alice quinn // writing help

how to write a good fight scene

Requested by @nataliesrushman

Fight scenes are definitely not the easiest scenes to write, because you have to deconstruct the way you write every other scene.

Writers are always told that detail is everything. In this case, it's the opposite. The worst thing you can do in a fight scene is add too much detail. It draws the scene out when it should be happening rather quickly. The characters are thinking and reacting quickly, so the scene should be written that way.

Short, simple sentences are the best way to convey this, as well as not dwelling too much on exactly the way the characters are standing, what they look like, etc, especially if there's more than one fight happening at once.

For example, William Goldman writes in the Princess Bride, "The cliffs were very close behind him now. Inigo continued to retreat; the man in black continued advancing. Then Inigo countered with the Thibault. And the man in black blocked it."

As you can see, short sentences move the scene along faster. It keeps the reader on their toes, wondering what's going to happen next.

Another example is Gregory McDonald's Carioca Fletch, which goes, "Instead of looking who had pushed him, Fletch tried to save himself from falling. The edge of the parade route's pavement shot out from under him. Someone pushed him again. He fell to the right, into the parade. A foot came up from the pavement and kicked him in the face."

Description and detail is your worst enemy in this situation. You do, however, wanna make sure you don't get to far from the characters. Include the taste of blood, ringing of ears, clothes being wet with blood, the pain of the injuries.

The sentences don't have to be ridiculously short, or void of any description, just try to keep it to a minimum. Here's my own little example I thought of on the spot:

Impact hit her face and she bit her tongue, the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. She spit before countering her opponent with her own move. She ached all over, but she couldn't stop. She had to win. And so she did, knocking the other woman to the ground and getting on top of her, hitting her repeatedly.

The last thing of importance in fight scenes are the injuries themselves. You wanna make sure you make them as accurate as possible when describing, say, a stab wound but still being able to get up and keep going. The placement of arteries and muscles are very important to know because some are more fatal than others. Some injuries are a lot more fatal than others. All injuries feel different as well. Some ache, some throb, some sting, some burn. So just do your research before writing a brutal fight scene.