Being a Better Writer: Organic Fight Scenes · 5:50pm Jun 13th, 2022
Welcome back readers! And, with a little hope, welcome back me!
Yeah, that’s right, this is still a post written well in advance (over a month, now) due to the uncertain nature of the length of my trip. Odds are it’s been done for some time by now, but just in case, I’m writing this post and adding it to the queue as a precaution. I’m probably back, but like I noted in last week’s post, such things are uncertain. I am indeed back! I’m certainly not a fortuneteller prognosticating the future here.
Anyway, as always, today is another Monday installment of Being a Better Writer, and today we’re going to tackle a reader requested topic from our last Topic Call. A reader wanted to know how they could make their fights and battles feel organic rather than scripted. And well … let me tell you, my brain immediately went two directions with this one. See, I’ve done posts on fights before, from the small-scale to the large, so in one respect I’ve probably touched on a lot of this topic before. But from another angle … not so much. Though I’m not certain that the request aimed toward that second angle, it was what immediately seized my focus and attention.
Naturally, we’re going to talk about both. We’ll tackle the second angle first, because it’s a more foundational element that needs to come first. And then we’ll move from there to a discussion of the more common advice for writing a fight scene.
So hit that jump, and let’s talk about what makes a fight scene organic.
Funny you brought this up, just yesterday I was having a conversation with a fellow writer about action scenes. They lamented that they tend to freeze up on them, having no idea how to approach them. This is distinctly different from myself, as I relish combat scenes and tend to fly through them in terms of writing speed. Many of the points you've made are things that I've witnessed, if not done myself back when I was first getting started with this whole 'writing' idea. It's all good advice, and I'm always thrilled to see a fight scene handled in a way that feels, to use my own preferred term, 'realistic'. If I may, I would like to add a few things:
First, limitations. Characters have them, or if they don't, they should. Writers have an unfortunate tendency to forget that their characters aren't infallible in combat. The worst action stories are the ones where the protagonist just beats up a bunch of enemies without any risk to themselves. That's not interesting, nor is it particularly realistic. If you're going to have an action scene, remember who the character is and their background. Just as a random example, a waitress who spent the last five years serving tables might not know how to throw a punch or predict her opponent's next move, but she will have top-notch stamina and probably strong balance to boot. Use those positives and negatives! Not everyone is a martial arts expert, and they don't have to be to make an action scene interesting.
This goes double for nonsensical defiance of the laws of physics and biology. No, author, a character whose wings just got broken cannot leap back into the aerial fray, no matter how much you try to make it so (yeah, I saw this once), and that protagonist who just got his arms broken isn't going to magically find a way to throw full-strength punches and save the day at the last second (saw this, too. Repeatedly.).
Second, I would argue length is just as valuable as pacing. Yes, fights can be exciting moments, but they can also wear out their welcome pretty quick. Worse, lengthening fights to extreme degrees tends to defy reality; contrary to what anime and movies will try to sell you, you can only go for so long before your body decides enough is enough. Real world fights are usually over in a matter of seconds, not hours. Even a professional 12-round boxing match can last at most 47 minutes. That ignores breaks where the fighters get to rest and get checked by medical staff and assumes nobody got knocked out or otherwise eliminated before the time out. Your protagonist is probably not a professional boxer. And even then the comparison isn't apt because boxing is a controlled environment with set rules and requirements which – unless you happen to be writing about a professional contest like boxing – your action scenes won't have.
Don't let an action scene overstay its welcome. Sure, it's exciting, but eventually the story needs to resume.