• How to Write Gritty and Entertaining Fight Scenes

  • Sep 29 2021
  • Duración: 29 m
  • Podcast

How to Write Gritty and Entertaining Fight Scenes

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  • Motivate your characters. Are they in it for survival or revenge or honor or something else?G: A small disclaimer here, not an expert in fighting itself. I’m not a warrior. I’m sure a real warrior can easily beat the crap out of me. Q: So why are you qualified to talk about fight scenes?As an editor, many of the writers I collaborate with struggle to write fight scenes. Q: When you are planning on writing a fight scene, what are something things you should consider?There are two types of fight scenes. Entertaining ones, and gritty ones. Before you write your fight scenes, you need to decide which group they belong to.Gritty Fight ScenesQ: What makes a gritty fight scene gritty?Violence as it is; brutal, nasty, and quick. The typical gritty fight scene could be written in three words: Slash. Gore. Death.Q: What’s expected of a gritty fight scene?The actual fight is over quick. The build-up to the fight is suspenseful and slow, and the aftermath is prolonged. The fighter sustained horrific injuries, is spurting blood and there’s terrible gore. The aftermath is horrid, mutilated corpses, bellies with guts spilling out, people dying and the like.Q: And what do you want the reader to get out of a gritty fight scene?Invites the reader to feel real horror and revulsion. Its purpose is to shock. Critics will tell you that these fight scenes desensitize people to violence.Entertaining Fight SceneQ: What makes an entertaining fight scene entertaining? This is the heroic, spectacular, exciting, entertaining, and fun fight scene. It allows the protagonist to show honorable behavior and display impressive skills.Q: What are some differences from the gritty fight scenes?The fighting action is prolonged while the aftermath is often non-existent.Entertaining fight scenes can be unrealistic. Q: Such as?The hero finishes off five attackers without breaking a sweat. There’s little to no blood and guts, and the wounds are only scratches. If there is any blood, it blooms like a red rose and a white shirt.The hero may get a slash on his cheek which will heal into an impressive scarloser limps off with only a couple bruises and always lives to fight another day. Death is rare. Even if someone dies, they finish as decorative corpses.Q: What else makes up an entertaining fight scene?The Entertaining fight scene uses its location creatively. Fighters leap across gorges, slide down banisters, jump on tables, etc. Q: And what do you want the reader to get out of an entertaining fight scene?The entertaining fight scene invites the reader to feel admiration for the fighter’s skill; its purpose is to entertain. Critics will say that these types of fight scenes glorify violence. Blending Entertainment and GritQ: But there are so many long, unrealistic fight scenes with death and gore. What about them?You can model your fight scene on one of the two types and then temper it with elements from the other. Q: Please elaborate on that.For example, if you write lighter-hearted fiction, you may choose to make your fight scenes entertaining, but with a healthy dose of realistic grit added. If you’re more on the darker fiction side, you may want to make your fight scenes gritty, but prolong them and give your hero the chance to show off their skills. Ex: A great example of blending entertainment and grit together in a fight scene is Kill Bill 1. It’s essentially an entertaining fight scene (one man against many, prolonged action, skills display, acrobatic feats, creative use of the location, unrealistic outcome), while also containing strong gritty elements (brutality and a lot of spurting blood.)Q: What shouldn’t you do when writing a fight scene?Implausible acrobatic feats in an otherwise realistic novel.A ton of disgusting blood and guts in a genre whose readers want gentle escapism.Don’t leave it unresolved. Mid-book still needs to be resolved for now.Q: Which Style Is Better?Depends on personal taste. Think about the fight scenes you’ve watched or read, whether they were gritty or entertaining and whether you enjoyed them or not and why.If brutal violence makes you sick, and you can’t stand the sight of blood, don’t even try to attempt to write a gritty scene.It also depends on the genre. Some genres call for gritty fight scenes with or without entertaining elements while others require that you have entertaining fight scenes with or without blood. Read how writers in your genre have handled their fight scenes. Ex: Star Wars is known for entertaining fight scenes with some grit.Q: How Much Violence Does Your Fight Scene Need?If you’re writing “gritty,” a lot.  If you’re writing “entertaining,” very little.Q: What if you want to create realism without violence? Insert a sentence about how the ground feels underfoot. It always adds a touch of realism to a fight scene.Q: What if you want to use realistic violence without grossing the reader out?Make the violence graphic, but keep ...
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