How To Write a Great Fight Scene | A Writer’s Path

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How To Write a Great Fight Scene

by Sarah from Paper, Words, and Coffee

Picture it. Your favorite character slowly circles an enemy, sword drawn. The reader is frozen in anticipation. This is it; the beginning of another epic fight scene that will have them sitting on the edge of their seat, chewing their nails, completely oblivious to reality. There is nothing but the world that lies between the inky lines on the page.

This is my goal, to write engaging and exciting fight scenes. But I have to admit, I am struggling. My forte is in building suspense and mystery, emotions, and drama between characters. Fight scenes, however, will play an important role in my book. So in order to learn how to write a good fight scene, I’ve been doing some research and some brainstorming.

I’ve reviewed both my favorite and least favorite fight scenes in fiction and have made notes on what I believe either makes or breaks them. Below are 5 points that I believe to be key to constructing a great fight scene. Hopefully it will be a good point of reference in the future to help budding authors, including myself, in creating exciting fight scenes.

1. Is the fight actually important?
Does the fight progress the story-line or result in some kind of character development/understanding? If not, then the scene should be really short, or just not there at all. Long, drawn out fight scenes that have no true purpose can be really tedious and boring to the reader.

Keep reading over at The Writer’s Path (Blog) by Ryan Lanz: How To Write a Great Fight Scene | A Writer’s Path