Another wonderful craft post! If the fight scene also involves some type of chase, I find it immensely helpful to draw it out. (Pretty sure you’ve posted about doing the same.) Because like you say in this post, all the physical actions happening are just stage directions; having that map makes it easier to focus on the stakes and internal character thoughts happening during all the fighting/running/chasing/etc!
Very helpful. Very cool. The point about stakes and the character paying a price seems important. I recently read a mystery series by Edwin Hill, and his protagonist suffered a numbness in one finger that never went away after a prolonged search and encounter with the antagonist in the woods of New England. That tiny detail made her seem so vulnerable, maybe even because it was so tiny; it was relatable
Thanks so much for answering my question! The layering technique I think will be really helpful; on reading that post I think this is something I do intuitively in more dialogue-heavy scenes, but that intuition doesn't translate to action scenes. I think that's really helpful, though, because I know I *can* do it, even if it doesn't happen the same way, and the way you've broken it down here is really useful.
Ok, but even as someone who almost never needs to write a fight scene, this advice and walk-through is SO HELPFUL!!
Another wonderful craft post! If the fight scene also involves some type of chase, I find it immensely helpful to draw it out. (Pretty sure you’ve posted about doing the same.) Because like you say in this post, all the physical actions happening are just stage directions; having that map makes it easier to focus on the stakes and internal character thoughts happening during all the fighting/running/chasing/etc!
Very helpful. Very cool. The point about stakes and the character paying a price seems important. I recently read a mystery series by Edwin Hill, and his protagonist suffered a numbness in one finger that never went away after a prolonged search and encounter with the antagonist in the woods of New England. That tiny detail made her seem so vulnerable, maybe even because it was so tiny; it was relatable
Thanks so much for answering my question! The layering technique I think will be really helpful; on reading that post I think this is something I do intuitively in more dialogue-heavy scenes, but that intuition doesn't translate to action scenes. I think that's really helpful, though, because I know I *can* do it, even if it doesn't happen the same way, and the way you've broken it down here is really useful.
And I'm off to re-read that Bloodwitch scene now!