How to Write a Fight Scene in Your Original Stories

In a fight scene, you need three ‘C’s. This article will cover those, and then delve more into ways to make your original fight scenes exciting and interesting to your readers. Whether you want to use these tips for your own original world or for a RP, hopefully you can brush up your skills and fight like a pro! Er, I mean, write like a pro.

The Three ‘C’s

When you write fight scenes, you need to be clear, consistent, and concise. 

Clarity is making sure things are understandable to your reader. Murkiness and uncertainty can be the death of a fight scene’s suspension of disbelief (a term meaning the audience’s willingness to engage and believe in your world). For example, let’s say an assassin, Sei, is dual-wielding blades. Then, Sei pulls out a flash grenade from her tool belt! But wait. How does she do that when her hands are full? As the writer, I’d have to add something else to make it more clear, so my reader doesn't assume Sei grew a third arm. She can put her weapon away and use her teeth to pull the grenade pin, and maybe that’s what I meant to mention; but you, the reader, can't know what I haven't said. So, keeping actions clear is important. 

Examples of what to keep clear include:

• Who’s holding what (remember how many hands or limbs they have and what items need one or more hands; a great sword or rifle needs two hands to use).
• Who’s moving where.
• Where the battle is taking place, and what is around them.
• What injuries have been taken.

Next is consistency, which follows up with the above. Consistency means keeping track of who’s fighting, what they have to use, where they are, and other elements that you can use to make your battle more exciting. Consistency is a great chance to make use of something writers call Chekhov's Gun; a literary term that comes from the idea that “if a loaded gun is mentioned and shown in act one, then itust go off in act three”. You have the chance to use something you established earlier to make your fight scene more exciting. To use the example from above, if I mention Sei has a grenade in chapter one, and then bring it back in chapter seven, that’s both consistent and making use of things you established before; Chekhov's Gun. 

Examples of important things to keep consistent include:

• The gear characters have on them before the fight must be consistent during the fight.
• Injuries taken during the fight need to remain after the fight (a good chance to use injuries as disadvantages in your fight scene as well).

Finally, fight scenes need to be concise. This might be the most difficult thing for newbie writers, especially if you want to create awesome and cool fight scenes; but you can't pause a fight midway for a mental monologue, or to explain another character’s powers unless there’s a pause in the battle itself. Think of a fight scene as a conversation; each action has a reaction, and if a conversation is interrupted, it’s hard to remember the topic. To be concise is to summarize in as few words as possible. Keep the dialogue of the battle quick, snappy, and easy to follow for your readers. Let them imagine the fight in their head.

How to be concise:

• Try to keep each action in its own sentence, and each set of actions in a paragraph.
• Place actual dialogue in moments where the combatants are separated, or parrying; if they’re in a position where they can't stab each other at the moment, you can put dialogue there.

Using Your Original Ideas in Fight Scenes

My advice here won't be as solid because everyone has their own unique worlds. But, here are some quick tips!

• Keep a profile of each of your character’s abilities and gear, so you’ll know what they can use in a battle.
• Make sure you keep track of what your character’s powers can and can’t do. This will keep things consistent and also make it easier to write fight scenes.
• Take advantage of unique battlefields if you have the chance, like areas with low gravity, arenas with traps, or maybe even underwater!
• Show off your character’s unique personality with how they fight; maybe they use dirty tricks they learned from the streets, or they fight honourably no matter what. 
• Take advantage of all 5 senses in fight scenes. The taste of blood, the smell of gunpowder, and the weight of a weapon… These are all things to consider in a fight, and add more texture and realism!

Alright! I’m sure you had a few ideas while reading that you can't wait to implement. Next time you write a fight scene, remember to put #fightscene in your character’s hashtags so others can find it, and if you want to read other’s work, you can always find other user’s writing in the explore tab!

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