Whether it be a Massive War, or just two guys duking it out, a Fight Scene can be as fun to write as it is hard for some. I have had people come to me for advice. And of course, I really am no expert, but I might be able to give a few tips. ---------- I will start off with how to write a Massive War, two armies going at it, that entire spiel. My first tip in this aspect, is to go onto youtube and type in Medieval 2 Total War Replays. Seriously, it helps! People play this massive scale warfare game and watching what they do can give you an idea of what works, and what doesn't. This really helps you in writing out your entire battle scene because you will know these things, and be able to create more conflict if you know that a cavalry charge in the light infantry could corrupt your entire line. Also, should you be wanting more of a colonial warfare approach, go for Empire Total War. These drastically help. ---------- Now I will move on to a one on one battle. My first tip is, watch movies, or clips of movies, with a one on one battle. Jet Li has a good variety of Martial Arts and Street Fighting in his movies. As you are watching this, try to describe the fight as it is happening, go into only as much detail as necessary, it will help. My next and last tip is to remember something that one can learn from the best fake fighters in the world: Pro Wrestlers (Sorry if this makes you cry) But seriously, Pro Wrestlers are actors, and their epic fights are generally broken up into 8 parts that really make for a suspenseful and epic battle. This doesn't mean that everyone of your fights needs to follow this guideline to the very 'T' but it is something that will give you an idea of what makes a fight epic, and what brings your readers into it. 1. Intro This is where you basically introduce your fighters, establish their basic range of abilities, and also (if need be) who is overall stronger than the other. 2. Chain The fighters begin to really go at it, for the most part matching each other blow for blow. However, if wanted you may have the stronger character match the blows 2 to 1, or some other variation. 3. Shining Now, one of your characters (we will call him Character A at this point) will begin to get the upper hand over the other (Character B). He/she begins to win over their opposer, or just starts to hit their level (should Character B be the stronger one). 4. Cut off Character B simply cuts off Character A from his slight moment of advantage. This can be done by a dirty trick, or by Character B just deciding he isn't going to toy with his opponent anymore. Its all up to you, but bottom line is: Character B gains the upper hand (Or re-gains it however you are going here). 5. Heat Character B begins to pound the life out of Character A, gaining the obvious upper hand. This does not mean that Character A won't get in a punch or two, because he/she can, its just Character B delivers more hits than A. 6. Hope Spot After being beaten on by Character B for a while, Character A then gains the upper hand. They are able to get in a few really good hits that send their opponent whirling. 7. Double Down Directly after the Hope Spot, Character B rises up to the challenge again, battling Character A blow for blow. This could go on for ages, the characters matched in a climactic final struggle to get on top. 8. Finish The Character you pick to win, either Character A or Character B, wins, end of story almost. Should one chose, a writer can be like the WWE Wrestlers and have a spectacular finishing move. Again, its all up to you! ---------- Well guys, I hope this helped! Happy Writing!
Well, considering the fact that I have found myself in an utter block due to my creative writing being dampened for the sake of college writing, I decided to seek out something to help me gain my creativity back. Here is what I found, and took from many of the Theater practices I have in class, and I hope they help you guys along with myself. 1. Show and Tell. This one is quite simple, take a character of yours that you might want to explore a bit more (For me at this point it would be Scarecrow), and simply write out a short bit where a child in kinder garden or 3rd grade uses your character for their show and tell subject. I imagine this would be quite fun with fantasy-like characters. 2. ABC's There can be two variations of this, one of them is an actual exercise, the other just a thing to to should you get stuck. If you get stuck in your writing, and find you might be at a loss for words, just simply write out your ABC's. I'm not exactly sure if this works or not, but hey, its something. If you want to challenge yourself, try writing a short story with each sentence you write beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet. For Example: A loud rumble began to sound in the forest. Birds took to the air. Chris could barely make out the form of a creature through the brush. Something along those lines. 3. Landscape at a Glance Simply look at a landscape of sorts, it can be in real life or something you pulled up on the computer. Take a glance at it, some may choose to time themselves to challenge themselves, however initially one can look at the landscape for as long as they want. The next step is simple, describe it. Easy as that. The more practice you have with this, the easier people might be able to pick out your landscape out of a selection of a few (should you chose to do this extra step). 4. Random Selection This one has many sub-steps: First write down 10 of your characters, number them accordingly. Then, write down 10 locations, could be from your imaginative world, or anywhere else, also number these. Next, write down 10 times, these can be times of the year, times of day anything, you can be specific or general, number them once again. Finally, write down 10 situations, these can range anywhere from someone your character knows suddenly becomes pregnant, or an epic battle, just go with it, number them. What your then going to do, is have a random selection of four numbers. Say you draw/select a 4, 5, 3, and 5 (this means that numbers can be repeated). You are then going to take Character numbered 4, place them in location 5, during time 3, and have to deal with situation 5. Just roll with it from there. ---------- These are the only ones I have for now... 4 might not be a great spectacular amount... but it is something to work with, right? I hope this helps people, I am off to try some of them out for now. Happy Writing! PS: Check out Theater Games if you want to see a little more. They are originally exercises for actors, but I find they could work out for writing as well.