SWORD AND SORCERY -- Writing a good fight scene

by Selina Rosen, author of SWORDMASTER

    Sword and sorcery could refer to the way some writers create a fight scene, because the hero would have to be magic to succeed in doing what he does. Sometimes the protagonist would need removable body parts because if he didn't when he started the fight, he damn sure would have when he made that move because he would have cut his own arm off.

I used to fight heavy weapons in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) I do some marshal arts—mostly judo—I've been in way too many fist fights, and I fence. While I was active with the SCA I served as knight’s marshal of the local group for seven years during which I trained fighters, built armor, wore armor, and fought in armor. In "wars" I served as everything from canon fodder to war lord. None of these things will tell you exactly what it's like to be in combat because there are parts of the body that are "off target," the armor is better, the weapons have no edge, they call holds on the field for injuries or dangerous situations and... Well basically you aren't trying to kill anyone and they aren't trying to kill you. Still, such experiences will certainly help you write more believable combat fight scenes.

If you want to write exciting, realistic fight and battle scenes you need to do your homework. At least step through the moves with a friend, and see whether it's feasible. Talk to veterans, take a martial arts course, do something. Don't think you can learn something like fighting from a book, you can't, and they almost always get it wrong in the movies.

If you don't have any experience with fighting and no desire to gain any, then less is more. If you need a fight or a battle to move your plot forward, then allude to it without going into any detail.  There is an old saying, "As long as you're silent no one will know you're ignorant, speak and every one will." 

And you can tell when a writer did WAY too much research for a fight or battle scene because they will tell the reader way more than any reader ever wanted to know about the armor, the weapons, which muscles are taut during which move and which are torn from the bone with which cut. When a writer does a lot of research they sometimes feel compelled to use all of it. However, when I read their work I might be really impressed that they got all the fight "stuff" right, but I will be annoyed because they just stuck this huge info dump right in the middle of their book—and that's just not good writing.

Like any other event in the story the fight or battle should only be there if it moves the plot forward. I enjoy a good, well-written fight scene as much as anyone else. What I hate is a long, drawn-out battle scene stuck in to jack up the word count or because the book lacks content in general. What I hate most of all is the fight scene many pages long in which the hero just keeps taking damage until in real life he'd be dead ten times, but then miraculously he rises up and kills the bad guy with just one well-placed blow.

Like I said, this is sword and sorcery, because it sure as hell isn't reality.

SWORD MASTERS, by Selina Rosen, is upcoming in February, 2008.
Selina says: "SwordMasters is a fantasy filled with action, love, and palace intrigue. It explores the consequences of bravery and cowardice and tests the limits of loyalty. It's about honor won in battles and friendships forged in blood. It's a bit like Xena the Warrior with more depth (and less corny!)"

"Sword and Sorcery" titles from DRAGON MOON PRESS
DAUGHTER OF DRAGONS by Kathleen H. Nelson	LEGENDS OF THE SERAI by J. C. Hall	THE SHADEBINDER'S OATH by Jeanette Cottrell