I’m going to caveat this response by noting that I write mostly close-in third person or first person point of view. In those POV frames, I have internal dialogue to work with, taking the place of the external dialogue that drives so many other scenes, and I lean on that to give purpose to the fight – and it’s that purpose that I really want to see in a fight scene, and which I work very hard to incorporate in my characters’ fights.
A well-choreographed fight scene is not a blow by blow catalog. The POV character is not going to remember each blow, anyway, or see every move his or her opponent makes. What matters, and what I try to depict, are the blows and moves that affect the plot of the scene. Is the POV character, a thief, expected to manipulate lock picks in the next chapter once she gets past this guard? Then if she takes a blow to the hands that breaks bones or otherwise makes picking locks a (more) difficult task, you’d want to get that on the screen. Does your character need to be out the door before the pursuit baying in the near distance catches up? Illustrate every little trip and slowing action that keeps him from gaining the door…and maybe toss in some internal dialogue as your character remembers what happened to the last guy those hounds caught up with before he could escape. If each action depicted increases tension, there should be no worries about the scene being boring!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-09-03 04:07 pm (UTC)A well-choreographed fight scene is not a blow by blow catalog. The POV character is not going to remember each blow, anyway, or see every move his or her opponent makes. What matters, and what I try to depict, are the blows and moves that affect the plot of the scene. Is the POV character, a thief, expected to manipulate lock picks in the next chapter once she gets past this guard? Then if she takes a blow to the hands that breaks bones or otherwise makes picking locks a (more) difficult task, you’d want to get that on the screen. Does your character need to be out the door before the pursuit baying in the near distance catches up? Illustrate every little trip and slowing action that keeps him from gaining the door…and maybe toss in some internal dialogue as your character remembers what happened to the last guy those hounds caught up with before he could escape. If each action depicted increases tension, there should be no worries about the scene being boring!