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This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Writing Fight Scenes Pt 2 So, here we are going to look at some fight types before we discuss the best to use. Boxing Boxing is a finely trained skill set (Jake Paul notwithstanding). I had 2 fights in my 20s, lost one, drew one (no wins), and the training is hard and the matches are nerve-wracking. Excellent. To the untrained eye, it is also rather dull, I get that. But – and here is the thing – real boxing involves a lot of tactics. There is a lot of standing around, keeping your guard up, missed shots, feigned shots, shots to get points (especially in amateur). It is too slow and too measured to work as a regular fight between two characters in a book. And, most importantly, not every fight is a Mike Tyson 1st round KO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4FAZ7Wj42U The fight starts 2 and a half minutes in and this is typical of especially lower weight class fights. This is not good for a book. Bare-knuckle Fighting Bare-knuckle fighting is more like the sort of organised street fights that might populate a story. However – and more importantly – it is the best fighting to watch for a climactic fist fight for a Western. Think the ending of Any Which Way You Can (1980) with Clint Eastwood. And, truth be told, outside of the western genre (traditional or modern), this does not work as well. Having said that, a little bit of bare-knuckle fighting can help a story. The blood is real and the injuries are real caused by the hits. About the only thing that does not translate to “regular” people is that the hitters are usually also hurt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt4V1Jf3mQo The first round is a feeling out process and is not what you would see in a real fight. Note there is still a lot of footwork and a lot of delaying tactics that also simply do not happen in a real fight. However, from round two (2 minutes in) on, a lot more punches are thrown than in more regulated boxing as well, which also makes it more akin to a street fight. Traditional Eastern Martial Arts As I mentioned in the last column, this is highly trained and the fight are very stylised. And you have to know what is happening to get a sense of what to describe and how. It can also be very fast. Martial arts work well in a visual format; as writers, they do not translate as well to the page. I think the only writer I have come across who describes them well is Eric Van Lustbader. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDr-blj0g5w Very measured and technique-orientated. Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Tae-kwon-do are even more based around technique with more grappling as well. Mixed Martial Arts This is the most popular martial art/ fighting scene in the world today, with PPV buys outstripping boxing across the world. But, like everything else, there is a tentative feeling out process, there is a degree of training involved, there are techniques used. Yes, it looks more like a street fight, but the fight does not feel like something you would see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD2-K7dsqYM Notice the grappling in this one. Hard to write that so the reader remains engaged throughout. Some MMA fights are more than this, but many have grappling sections. Professional Wrestling This is what I use to write fight scenes. I take bits of professional wrestling matches and mash them together. But it can’t be just any match. There are three types of match, as I see it, for writing: The gymnastic match, the wrestling match and the hardcore match. The gymnastic match does not work. The following is highlights of a highly skilled match that does not work on paper or in a film visual sense (unless you are parodying fight scenes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30KEFuUJ6UM Lots of flips and moves that require a degree of co-operation. Fun to watch, really hard to do, but not realistic. The straight forward wrestling match I have used a lot. I have written entire chapters around fights based on classic matches of the past (the 1980s-1990s are good because not many flips, but they hit hard). Ignore bouncing off the ropes sections, and the matches do well as story fodder. If there is a lot of submission holds, maybe it could be a subdual fight as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89MyqO6s0D8 This is a very long match, but is the one I have used most often for writing. Nothing complex, easy to describe. And the full match tells a story. Every time Warrior tries something risky, Savage takes over. Savage is the smaller one ducking and weaving. It is one of my favourite Wrestlemania matches. I wrote a full story based around this one match for a competition in Dungeon Magazine… and got a second edition D&D Player’s Handbook for my trouble. And finally, the hardcore match. This is when they use all sorts of things to damage the opponent. I’ll show two examples. The first I have used for a scene in a novel; the second a friend of mine used earlier this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TulVe0yD630 When I ran my workshops, I played from leaving the ring to the second window break and got the participants to describe it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6KeN3rNkvo Yes, women. Something for everyone. And if you want a gang war, go for a battle royal or a Royal Rumble. So, that is my recommendation – use professional wrestling to give you the visuals to describe the fights as you want them. The moves are deliberately slower (for the crowd) and this does make it easier to describe. Wrestlers will also often sell their injuries better, which makes for a better story beat. And how do you write it? Just describe what is on the page. Start slow – describe two minutes and see how it feels. Add extra words, add blood, add pain. Try it in first person PoV. Just describe at first. You don’t need to experience it to get the feelings of pain – good wrestlers will show you through their expressions. Or you can guess. It is slow enough to write down and it makes for an exciting scene. One more part of this to go! |
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