Fight Scenes Workshop Sneak Peek with Guest Blogger Rayne Hall
Welcome back, dear readers!
We've got a special treat for you today. One that has the muse dancing in her chair, waving her pen around like a sword, and humming the Xena the Warrior Princess theme song. Oh yeah, that's right, we've got Rayne Hall visiting today to give us a sneak peak into her awesome Writing Fight Scenes Workshop. And she's agreed to talk about my favorite lesson... location, location, location. So read on and take a journey into Rayne's Fight Scenes workshop and...
The Writer's Secret Weapon: Location
To make a fight scene interesting, place it in an unusual venue. What's the quirkiest possible location in your novel?
How about a sauna, a laundrette, a playground, a morgue, a potter's workshop, a lady's boudoir, a cow shed, a minaret, a sculpture gallery, a stalactite cave, a theatre's prop store room, a sewage tunnel or a wine cellar?
What features are there that the fighters can jump on, leap across, climb up, swing from, duck under? What items can they topple or toss? The more creatively you use the space, the more entertaining the scene becomes.
Staircases work well because the fighters can stand on the steps, they can run or leap, they can stumble, fall or tumble, and maybe slide down the banister. They can also use the stairs to move from one location to another, which is useful in prolonged entertaining scenes. To make your fight scene stand out, make the stairs unusual in some way. Perhaps they've been freshly washed and are still slippery, or maybe they are so dilapidated that some boards are missing.
In a long fight scene, the fight can move right across the terrain. This adds variety. Try to arrange it so the climax of the fight happens in the most dangerous place - at the edge of the cliff, at the top of the tower, on the narrow crumbling wall.
The terrain also helps to make your fight scene realistic. As soon as you mention what kind of ground the combatants are fighting on, the scene gains authentic flavour flavour. What's the ground like: Persian rugs? Concrete? Lawn? Uneven planks of splintered wood? Hard, firm, soft, squishy, muddy, wet, slippery, wobbling, cluttered, sloping? I suggest mentioning the ground twice: once to show how it feels underfoot, and once to show how it affects the fight. Perhaps your heroine slips on the wet asphalt, or stumbles across the edge of a rug.
To keep your fight scene plausible , consider how large the space is. How much room do the combatants have to fight? How high is the ceiling? What obstacles restrict the space?
For example: The hero is a warrior, used to swinging his sword in a high arc. Now he must fight indoors, where the ceiling is too low to raise the sword overhead. How will he cope?
Most staircases are too narrow for big sword swings, which can add interesting difficulties. In medieval castles, spiral staircases were almost always built so they favoured right-handed defenders. The person coming down had room to swing the sword-arm, while the person coming up had not. This makes an interesting challenge for the hero fighting his way up, or for a left-handed defender.
Spatial restrictions make the fight scene authentic, plausible and interesting.
SHOW THE LOCATION BEFORE THE FIGHT
During the fast action of the fight, there's no room for describing the setting. This can be confusing for the reader. To help the reader understand the location, show it in advance. If the plot allows it, place an earlier scene in the same venue. Alternatively, let your point-of-view character check out the terrain immediately before the fight starts.
Here are some famous fight scenes from the movies which use the location creatively.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFhfKcwbw5k (Scaramouche)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxWA4GPtM6Q (Robin of Sherwood)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0JYNznbL0Q (Jackie Chan)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8UlKifnGZo (Kill Bill 1)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGzdusxI5XA (Snatch)
You can study them for inspiration. Enjoy!
If you'd like to discuss these clips, or to tell us about the location for your fight scene, or if you have questions about fight scene writing, leave a comment and I'll reply. I look forward to hearing from you.
Bio:
Rayne Hall writes dark fantasy and horror. She has published more than twenty books under different pen names in different genres, and her stories have earned Honorable Mentions in 'The Years' Best Fantasy and Horror'. She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing, and teaches online classes.
Even if you've never wielded a weapon, you can write an exciting fight scene. Rayne will show you how, in her workshops on 'Writing Fight Scenes'.
The next workshops are:
March 2011: www.celtichearts.org/workshops.html
June 2011: www.romance-ffp.com/event.cfm?EventID=303
Comments
Great post. I was wondering how to make the action in fight scenes not sound repetitive, when there is a lot of the same actions - ie. punching, kicking, over and over.
I recommend that you don't give a blow-by-blow account of the fight. Readers would find that boring (unless they're martial arts fanatics).
Instead, you may want to use this technique:
Show only the first few punches and kicks, as well as the final ones.
For the rest of the fight, gloss over the technicalities and focus on the overall movement of the fight, for example >He drove her closer and closer to the cliff<.
This cuts down repetitions, and it holds the reader's interest more.
Does this suggestion help?
Thanks for the inspirational links, Rayne!
I love The Princess Bride! The fight scenes are awesome. Utterly unrealistic, of course, but so entertaining.
In the fight between Inigo Montoya and the Man in Black, they exchange verbal blows at the same time as sword blows, and the dialogue is rapier-sharp and funny.
In a real fight, the fighters wouldn't waste breath on talking, and they would be so focused on the action that they wouldn't think of witty repartees. But who cares, if the result is as entertaining as this?
The fight between Inigo Montoya and Count Rugen is a fantastic example for the use of a catchphrase in a fight scene. Who can forget 'My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die?'
Are you a writer, Jessa? Are you currently writing something which has a fight scene? If not - could it plausibly have a fight scene, perhaps a short one, for example the heroine defending herself? Readers love heroines defending themselves. What would be the weirdest location in your novel where a fight could take place?
Thanks,
Laurie
If it's raining, or if there has been recent rain, and especially if it's spring and the ground has been ploughed, then clumps of soil will stick to the fighter's shoes, hindering their speed.
If it's during a drought or heatwave, then the ground will be baked hot, and maybe cracked (a crack could trip a fighter).
If it's winter, then the ground may be frozen, very hard, which is good for speed, but could be painful when the fighter gets slammed on the ground.
Clothes snagging in shrubs are a good idea, although when the action is in full swing, the PoV won't care about snags. Could the shrubs affect the fight in some way? Perhaps a fighter leaps across a low shrub, or steps behind one to put a barrier between himself and his opponent?
You mentioned that you visualise the field as level and flat. How about making it sloped? Few fields are exactly level. Depending on the geographic area, the slope may be substantial. This can add interest, because the fighter who is higher up has the advantage (fighting downwards is easier, less exhausting, and has more force), so the two opponents may each try to manouevre the other into the lower position.
Fields often have boundary hedges, or boundary ditches, either of which could add interest. Or how about molehills or rabbit holes to make the fighter's trip? (Of course, this depends on your chosen geographic area).
If you have several fight scenes coming up, the class may be a good investment.
Rayne
Laurie
What kind of circle? How is it demarkated? Do the wizards draw a line on the ground, or is there something circular already in place (a circular hedge, a stone circle)?
Is there something you can do to find out more about what fields in the limestone moors of the Yorkshire Dales are like? Websites? DVDs? Ask a Yorkshire person?
Never make the terrain of a fight scene (or of any scene) generic. That's lazy of you ;-) and boring for the reader.
And always use the weather.
Whenever I think of weather and terrain having a crucial impact on the outcome of the skirmish on a battlefield I think of Waterloo. Wellington knew the terrain well from his younger years and knew how to defend it and prepare an attack on it. But he never quite prepared for the incessant rain on the preceding days that make the field a muddy, slippery mess. Which affected not only the battle itself but impeded the arrival of reinforcements. So yeah, I agree weather and terrain can totally change the course of history... no matter how well trained your warriors/troops are.
Well, maybe not impossible for wizards.
This is really making me think about a battle scene I've been toying with that happens at the base of a Mayan temple/pyramid. (I haven't finished researching everything yet.) But I keep envisioning a group of conquistadors about to have a showdown with some Mayans who happen to be backed by two vampire like creatures who have the munchies and are speaking English. And the vamp-like creatures have god-like powers. They probably would have godly powers if they hadn't messed up and been put on community service... so now I'm thinking about just how drained their powers are and how vulnerable they are to the weapons at the time. Ohmi... such possibilities. ;o)
~EK (who has the munchies)
Man, I wish I'd read this before I wrote the fight in my first novel. A lot of the stuff you've gone over is stuff I had to learn the hard way through edits and re-writing and re-writing.
The old 1970s Three Musketeers has some great fights in interesting locales. In fact, I think all the fights in those movies are in interesting locales: a nunnery in the midst of a bunch of laundry, in a laundry room, in the barn at a convent, on top of a ruined fortress, in the middle of an inn as they try to steal food, and, of course, the infamous fight on the ice.
Here's the laundry room fight if anyone's interested (fight starts at 4:02):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLvYjr2NGM
My favorite movie fight, though, is probably the one between Westley and Inigo in the Princess Bride.
Another example which comes to mind is Napoleon's army in Russia. They were unprepared for the extreme cold. Imagine fighting in the snow on frostbitten feet.
The weather can affect a fight, especially a battle, and change the way it's fought, or its outcome. A long period of rain can turn the terrain into mud. Rain plus cold can make the ground icy and slipper. Strong wind can blow arrows off target. Fog can hide the enemy. What other weather effects could affect the battle?
Perhaps this applies to battles more than to individual fighters, and to historical armies more than to contemporary ones. Would you agree?
Perhaps the ice also makes the ground slippery, which is an interesting complication for some types of fighting.
The ice in the Yorkshire Dales would me more likely to happen in January or February than in November, but November is plausible.
My memory of my last visit to the Yorkshire Dales includes drystone walls (as well as sheep). Grey drystone walls were used as field boundaries/demarkations, and also to stack the stones which had been cleared from the field.
I believe greystone walls existed for a long time historically, although I'm not sure if they go as far back as you describe. It may be worth finding out. A drystone wall could add an interesting visual element, and perhaps it could be incorporated in the fight (a fighter jumping on the wall, or leaping across it, of course depending on how you've choregraphed the fight, if they ever leave their circle).
Rayne
I agree, the 1973 version of the Three Musketeers is especially rich in original fight scene scettings. I've just re-watched it last week. The film makers really went out of their way to find quirky settings, which create entertainment, vary the action, and evoke strong historical atmosphere.
Your observation about having to learn fight scene writing from trial and error strikes a familiar cord. Until a couple of years ago, I struggled to write fight scenes, and avoided them where possible (I ensured that the PoV got banged on the head at the beginning of the battle, and didn't recover consciousness until the fighting was over). Then I decided to learn how to write fight scenes, and devoted a year to research and practice.
I ended up learning far more than I had dreamed, and became an expert. The 'Writing Fight Scenes' class is designed to share that expertise, and to save writers the time-consuming and often embarrassing trial&error.
It's great to meet other fans of The Princess Bride. The fight between Inigo Montoya and The Man in Black is my favourite fight scene of all times. No one can accuse it of excess realism ;-), but it's entertaining with witty dialogue and clever use of setting.
It's been difficult finding resources on Yorkshire with the details I need. I've been thinking I'd have to read through all James Herriot's books again to get a real feel for the land! I do know that the walls existed before the time period I'm using, but that they became much more prevalent later.
I searched online again yesterday and noticed that there is quite a bit more information and pictures posted now on the Yorkshire Dales, compared to the last time I checked. In my defense, I'm still working on my first draft - and I freely admit to being lax in my research right now! Getting the details right is something I planned on doing during revisions, although I see now that knowing some of this up front would help with my scenes. It helps that more information has been posted on the net on the official Yorkshire Dales website.
Thanks to everyone for your comments - I'm loving this discussion! :0)
Laurie
Where is the temple? Is it in a rainforest? If so, what's the weather like? Hot and humid? Sudden downpour (maybe in the middle of the battle)? How much space is there for the battle? The battlefield is limited on one side by the temple. Is it limited on other sides, too? (by rainforest, by a lake, by a river, by a cliff?)
How many people are fighting on each side? On which side does the PoV fight? With which die do you want the readers to sympathise?Is it a full-scale battle between armies, or is it two groups of fighters? Group fights are notoriously difficult to write, because of PoV problems.
The question how many people are fighting on each side is important. If possible, let there be fewer fighters on the side with whom you want to reader to sympathise. In a group fight or battle scene, eaders love to identify with the smaller party. Also, give the enemy better weapons and other advantages. Really stack the odds against your heroes - the readers love that. :-)
A scorched circle sounds good. Here are some questions to trigger your inspiration: Is the scorched circle permanent, or was it scorched in preparation for this fight? If it's permanent, how often does it get re-scorched? (at least once a year, I imagine, or the heather will re-grow). During what time of the year was it scorched? (presumably not while it rained or snowed). If there's this wafer-thin layer of ice, is the scorched circle visible?
What's the size of the circle? What's the width of the scorched band?
If the scorching (or re-scorching) was recent, is there a smell of smoke?
If the scorching was recent, and if it's windy (it usually is in the Yorkshire Moors), does the wind blow ashes into the fighter's faces?
If they circle was scorched for fighting purposes (either for this fight, or as a regular fight venue) would there really be any shrubs inside it? If the people go to the trouble of scorching the parameter, they would also clear the inside of the circle.
Maybe they would clear a whole circular space by scorching, instead of just a ring?
Are there spectators? If so, is there an official line to keep them away from the circle? Do they sit (on a drystone wall?) or stand?
Since the Yorkshire Dales are very hilly, I expect the field is not level, but sloping. Few places in the Yorkshire moors are level. Of course it's possible that there is a level field, and that this has been traditionally used for fighting. Does the kind of fighting require level ground? Would a sloping ground give one fighter the advantage?
It's good that you've been able to find more information about the location online. We're fortunate to live in a period which allows internet access and gives a whole world of research information at our fingertips.
Rayne
Laurie
The scorching immediately before the fight would also have the advantage of producing lots of ashes. The ashes would fly in the wind, and they would stain the otherwise whitish ground.
To facilitate scorching immediately before the fight, the weather is probably dry. So maybe the weather is a cold, clear, dry, day, with a cold white sun in a clear blue sky. The wind is slight - there's almost always wind in the moors, but it doesn't need to be of wutherhing-heights intensity. Rather, it's just enough to lift and carry ashes, and to blow the combatant's long hair into their faces, that sort of thing.
If the centre is scorched before the fight, there won't be the cracking layer of ice underfoot, so maybe it is a ring after all.
If it's cold weather,the PoV may be able to see the plume of his breath. His nostrils may feel like they're freezing together. The wind may bite his cheeks. The hand on his weapon hilt may feel cold in the initial phase of the fighting. He may wear warm gloves, but they may make the handling of the weapon less accurate. So maybe he wears gloves to get there, and take sthem off immediately before the fight.
The fighters probably wear hats/caps to keep their heads warm when they go there. But the warm caps would inhibit the ability to hear. If hearing is important for the type of fight (and it's important for writing a fight scene, lol), they may take off the cap before the fight. Perhaps the PoV is wearing a really cosy cap, and takes it off once he's ready to step into the circle. In this case, cold the temperature may hit him quite strongly.
Both fighters may do a physical warm-up before the duel starts, maybe a jogging-on-the-spot kind of thing to get the circulation going rather than stretches.
(As always: use what suits, and discard the rest)
Rayne
In the workshop, we'll explore many other facets of fight scene writing, such as how realistic a fight scene needs to be, how to convey violence, how to structure a fight scene, how to create fast pace, types of swords, unarmed combat, self-defense, female fighters, battle scenes, rapier-sharp dialogue, and a lot more. Maybe I'll see you there?
Rayne