The “Clever Hero” fight scene: This technique is less about the fighting and more about the clever trick that will defeat the enemy. The battle, therefore, is staged so that this can happen. The most well known book that uses this technique consistently throughout the story is probably Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. In Ender’s Game, battles effectively become puzzles that are won, and I am not speaking just about the gambit at the finale that wins the war, but the earlier battles in the war room. Numerous books use this technique in fight scenes to establish a clever hero.
Example: Prince of Thorns (2011) Mark Lawrence “If I die, the succession will be clear,” I said. “Your Scorron whore will give you a new son, and you’ll be rid of me. Gone for good, like Mother and William. And you won’t have to send dear old Father Gomst trawling the mire to prove it.” I took a moment to bow toward the Queen. “No offence, your majesty.” “Galen!” Father’s voice was a roar. “Kill this devil, for he’s no son of mine!” I ran then, crunching emerald leaves under hard leather. Sir Galen charged from the centre star, trailing his black sword behind him, shouting for my blood. He came fast enough, but the fight with Makin had taken some of his wind. I knocked an old woman from my path, she went down spitting teeth, pearls spilling from her broken necklace. I won free of the courtiers and kept on running, angled away from Galen. He’d given up the shouting but I could hear him behind me, the thud of his boots and the rasp of his breath. He must have been a hand above six foot, but lighter armour and fresher wind made up for my shorter legs. As we ran, I pulled out my sword. There were charms enough in its edge to put a notch in that Turkman blade. I threw it away. I didn’t need the weight. Little space remained to me. The left wall loomed just yards ahead, Galen moments behind. I’d been aiming for one guardsman in particular, a younger fellow with fair sideburns and an open mouth. By the time he realized I wasn’t veering away, it was too late. I hit him with the vambrace over my right forearm. The blow hammered his head back against the wall and he slid down it with no further interest in the proceedings. I caught the crossbow in my left hand, turned, and shot Galen through the bridge of the nose. The bolt barely made it through his skull. It’s one of the drawbacks in keeping them loaded, but still it should have been tightened only hours before. In any event, most of the Teuton’s brain left by the back of his head and he fell down very dead. What makes it work: This technique is by far the best way to create tension in a fight scene. The reason for this is that it places the protagonist in combat situations the reader knows cannot be won through sheer prowess, heightening the belief that maybe the protagonist will not escape the danger. The fight scene also works to show that the protagonist is smarter than those around him or her. Nobody likes to root for an average person. The ability to use both the brain and the brawn in combat makes the protagonist stand out and be admired. Why it doesn’t always work: This technique fails when the writer overuses it or creates an unbelievable solution to the fight. The key is to create a solution for the protagonist that is clever enough to win the fight, but not so clever as to seem staged or ridiculous. The writer also needs to make sure that the solution to winning the fight is not found by “pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” Anything used in the fight should be well established in previous chapters or at least early in the chapter well before the fight. Neutral observations: The trivial fact about crossbows losing their pull after sitting too long at the end of this fight scene ads authenticity to the story, and it is a great example of using well-researched and useful knowledge without info-dumping.
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The “Carnage" fight scene: As mentioned in the “Professional” fight scene, the "Carnage" fight scene focuses on the death and damage created by the fight more than the fight itself. The action verbs match the tone; both attacks and movements “tear,” “rip,” “burn,” etc.
Example: Empress (2007) by Karen Miller A spear thrust took his stallion through its throat, it plunged to the sloppy ground and sent him flying. He struck, he rolled, and found his feet. The dead and dying clogged the plain beneath him, he had no choice but to tread upon them as he fought for his life. A glancing knife slash opened his cheek, he felt the blow but not its pain. An arrow struck him in the thigh; he snapped it off and kept on fighting. He knew the faces of the warriors beside him, but he couldn’t remember their names. They lived, they died, they fell or they fought on. Names no longer mattered. All that mattered was victory for Et-Raklion. Thrust—slash—stab—scream—over and over and over again. Breath seared and tearing, lungs in flames, muscles over-reached and burning, blood from his breached body slicking flesh, pumping hot. Kill. Kill. Kill. He caught a glimpse of Bajadek through the madness, painted in blood and wielding a broad axe. The warlord looked demonstruck, he was weeping, laughing. Four arrows jutted from his leather breastplate and two from his arm; if he felt them his pain did not show. Raklion shouted as a Bajadek warrior rose before him. Half her face was cut away, peeled from the skull like the skin of a peach. As he lifted his spear to skewer her like goat-meat her head was shattered by an Et-Raklion slingshotter’s stone. He leapt her body and stabbed a warrior striking for Dokoy Spear-leader’s back. What makes it work: The carnage fight scene heightens the severity of the stakes of the battle by focusing the reader on the brutal outcomes of men and women hacking each other to pieces. Why it doesn’t always work: It is easy for this method to turn into a gore-fest if the writer isn’t careful. Moderation is the key to using this technique successfully. If every fight is "Carnage" fight, the reader will simply become acclimatized to the violence and the technique will lose its effectiveness. Neutral observations: In the four paragraphs above, none of the attacks or moves are described in detail. They aren't needed. There is no place for finesse in this type of fight. The “Magic” fight scene: The magical fight scene is a story specific fight scene that can’t be understood without knowledge of the way the created world operates. In this technique the author must invent his or her own rules for how battles are fought. As such, consistency and logical progression/extrapolation are the most important rules for writing these scenes. In other words, the world and the fight must make sense and follow the established rules of the story.
Example: Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) by Brandon Sanderson Something’s wrong. Vin ducked and threw herself to the side as a handful of glittering coins—her coins, the ones her opponent had Pushed away—shot back down from the sky into her opponent’s hand. He turned and sprayed them in her direction. Vin dropped her daggers with a quiet yelp, thrusting her hands forward and Pushing on the coins. Immediately, she was thrown backward as her Push was matched by her opponent. One of the coins lurched in the air, hanging directly between the two of them. The rest of the coins disappeared into the mists, pushed sideways by conflicting forces. Vin flared her steel as she flew, and heard her opponent grunt as he was Pushed backward as well. Her opponent hit the wall. Vin slammed into a tree, but she flared pewter and ignored the pain. She used the wood to brace herself, continuing to Push. The coin quivered in the air, trapped between the amplified strength of two Allomancers. The pressure increased. Vin gritted her teeth, feeling the small aspen bend behind her. Her opponent’s Pushing was relentless. Will...not...be beaten! Vin thought, flaring both steel and pewter, grunting slightly as she threw the entire force of her strength at the coin What makes it work: Reading this without knowing the rules makes it impossible to understand, and this was a simple example chosen for its clarity. Most of the fight scenes in this book are much more complicated, being intertwined with rules for magic far outside the laws of our own reality, or the logic of most fantasy novels for that matter. That being said, if the author can create a logical, believable world that is something extraordinary, then the fight scenes will be something the reader never forgets, something far outside normal, run-of-the-mill battles. For the fight scenes in this book, the reader must know that by ingesting metal flakes the protagonist can “burn” them for magical powers, with different metals and different combinations creating different effects. Why it doesn’t always work: It is hard to pull this technique off and keep, as Samuel Coleridge would say, the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. Neutral observations: Sanderson writes with a natural balance of action-counter action, inner thought and feeling, and description that flows beautifully across the page without pushing the reader too fast or slowing the action down. The “Final Duel” fight scene: This is not exactly a technique so much as the others on this list, but it’s still important enough to be discussed. The final duel (or fight) must give the reader more than just a battle victory. It must, at some point in the fight (or immediately after it), impart what the fight means to the protagonist. In other words, the results of the fight must create a final point of growth and bring closure to the story, or if it is the end of a book within a series, it should bring the realization of something greater as a result of the mayhem.
Example: The Black Company (1984) by Glen Cook I was on my feet in an instant, wobbling, slapping another arrow across my bow. Catcher’s horse was down with a broken leg. Catcher was beside her, on hands and knees, stunned. A silver arrowhead protruded from her waist, indicting me. I loosed my shaft. And another, and another, recalling the terrible vitality the Limper had shown in the Forest of Cloud, after Raven had felled him with an arrow bearing the power of his true name. Still in fear, I drew my sword once my final arrow was gone. I charged. I do not know how I retained the weapon through everything that had happened. I reached Catcher, raised the blade high, swung with a vicious two-handed stroke. It was the most fearful, violent blow I have ever struck. Soulcatcher’s head roiled away. The morion’s face guard popped open. A woman’s face stared at me with accusing eyes. A woman almost identical in appearance to the one with whom I had come. Catcher’s eyes focused upon me. Her lips tried to form words. I stood there frozen, wondering what the hell it all meant. And life faded from Catcher before I caught the message she tried to impart. I would return to that moment ten thousand times, trying to read those dying lips. What makes it work: While Cook’s final fight scene of the book does not provide his protagonist with the answers he is looking for, notice that the fight does turn away from the external battle to the internal struggle within the protagonist to find meaning. The answer here is that there is no meaning to the war and death--that it will continue. As shown here, the final fight doesn’t have to resolve all the conflicts within the character, just the external conflict. Why it doesn’t always work: I chose this book because it has a very overt example of the technique. Such an obvious message to the reader does not always work well because it can feel as if the author is telling the reader how they should feel. Even if you are tempted, don't do this. A good writer leads the reader to the conclusion, but doesn't dictate how the reader should fee. |
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