This is a reblog of one of my more popular posts from a session I attended called “Writing About Fighting” at VCON, a science fiction and fantasy conference. The panel consisted of writers and experts who were disciplined in multiple martial arts, including authors Lorna Suzuki and T.G. Shepherd, and Devon Boorman, the swordmaster of Academie Duello in Vancouver.
For me, this talk was so fascinating, it was worth the cost of admission alone. I spent days thinking about the topics discussed and tried to incorporate them into The Watcher Saga. These are just a few of them as I remember it.
Eight Things Writers Forget About Fight Scenes:
1. It’s not about the technical details
First of all, if you’re not technical and don’t know the details of fighting, you shouldn’t try to write about them. Some writers try to to include technical details of fighting, which only calls out their lack of expertise. If you don’t know what you’re doing in a fight scene, give fewer details, not more. Go for being lyrical or poetic instead. The more you try to appeal to a technical audience with inaccurate details, the more likely you’ll turn them off. A good example of this is the use of jargon. It’s best to avoid it altogether.
Moreover, if you don’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable about fighting, don’t make your main character an expert on the subject.
According to the panel, some authors who write fight scenes well are:
- Dorothy Dunnet (who writes around the fight scenes, describing key moments only, without technical detail)
- Adrian Tchaikovsky in the Shadows of the Apt series (who, according to T.G. Shepherd, has a lyrical style)