I don't know how this should work. I'm at a point where one protagonist has just met another protagonist in prison. I plan on making them have a very strong bond built up over time and I want at least a little of that bond developed over the time they're in prison together. One of the protagonists is being forced by the warden to fight in an arena against opponents significantly more skilled than he is, but will eventually be able to hold his own against most of them, and even out-match a few. I want two things to happen over the course of three months, when the protagonists make their escape, without writing every event and dialogue of every single day. 1: The protagonists to develop a strong enough bond that one will help the other escape and stay together til the end of the story. 2: One of the protagonists to learn hand to hand combat to a proficient level. I have no idea how to write a time skip here without it sounding cheesy or forced. Also later in the story I was planning on the protagonist that fought in the arena to be formally taught some form of martial art or self defense to the point where he can win a 5 on 1 bar fight. I was thinking Krav Maga, but now I'm not so sure as it seems to be a 1 on 1 fighting style. Can anyone recommend a more fitting martial art for my protagonist to learn?
What's your story? Is your story about how they escape the prison? I'd outline the plot, see which scenes are important (progress the plot and develop the characters), and then write them. That's pretty much what writing a book is about, I've gathered. I suppose you could write a short re-cap of the things that have happened, something like this, maybe: Mike spent the past weeks busting his ass at the gym. Tom could be such a dick sometimes; never satisfied with Mike's performance, always telling him he was holding his hands too low or he wasn't minding his surroundings. Tom would say, there are four limbs in the human body, numbnuts, and any of the four is going to come at your head or balls with a purpose once you're in the ring. Except once you're in the ring, it's not gonna be just one guy. You're gonna fight three, four, five guys. But that's why I'm teaching you KM, man. Or you can do a time jump directly to the point where you want the story to pick up again. We practiced fighting multiple opponents in Krav Maga, so I don't think it will be a problem -- I'm no expert though. We would do a group fight or say, five-against-one. There's also some crazy Russian sport, apparently, where a group of guys kick the shit out of each other. I can't remember its name. @T.Trian would know. You can also come up with your own prison sport. A modification of MMA? Maybe use old UFC rules, or Pride rules, so you are e.g. allowed to kick your opponent in the head when he's down.
You can do your time jump literally in skips. Write short scenes highlighting significant milestones in their growing relationship, as well as laying out how he learns his martial arts skills. Fighting even one reasonably skilled opponent at a time is hard enough. There is no technique or school that automatically prepares you for multiple opponents. What you need is for your protagonist to find and meet a real expert in hand to hand. Can be an ex-special forces guy or a senior martial artist. Perhaps your protagonist has something to offer in exchange for training, or maybe he accidentally saves the trainer's life. There are lots of street fighters in prison, so once your protagonist learns enough technique it should be easy for him to find some sparring partners to practise one against many combat, supervised by the trainer.
Krav Maga still works, btw - it's almost impossible to attack someone while someone else is also attacking them. Unless you train together to do that specific "multi-person" attack, people will wait or not get in the way, plus you can maneuver people around and force them into each other. Aikido may also help in that regard?
First, the only rule in the arena is stop when your opponent goes unconscious. So mostly anything goes. Second, he only learns Krav Maga after he escapes prison, not before. and then the 5 on 1 happens a good while after that. But yeah, there could be a small recap or something like that. I think I'll do this, write only the significant events of the story. thanks.
