On Sat, 08 Aug 1998, "Guy Under The Bridge ." <the_supergenius@hotmail.com> wrote:

Does anybody have advice on writing good fight scenes?  I'm totally
bogged down in one right now...

Use as few words as possible. Don't be concerned with describing every 
twitch and muscle contraction. Fights have to move fast, or they will 
end up being contrived and cheesy. Keep away from long thought phrases 
during battle, because this is silly as people in the heat of combat 
don't typically have a lot of time for profound consideration of events. 
You may, however, stretch things a little when depicting a fight between 
very unequal opponents.

Strikes and evasions should be compounded into a single sentence. A 
single offensive should not exceed one paragraph.

	Agreed, with the exception of the desperation moves.(like the 
HiruShutenHa)  Well, in that case you would do the paragraph giving short 
descriptions of the opponents attacks and of Ranma dodging along the spiral path, 
and then end it with the final uppercut.  If you were doing a dragonball type fict 
it would also be appropriate that if Goku was forming his Geiki Darma you could 
take an entire paragraph to describe him connecting to the world and drawing the 
energy of all living things.  The thing about the desperation moves is that they 
are meant to be dramatic fight stoping techniques so embelishing on them is 
appropriate, and in keeping with how they are animated.

Use technical-flavored language. Shallow kick, open-palm strike, draw 
out, palm-edge, pushing blow, follow-through, initiative, etc.



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