Responding more to the main topic (I'm at work and apologize for my piecemeal participation at the 'mo.) As a reader I tend to find fight-scenes that are merely slug-it-out contests (either with fists or guns) kind of boring, unless either the way the characters fight, or what they say/do during the course of the fight, somehow provides either additional insight on the character or the unfolding plot. You brought up Avatar the Last Airbender, and that's a fantastic example of this: by associating very different martial arts forms for each of the types of bending, the very movements of the characters added an additional layer of emphasis to who and what they were.
As a reader, I tend to want my fight scenes to either be short or to provide me with additional information/insight/entertainment/satisfaction I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. As a writer, I don't tend to write a lot of fight scenes, and when I do it's often more about the dialogue during the altercation than the specific foot-moves and punches. I do try to make it make sense from a purely physical standpoint, though -- for big melees, lego people are a handy diagramming tool. (-:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-09-03 04:57 pm (UTC)As a reader, I tend to want my fight scenes to either be short or to provide me with additional information/insight/entertainment/satisfaction I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. As a writer, I don't tend to write a lot of fight scenes, and when I do it's often more about the dialogue during the altercation than the specific foot-moves and punches. I do try to make it make sense from a purely physical standpoint, though -- for big melees, lego people are a handy diagramming tool. (-: