One of the hardest parts of writing an action story is the fight scene.
Be it hand to hand, with firearms, or in mecha, I always hear from other
authors about the difficulty they have in writing a good fight scene. I
enjoy writing combat scenes, but nevertheless, I too stress over a good
fight sequence.
I think we can all agree that the worst thing to do is write a blow by
blow account of what is transpiring. This is dry and uninspiring. Fight
scenes are meant to evoke an intense experience in the reader, not bore
him to sleep. With that said, I'll move on to things I put in practice
in my own scenes. Writers are all different, with varying messages to
convey to the reader, so some of what I will write below some may not
agree with. Take it with a grain of salt, this is what works for me.
I classify fights into three types of combat: hand to hand, firefights,
and mecha combat. We can extend any of these into a larger scale combat,
but for now let's concentrate on battles between individuals or small
groups.
1. Hand to hand combat can be the most personally challenging, and I
find it is the type most authors have problems writing. Simply put, hand
to hand combat is the raw physical exchange of blows using one's own
body or a weapon as an extension of one's own body. It involves direct
action against an opponent. Hand to hand combat is the most intense type
of combat for the character involved. A good way to intensify combat to
a reader is to personalize a battle between your character and his
opponents. Describe what the character sees, hears, feels, or even
smells. Describe his physical and emotional state as he fights. Above
all, as Redneck so wisely said, use action words frequently.
Another thing to remember is that even unarmed hand to hand combat
between skilled individuals is going to be quick and brutal. Martial
artists know how to hurt people quickly and effectively if they choose
to do so, and if you mean for your characters to do some damage, don't
hold back! Bruce Lee's own form of Kung Fu, known as Jeet Kun Do, was
supposed to be able to neutralize any opponent in under 60 seconds. A
fight between a random bad guy will last maybe 3 seconds if your
character is skilled (say Ranma Saotome in a really bad mood).
I hate to say it, but having even a basic familiarity with martial arts
and the principles they are founded on will do wonders for your
choreography. This doesn't mean you need to be a black belt or anything,
even paying close attention to a good movie will do the job.
Finally, in any fight scene, breaking your paragraphs up as small as
possible will speed the flow of reading and therefore make your fight
scene seem fast and intense to the reader. (Changing point of view also
helps to break things up and keep the fight moving). Nothing slows down
an otherwise gorgeously described fight scene like packing it into a 200
word paragraph.
Example: (Paraphrased from a 'fic I'm working on)
Shampoo assumed a fighting stance, eyes flashing contempt, waiting
for the men to try something stupid. They quickly obliged her.
The first one came at her with a cup of steaming hot rice wine.
Shampoo deflected his clumsy swing with a deft flick of her wrist,
stepping inside his guard with a forearm strike to his throat. The man
flew back with a strangled cry, struggling against his crushed windpipe
as he flopped to the pilings.
The other one lashed out with a spin kick that Shampoo barely
slipped under. She bent almost backwards as her foot came up in a
knife-edged kick to his midsection. She could almost feel his spine
against her foot as she connected. With an explosion of blood tainted
air, the man crumpled against her blow and staggered backwards
drunkenly.
2. Firefights aren't as common in fanfiction (unless it's a BGC 'fic),
but I'll talk about them anyways...
The average gun battle take place at ranges of less than 7 meters and
last less than 6 seconds. With this in mind, it is easy to see why a
realistic gun fight should be even quicker and more brutal than a fist
fight.
Most gunfights involve handguns or submachineguns which use pistol
ammunition. 9mm and .38 Special rounds have very high muzzle energies
for pistol ammunition, combined with small caliber and poor expansion
characteristics -and as such will frequently overpenetrate a soft target
(like a man) unless they strike a good sized bone. Rounds that
overpenetrate waste much of their energy, and thus may not immediately
affect the target. (The ability to affect a target directly and
immediately is known as stopping power.)
Pistol rounds with high stopping power are the .357 Magnum, .45 ACP, .45
Long Colt, .44 Remington Magnum, and any other really large caliber
round you feel like using. (The .44 Automag is really a chopped down
rifle cartridge, and is obviously quite brutal.) Even hits to limbs are
quite likely to spin the target around and incapacitate him. (The .45
ACP round was created to replace the .38 Special round for this reason.)
This means if your character goes to guns with a bad guy and gets the
first shot in with his trusty 9mm Glock, unless it hits an immediately
vital location such as the head, heart, or center of the throat, the bad
guy will likely get in at least one shot before he realizes he's hurt
and falls over.
Rifle and machine gun rounds do far more damage and have far more
stopping power. Most "bullet proof" body armors don't have a hope in
hell of stopping these rounds. We won't even go into the effects of
cannon shells. And just remember, a modern hand grenade is a quarter
pound of high explosive wrapped up with several miles of thin
prestressed steel wire. Eeeeeeewwwww....
If you are really feeling visceral, nothing does cruel brutal damage to
living tissue like a quarter ounce of jacketed lead hollowpoint moving
at 1400 feet per second. Bullets are extremely violent ways of
inflicting harm, capable of breaking heavy bones and blowing large holes
out of someone's backside. This can get pretty overpowering to the
reader, so you may wish to save the extravagantly gory injuries/deaths
for important characters.
Another constant of realistic firefights is that people tend to take
cover and stay there when they get shot at. This is a perfectly natural
defense mechanism probably passed on down to you from your father,
grandfather or other direct descendent fortunate enough to survive a
war. In writing, this means the rank and file will find a good spot to
duck behind and return fire only when the heat isn't directly on them.
Heroes and Villians may feel free to stand bolt upright and stride
confidantly towards their opponents if that is what the author deems
appropriate, but as a genral rule, anyone who doesn't have ice water
running in their veins or have anything else better to do than die will
probably take cover.
3. Mecha Combat is tricky. It can be as personal as a fist fight or as
indirect as pushing buttons against little points of light on a radar
display. Your approach to it is entirely up to you. I tend towards a bit
of a technical approach, but it is important to remember that there is a
pilot or two involved here. Describe what they are feeling, how they
react to that volley of heat-seeking terminal-homing-laser-guided
missiles that is streaking towards them at Mach 3. How they call up that
fully loaded 30mm gatling gunpod to immolate the offending volley with
the briefest of thought impulses. You get the idea.
In conclusion to this long-winded and rambling essay; remember to use
action words and keep an active tense, break up your paragraphs wherever
practical, personalize combats to fit the characters involved, and when
writing Battle Royals don't forget anyone and describe only what each
character in the battle royal is capable of perceiving. Big battles are
messy and confusing for the people involved, the important thing is that
you the author is that you don't get bogged down in Clausewicz's "Fog of
War."
<pant><pant>
I'm done now...
J. Austin Wilde
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