Scarab wrote:Fight scenes are something I find very difficult to write. I'm not sure if that's just me or if it's the kind of thing a lot of people struggle with, but there are only so many ways to make fight scenes interesting in text unless your name is... I dunno, Terry Pratchett or something, and he seems to use 'em in moderation.
Any advice for handling multiple fight scenes without it getting dull?
Think in three dimensions. Keep track of everything. Abuse epic metaphors. Situational awareness is paramount, even if you are just writing it. A lot of people find extended battles hard.
Basically, what I find easiest is to visualize the entire thing first, usually while listening to music like TSFH. Once you have the outline in your head, you need to write it down with attention to both allowing your readers to see the fight as you see it and to allowing them to feel as they read "WOW! That's awesome!".
As to detail, there is a very delicate balance. If you go into extremely in depth descriptions of every single movement, it can get monotonous. If you remain too vague about the whole thing, they can't feel that exhilaration you want them to be feeling. Take this excerpt from one of my RPG posts:
(Music that inspired it
here)
As his voice faded, he heard the clink of metal plates behind and above him. What? My flames should have stopped all ground based opponents from reaching me! However, as he whirled and brought his sword to bear, the claws of the leaping knight flashed down upon him with monstrous strength, overpowering his hasty guard. The sound of shattering metal echoed through the cave, and the pillar of flames died down as the black cloaked form of Sabrac spun through the air, managing to land from his fall in a low crouch. There was no hint of any wounds on his body or damage to his clothing. His eyes became slits of pure malevolence as he stared back the way he had come, slowly standing and holding up his right hand from under his mantle, revealing the hilt of his sword and the jagged fragment of blade still attached to it. His killing intent became almost physical in nature, though his voice, when he spoke, remained the same flat tone as before. "It seems my habit of thinking aloud has caused me to lose one of my blades to an insignificant creature. How upsetting. There will likely not be a chance to replace it for a long time." The knight came bounding across the area between them, but even as it did so, twin bolts of madder red flame tore from the walls behind and above it, each one severing a wing of the final Zubat, which was attempting to dive in behind the knight to attack Sabrac. As the knight dodged to the side, Sabrac's hands shot up, snatched the flaming blades from the air as they reached him, and swung them down and to each side. "Come then. You have utilized your first strike and landed a hit. Now, we must determine whether you are capable of following it up after your target has survived."
The knight leaped towards him, claws raised to slash, but with a grunt and a flash of flames at his feet, Sabrac crossed the space between them instantly, his body low to the ground, and his blades slashing upwards from the right with all the velocity of his launch. The force of the double slash sent the knight stumbling back, but did no damage to the armor. However, Sabrac did not slow, leaping forward with a flurry of blades that seemed to strike from all sides at once. The first few blows landed, but the knight regained it's balance and parried the next, counter attacking with another insanely powerful slash. This time, however, Sabrac did not aim to block it, but easily redirected the force with the blade in his left hand, while the blade in his right stabbed deep into the gap in the knee joint. The knight released an inhuman cry and fell to one knee as Sabrac, continuing with the motion of the thrust, pivoted on his right foot, ripping the blade from the joint and twisting around behind his opponent, both blades ready to slash at its unprotected back. As he turned, his eyes caught sight of the backless helmet and vulnerable brain. Ah. I see the weakness that it foolishly attempted to hide. Now, I shall end this with one more strike. The blade in his left hand, followed by its twin shot towards the opening with a hum that promised imminent death. However, the knight managed to turn and barely bring its arm into the path of the blades, deflecting the strike up and over the head of the crouching creature and bringing it under Sabrac's guard. The second claw slashed upwards in an attempt to disembowel him as he stumbled forward, but as his foot came down to support him, another burst of flames pulsed from beneath his boots, sending him flipping up and over the knight, flying over its shoulder upside down as his boots traced an arc of crimson through the air behind him. Now it was the knight who was off balance, and it fell forward onto it's hands and knees, leaving a perfect opening. Sabrac's blades lanced out again, this time far too fast for the weakened knight to block, but for the second time an overpowered claw strike slammed into his side, sending him flying head over heels. Another burst of flames righted his path, and he skidded across the ground leaving a trail of fire in his wake.
Single, strong focused attacks I describe, but you can see where I kinda give an overview of the flurry of slashes my character used. If you can hold that balance just right and give the text the right feel, it works out pretty well.
As for handling multiple fights with the same character, learn the physics of the universe you are working with. If you made it, that's easy. Just build versatility into everything. Manipulate the laws of magic and the world for the most awesome outcome. Change things up every fight so that you approach it differently. An example of this can again be seen in my RPG posts. My first fight, my character just wanted to get things over with, so he blasted everything with overwhelming power. My second, the one I'm in the middle of now, he has been hired to kill a target and now wants to hide his real abilities, causing him to rely more on his swords when he doesn't really need to use magic. Every fight I come at from a different angle and try not to do the same thing twice. Combine attacks, modify them between battles, subvert and twist any widely used attacks and then cleverly play them straight again.
It's not something that is easy, and a LOT of people have issues with it, including a lot of professional writers. I think it's a bit easier for me because I have a pretty good mental image of the things that I want to happen, and I can get pretty creative with the laws of any given magic. My rule of thumb is that if I run out of ideas, start applying theoretical physics. ^_^ That usually works out in ways that are either very awesome or very amusing. I'll take either.
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:08 pm
