Post by Enuyu Suhishi on Mar 2, 2013 13:02:45 GMT -5
The Art of Writing Combat: 101
This article is a guide for beginners. It is provided as a starting point for those who are looking for ways to improve their combat writing. It is divided into two sections: "Combat and the Mind" and "Combat and the Senses" I hope it helps.
Combat and the Mind
[/center][/size]Combat is scary.
Very few people can enter combat without fear. Sometimes it comes on a character without warning and they don't have time to be afraid. Some characters are combat veterans that have learned to master their fear, and it will not be a great factor to them. But being utterly without fear in combat is something that almost never happens, and is usually indicative of a diseased mind. For the inexperienced and/or young combatant, fear will weigh heavily on them. Their hands may shake, their knees and legs may feel weak, sounds might seem distant. For them the fear is going to be sharp in their guts.
Combat is often life and death for an adventurer.
Combat flips that primitive flight or fight switch in our reptile brains. Adrenaline surges, the heart races, time seems to dilate, little details that would otherwise never be noticed become crisp and clear. The heart of combat is an altered state of mind where all other concerns fall away and the only priority for a character is their own survival, and depending on what sort of person they are the survival of their compatriots.
Combat leaves mental scars.
I am not saying every fight is going to give a character a month of nightmares, or that every character who experiences combat will end up with some disorder. The reality is far from that. What I am saying is that combat changes a person. People in combat will see things that affect them for a long time. It will have some impact on how they view the world and their fellow man. One does not just witness a body being disemboweled and not feel something about it; especially if the character is the one doing the disemboweling. No hero kills casually.
Try not to forget those things. I'm guilty of often forgetting it myself. Why? Because I've never really been in combat, and as writers we write what we know, or have become passingly familiar with through research. There's no shame in forgetting it, but remembering it and including it adds a depth of realism to the combat scene and your character.
Combat and the Senses
[/center][/size]Like all scenes you should keep the five senses in mind when writing combat. That said, combat is violence and it assaults the senses like few other things can or will. What follows are some exemplars, things to keep in mind, and starting points to consider. The full spectrum of sensory experience in combat is vast and beyond the scope of any single work. Hopefully this will simply act as a catalyst to get you into the mindset to express your own creativity.
Smell + Taste
The scent of blood is metallic, as is it's taste. Fireballs leave things scorched and burning, fill lungs with heat, the nose with acrid smoke, and a bitter taste on the tongue. The scent of burning flesh is not pleasant in any way, unless you're kind of messed up like that. The earth gets churned under feet, and thus the smell of freshly turned dirt often goes hand in hand with fighting.
Sound
Flesh and bones make all sorts of sounds when they are being beaten and broken. They are not nice sounds, and they are not pleasant to hear. It's the sort of thing that reminds someone of how fragile their own body can be. Well made steel rings, poor made stuff rattles and clatters. Blades and arrows cut or hiss through the air. Weapons scrape off of armor. People scream, yell, shout, moan, groan and sometimes even laugh or cry through it all.
Sight
Combat is ugly, but it can be beautiful too. Characters will see things that will turn their stomachs and make them wish there was such a thing as eye bleach or the ability to unsee a thing. On the other hand there are those who will see beauty in combat; in the flow and form of the movements, in the purity of the actions surrounding life and death. Some folks will see both. No matter what, the visuals of combat are something that stay with those who experience it. Blood is a unique shade of red, but appears black under moonlight.
Touch
Getting hit hurts, there's no two ways about it. Some folk are good at working through the pain. Some are only encouraged to further action by it. Others may fold under it. A berserker might not feel it. A mage might be put to tears. Stabbing and cutting wounds are sharp pains that end up throbbing later. Blunt trauma aches all the way around. Armor and gear gets heavy after a while, especially at the end of the day.
At the end of the day few things in the world are as tiring as physical combat. A minute or two isn't so bad, but after that even a healthy person's lungs will start working hard, muscles will tire, and fatigue will build. Extended combat can become exhausting enough to make a person physically ill from the toxins that build up in the blood. Just a few minutes of intense combat can require a much longer time to recover from, in some cases hours even if your character didn't get hurt; just to clear the lactic acid from their blood, rehydrate, and build up energy reserves again.
This may seem like a lot to think about, and to be honest it is. Don't be intimidated or dissuaded. No one expects you to be some sort of prodigy author. We expect you to have fun and do your best. Nobody is born a fully formed and perfect writer. Every journey begins with a first step. Keep writing, strive to improve, take cues from other writers. But most importantly, and again, HAVE FUN!
Now get out there and write some folks having a physical disagreement.