Post by GoldenAerie on Oct 13, 2015 17:04:54 GMT -9
Before I really get this topic started, let me say that Jareth has a goblin army and there is always Sir Didymus, a knight ready for battle (quite different than Sir Elton John, who was knighted for his music). It might come to pass that you need to write a fight, a duel, or even a battle. I'm hoping that we can post some collected tips and tricks for just that very thing.
Duels
Duels are a civil fight that is garnished with rules and codes of honor, but are often misunderstood in modern times. To make it simple, I'm going to give you steps of how a duel is conducted.
1. There is an incident, usually a fight breaks out, and one ends up challenging the other to a duel. The challenger will name the weapon, time, and place. Sometimes this is reversed and the person being challenged chooses the weapons, time, and place. If a knight refuses the duel, he is considered dishonored.
2. Each person chooses a second, which is a person who can stand in place of them if something happens. Seconds generally check weapons to make sure they aren't faulty or of poor quality and also serve as a sort of referee. Sometimes they even participate in the duel.
3. The four people meet at the challengers chosen location at the proper time. The location is usually an isolated area, so no one else gets hurt and so the police don't see what is going on.
4. The challenger makes the choice on the final conditions for the duel. This can be to first blood, last man standing (the other is severely injured), to the death, or first shot (with pistols this is usually the choice).
5. Non-pistol weapons would be drawn and the duel continues until the conditions are met. If pistols are the weapon of choice, the men are usually back to back with each other before stepping out an agreed amount of paces with the seconds counting the steps. At the final step, the duelists are free to turn and fire a single shot at will. They stop if one is hit, otherwise it is up to the challenger to declare if they feel satisfied or not. A pistol duel usually only carries on for two shots, so effort to take aim goes into effect.
That is dueling in a nutshell. If you do some research on dueling, you'll find little things here and there that change around from location to location.
Battles
One of the first things that you have to be able to do, in order to write an effective battle, is to figure out how long the battle lasts. Battles aren't just over in a few minutes. They can take a few hours or a few weeks. Usually several battles form into a war. I want to really emphasize time because you will definitely need more than a paragraph or two to cover a battle.
Try not to have a person who simply wipes out the others. These god figures are boring. You can have a team of elite fighters who fight and fight, then finally kill off a big player or a king or something. The difference is the amount of effort put into the battle.
Blood and guts kind of happen with battles...unless the battle is being done with cream pies or something silly. If you have ever wanted to try writing a visceral paragraph or two, a battle is a great place for it.
Who fights in your battle? You can have all sorts of people fight, BUT I strongly urge you to take caution when putting royals onto the battlefield. If they're more of a warlord, that's cool. If it's Jareth...well he doesn't seem like much of a hand-to-hand combat sort of guy. He has no heir to his throne. Would he really put himself into the middle of a battle if he didn't have to? Maybe he would just let those crafty goblins and any allies do the fighting for him.
Write the battle as it's own entity. Let us know what each side is doing and how the battle is going. You can have some personal comments, but try to stay away from focus strictly on one person unless you can make it work. Even then, keep us up to date on the battle. Remember, a battle is a big group effort on two fronts (bad guys and good guys).
If you need battle inspiration I suggest watching or reading: Willow, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings, and The Hobbit.
Fights
Fights can be super fun to write. I think they have a fantasy Mary Sue quality to them - what would we do if...? Fights can between two people or a group of people and another group of people, but not enough on each side for it to equate to a battle.
Definitely get into individuals heads during a fight. If Sir Didymus is fighting three trolls, I want to know what Sir Didymus is thinking and and what those three trolls are doing. If Ludo was there to help, I want to know what he's feeling (not just that he called some rocks).
Show, don't tell. While this goes for everything, I've read stories where we are simply being told by the author of the incident. Stick to the same pretense and perspective (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person), otherwise you're about to get into a fight with your reader.
Have fun with your fights. Look at that tavern fight from Willow where Willow and Madmartigan and the brownies escape while dishing out humor. Same thing goes for the fights during Ladyhawke and Princess Bride.
Duels
Duels are a civil fight that is garnished with rules and codes of honor, but are often misunderstood in modern times. To make it simple, I'm going to give you steps of how a duel is conducted.
1. There is an incident, usually a fight breaks out, and one ends up challenging the other to a duel. The challenger will name the weapon, time, and place. Sometimes this is reversed and the person being challenged chooses the weapons, time, and place. If a knight refuses the duel, he is considered dishonored.
2. Each person chooses a second, which is a person who can stand in place of them if something happens. Seconds generally check weapons to make sure they aren't faulty or of poor quality and also serve as a sort of referee. Sometimes they even participate in the duel.
3. The four people meet at the challengers chosen location at the proper time. The location is usually an isolated area, so no one else gets hurt and so the police don't see what is going on.
4. The challenger makes the choice on the final conditions for the duel. This can be to first blood, last man standing (the other is severely injured), to the death, or first shot (with pistols this is usually the choice).
5. Non-pistol weapons would be drawn and the duel continues until the conditions are met. If pistols are the weapon of choice, the men are usually back to back with each other before stepping out an agreed amount of paces with the seconds counting the steps. At the final step, the duelists are free to turn and fire a single shot at will. They stop if one is hit, otherwise it is up to the challenger to declare if they feel satisfied or not. A pistol duel usually only carries on for two shots, so effort to take aim goes into effect.
That is dueling in a nutshell. If you do some research on dueling, you'll find little things here and there that change around from location to location.
Battles
One of the first things that you have to be able to do, in order to write an effective battle, is to figure out how long the battle lasts. Battles aren't just over in a few minutes. They can take a few hours or a few weeks. Usually several battles form into a war. I want to really emphasize time because you will definitely need more than a paragraph or two to cover a battle.
Try not to have a person who simply wipes out the others. These god figures are boring. You can have a team of elite fighters who fight and fight, then finally kill off a big player or a king or something. The difference is the amount of effort put into the battle.
Blood and guts kind of happen with battles...unless the battle is being done with cream pies or something silly. If you have ever wanted to try writing a visceral paragraph or two, a battle is a great place for it.
Who fights in your battle? You can have all sorts of people fight, BUT I strongly urge you to take caution when putting royals onto the battlefield. If they're more of a warlord, that's cool. If it's Jareth...well he doesn't seem like much of a hand-to-hand combat sort of guy. He has no heir to his throne. Would he really put himself into the middle of a battle if he didn't have to? Maybe he would just let those crafty goblins and any allies do the fighting for him.
Write the battle as it's own entity. Let us know what each side is doing and how the battle is going. You can have some personal comments, but try to stay away from focus strictly on one person unless you can make it work. Even then, keep us up to date on the battle. Remember, a battle is a big group effort on two fronts (bad guys and good guys).
If you need battle inspiration I suggest watching or reading: Willow, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings, and The Hobbit.
Fights
Fights can be super fun to write. I think they have a fantasy Mary Sue quality to them - what would we do if...? Fights can between two people or a group of people and another group of people, but not enough on each side for it to equate to a battle.
Definitely get into individuals heads during a fight. If Sir Didymus is fighting three trolls, I want to know what Sir Didymus is thinking and and what those three trolls are doing. If Ludo was there to help, I want to know what he's feeling (not just that he called some rocks).
Show, don't tell. While this goes for everything, I've read stories where we are simply being told by the author of the incident. Stick to the same pretense and perspective (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person), otherwise you're about to get into a fight with your reader.
Have fun with your fights. Look at that tavern fight from Willow where Willow and Madmartigan and the brownies escape while dishing out humor. Same thing goes for the fights during Ladyhawke and Princess Bride.