forum Somebody hALP

Started June 02, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

I have two huge fucking problems. One, I don't know how the fuck to write fight scenes from a fp view.
Two, can anyone help me find the name of that fucking jacket Kai from the Lunar Cycle wears in most of the gotdamn fanart?

I can answer the first question! You're on your own for the second one since I have no idea what that is. Anyways: Fight scenes are fun because you can throw basically all grammatical correctness out the window. You should definitely use quite a few fragmented sentences, if it suits your style. Whatever the case, your focus is on sensations. Battles move fast, they're filled with adrenaline, no one's thinking clearly, it's not pretty. Even the most seasoned fighters are still forced to think on their feet, hardly having time to anticipate the next move before its barreling at them.

Think fast. Think short, loud sentences. Snap, snap, snap. Swords clashing together with a clang. The strain in your character's arms as they parry. The metallic taste and smell of blood. Your character's heart, pounding in their ears. Grunts, cries, unintelligible yells. The pain of a hit that has landed, the sound of cracking bones. The dizzying feeling of losing too much blood. The aching, stabbing, shooting, pulsing pain in your characters ribs, chest, legs, whatever. The taste of dust as your character hits the ground. The agony it takes to stand back up, to keep fighting. Keep the flow fast, keep the flow interesting.

DON'T over describe. No one actually wants to know what's happening in the fight. Don't use fancy terms or describe every detail. It interrupts the desperate, anxious flow of the scene. Keep the camera zoomed in tight, for lack of a better term. Since you're writing first person, it should be easy for the narrative flow to stay in the moment. There's no zooming out from a fight if you're seeing it from the fighter's eyes.

My last word of advice: play some high intensity music. Rap or hip hop. Epic violin. Drums. Heavy metal. Whatever suits your taste. Get your own heart beat pumping, write quickly, pour out the scene onto the page so that when the reader finishes reading the fight, they feel like they were in the fight as well. Make your readers sit back and catch their breaths from the high paced intensity of the battle.

Alright alright alright. I'll keep all that in mind when my co-writer can't save my ass.

The music tip definitely is something I'll use, since I like to use music anyway for setting moods while writing. Thank you!

I think I might be able to help you with the second question. But… did you mean Kai from the Lunar Chronicles or did you actually mean from the Lunar Cycle, as you wrote in the comment? Cause I couldn’t find anything called the Lunar Cycle but I knew about Kai from the chronicles.

Anyway, I did some research on the jacket (first time I’ve stalked a jacket lol) and it seems to be a traditional Tang Suit Jacket. It’s traditional wear in China, but the ones I could find a picture of didn’t have as much decoration as the ones Kai wear. I would assume that the artists chose to decorate and change it a bit since he is royal. In some fanarts I also saw it as a longer coat version, I think that those exist too but I couldn’t find any good picture of it.

If that wasn’t the jacket you meant… well then I have done a lot of research for nothing XD. I hope this helps!

I did in fact mean Chronicles lmao

Thank you though! I was looking for the name for a character of mine, bcs I'm trying to decide on a jacket for him, but he's Japanese(sorta? fantasy worlds are funky), not Chinese

Thank you though, I really appreciate it, it's been bugging me for a month

I looked into it some more, and it seems like they are used in Japan too, but just not as much, so if you really want him to wear it I think it could work anyways…

I'll keep that in mind! Thank you~

You’re welcome!