Not sure if it will help, but here are some techniques for fight scenes I’ve gathered over the years:
-Feel free to be poetic (i.e. poetically named combat forms like in Wheel of TIme).
-Add emotion to the fight. I think that and the tactile painful elements are just as important as the more direct descriptions.
-In general, try to use fast, short sentences, though variation can be helpful too.
-Do not go blow by blow.
As for swords & daggers . . . if this is a historical piece or one lightly rooted to a real-world historical culture, you could read up on what swords & daggers that culture had and what fighting techniques they had, for realism. Just enough to have a basic understanding of some of what made it special.
Also, as the wheel, writing, and combat scenes have all been around a long time, for myself I like to read some good combat scenes that other writers have done, such as Brook, Howard, and Salvatore’s combat scenes.
Hope some of that helped at least a little. Sorry too if some of that comes across as pedantic, but not sure exactly what aspects you are finding most challenging and what knowledge and techniques you have already attained and tried
Goals for the month: Finish way out of hand huge chapter for Westbound Travel. Write the next little interstitial chapter leading to the big split in routes. Edit, changing a name, etc. Then update.
I’m hoping to draft Chapter 2 of the secret project, and continue to spend less time on the online places that don’t feel positive to hang out. Going to put up some revisions to The Earth Has Teeth Chapters 1-2 next week as well.
Some good advice I found on writing fight scenes (I believe it was from a Brandon Mcnulty writing video) is to spend more time on the emotions building up to the fight and the consequences of the fight than the fight itself
In this month’s video writing blogs, I have advice on writing first person and subtext.
Solid advice when it comes to the first-person perspective and what sets it apart.
Subtext and Dialogue advice and the best segue I’ve ever seen into an advertisement. I was completely invested in the scene before the ad hit.
I had set no goals last month and for most of the month didn’t do any work towards my current main project and instead started a side project, which is now back on pause. I hope to submit Dawn of Heros this month. Now I just need to be able to regain my focus.
The best advise I have picked up when it comes to righting fight scenes are: focus on why the fight is important and don’t forget about senses beyond sight. Talk about tactile elements, smells, sounds, and tastes.
When it comes to structure I placed a video in May’s Writer Support on fighting. It goes over keeping sentences compact to give an immersive experience kind of giving a feeling for how quickly everything happens in a real fight. Fights are made up of a series of actions and reactions.
That video was very informative indeed (I just got done watching it)! I will write some fight scene prompts to practice the important elements down.
I have heard that somewhere before. I think I may have also watched that video you watched.
I believe I may have been a demon hunter or ghost buster in my previous life because no way I thought people would be fighting these monsters with limping skulls connected to an exposed spine that can tear anyone apart with their claws maintaining complete apathy. Can’t believe I forgot about fear.
But the MC subconsciously doesn’t fear them because they are their brothers and sisters (LOL don’t ask me how).
I really needed to hear this. Sometimes, I forget I am not writing a screenplay but a novel.
This video is very interesting, and it might be helpful for some people. Basically, the video talks about a variety of different writers and writing methods.
I mean if none of your characters are at any point thinking “we’re all going to die”, then it isn’t much of an inhuman horde.
Of course, this is me in the mindspace of having 300 hours in Burden of Command, and the horde is definitely human, but I can’t figure monsters triggering a more relaxed reaction.
Well, two murders and a policeman for a third. All in the space of a week and in a town of about 100 people. Gotta say real life has spun more drama than what I wrote for my story.
Focusing on coding for this next stretch. I want to finish the freeroaming logic and have it work with events (be here on this day for X, NPC 3 is here on Y day so have conversation event)
The problem is that one of my characters is too strong to care, another is too emotionally dead to care, before finally comes the MC who is literally related to the monsters.
Though there is one sensible human being who goes ‘Uh-huh… This is pretty bad’ so the horde is definitely inhuman.
There’s this mobile game called Great Little War which has this mission of protecting a VIP from enemy snipers and units (It’s a turn based game). Peak Stress.
I’m not using any narrative structure (unless “rising tension” counts as one), I’m just going with my gut. I mean, I have, currently, five acts, but that’s just organizatoral, not a five-act-structure.
Last month I hoped to complete at least the next Hall in my chapter (Petrology) and then ideally also the Hall of Primates. Instead I removed BOTH from my book - it’s own form of progress - and began work on completing the third floor with the Hall of the Natural History of Man. That Hall grew out of the Eugenics Movement so I most of my time this month was spent researching it - and on the process learned the best history of it was published in 2019 and I KNEW the author - so he helped me to get what I needed to figure out the right narrative thread to work into my IT. My goal THIS month is to write it.
Oh my god, it’s me! I know you didn’t ask, but I plan to take next weekend off from writing just to chill out and celebrate being another year older.
As for goals… I don’t remember what I said my goals for May were, but there is a very good chance I did not reach them and I have come to terms with my self-disappointment. Woe and shame! For June I would like to make consistent progress, even if it’s just me inchworming my way across the finish line (the finish line being me surviving until July 1st).
I’m somewhat of a planner? Kind of? I sort’ve definitely know the major beats of the story and I know the ending. Everything in between that is just off the cuff. I will make flowcharts for the immediate section ahead of me (preferably online so they’re easily updated/changed with newer or better ideas) and make checklists of like, the choices I need to fill in after creating a mini code-skeleton, but that’s about as fine-tuned as it gets. If I plan too much, I feel stifled and less creative - I don’t really know how to explain it.
Anyway, I hope everyone meets all their goals and has a great Pride Month and overall enjoys this superior month because I am not biased at all.
I stopped planning cause it never works for me. The thing is, I’m not really the one who writes. I mean, sure, I use my fingers to tap on the keyboard, but it’s my brain that does all the work.
Sometimes I write something, then read it, and just think, “WTF is this? How did I even end up here?”
So, I often delete big chunks of text, keep them for later, or simply rewrite some parts.
For example, the last scene I wrote was supposed to be simple: the girl goes there, she finds something. One paragraph, right? Well, when I stopped, it was 3k words. She was just going around, talking with people, and by the end of it, she decided to go for a drink. She revealed a few details about herself, and I didn’t even know she had them.
I like the result, but it’s not what I wanted in the first place. Gonna rewrite it.
(LOL don’t ask me how).
