I have dedicated the last eight years of my life to a book series that includes a lot of fight scenes, which was a dumb decision, because I hate them. There is literally nothing I hate writing more than fight scenes. But my experience has gotten me somewhere, I’d like to think, so allow me to share three of my favorite tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years about writing fight scenes.
Link to the video above (which is a really useful and interesting example of what I'm about to talk about) here!
Be realistic. You don’t have to be 100% realistic. Especially if you’re writing in a fantasy or sci-fi realm, obviously realism is going to bend a little bit to your whims. But if you write a character that has never fought a day in their life training for two months and suddenly taking on a whole army on their own… That makes no sense, Lads.
I was watching a Youtube video earlier today about badass female characters and how shallow they’re becoming, and one of the points this youtuber gave was the overuse of the “chosen one” sort of trope, where there is a frail, delicate woman, who suddenly fights like she’s been instilled with the might of God to paint her as a stereotypical “badass”. It’s weak, it’s cheap, and we as a community can do better.
This also comes into play when a character is injured; if a leg is broken, unless they are a cyborg or so incredibly high, they are not fighting anything. Not well, at least. If they do, you’ve got to give me a really good reason for it. Even minor injuries or ailments can sometimes be next to impossible to fight with. My recommendation is always to do research, watch movies, and read other books. There’s a lot of really good videos by crime specialists and boxers who break down scenes in movies, and those are a great resource! Remember; the only person who is harmed by doing too much research is you, because you’ve wasted your time. But the book never suffers.
If your character is fighting multiple people at once, don’t explain every single person she fights. Explain three.
Three is the most I would recommend, so feel free to do less than that if that feels best. And of course, the order is up for interpretation, but here’s the formatting I find usually flows nicely; explain the first, explain the second, half explain another in the middle, then explain the end of the final opponent. Two full explanations, and two half explanations.
Here’s an example that, though poor in quality, kind of summarizes what it is that I'm talking about. Mild warning for graphic content.
Amalfriede charges.
She slides beneath Alaviv's wide swing, dodges as he stabs his sword angrily, desperately at her stomach. Amalfriede kicks the end of his long sword as he rails it downwards, and the force of his thrust does not permit him to stop before the tip of his weapon has embedded itself in his foot. Alaviv howls and Amalfriede rams her shoulder into his chest, knocking him down and stealing his sword as he falls. (ONE)
A voice cries out, vengeance! vengeance! and Amalfriede whirls to a helmeted soldier, too far away to know who it is, if she knows them at all, scramble up onto a horse who has lost its master. He kicks the horse to run and the horse obeys, the soldier's long spear protruding a foot from the beasts nose. Amalfriede has to leap both to avoid the soldier's spear and to avoid hitting the horse when she strikes.
There is a slat in between the forehead of the helmet and the chin, where the eyes are meant to look. It is as good of a place as any to aim, and Amalfriede jumps, catches the shaft of the spear between her ribs and bicep, and stabs Alaviv's sword straight into the slat. When she yanks her sword down, the soldier slides off the horse and onto the ground with it, already dead. (TWO)
There is another man close by with a bow and arrow, and it is the wrong weapon to have. More soldiers, more horses, less time for Amalfriede to wonder where Thyri had gone, and if she was alright.
A man screams what he must think is a battle cry as he approaches from Amalfriede's left, and she ducks. (TWO POINT FIVE)
This is what Amalfriede had been bred to do. This is a place she understands, not Thyri's courts or gala's, not her midnight gatherings of secret allies, her public parties with foes. Amalfriede has never enjoyed that kind of subtlety.
Yet she yearns for it. She aches with the yearning, would be paralyzed with the fear that she may never experience it again if she had the privilege. Amalfriede is not made for the life of a Queen but, she considers, she may have been made for Thyri. Thyri, just as she is. And Amalfriede is okay with that possibility.
An arrow whizzes past Amalfriede's face, and she blinks. Turns. A short woman with a hulking bow stands closer than an archer ever should, and Amalfriede kicks a spear off the ground where it's owner had fallen and throws. The woman goes down quickly. (THREE)
"Thyri," Amalfriede gasps, the field quiet for the briefest of moments, and she turns to the closest soldier wearing colors she finds safe. "Where is Thyri?"
Again, you can switch up the order if you want, like this;
It's a massacre. I think I killed more people that day than I had ever seen in one place before.
I was out of practice with a gun, but muscle memory is a bitch, you know? It's a bitch until it turns into a hell of a drug. Does that make sense? I was clumsy for the first few, still trying to remember what I had been taught, and then I got the hang of it, and I kind of started enjoying myself.
A woman tried to approach me, her hair matted against her skull, and the gun in her hand was long range, unsteady, not a weapon she clearly knew how to use. When she took aim and shot the blowback was more than she was prepared for, and I reared up, smacked her own gun into her head, and shot her on the way down. (ONE)
Somewhere along the way there was a girl too - and I feel it is important to classify her as a girl, not as a woman like the one I just mentioned, because she was very obviously a girl, not a woman. She had knives. Those don't do much when I'm seven feet away. (ONE POINT FIVE)
By the time a man had the guts to try and go for me, I was in the zone. I shot him three times; once in the stomach, the chest, the neck, all in quick succession and in the cleanest, prettiest little line. I mean you wouldn't have been able to make a cleaner line with a ruler. (TWO)
This is around the time where I should probably ridicule myself, or tell you, captive audience, about how it was the adrenaline talking, moving my arms and pulling my finger down. You might be comforted, perhaps even fooled if I told you that when all was said and done, and I was free, I looked around at the mess I had made and threw up, or began weeping, or fell to my knees. Of course, I'm going to do none of these things. I didn't promise you that it would be a good, comforting story, but I did promise it would be honest.
So when the warehouse started to go quiet, and a man was surrounded by his fallen companions, some women and girls among them, he knew he had nothing left to lose. So when he charged at me, I let him get closer, really close, closer than I was advised to let people get, and when he tackled me to the ground, when my head hit the concrete and his hands clenched around my throat, I let it happen. And then I shot him in the head, and it was done. (THREE)
Play around with it! See what you like, and if you’re in a certain character’s POV, what feels right for them. A more pragmatic character may explain more than a character running on pure adrenaline. A fighter who is looking for their partner on the battle field probably won’t take much note of the last person they strike down, because they’re already trying to find their lover. Character, I say, and I will continue to say it probably until the day I die. Focus on your character. Your character is, in almost every situation, the most important thing.
Figure out what kind of fighting your character does. Even in fantasy, I do think this is important. I’m fortunate enough that my characters are familiar with several types of combat so I don’t have to follow one style too strongly, but they’re a very particular case!
Here’s the smartest thing I think you can do; figure out what kind of style your character fights in. After a quick google search let’s go with Moraingy - a bare fisted martial art originating in Madagascar. Now go to Youtube. “Moraingy fighting style” led me to a dozen or so videos of boxing highlights, tournaments, explanations, and a foreigner who gave it a shot themself. See which moves you like, which ones you don’t, try your hand at explaining them on paper.
Fight scene practice videos are also stellar for research and to model your fights after, and usually a lot of the fight choreography is really beautiful and interesting to watch. It is very common for small companies to make fight choreography videos and use foam walls, planks, wooden swords, and other fun accessories to spice up a scene, which is exactly what you should be doing as a writer.
I also posted a video earlier this week about interesting ways to spice up a fight scene, from uncommon weaponry to unique environmental factors. If you wanted to check that out, you could, although seeing as this blog can only be found by going through my TikTok, you probably already have. If you have any other interesting ideas of your own, I’d love to hear them! Happy writing!
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