How To Write a Fight or Battle Scene

Part 5 - Battle Scenes

Battle Scenes

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato

In some ways these are easier than multiple opponent scenes as the action can be a little more distant. Despite generally being on a much grander scale however, and as mentioned several times before, planning is still very important.

This is where you definitely need to have your plates spinning madly. You have two (possibly more if you want to get really complicated) groups of people wanting to kill each other. A plan of your battlefield can be really useful at this point, along with moveable characters if you really want to. Nerdy? Definitely: but only if you spend five days painting them all in perfect detail. But it does help (the plan not the painting).

Ask yourself more questions. Where are your characters located? Are some fortified? Do some hold the high ground? Do they have siege weapons, cannons, horses, chariots, tanks, armoured flamingoes? How quickly will they move? What ground can they move over? Will they remain stationary once they start fighting? Will they wheel away and come back in for another clash? Will they fight close quarters or at a distance? Who's in charge?

The answer to the last question is "You".

I've found the best way to do large battles is by imagining you are some sort of omnipotent general floating above the battlefield. How do you see people moving, and in what patterns? How do people attack, how do they defend? If one army moves, how do their opponents respond? What tactics will give each side the upper hand? Just remember that it's not like chess. All the pieces can move any time they like and even at the same time. The tactics of the battle fought have to make sense to both you as omnipotent general and to the reader. If a troop of cavalry suddenly appears on top of the hill without seeming to move then you'll lose the reader utterly. And that's just battles on land. Battles can take place on the sea, in the air, in space, on the endless dandruff fields of the planet noggin, and anywhere else your imagination can come up with. 

The way you describe battles is similar in many ways to a single combat scene, and you can make it as complex or as simple as you like. What you have to keep a handle on though is the types of groups involved in the battle. Foot soldiers will move very differently to cavalry or tanks. Light armoured units may be better able to move across softer ground than more heavily armoured units, but tanks may have a lower bearing pressure be able to whizz across soft ground relatively easily due to having wide tracks rather than wheels. Infantry will be armoured, scouts perhaps not. And the list goes on. Know what your forces are capable of and how they move and respond. Choreograph the battle or it will not make sense to you or the reader.

In any battle there is often a decisive moment that changes the balance, whether it be a single act of bravery or stupidity or the sudden arrival of extra forces. How you pinpoint that and describe it is important and the success of your scene can hinge on it, so make it powerful. A pace change in your writing at this point after a prolonged and awesomely fun battle scene can be particularly effective. Think cinema, and imagine the scene playing out in your imagination. All is failing, all is lost and then from the depths of the hills, the clarion call...