My story has people with super-strength and super-speed having epic martial arts fights to the death. I want to find a way to write these fights out without the reader becoming bored. Instead I want the fight scenes to be entertaining and interesting to read. As for how fast and strong the characters are, think Albert Wesker fighting his doppelganger. Are there any examples you guys could give me for this kind of thing? Ever read a scene where two characters did this and it was interesting?
I guess you could pick up any of the best-selling action-oriented fantasy books from authors such as Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks and check out their fight scenes. In general, how to make fights interesting... I'm so not an expert, but just a few tips I've picked up: -make it emotional, not necessarily technical -don't over-direct (too much detail will slow it down) -use similar techniques as you'd use in plotting; there's tension, conflict, release, resolution, etc etc: blow to the liver, the hero goes down, will he get back up? Bang, he just got a knee to his face. He's fucked... but no, he gets up, he's wobbly but he's standing, and, smack, against all odds he delivers a Superman punch to the jaw! -give the fight high stakes -establish the hero before the fight so your reader will care about him -pay attention to your verb choices. Maybe it's just me, but the more specific and possibly inventive verbs the writer uses, the more alive some fight scenes have felt.
Fights hurt. Fights are confusing. Any fairly even fight is frightening. Fights are often about endurance and the determination to go on. Accidents happen. A character can stumble, his trousers can split, his shoe can fly off when he kicks. In other words, the battle may appear tightly choreographed and even dance-like to a third party, but to the combatants it will be a bloody mess no matter how experienced or strong they are. It's the things that go wrong that are interesting, not the super duper finishing move.
