magic to cushion her and push her upper body upwards to standing again, only to be face-slammed into a cupboard he then opened which made her took a step back in a daze, barely two step was enough for Mei to regain full conscious and retaliate by casting a spell.

"Elemental Spell: Icicle Sh- UFHM!? Ot Air (not fair)!!!"

Before anything happened, Pearl quickly shoved raw dough into her mouth to shut it down. He took this moment of surprise to quickly pat her on the head a few times with a slight smile that no one saw and he brushed off immediately. Mei got a window of time to wipe the flour off her eyes and thrust the staff towards Pearl; worried not of missing in this narrow kitchen. But instead, he tanked it straight to the chest to grab Mei's hand, that was when the wood from the floor rises up and secure itself tight around her wrist.

So I want to gather some cases where authors tried to implement this into their work, and how they did it, because I'm interested in diving into this more. Anyone ever written or read something like this?

 

[LilRora]

So, a warning first, I'm gonna give a full answer with some context you've already kinda answered, but it's pretty important so I want to say it, and maybe you'll see a slightly different perspective.

First, that is not entirely an answer to the question, but the best advice I ever received in regards to describing the character's surroundings is not to describe them in any detail. Just say the important general information, maybe some character's observations, and the readers' minds will fill up the rest.

The same thing, in my opinion, should be applied here. Describing the whole environment and showing the thought process of a character who chooses a single item that's the best for the situation is ridiculous both from the readers' and writer's perspective. The first because it's supposed to be a quick action scene, the second because it's a ton of unnecessary effort that goes into details instead of bettering the fight scene.

Action is supposed to be fast and spontaneous (with some rare exceptions, but we're not on about them), and that's how it's supposed to be written. There's no time for thoughts and considerations, only actions and their results.

With that in mind, what you're doing here is good except two things. First, we have no idea where the fight is taking place, so we have no idea what can actually happen before it happens. The second issue which only exacerbates the problem is that you often have no action, but just the results. Like Jackie Chan winding up to snack someone with a cake (dunno if he ever did that, but point stands) - you see him preparing that and even if it's a surprise he's using such an unconventional weapon, it's not a surprise it actually hits. In you case it's not bad, but let's consider this:

Mei was still stunned and almost fell to the wooden ground head first, but Pearl used air magic to cushion her and push her upper body upwards to standing again, only to be face-slammed into a cupboard he then opened which made her took a step back in a daze, barely two step was enough for Mei to regain full conscious and retaliate by casting a spell.

"Elemental Spell: Icicle Sh- UFHM!? Ot Air (not fair)!!!"

Before anything happened, Pearl quickly shoved raw dough into her mouth to shut it down. He took this moment of surprise to quickly pat her on the head a few times with a slight smile that no one saw and he brushed off immediately. Mei got a window of time to wipe the flour off her eyes and thrust the staff towards Pearl; worried not of missing in this narrow kitchen. But instead, he tanked it straight to the chest to grab Mei's hand, that was when the wood from the floor rises up and secure itself tight around her wrist.

First thing, a minor one, Mei was stunned and almost fell to the floor. What happened though? Did she stagger? Did she lose her balance? Was she pushed? It's not hard to infer from context, but I'd advise against using words like stunned, distracted, confused, focused, or other similar. It's better to show how the character behaves, for example "Mei blinked and flailed her arms as she lost her balance, but, before she could hit the ground face-first, ..." Dunno if my version is better, but I think it illustrates the fight more clearly.

You do the same thing at the end of that paragraph. Stepped back in daze, sure, but then she can blink and grimace, focusing her eyes on Pearl again.

Now, though, to the main thing I was talking about at first. Pearl shoved a dough into her mouth. That's fine, but where did he get that? Did it materialize in his hand? I'm obviously exaggerating here, we know it didn't, but the point is that we have no clear idea about his actions. Did he pull it out of the cupboard? Did he snatch it from a table? Maybe he looked around frantically and took a step back to pick it up from somewhere? You can use it even to show his options briefly, like he leaned on a cupboard he knew was full of cutlery.

The same thing with the wood from the floor rising up. Nothing indicates why that happened, and in some circumstances it can be fine, or even better, but when you're narrating in third person it should probably be shown.

Now, to finally get to the proper answer. A fight is quick, spontaneous, and not coordinated at all. When someone looks for weapons to hit an enemy, that's how it's gonna look like. They're gonna grab the most random things and do what they can with them.

We later learn they're in a kitchen. So there's definitely some kitchenware around, if not on display then in the cupboards. What do you think of when you hear they fight using a table? Smack someone's head into it. Then reach blindly into a cupboard as you lean back from some wild angry swing and pull out a cutting board. Stare at it for a while, then block a stab with it and smack someone over the head with it. Or smack their bottom if they're in a good position.

Point is, don't try to come up with something good. Write whatever you see is going to happen.

Damn, that got long.

 

[Zinless]

My guess is you could do it by using the reader's expectation/understanding if you know what I mean.

For example: If you set the scene in the kitchen, when the MC throws flour to blind their target, the reader would immediately understand why. "Oh right, it's a kitchen." or something like that. You should probably give slightly more detail about the location, but that's my take on it.

Be advised, I don't know if this will actually work or not though, I'm an amateur after all.

 

[LuoirM]

So, a warning first, I'm gonna give a full answer with some context you've already kinda answered, but it's pretty important so I want to say it, and maybe you'll see a slightly different perspective.

First, that is not entirely an answer to the question, but the best advice I ever received in regards to describing the character's surroundings is not to describe them in any detail. Just say the important general information, maybe some character's observations, and the readers' minds will fill up the rest.

The same thing, in my opinion, should be applied here. Describing the whole environment and showing the thought process of a character who chooses a single item that's the best for the situation is ridiculous both from the readers' and writer's perspective. The first because it's supposed to be a quick action scene, the second because it's a ton of unnecessary effort that goes into details instead of bettering the fight scene.

Action is supposed to be fast and spontaneous (with some rare exceptions, but we're not on about them), and that's how it's supposed to be written. There's no time for thoughts and considerations, only actions and their results.

With that in mind, what you're doing here is good except two things. First, we have no idea where the fight is taking place, so we have no idea what can actually happen before it happens. The second issue which only exacerbates the problem is that you often have no action, but just the results. Like Jackie Chan winding up to snack someone with a cake (dunno if he ever did that, but point stands) - you see him preparing that and even if it's a surprise he's using such an unconventional weapon, it's not a surprise it actually hits. In you case it's not bad, but let's consider this:

First thing, a minor one, Mei was stunned and almost fell to the floor. What happened though? Did she stagger? Did she lose her balance? Was she pushed? It's not hard to infer from context, but I'd advise against using words like stunned, distracted, confused, focused, or other similar. It's better to show how the character behaves, for example "Mei blinked and flailed her arms as she lost her balance, but, before she could hit the ground face-first, ..." Dunno if my version is better, but I think it illustrates the fight more clearly.

You do the same thing at the end of that paragraph. Stepped back in daze, sure, but then she can blink and grimace, focusing her eyes on Pearl again.

Now, though, to the main thing I was talking about at first. Pearl shoved a dough into her mouth. That's fine, but where did he get that? Did it materialize in his hand? I'm obviously exaggerating here, we know it didn't, but the point is that we have no clear idea about his actions. Did he pull it out of the cupboard? Did he snatch it from a table? Maybe he looked around frantically and took a step back to pick it up from somewhere? You can use it even to show his options briefly, like he leaned on a cupboard he knew was full of cutlery.

The same thing with the wood from the floor rising up. Nothing indicates why that happened, and in some circumstances it can be fine, or even better, but when you're narrating in third person it should probably be shown.

Now, to finally get to the proper answer. A fight is quick, spontaneous, and not coordinated at all. When someone looks for weapons to hit an enemy, that's how it's gonna look like. They're gonna grab the most random things and do what they can with them.

We later learn they're in a kitchen. So there's definitely some kitchenware around, if not on display then in the cupboards. What do you think of when you hear they fight using a table? Smack someone's head into it. Then reach blindly into a cupboard as you lean back from some wild angry swing and pull out a cutting board. Stare at it for a while, then block a stab with it and smack someone over the head with it. Or smack their bottom if they're in a good position.

Point is, don't try to come up with something good. Write whatever you see is going to happen.

Damn, that got long.

Oh, my bad, before this scene there's context that Pearl was eating in the kitchen and Mei stole a mutual's friend staff to prank him.

Thank you for everything, love, gotta remember dis

My guess is you could do it by using the reader's expectation/understanding if you know what I mean.

For example: If you set the scene in the kitchen, when the MC throws flour to blind their target, the reader would immediately understand why. "Oh right, it's a kitchen." or something like that. You should probably give slightly more detail about the location, but that's my take on it.

Be advised, I don't know if this will actually work or not though, I'm an amateur after all.