The hardest thing for me when I was writing Forbidden was writing Rohana's fight scene - but not because I struggle with them. On the contrary, since I've had many years of karate, the hard thing for me was to remember that Rohana did NOT have the same knowledge I did. Consequentially, I did a lot of "Well I know what I would do, but Rohana wouldn't know that" - all while writing her scene where she attempted to fend off four attackers with swords - and all she had was a baseball bat. Indeed, had Sen not arrived when he did, it would have been curtains for Rohana.
Fight scenes - if you don't have any experience with fighting - can end up being rather stilted. Now, you don't have to go out and take self-defense classes in order to get your scene right, but you do have to do a few basic things.
1. Know where your characters are at all times. I know that may sound silly to say, but I see so many authors fail at this even while not writing a fight scene. In one passage I read, the Hero entered the room, sat down at the table, stood up - never sat down - and stood up again - all within the span of three paragraphs. It is even more critical to know where everyone is when writing a fight scene. Draw a quick sketch of the area - a bird's eye view with circles to represent where your characters are and where objects in the room are. It doesn't have to be anything other than circles, squares, or stick figures...but when you move them, you should draw dotted lines to indicate they have left the window and are now by the door.
2. Visualize the scene step by step. Lets say your character is in a dark alley and is surrounded by some thugs. Hero has a baseball bat. You could simply say, "Ted swung the bat with all his might and there was a loud crack as it made contact with a thug's skull" Where was the bat? Was it on his shoulder like a baseball player, or did he have it dropped to his side? It WILL make a difference as to how it's swung. If he's got the bat on his shoulder, he is ready to strike...and no thug in their right mind would get near him and let Ted use their heads as batting practice. Would you approach a man who was ready to swing a bat at your head? A better way would be to say, "Ted gripped the bat with both hands and swung it in an upward arch and smashed it against the side of the thug's skull. As the thug reeled back from the blow, Ted brought the bat down and cracked it against the top of the thug's head."
3. Know where hands and feet are at all times. One thing I learned in karate was that people tend to forget they have feet. And feet can kick.
4. When describing your hero making a fist....never never never NEVER have him tuck his thumb under his fingers. Unless you are writing about how your hero does not know how to fight and is going to break his thumbs...then you can do that.
5. An experienced fighter knows you punch with your knuckles.
6. Use a thesaurus to find different ways to say "punch". "Ted tightened his fist, drew back his arm, then smashed his knuckles into the thug's ribs" is a lot better than "Ted punched him in the ribs".
Weapons:
Using weapons in a fight is simply understanding the difference between the them. A Claymore will require a different set of skills and stance than a katana. A gun will act differently depending on the type of gun and the user. A rifle, for example, will have a different kickback depending on if the user is a male or a female. I may expand more on this later in another blog.
Research:
The Internet is your best friend. YouTube is particularly helpful. When I was writing the scene where Rohana was throwing bricks, I wondered what the effect of a brick hitting someone on the head would be. Now, I know you're thinking - should be a no-brainer, Salem...bricks hurt. Yes. They do. But can you get a knockout blow with one brick? How hard and how far would it need to be thrown? Does it loose it's clonking ability if it has to sail father through the air? So I hit YouTube and looked up videos of people actually allowing themselves to be hit with bricks. Yes, people film the stupidest things for their 15 minutes, but it's all very helpful to those of us that don't want to hit real people with real bricks and study the effects.
Amazon also has a ton of free books that address nearly any subject. Blogs can also be very useful. Use search terms like "how do I fight with a katana" and you should get a lot of useful information. Read as many as you can so that you can weed out the uninformed.
Above all, remember to choreograph your fight scene like a dance. If you have to get up and act it out with imaginary foes, by all means do so, but jot down notes as you go so that you can get everyone situated correctly.
Fight scenes - if you don't have any experience with fighting - can end up being rather stilted. Now, you don't have to go out and take self-defense classes in order to get your scene right, but you do have to do a few basic things.
1. Know where your characters are at all times. I know that may sound silly to say, but I see so many authors fail at this even while not writing a fight scene. In one passage I read, the Hero entered the room, sat down at the table, stood up - never sat down - and stood up again - all within the span of three paragraphs. It is even more critical to know where everyone is when writing a fight scene. Draw a quick sketch of the area - a bird's eye view with circles to represent where your characters are and where objects in the room are. It doesn't have to be anything other than circles, squares, or stick figures...but when you move them, you should draw dotted lines to indicate they have left the window and are now by the door.
2. Visualize the scene step by step. Lets say your character is in a dark alley and is surrounded by some thugs. Hero has a baseball bat. You could simply say, "Ted swung the bat with all his might and there was a loud crack as it made contact with a thug's skull" Where was the bat? Was it on his shoulder like a baseball player, or did he have it dropped to his side? It WILL make a difference as to how it's swung. If he's got the bat on his shoulder, he is ready to strike...and no thug in their right mind would get near him and let Ted use their heads as batting practice. Would you approach a man who was ready to swing a bat at your head? A better way would be to say, "Ted gripped the bat with both hands and swung it in an upward arch and smashed it against the side of the thug's skull. As the thug reeled back from the blow, Ted brought the bat down and cracked it against the top of the thug's head."
3. Know where hands and feet are at all times. One thing I learned in karate was that people tend to forget they have feet. And feet can kick.
4. When describing your hero making a fist....never never never NEVER have him tuck his thumb under his fingers. Unless you are writing about how your hero does not know how to fight and is going to break his thumbs...then you can do that.
5. An experienced fighter knows you punch with your knuckles.
6. Use a thesaurus to find different ways to say "punch". "Ted tightened his fist, drew back his arm, then smashed his knuckles into the thug's ribs" is a lot better than "Ted punched him in the ribs".
Weapons:
Using weapons in a fight is simply understanding the difference between the them. A Claymore will require a different set of skills and stance than a katana. A gun will act differently depending on the type of gun and the user. A rifle, for example, will have a different kickback depending on if the user is a male or a female. I may expand more on this later in another blog.
Research:
The Internet is your best friend. YouTube is particularly helpful. When I was writing the scene where Rohana was throwing bricks, I wondered what the effect of a brick hitting someone on the head would be. Now, I know you're thinking - should be a no-brainer, Salem...bricks hurt. Yes. They do. But can you get a knockout blow with one brick? How hard and how far would it need to be thrown? Does it loose it's clonking ability if it has to sail father through the air? So I hit YouTube and looked up videos of people actually allowing themselves to be hit with bricks. Yes, people film the stupidest things for their 15 minutes, but it's all very helpful to those of us that don't want to hit real people with real bricks and study the effects.
Amazon also has a ton of free books that address nearly any subject. Blogs can also be very useful. Use search terms like "how do I fight with a katana" and you should get a lot of useful information. Read as many as you can so that you can weed out the uninformed.
Above all, remember to choreograph your fight scene like a dance. If you have to get up and act it out with imaginary foes, by all means do so, but jot down notes as you go so that you can get everyone situated correctly.