The dreaded fight scene. Some writers can't even fathom writing one because they get immediate writers block, others seem to be natural pros. But we all agree it can be tough, especially when trying to keep them believable.
Fight scenes can vary. Some are significantly more intense than others, especially depending on where they are in the plot. Here are some things to remember to include when writing a fight scene to make it more believable:
-If you get punched in the face, your eyes will water. A lot. Even if it didn't hurt, it's gonna make your eyes become waterfalls.
-Getting hit in the stomach hurts, and may affect your breathing depending on how hard you got hit.
-Fighting a larger person is hard and they can easily push you back, even if the littler person is stronger or more powerful.
-If your head goes in one direction, the body will follow. So don't have your character get hit in the face and then return the act of violence to the offender because their hit was probably enough to stagger or unbalance your character's core.
-Getting hit in the jaw is a real game changer. It's definitely going to make the recipient disoriented.
-The back or the head is delicate. When hit hard enough in that spot, you'll likely get knocked out. This also can cause a lot of damage and rattle the brain a bit.
-A concussion can vary in symptoms. Not everyone will vomit from one or pass out while others may react so bad they start acting drunken.
-A punch to the kidney is very affective and also very painful.
-Different people fight differently based on experience. Also affected by fight or flight, and the size of a person.
Ex: a wrestler will try and get the opponent to the ground.
-To counter a kick, don't have a character step back. Stepping closer makes the kick less effective as it has less range and power to throw. (Same goes for dealing with horses and why you should slide around the butt when walking around them.)
-If a character gets knocked off their feet, it's almost impossible to get back up.
-If you get thrown into a wall, different parts of your body are gonna hurt. Concussions happen, you might hit a funny bone, etc.
-If someone pulls out a gun, why would the other try fighting them physically? Unless that's part of their character or they know they can beat them, that's just a stupid thing to do.
-Getting hit with the butt of a sword hurts. Especially getting clonked on the head. Like you might get knocked unconscious from that.
(Butt of the sword is the bottom of the handle.)
-If for any reason there's blood coming out of a character's mouth, they're probably going to start choking on it. If not, include the fact that they have to continuously spit it out to either talk or breath, sputtering the blood out of their mouth.
-Gun duals don't mean they're actually going to shoot each other. 95% of the time both opponents just shoot at the sky and call it a day. There's a 1% one of them will die and a 0.5% they'll both get killed. Yes, your favorite western movies are all liars.
-Drunk people who get violent aren't likely to be stupid while doing so. And if their sensibility is messed up, their morals might have gone out the window which leads to them accidentally killing someone by shooting them or beating them to death.
-Punching people will hurt your knuckles unless you have guards.
-Wrapping your knuckles for a fight don't actually do anything but keep your wrists from bending in a weird way.
-Long hair is bad for fighting but if a character has to have long hair, have it get pulled. Even short hair gets pulled but if it's long it'll definitely be tempting to yank on. Getting your haired pulled in a fight may make someone unable to move depending on their sensitivity.
-Swords can get unbalanced in ones hand which leads them to getting lost from the hand.
-Running and shooting a gun accurately is insanely difficult.
That's all I can think of/have gathered for fighting scenes. Remember that different people will deal with fighting differently. Try not to make your character always have the upper hand. Let them lose, let them get hurt, make it believable and interesting. The less predictable the better.
Here's a list of words you can use to describe fights:
Slice
Pelt
Drive
Club
Bombard
Carve
Chop
Spear
Brand
Shell
Hammer
Clout
Bomb
Blast
Torpedo
Stab
Plunge
Thwack
Trounce
Whale
Tumble
Pummel
Batter
Maul
Pound
Clobber
Crush
Bash
Wallop
Break
Smash
Beat
Whop
Wack
Flee
Disable
Abandon
Dodge
Reel
Deceive
Escape
Confuse
Charge
Combat
Overwhelm
Raid
Shatter
Mutilate
Storm
Punish
I'll talk about injuries later.
If you have anything to add or any questions, let me know in the comments!
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