%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
|
This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. It follows on from the old one, which is now full. An index of topics from old and new can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. And to suggest topics! |
| 7 Worst Types Of Plot Holes This comes from an old video by author Brandon McNulty, who I have taken ideas from before, but in this case, I am taking it and adapting the whole thing (in my own words and with my own asides) because he has covered everything and put it together better than I ever could. What is a plot hole? This is an inconsistency, or even a contradiction, in a story that is never explained, it something the breaks the rules of the storyâs universe, when a character acts out of character from what we have been shown, when the timeline does not make sense, or things in general that are simply not resolved (even taking into account potential sequels). Plot-holes are generally oversights, and come about from poor editing, or over-editing. They can also be simple mistakes. While some people think they donât matter, they can take a person out of the immersion a story demands. The reader/ viewer then no longer trusts the story-teller. Remember, though, if a story is engaging enough, a plot hole can be overlooked by the audience, and they will often come up with ingenious ways of solving it themselves. 1) Obvious solution that is ignored This is when characters have a clear solution that is obvious and in plain sight in the story, but do something more convoluted anyway. Occamâs razor works; this plot hole says otherwise. For example, in the film version of You Only Live Twice, instead of shooting James Bond and feeding his body to the crocodiles, the bad guy puts him on an island so the crocs can eat him that way⌠and Bond escapes by using their scaly backs as a makeshift bridge because of course he does. 2) Off-screen solution that is ignored This is when an obvious solution exists off-screen, but is ignored by the characters. This could be special knowledge or skills, an advantage offered by the setting, or a system the hero knows to utilise. For example, in Die Hard 2, the plane is stuck in a holding pattern over Washington DC and could run out of fuel. I live half a world away and even I know thereâs 2 or 3 alternate airports the plane could have gone to, thus rendering the terroristâs plan moot. 3) Continuity issues Simple errors here, like a gun firing 10 instead of 6 bullets, people not recognising one another, knowledge told in a previous scene forgotten, not knowing a house they were in ten scenes earlier, little things like that. These are editing things, and beta readers should pick them up. A classic example is the site of Dr Watsonâs war wound in the Doyle Sherlock Holmes books, which is in the shoulder or the leg, depending on the tale. 4) Inconsistent magic or technology This is my personal biggest bugbear. No matter what is introduced that is not human â alien life forms, technology, magic, super-powers, whatever â there need to be rules and limits, and these being broken, or suddenly unable to do anything breaks the reality the story is trying to imbue. Also, consider the collateral effects. For example, in Superman IV: Quest For Peace suddenly Superman can rebuild walls with his mind or powers or whatever. Nowhere in the previous three films has this even been hinted, and suddenly, there it is. Or anything that happens in Lightlark and its appalling sequels. 5) Characters acting out of character This is one most readers/ viewers notice. The character seems to be an imposter or to have become an idiot. They say and do things they are not established as doing. They ask dumb questions. They make choices that go against the flow. They even forget skills they showed earlier. If a character is under pressure, is panicking, things like that, mistakes happen, and poor decisions can be made. But this goes beyond that. For example, in whatever that awful Star Wars film was, when Luke threatens to kill his own nephew in his sleep, thus turning him to the dark side â that was not the Luke we saw in the past. (But I think those films were designed to make Luke look bad anyway â character destruction by the studio.) 6) Abandoned subplots As it says on the tin â when subplots are left unresolved, and so the story as a whole feels in complete. For example, in The Room, the whole breast cancer thing and Danny and the drug dealer are just glossed over and ignored. 7) Large-scale stupidity That is McNultyâs term, and it is when the whole premise of a work is based on flawed logic, when the whole thing raises more questions than are ever answered or even acknowledged. For example, Signs has aliens come to conquer Earth. But they have an allergy to water. So why come to a planet covered 70% by water, with water making up 0.25% of the atmosphere, and the chance of rain ever-present in the area they landed in? The whole concept makes no sense. And that is plot-holes! |
| Novel #38 Quick interlude â one of my favourite things I have written came in on the timeline here â a 20k word novella about a therianthrope called Walkerâs Flat. It is not the best written, but the characters and their changing relationships are some of the best Iâve created, and not one is based on a real person. Okay, next novel. Hunter is a 68k word novel that has a really muddled premise, and yet some interesting characters. The story is set ten years after the deaths of a couple. A teenaged girl who they had cared for has not got over their death, and some of the things they did together had taken on the idea of a dream. Then a man appears. He disappears as well. Literally. It takes the girl a little, but she learns this man is the brother of the dead woman, and he fights lizard-men. He can blink back and forth between worlds, which is something the girl used to be able to do. The man is the Hunter and uses his ability to blink to combat the lizard men in an alternate world. Then the lizard-men start appearing in Adelaide, attacking people at random, appearing and disappearing. The girl and the brother realise it is up to them to fight this scourge. And we have a lot of fights. The writing is okay, with lots of jumps and head hops, and I think the characters are fine, though the girl changes her mind way too quickly for my liking to helping out. I used what a friend of mine went through as a basis for the main female character, but reading it, it feels almost like fat-shaming. Not a great tale⌠but a tale. Excerpt Chapter 5 -6- The stone building she was in was empty, but it shook with a slight tremor. She clutched her head as the pain bored into her skull. She wanted to look outside, but she felt paralysed, stuck to the spot, her legs refusing to move. The pain in her brain intensified, and this time she was sure she could hear a distant sound, an ululation, a deep-throated growl, a cry of⌠Triumph. Everything felt very, very wrong suddenly, as though this daydream world had changed, and yet the change was only just perceptible. The noise came again and she dropped to her knees, her temples pounding with the rhythm of a thousand drums. She closed her eyes and rubbed her head and⌠-7- âAre you okay, dear?â Chantelle looked up and blinked at the small crowd that had gathered around her. The fluorescent lights and crowded interior didnât sit with her perception of where she was; her body trembled, as the pain in her temples flared once more, even though she could no longer hear that pulsating cry. The elderly woman who had spoken them reached down to take her by the elbow and help her up off her knees. Slowly Chantelleâs head cleared and the bookshop came back into focus. âAre you okay?â the woman asked again, a little more urgently this time. âY-yeah, I guess,â Chantelle managed. So, this is a section where the girl goes between worlds. This is a story that now just occupies space on my hard-drive. It will never be submitted anywhere. |
| Character Sheets I mentioned some time ago that I use character sheets, based on Dungeons & Dragons, for my characters, even those not in the fantasy genre. I was asked to show a demonstration, and have been trying ever since to do it. The pictures are too small, the tables donât translate, yadda yadda. So what I am going to do is put the information that exists on my single page sheet here. Name Yes, the characterâs name. First and foremost. Alias Nicknames, pet names, other names known by in the story. Gender/SO The gender and sexual orientation Height Choose your units Weight Choose your units DoB Date of birth Eyes Colour and size Hair Colour and style Skin Colour and racial identity Education How far they went in their education. What qualifications they have achieved (vocational as well as academic) Occupation I also include previous jobs here The next section is 6 headings (and this is stolen from D&D): Intelligence Strength Wisdom Endurance Charisma Beauty These are given a score out of 20, where 11 is normal for a human. Strength is physical strength, but you could include more scores for physical, mental and emotional. Partner They donât need to have one Live With Who they live with â family, relatives, partner, friends, room-mates, etc. Or alone. Past R Past important relationships Drive? Yes or no â do they drive Licence What are they licenced to drive? Car, truck, bus, boat, motorbike, plane Extra skills Listed, and where they learnt them Religion What religion they are; also included here is how important it is to their life Extra Notes Any extra notes for anything else. This is where I tend to put pets, although I have seen sheets with pets as a separate entry. And that is what I use to form the scaffolding in order to flesh out my characters. As a pantser, I will do one of these for each character as they come up in the story; plotters will, of course, have all of this filled out beforehand. I also add other notes as needed â verbal tics is one â and things that come up not listed. Anyway, that is just how I do character sheets. |
| 5 Writing Things That Bug Me Five writing things that bug me! This is not grammar or punctuation â this word usage. If I added grammar and punctuation, my list of 576 things that bug me would just be an endless old manâs rant. 1) Of Many people will write âI should of done thatâ or âI would of helpedâ. Stop it. It is should have, would have, could have. So why âofâ? Because the abbreviation is shouldâve, and this sounds like âofâ. But it isnât. 2) Care less âI could care less.â This means you care, because you have the ability to care less. The term is âI could not care less.â This means you donât care because there is nowhere to move backwards. 3) Literally Literally means it is happened âas writtenâ. That is what the word means. If you type âI am literally dying hereâ then I will call a doctor because you need medical help. If you are not âliterallyâ dying, then you are âfigurativelyâ dying but I might just âliterallyâ kill you⌠4) Peeking âIt peeked my interest.â No it didnât. Peek means âlookâ. âIt peaked my interested.â Didnât do that, either. Peak means to reach the top. The correct term is âpiqueâ oneâs interest. This is from the French for âto irritateâ and means âto arouse.â 5) Less & Fewer Fewer is when there is something you can count. Less is when there is something you cannot count. âI have fewer apples than Bob.â âI have less water than Bob.â Okay. Rant over. |
| Stakes Modified from a post by K.M. Weiland Stakes are what give a story its meat and bones. This is not the rewards for success â the stakes of a story are what a character can expect if they fail. What they will lose, what will happen to them or their loved ones, the fate of peoples. This is the potential negatives⌠and these often appeal to more readers than the character winning the end prize. Stakes make a characterâs journey more fraught. Stakes make the ending mean more. Stakes give a work its emotional core! If a characterâs motivation is to get the princess and become rich, the reader might think, Good for you. But if a characterâs motivation is to get the princess and become rich otherwise the princess will be married off to the troll king and the characterâs family will then become slaves to the troll hordes, suddenly we have stakes and the reader might think, Come on! You have to do this! When what a character gets if they win is not as important as what happens if they lose, then these are the stakes to grab a reader. Stakes clearly set out consequences and they should inform every decision and action made by the characters. Audiences become invested when they see what failure will cost a character. There are four types of stake that can be used: relationship-based physical emotional moral Stakes can be local to global: personal (only affects the character) extended personal (family and/or loved ones as well as character) others (people not the character, but close to the character) local area (town, suburb, community) wider area (state, country) global (whole planet) The greater the stakes, though, the harder it is to get a reader invested. A combination of these is often a way writers go â extended personal and wider area, for example. Stakes should be established in a story early on. Not explicitly â often that feels like blatant foreshadowing â but implied or showing just what the character can lose if failure is an option. It is suggested that the stakes be established even before the idea of the conflict is brought up. Showing a family or community working together before the bad guys appear sort of thing. Some writers feel that the global stakes are more important, but as I have said in the past, readers relate to characters, so those personal stakes are the things that engage readers more. It is why a film like Armageddon works â the global stake is the destruction of the world; the personal stake is the dad sacrificing himself so his daughter can have a future with a man she loves. We get both. Letâs look at a good example. In Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the stakes are introduced slowly â Louis starts a new job, and is confronted by a death on his first day. The family is a happy one. And there it is â the personal stake of family, of loved ones. Then his daughterâs cat dies. A neighbour shows him a special âpet semataryâ and the cat comes back⌠but it is changed. And then the baby son dies⌠The stakes are personal and moral. And it is possibly one of Kingâs scariest books. A bad example? Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The stakes are if Watts finds the âEaster eggsâ in a virtual world, he wins everything. If he fails⌠so what? How can we be engaged when this kid who is stuck in the 1980s is out to get rich and if he doesnât, then someone else will? Or maybe the evil corporation⌠but how are they evil? In the book it is not made clear, just that they want control. And maybe the world will have to pay to use the OASIS. Who knows? As I said, itâs not exactly made clear. Not the film! I am talking the book. Yes, they blow up his trailer and kill his aunt, but Watts hardly grieves for her or anything. He does not care. This lessens the stakes even more. Such that the stakes exist. Some things to be aware of: Donât wait too long in the narrative to reveal what would happen if the character fails Goals are not stakes Stakes should inform decisions, not be shunted off to one side This last is very important. If the stakes are established and then mean nothing to the decisions being made or the consequences of any actions, then the stakes are window dressing and not a part of the actual story. Readers will notice. One final point: As a story progresses, the stakes should also grow more intense. As a character grows and changes through a story, so do the stakes. But not necessarily. You need to do what is best for your story. Does that mean you can ignore stakes? Sure. But readers will have trouble investing in your characters. |
| Novel #37 The next novel is the next in the Speculative Humour Cycle and is, in my opinion, the best of the series of stories that make it up. This one is urban fantasy. The idea is slightly confused, but it is the closest to Douglas Adams I have come. Not in the jokes (which are more Australian than British) but in the way I set it up with lots of footnotes as asides. Originally these were in a lot of parentheses, but the one publisher who bothered to respond recommended I put these things into footnotes as âit looks better.â I trusted him⌠and he was right. The title is actually something I am really happy with, a play on a famous movie: Revelation 2: The Goddess, The Horseman, A Valkyrie And Her Lover. And, yes, this explains everything about the story! The Revelation 2 part was meant to indicate it is a sequel to the last book of the Bibleâs New Testament because it is about the end of the world. At almost 47k words, it is also one of the longer in this series of tales. The simple prĂŠcis of the story is this: The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse lose one of their own â War. While they are trying to find the new War â well, Strife is looking because the other two sort of canât â the Hindu gods want to bring about the end of the world their way and send Kali, the goddess of destruction, to achieve this. But a Valkyrie, who wants RagnarĂśk to be the way the world ends, realises the Norse gods are a little past it, so instead decides to protect the new War and ends up in league with Strife. However, all are mistaken in who they think War is â an Australian barman working in London â but in the end the new War emerges and saves the day anyway. The humour is blatant, relying on word play, a knowledge of world mythology and crudity. I am sure it will offend Catholics, Hindus, neo-pagans, Poms and animal lovers everywhere, but such is life⌠This is Warâs death scene from near the start of the book. The popnotes are where footnotes would appear in the book. Excerpt The man was American, so he didnât understand a word that was being said by the German crowd. But even he understood that they were not happy with him. The expressions on their faces, their hand and arm gestures, their burning effigies â all of them were reasonably clear indicators of dissatisfaction. But he didnât care. He did what he was paid to do â attempted murder in a public pace, in front of a crowd of tens of thousands. Of course, the promoters called it âMMAâ, but when they hired the man known only as War Machine, what they got was a legalised mugging, bonus controversy and a bucket-load of cash. War Machine stood in the ring beside the referee, with no ring crew (as had been his norm for many years), while at least twenty seconds, helpers, assistants, paramedics, surgeons, priests and undertakers surrounded the red pulpy mass that had once been a fighter known as JĂźrgen Daskapital, the Dusseldorf Dagger . The fight should have lasted for thirty seconds, tops, but War Machine had refused to go in for the kill, and just toyed with the poor local lad like a cat with a retarded mouse. Eventually, however, the ref had called a halt, mainly so he wouldnât be charged with being an accessory to murder. This same official tried to lift War Machineâs arm in victory, but was shrugged off so the huge American gentleman could stride around the ring like a peacock on heat. He gave the crowd a distinctly American finger symbol, and then a blatantly provocative Nazi salute, before climbing to the top of the cage and just standing there. He jumped to the ground and immediately two members of the crowd decided to confront him, but he introduced his burly fists to their faces in a series of blows so fast even a really good movie director would have to use super slo-mo filming to capture it adequately. That did it. He fought his way through the crowd and made it to his personal, private locker room before what became known as âESPNâs Riot of the Monthâ really took hold. Not that he would have minded. War Machine was more than happy to wade into any altercation. He was even known to create altercations, just to have something to wade into. Sometimes the altercations only had to be in what passed for his mind for him to start wading in. And on this night he would have been more than happy with any of that. The fight itself had been very dissatisfying. He was still full of pent up rage and fury, and the bout just had not been cathartic enough for a full release. Or, as War Machine understood it: âNeed more hurt time.â He didnât even bother to shower â not that hygiene was high on his list of priorities at the best of times â as he threw everything into his pack and forced his sweaty, steroidal body into his crimson motorcycle leathers. He walked through the back door without opening it, past two security guards, who looked like they wanted protection from him, past the other fighters who all looked ready to cry as he approached, and finally outside to where his bright red moped scooter sat in its parking space, its two horse power and 50cc of unbridled fury waiting for him to head out on the highway like the man born to be wild he was. The cars and trucks on this night seemed to keep out of his way which he supposed was good. It meant he could fly like the wind. He pushed the bike to its very limits, clocking in at a jaw-dropping, brain-shaking sixty-eight kilometres an hour , passing old couples towing caravans, heavily laden trucks and farm machinery as if they were all standing still. The blare of an air horn made him jump a little and almost lose control. He turned his head to glare at the miscreant , but was practically blinded by the seventy-two different lights attached to a semi-trailer large enough to carry most of the rider for a Mariah Carey âperformanceâ. Seriously, it was that hugely enormous. The population of Malta could have lived in it . Which made it even stranger when, with balance worthy of an Olympic gymnast, War Machine stood on the seat of his moped and tried to punch the multi-wheeled vehicle out. And, no, there are no surprises in the story yet. His attack went about as well as youâd expect, with the worldâs most feared fighter reduced to a red smudge approximately six kilometres long and with the consistency of fresh mud. Oh well. Shit happens. Okay, I also abuse Americans, Malta and quite a few other places in the world as well. I am nothing if not an equal opportunity arsehole. Still, I think this is one of the better things I have written and for those long-time readers of this blog, you will know I do not say that often at all. And all of these are still looking for beta readers! Just sayinâ⌠|
| Writing Fight Scenes Pt 3 Last part! Common fighting terms to use in your writing. Ankle lock: Holding and twisting the ankle and calf with the opponent on their stomach, attacker standing, leg held in the air. Armbar: Arm is straight and twisted so pressure is on the elbow the wrong way, hyperextending it. Bear hug: Grabbing an opponent around the midsection, squeezing tight. Body slam: Pick your opponent up and drop or throw them to the ground, back or shoulders first. Choke: Any hold that cuts the flow of blood through the neck and/or the flow of air through the neck. Chop: (1)A back-handed strike with the flat of the hand; (2) a strike with the side of the hand. Counterpunch: A punch thrown in reaction to an opponentâs attack, especially if that attack misses or creates an obvious opening. Double-leg takedown: Dive at an opponent and grab both legs, either lifting them to drop the opponent, or going to down to land on the opponent. Drop Kick: A jumping two-footed kick. The landing often makes this useless in a real fight. Elbow/ Elbow strike: Being hit by the elbow; actually one of the most painful strikes to deliver, but if done wrong can injure the attacker as well. Fish hook(ing): A move where a a person inserts a finger or fingers into an opponent's mouth or other orifice and pulls against the tissue. Flying knee: An attacker runs and leaps toward an opponent, knee first, looking to land a strike. Glancing blow: A strike that barely connects and causes little or no damage. Gouge: Sticking fingers into an opponentâs eyes delibverately. Guillotine choke:Face an opponent, the opponent is bent over, a choke hold is appled around the neck while in that position. Hammerfist: A type of punch, delivered with the side of the hand in a downward motion, mimicking the motion of hammering in a nail. Haymaker: A wild, swinging punch coming from out wide. Often used in boxing movies. Headbutt: Striking an opponent with the head, generally the forehead. Aiming for the nose is best. If attacker does it badly, can cause bleeding on their head and injuries to the attacker. Headlock: An attacker controls an opponent by securing an arm tightly around the opponent's head and squeezes. Hip toss: When the attacker uses their hip as a fulcrum to throw an opponent sown. Hook: A punch from the side, delivered with a bent arm. Jab: Straight punch thrown with the lead fist. Kidney punch: A blow to the back, just below the ribs and to the side, aiming up. Causes blood in the urine. Liver shot: A punch, kick or knee to the right side of the ribcage, causing shock to the liver and often incapacitating the opponent. Rabbit punch: A punch to the back of the head or neck, especially when an opponent is off-balance. Rear naked choke: An attacker chokes someone out from behind, often wrapping the legs around the body to help. Side kick: A kick to the side. Requires flexibility. Single-leg takedown: An attacker gets an opponent t to the ground by grabbing a leg to put them off balance. Slap: Open-handed strike. Strike: A punch, elbow, knee or kick -- anything that hits an opponent. Suplex: Any throw where the hips of the opponent raise higher than the head at some point before the person hits the ground. There are many different forms. Tackle/ Spear: A shoulder-first attack from a run, as used in rugby and gridiron. Throw: Any move that lifts a person and delivers them not on their feet; the theory is if you can lift an opponent, you can throw an opponent, even a little. Thrust kick: A kick where the foot is pushed forward from the body to drive an opponent backwards. Trip: Wither using a hand or foot to cause an opponent to lose balance. Uppercut: A punch thrown in an upward vertical trajectory toward an opponent's chin or upper body. These are the less technical terms used, and can add some colour to your fight scene descriptions. |
| 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 â and here is the thing â 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 â and more importantly â 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 âregularâ 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 canât 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 Playerâs Handbook for my trouble. And finally, the hardcore match. This is when they use all sorts of things to damage the opponent. Iâll show two examples. The first I have used for a scene in a novel; the second a friend of mine used earlier this year. [[Embed over limit (5).]] 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. [[Embed over limit (5).]] 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 â 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 â 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 donât need to experience it to get the feelings of pain â 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! |
| Writing Fight Scenes Pt 1 So, as part of my time as someone who writes, I have conducted workshops for the local writers centre. I have done workshops on writing horror, writing short stories and research for non-fiction. But the only workshop I have been asked to do more than 3 times (5 at last count) is âHow To Write Fight Scenes.â As such, I am going to put forth that lecture (generally a 3 hour workshop) here. In a few parts, but here. So, letâs start. A fight scene is one in which conflict occurs between two (or more) characters. The idea of this is to give help and hints to writers for portraying this realistically. And this is only hand to hand combat. If using swords or knives, then we are looking at either specialised skill or other things that complicate matters. Picking up a sword and just using it â as many fantasy novels seem to think is viable â is stupid and impossible. It takes training. You can Yeah, but⌠me all you want, but if I gave a regular person a sword and asked them to defend themself against me (with some training), I reckon Iâd hurt them before they hurt me. Why include a fight scene? A fight scene is an excellent way to show the strengths and weaknesses of a character. We can see their intelligence by their tactics, their physical strength by the attacks they use, and even their standing in society by how used to fighting they are. It can show a hidden past or can show that someone is all talk and no substance. But the main reason for including a fight scene is to show the action and get the reader involved in what is happening in the story. Just saying, âhe punched him, and he hit him back,â means nothing and is dull. But saying, âhe drove his elbow into his jaw, sending him back a pace; in response, he swung wildly, his fist clipping him on the side of the head,â gives more detail. What about trained fighters? Yeah, this question needs to go here before we get into anything else, because the concept of trained martial artists or MMA fighters does complicate matters. But those people are not the sort of people likely to populate a story. You would not include a person with those skills in a book and have them use those skills without some knowledge. I could write about a MMA fighter without an issue, but would struggle with a proponent of Eastern martial arts because I have only peripheral knowledge. The majority of characters we write are not going to be trained like this; they might have some street knowledge, but we are not writing scenes from a Bruce Lee movie. Can we copy fights? If you have the language, can you copy a fight scene from visual media onto the page? This is a great question. No. Simple answer, but unless you are going to completely change things up, the answer is, âno.â But â and this is a big but â that only involves a fight from a movie or from broadcast TV. You cannot use it blow for blow. You can base it on the fight you see or, better yet, combine three or more because the individual moves cannot be copyrighted. And that is the purpose of this â to help people write fight scenes. And I will say here and now that the best way to write fight scenes is to actually copy visual fights, as in, write what you see in a fight. So... can I copy? No... but yes as well. We will get there. Can we leave fight scenes out? Of course! There is no rule that says you must include fight scenes. And some genres do not use them at all. Romance will rarely use a fight scene; Harlequin states none are to be used. Capital-L Literature will not use a described fight scene. Childrenâs books and Middle Grade books should not have fight scenes. In the USA, Young Adult publishers prefer there be none; in the rest of the world, they are not described in detail, but do exist. Having said that last one, I was encouraged to add extra detail in a fight by the Australian publisher of my YA book. In the old days, murder mysteries did not include them, but they are becoming more common. Fantasy, thriller and war genres sort of expect them. Science fiction and Westerns also use them more often than not. There is an audience expectation. Of course you can subvert that, but you might also be annoying the readers. Of course, as always, the call is yours. And that is the basics of why fight scenes are needed at times and where we come from when looking at them. |
| Novel #36 So⌠the next long work I wrote was Sins Of The Fathers. Clocking in at a little over 39500 words, it was not a proper novel, but I submitted it anyway. After editing with the publisher (âCan you add some more description here?â âI need more explanation here.â that sort of thing), it was 41k words, just a novel⌠and became my second book! Told in three timelines, it is about a group of guys who do something terrible as teenagers and it comes back to harm their children. I think itâs okay, but was not real happy with the formatting changes the publisher put on it. Still, he paid me, so there you go. And it is another book! Novel number 36 proper, though, is the only time I have ever written a deliberate sequel to a novel. Letâs jump back to 1987 ("20250331 Novel #3" ) and Into The Crystal. Now, I donât know why, but in 2014, I decided that I wanted to know what happened to Keith and Kathy. So I set about writing this. I introduced their daughter, a young man from our world, and now dreams helped them cross over as well as the crystals. And it ended up being a decent 57k words. Because it is a sequel to that earlier work, I have no plans to submit it, even though I think it is actually not a bad tale.I gave it to a beta reader who begged me for something to read when I didnât have anything completed. She loved it, and didnât even realise it was a sequel. So that is a positive. If I throw them both together, I get a 98k work, so⌠who knows? Me â I ainât doinâ it. The story: It is 26 years on, and Keith and Kathy are estranged. A man named Tiberius has bought Keithâs old house and in his dreams sees a woman, Katarina. He finds he can help her, like a really vivid dream. On the other hand, she also sees him. Then he loses her. It turns out she is Keith and Kathy's daughter and she has been taken by Keithâs half-brother. Tiberius finds a piece of the crystal and this transports him to Katarina. They become lovers and, with two of Tiberius' friends, go out to save the kingdom of AdgaD. Simple, really. The scene is from where Tiberius first meets Kathy, after Katarina was taken. Excerpt The house Kathy unlocked looked from the outside as though its owner took no pride at all in its appearance. What little garden there was was overgrown with browning weeds, some as high as Tiberiusâ hip. The grass was brown and yellow where bare patches werenât showing the dry, hard dirt beneath, and the large paving stones that made the path were all cracked and broken. The house itself was dirty, with broken tiles on the roof, cracked and chipped rendering, and torn and faded curtains in the windows. A huge spider web sat above the door, the dried husk of its builder hanging in the centre. The welcome mat was so tattered that the word was hardly legible. It would have looked abandoned if not for the car parked alongside it. Inside was not much better. The linoleum-covered floors looked like theyâd had a perfunctory mopping maybe a week earlier, the few furnishings were threadbare and the television looked like it had been made in the 1980s. Katherine smiled at him. âHovel sweet hovel,â she laughed. âIâm not going to ask what you think because I know what you think and I reckon youâd be too polite to be honest. But, think about it â anyone breaks in here, are they going to search too hard?â Tiberius looked around again and shook his head emphatically. âRight.â She locked the front door and led him into the barely functionable kitchen. Tiberius remained stunned, unable to reconcile his surroundings with anything he had believed about this woman. Katherine then unlocked the pantry door, revealing five shelves â three empty, one holding some old cookware, the other with cans of food so old they had started to rust â and too many cobwebs. She reached to the very back and moved her hands briefly. A soft âclickâ sounded and she pulled back, taking the whole wall, shelves and all, with her. A light flashed on automatically, revealing a very small room with no floor, but a solid metal ladder leading downwards. Without even looking at her guest, Katherine climbed down. Tiberius hesitated and then, with a final glance at the kitchen, followed uneasily. Halfway down he heard a slight whirring and then a soft grinding as the shelving above closed once again. Tiberius felt as though he was trapped, completely and wholly. The ladder was resting in a room about twice the size of the one above. Katherine grinned just a little and pushed open a solid wooden door. âWelcome to my home,â she said. The area revealed was surprisingly big with a high, vaulted ceiling. At one end was a large bed with a high canopy, at the other was a decent, small kitchen with a highly decorated table and chairs, all carved out of fine wood. In the middle was a couch facing a huge plasma screen television set and stereo system. The floors were covered in what looked like fine furs, the walls were decorated with paintings, and sculptures had been placed at strategic points around the place. Only one door led off this room, he guessed to an en suite; the door he had come through was hidden by a bookcase which contained art and framed photographs along with a lot of reading material. âVery nice,â came out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. âThank-you.â Tiberius stood in the middle of the room. A photograph on the wall caught his attention. Without thinking he walked across to it. A muscular young man in a gymnastics leotard and long white leggings was a holding a pretty young lady with long black hair and also dressed in a leotard above his head. He looked closer, then back at Katherine. âThatâs you,â he smiled. âKeith was a gymnast. I borrowed a leotard from one of the girls and they took that picture. Itâs virtually the only one Iâve got of Keith and me together.â She sighed as she came next to him. âThat was 1988. In the book I said Keithâs mum adopted me. I lied. We got married, and that was because Katarina was born. She was actually conceived in your house.â She laughed without humour. âAnyway, he named her after me. I didnât like the idea, but I do love her.â She touched the photo. âHe was Keith then. Heâs Therion now. And never the twain shall meet.â It is a weird tale, with lots of battle scenes, the good guys all win, and the final scene with Tiberiusâ kids is stupid and needs extending, but I am quite happy with it. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
Puzzle Hub
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
so I went ahead and read all three of them.
