Battle Question

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Hey All,


I'm confused about how to write battle scenes. Any Advice?

[Monk]

I guess you could say battle scenes are my specialty, i've got a lot posted around here in my older stories. While a mess of grammatical errors I was always pretty proud of them as I sought to build my skill.

It's hard to explain how to write a good battle scene. What I always tried to do was close my eyes an envision the scene i wanted to portray from a top down view. Once I saw the motions in my head, I started putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys in this case), battles are actually very easy to write once you get over the initial hump of "how to describe this".

Writing about and describing the battle are two different things, however. You need details if your battle scene is gonna garner attention, lots of juicy details. I always found that throwing in metaphors was a great way to liven up combat. First, envision what you want to say, then look for ways to spice it up. Thesauruses are your best friend in this regard. The odd metaphor doesn't hurt either. Words like "torrent" "whirlwind" "storm", while all having literal meanings can take on poetic imagery when used to describe a warrior's movements in battle.


Oh and music. Really good music can work wonders in writing a fight scene, just don't get too focused on the lyrics. Instrumentals are probably the best.

Hope that helps a little.

[Baby Boomer]

I agree with all Monk has expressed.

The only advice I feel confident in giving is this; if it is a complicated, long battle, a detailed storyboard of what happens in the battle should be writeen beforehand. Don't let your imagination trip and stumble as your thoughts of what could happen instead. Make sure you know the way it runs, and then, as Monk as said, imagine the battle. The sights and sounds, the feelings which run with it and the emotions of it. THen, write down it all down, the very way you saw and then go back later and add the other details.

Giving advice on battle scenes in a book is hard. It really depends on what sort of story it is, how you want it described. A battle can be conducted in many ways. One could let the reader experince it through the General, racing around the battlefield giving orders but never there. Or a foot soldier, in the thick of it and seeing it, smelling it, living it. Or one could be that hawk above the battle, a third person telling of the way which formation moved, or the tactics used.

And of course, it also amtters if you're writing for a short stroy, or a novel. Short stories are usually getting a message across, there is no character, there is no direction. A novel, meanwhile, is moving the reader forward, the battle obviouslky placed to meddle with the characters emotions or move the stroy forward, changing the setting.

So; basiclly just trust your mind. Write down what you see in your mind, and from that you will get a personal telling of the story. Even if you decide to go with a Generals view, that requires the imagination. THe General doesn't stand behind his army, yelling orders. he rides around, rieceives reports, encourages his troops. Add the falvour, and the meals done

Echoing Monk; hope that helps. May be a ramble on and not make sense but.. think about it.