I have written two fantasy novels, and I have just started another. However, I have a weakness: fight scenes.
I have written a few, but tend to avoid them if I can. And yet, they are a huge part of the genre. In fantasy, the culmination of a story is almost always an epic war. Usually a main character will, at some point, darkly intone, “There is a storm coming,” and you know that fisticuffs will follow, and a prolonged battle scene near the end. Everything that happens in the novel rises to that point.
Battle scenes are supposed to be exciting. They seem to be important. And yet, when reading, I still endure, rather than enjoy, them.
They bore me to tears. The climax is supposed to be the most exciting part of a movie, but I always dread the tedious twenty minutes of non-stop action. When the fight scenes appear, the story stands still. Chaos erupts on the screen. My mind wanders.
This is a problem. If I want to write traditional fantasy, and if full scale war and fighting are critical to its success, then I am lost. How can I hope to write good fighting scenes if I cannot appreciate their value or appeal?
In an effort to understand, I asked my husband what he thought the appeal of fight scenes were. Why do people enjoy them? Is it the elaborate choreography? What is their appeal when it means that the story stands still?
“The fight scene is a story,” he said. “Usually it follows a pattern. The hero is up against a powerful villain. Usually the villain clobbers the hero at first and it looks like certain defeat. Then, at the very end, the hero rallies and defeats the villain. You never watched wrestling when you were a kid?”
“No” I admitted.
“In wrestling the hero is everything good, everything the audience loves. The villain is everything bad.”
I could understand this. The fight is not just exchanging blows. It is a clash of values. The fighting has a theme. However, where is the suspense if the hero always wins? It still seemed repetitious, and still boring.
Through research, I found something helpful, which said that a good action scene was not just a clash of bodies; the action only has meaning if the hero has to make a tough decision that either leads to the action, or becomes its climax.
This made sense to me – but in that case, why not shorten the action scenes and focus on the decision? There must be some appeal in the action itself – something I am missing.
I searched for fighting training videos on YouTube. I learned that if you punch someone, the attacked person will always lean toward the injury. If you punch a person in the stomach, the victim will lean forward, making him more vulnerable to a punch beneath the jaw.
For me, this was revealing, and I thought I understood. Fighting could be cerebral. There was a logic behind the kinds of attacks the fighter chose, based on the knowledge of how the body reacts to being hit.
I was excited. I thought about the martial arts, like Karate, where the combat focused on strategy rather than brawn. I thought I understood. Fighting, then, was like chess with fists!
Suddenly fighting seemed accessible. I envisioned myself bravely donning a white Karate uniform, unleashing well-placed and logical kicks to my surprised opponents.
Then I remembered that I had only played chess twice, and had lost both times.
Besides, I write fantasy novels, not martial art scripts. Traditional fantasy is all about swordplay and magical destruction. I turned to video games for inspiration, with its claymores and war hammers, its battle axes.
Unfortunately, my video game fighting strategies are not the wisest. I usually rush at the enemy with my sword, with no shield or thought to my defense, brandishing and flailing, until the enemy dies and cannot hurt me anymore.
This would be a bad action scene in a novel.
But this is what I have so far: fight scenes are a clash of values, not just people. They are strategic and mental, not just physical. The best ones come about – or end – through a bold decision by the main character. Suspense comes through the likability of the endangered characters.
I understand all this, but still get the feeling I am missing something. If anyone reading this had any insights, please enlighten me.
Meanwhile, I will be reading, writing and doing more research. I have just begun my third novel, and the clouds of conflict are slowly gathering overhead. I have to prepare.
There is a storm coming.