Itchy Pen, Empty Mind

Call me Itchy-pen :3 Long story short: I love to write, but lack a muse. This blog is some of the snippets I write whenever it hits me...let's see where this goes :3 Check me out on my primary blog if you wanna...toodles

[keyboardsmashwriters]

10 ways to hit your readers in the gut

One of the strongest bonds that link us to our favorite stories is the emotional tie, or books that sink a fist right into our guts. When you finished a book where you couldn’t let go of after the last page, chances are, the author successfully punched you in the spleen. If you’ve ever wondered how to do just that, here are some of my favorite methods:

Make your reader root for your main character(s). Make your character stretch out their arm toward their goal, as far as they can to reach, until their fingertips barely brush it. Make your character want something so much that your reader wants it, too.

When your character trips and stumbles and stops to question themselves, the readers will hold their breath.

Push your character to their very limit, and then a little further.

When your character hits the bottom, they should scrape themselves back together and get back up. Give readers a reason to believe in your character.

If your character is challenging your plot, your plot should challenge your character.

Leave a trail of intrigue, of questions, of “what if?” and “what next?”

If a character loses something (a battle, an important memento, part of themselves), they must eventually gain something in equal exchange, whether for good or bad.

Raise the stakes. Then raise them higher.

Don’t feel pressured to kill a character (especially simply to generate emotional appeal). A character death should serve the plot, not the shock factor. Like anything else in your story, only do it if it must be done and there’s no other way around it.

What’s the worst that can happen? Make it happen. Just make sure that the reader never loses hope.

[thebibliosphere]

I’m forever haunted by the knowledge that Dracula is a public domain work and I could literally just write Dracula AU (No listen, but hear me out, The Batchelor), and every second I’m not doing it feels like an affront to whatever god thought it would be a good idea to keep me alive.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Here’s a List of Public Domain Classics for those of you who want to get your Classic Lit AU on, and potentially create THE LITERATURE CLASSICS CROSSOVER FIC FROM HELL.

Which I’d read the shit out of.

[dappledwithshadow]

COMPLETE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE

COMPLETE WORKS OF H.P. LOVECRAFT

HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson 

BOOKS OF BLOOD, Clive Barker

THE HANDMAID’S TALE, by Margaret Atwood

THE GREAT GOD PAN, by Arthur Machen

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, by Dalton Trumbo 

THE TURN OF THE SCREW, by Henry James

PET SEMATARY, by Stephen King

DRACULA, by Bram Stoker 

THE WASP FACTORY, by Iain Banks

SWAN SONG, by Robert McCammon

THE STRANGER BESIDE ME, by Ann Rule

[writersrelief-deactivated202404]

The Different Types Of Rejection Letters And What They Mean For Writers

Rejection letters from literary agents and editors of literary journals can be discouraging for creative writers — especially impersonal…

[writingwithcolor]

hello mods! first and foremost, thank you for all the hard work you put into this resource. it is ridiculously helpful and i share it with all my writer friends. on to my question! is it culturally insensitive to use aspects of culture from different indigenous groups within my fantasy world? i am currently writing a fantasy world that is based on indigenous groups within canada. i am metis, so i want to see myself represented. the current novel im working on features a world influenced by (1)

(2) inuit culture however i pull inspiration from other canadian FNMI groups as well—i use cherokee names, blackfoot legends, plains cree-like words, etc. everything is rooted within canadian indigenous communities, but i dabble within different communities while constructing the one that will be the main focus. Is this okay? Thank you so much :)

Pulling from Multiple Indigenous Legends

If it makes sense with diffusion, it’s (generally) alright. 

The key thing for me, that has always been the key thing for me, is asking if it makes sense for these things to have travelled and ended up in the region the characters are talking about. 

I’m vaguely familiar with the Metis, and I know their region is heavily tied to Inuit, Blackfoot, and Plains Cree histories. I don’t know how Cherokee fits into the picture (best guess is where their reserves ended up), but as I said, I’m only vaguely aware of Metis history. You’re far more educated on the topic than I am, for how it’s your lived experience.

You’re pulling from a very real history of diffusion amongst groups, and thanks to that real history, there’s a distinct ring of truth to what cultures have mingled. Because of that basis for real life diffusion, these parts already mesh together in well-established ways, and won’t necessarily feel out of place.

I would personally like to see hints of the broader culture, so there are some areas that are more one way, other areas that are more another way. Basically showing where the original cultures came from, and showing the trade that happens (very readily, at that). But that can be as simple as a sentence here or there about where that particular tradition came from (“legend from the mountains”, for example).

It’s not an automatic no. It’s just something that has to be handled cautiously, but it would be denying a lot of very real intermarriage, alliances, trade deals, and cultural sharing to say that no two Native cultures can blend together. It would be ahistorical to deny the Metis exist, or that Natives don’t have bits and pieces of culture from other cultures from exchange.

Definitely use diffusion and cultural sharing in respectful ways. It’s not only great for mixed kids/cultures, but it also allows you to tip your hand at the concept that this world has more people than just those focused on in the story.

~ Mod Lesya

[theunamazingauthor]

101 Unique or interesting names for male characters

Able

Adder

Adrian

Adriel

Aeron

Alec

Alto

Amos

Ansel

Atlas

Asaiah (As-A-ah, like Isaiah)

Baize

Balthasar

Barnabas

Bartholomew

Blaze

Boaz

Bonaventure

Cable

Callisto

Cassius

Cato

Caspian

Chandra

Chester

Corbin (Core-ben) -Also spelt Korbin

Cyrus

Damaris

Decimus

Dorrit

Dougal

Eagan

Ebenezer -Eben

Ephraim

Eobard

Eonian

Ewart

Flavius

Fillius

Firth

Gannon

Garvan

Gawen (Gaa-Win)

Gawain (Gah-way-nn)

Hadrian

Henrik

Ichabod

Jasper

Julius

Kalan

Kalgan

Laban

Leopold

Lenik

Madoc

Marcus

Matthias

Meckel

Mercer

Mercury

Misha

Nathaniel

Nehemiah

Nero

Noam

Orson

Otto

Persis

Phelan

Pike

Quinten

Quintus

Ragin

Romulus

Scipio

Septimus

Shamir

Silas

Slater

Solomon

Starling

Summed

Tahoe

Thaddeus

Themis

Tobias

Tolliver (Like Oliver)

Trias

Uhdel (You-del)

Uther

Valerian

Varick

Vittorio

Wyndon

Willem

Xabier

Xanthus

Ymir

Yannick

Zoran

Zafar

There you have it, sorry this took so long! 

Here’s the girl’s list: http://theunamazingauthor.tumblr.com/post/149810084809/101-unique-or-interesting-names-for-female

[m-l-rio]

Remember this next time you have the urge to compare your work (or your success) to someone else’s. 

[the-writers-society-deactivated]

Are These Filter Words Weakening Your Story?

After putting my writing on hold for several weeks, I decided to jump back in. I expected to find all sorts of problems with my story–inconsistencies in the plot, lack of transitions, poor characterization–the works. But what began to stick out to me was something to which I’d given little thought in writing.

Filter words.

What are Filter Words?

Actually, I didn’t even know these insidious creatures had a name until I started combing the internet for info.

Filter words are those that unnecessarily filter the reader’s experience through a character’s point of view. Dark Angel’s Blog says:

“Filtering” is when you place a character between the detail you want to present and the reader. The term was started by Janet Burroway in her book On Writing.

In terms of example, you should watch out for:

To see

To hear

To think

To touch

To wonder

To realize

To watch

To look

To seem

To feel (or feel like)

Can

To decide

To sound (or sound like)

To know

I’m being honest when I say my manuscript is filled with these words, and the majority of them need to be edited out.

What do Filter Words Look Like?

Let’s imagine a character in your novel is walking down a street during peak hour.

You might, for example, write:

Sarah felt a sinking feeling as she realized she’d forgotten her purse back at the cafe across the street. She saw cars filing past, their bumpers end-to-end. She heard the impatient honk of horns and wondered how she could quickly cross the busy road before someone took off with her bag. But the traffic seemed impenetrable, and she decided to run to the intersection at the end of the block.

Eliminating the bolded words removes the filters that distances us, the readers, from this character’s experience:

Sarah’s stomach sank. Her purse—she’d forgotten it back at the cafe across the street. Cars filed past, their bumpers end-to-end. Horns honked impatiently. Could she make it across the road before someone took off with her bag? She ran past the impenetrable stream of traffic, toward the intersection at the end of the block.

Are Filter Words Ever Acceptable?

Of course, there are usually exceptions to every rule.

Just because filter words tend to be weak doesn’t mean they never have a place in our writing. Sometimes they are helpful and even necessary.

Susan Dennard of Let The Words Flow writes that we should use filter words when they are critical to the meaning of the sentence.

If there’s no better way to phrase something than to use a filter word, then it’s probably okay to do so.

Want to know more?

Read these other helpful articles on filter words and more great writing tips:

Filter Words and Distancing Point of View

The Reasons Editors reject Manuscripts

Filter Those words and Strengthen Your Writing

[legit-writing-tips]

Legit’s Dialogue Writing Masterpost

Writing good dialogue is hard. Whether you’re a novice writer or you have plenty of experience, dialogue is one of those things that takes more time and effort to polish to a shine than you may realize. 

One of the big reasons good dialogue is difficult is because most of us tend to write the way we speak - which is both good and bad. Good because you want dialogue to flow naturally, to a degree. Bad because you want dialogue to be interesting as well as natural-sounding, which means that you have to find a way to make your dialogue pull double duty in text. It has to sound like it was spoken by real people, yes. But it can’t simply be dropped into the text the way that real people actually speak. 

So, without further ado, here are some resources that you can use to help you write better dialogue. 

Basic Dialogue Writing Resources

https://www.standoutbooks.com/6-insanely-good-dialogue-tips-from-your-future-literary-agent/

http://writetodone.com/10-easy-ways-to-improve-your-dialogue/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/10/04/dialogue-mistakes/

http://www.romance-ffp.com/the-seven-most-common-dialogue-mistakes/

http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/article/68334a30

http://mythcreants.com/blog/distinguishing-characters-in-dialogue/

http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/how-to-balance-action-narrative-and-dialogue-in-your-novel

http://creativewritingguild.com/tips-tricks/9-tricks-for-writing-organic-dialogue/

Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction Dialogue

https://pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/writing-rambles-writing-fantasy-dialogue/

Creating Slang and Swears in Fantasy and Science Fiction

http://www.writing-world.com/sf/dialogue.shtml

Dialogue in Historical Fiction (+ Some Resources)

https://litreactor.com/columns/turning-a-phrase-how-to-write-historical-dialogue

https://writinghistoricalnovels.com/2013/12/07/on-writing-dialogue-in-historical-novels-by-kathleen-benner-duble/

Miscellaneous

Writing a Child’s/Young Teen’s Dialogue

Dialogue and the Telephone

Formatting Internal Dialogue

Dialogue Exercises

Here are some exercises for those of you who want to work on your dialogue.

http://madammayo.blogspot.com/2011/03/dozen-dialogue-exercises.html

http://writingexercises.co.uk/dialogue-generator.php

http://www.faberacademy.co.uk/news/2015/11/creative-writing-exercises-dialogue/

[yourmoderndaybookworm]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AY-ktOjZCnrpf1Yt14yg4hWpUt1RVdStyjwrZmU08EXKSQcSJid0E8g/

[chronickles]

The Write of Way, Reimagined!

If you’ve been in the Writeblr community for a while, you may have seen some posts advertising a Discord server, The Write of Way, floating around. (If not, that’s all right!) The Write of Way was created as a place for creators of color to come together and share their works in a welcoming and encouraging atmosphere. Though TWoW started off as a specifically writing-centric server, over time, the space grew to encompass all kinds of art forms! In these past few months, however, TWoW has been completley dismantled and reconstructed into two entirely new servers, and we’d like to invite you to both of them! (Though these servers have been around for a few months now, this is one of the first public advertisments we’ve made announcing them! Reblogs would be greatly appreciated!) Important! These servers are only for creators eighteen and older, and those who consider joining us MUST be POC identifying. Beyond this, anyone and everyone is welcome!

The Tea Parlor is a space that encourages friendship, discussions, and creativity without too much a focus on one thing over another. (And memes. We share lots of memes.) The Tea Parlor is laid-back counterpart to our sister server, The Inkwell, where casual conversations can take place and silly conversations can be shared without interfering with any creative discussions. This server has a greater emphasis on friendship and community. Created by Chronick.

The Inkwell’s primary focus is to centre writers of colour who exist at any and all intersections, and wish to pursue writing in any form. Whatever your medium, this server intends to encourage, (em)brace and cultivate your work in any way it can. If you are passionate about writing, then you are in good company. This server has a greater emphasis on craft and creation. Created by Antic. Both servers offer: a dedicated team of staff members + spaces for art, writing, and life resources to be shared + spaces to discuss diversity, race, gender, intersectionalism, and how they relate to mainstream media + and many spaces to discuss WIPs/share ideas! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us! We hope to see you soon!

[lizard-is-writing]

What Writers Should Be Reading

This is yet another super requested post and though I love to talk about the books I’ve read, I generally don’t tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t be reading. Mostly, that’s because reading taste is a personal preference. For instance, my fiancé won’t pick up anything that falls under fiction. He reads all the time – though it’s incredibly rare to see us ever reading the same book.

Keep reading

[brynwrites]

do you have any advice/links for someone trying to write through major depression or other mental illness? writing is the only ive ever been good at & all ive ever wanted to do but i havent been able to write a single word in well over a year and im starting to lose hope that i ever will again. its like my motivation and creativity have just up and evaporated and im not sure how much longer i can keep praying for rain

Writing through mental illness.

I have a tag here with all the motivational writing posts I’ve made. Some center around writing when you can’t seem to get yourself to do it, and a few are born directly from my own struggles as a writer with chronic anxiety and depression.

But I think the problem here might be that you are praying for the rain. Waiting and wishing the motivation and creativity will come is a viable strategy when you’re young, mentally healthy, and have boundless time and energy, but after that point, it will never truly work. It’s really hard to move forward from this, because your brain will tell you that if you have no inspiration, that you’re failing, that your words aren’t good enough, that you should stop. 

Except your brain lies, trying to make up for the fact that it doesn’t (yet) know how to write if it can’t write the way it used to.

Professional writers don’t write good, creative words. They write terrible, awful words, often words they hate. Sometimes they write them slowly and sometimes they write them knowing they’ll throw them all out in the end. But they write them anyways.

So my advice is this: Don’t pray for rain. Write a desert.

Write the most terrible, horrible, awful sentence you can think of.

“She ran super fast up that big fat hill and it hurt.”

Now you have a sentence. It’s a terrible, horrible, awful sentence, but it’s there, and it’s yours, and you can fix it later.

Then you write another sentence just as awful.

You don’t write them for long. Maybe the first day you challenge yourself to write ten sentences. Ten sentences every day, five days a week. Then you write twenty. And then thirty.

The more you write, the more your brain forgets that it doesn’t know how to write without inspiration, and figures out that all the skill and knowledge and ability is still there, inside you. 

You write much better, stronger words (sometimes), though you don’t always know it until you reread them. 

You set small, reasonable goals, and work your way to bigger ones. 

You take breaks (and plan breaks into your goal setting.) 

You reward yourself when you hit those small, reasonable goals. 

You don’t care that your words are terrible, horrible, awful words because that means you’re in league with the most genius writers of all time.

You’ll look back and find that as you wrote that desert, the storm blew up behind you.

Rain doesn’t bring writing. Writing brings the rain.

[tenderbeasts-deactivated2019101]

Those links for all asking Deadly history of women using perfume as poison -Girlhood, medusa and female rage -The allure of gothic horror -Essays and thoughts on girls in horror -Why girls get hungry in horror -Mothers and witches -Women in horror -The female poisoner -female werewolves -Monstrous women - Catherine Lundoff -Female cannibals and consumptive horror -Horror films directed by women -Women, killer plants and annihilation -Female identity within the gothic genre -Women in horror - the vvitch -the vvitch, female sexuality in horror -Angela Carter - The beast is female sexuality -Body horror/monster reading list -Consumptive horror

[ittybittytatertot]

Some of the best writing advice I ever got was if you’re stuck on a scene or a line, the problem is actually about 10 lines back and that’s saved me from writer’s block so many times.

[melindawrites]

I feel like I need an elaborate explanation

[ittybittytatertot]

Often times, I find myself stuck on what a character should say next or what should happen in a scene to connect A to B or so on. When this happens, I fall into the trap of writing and rewriting the same few lines over and over, and becoming more and more dissatisfied every time until I give up. 

But problem is almost never actually whatever line I’m trying to write at the moment; the issue is the stuff leading up to the line. Maybe there are structural issues with the set up, maybe I wrote a bit of dialogue that was out of character leading to a discussion that doesn’t make sense, maybe I’m missing a vital piece of exposition or expositing too much. It could be a lot of things, but the important part of the advice is to look back and be willing to consider changes to something earlier in the work (even if you’re really attached to like a piece of dialogue or a particular sentence or something) instead of trying to find a way to force out a scene that’s not working.

[melindawrites]

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining!

[becketted]

there is a lot of bs going around these days so let me repeat this:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SPEND HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO HAVE YOUR MANUSCRIPT PROFESSIONALLY EDITED IF YOUR GOAL IS TO SEND IT TO PUBLISHERS OR LITERARY AGENTS

Anyone tell you you need to have your manuscript professionally edited previous to submission to publishers or agents.

Publishers will do the editing on the manuscript (for free! this is important) once they have bought your manuscript. They don’t need submissions that are professionally edited. And agents KNOW this. If a literary agent sees a manuscript that shows promise but need some work they WILL WORK with you on it.

I cannot stress this enough:

Don’t pay loads of money to get your manuscript professionally edited if you are going to submit it to publishers or literary agents

If a manuscript doesn’t work not even the best editor can do much about it, you will waste money and your book won’t be more readable to publishers/agents

Never PAY TO GET PUBLISHED. If a publisher says they want to publish your book but they need to professionally edit it and they want to charge you money for the edits, RUN. This is not a real publisher, it’s a “vanity press” aka they are trying to scam you.

Seriously, I’m a freelance editor so it’s not in my best interest to tell you not to hire professional editors, but again, if you are planning to submit to a publisher or a literary agent. 

When should you hire a professional editor for your writing:

If you are planning on self-publishing. When you self-publish you are the publisher, and any decent publisher should get their books professionally edited and proofread.

If you are not sure where your manuscript is at or how much work it needs and you want a professional beta reader - but DON’T pay to edit the whole thing in detail

Maybe, MAYBE If you want to submit a short story to a contest or a magazine and you want it really polished. Magazines don’t have time/resources to do big edits on their pieces so if they receive a sub that might need a lot of editing to be up to standards they might pass on it

But again, PUBLISHERS AND LITERARY AGENTS DON’T NEED PROFESSIONALLY EDITED SUBMISSIONS. They know the publisher will do final edits, proofreading and polishing. They don’t need to received perfectly polished submissions. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to edit your own manuscript (you do!) and make sure it’s in the best possible shape you can manage. It means you ABSOLUTELY do not have to spend thousands on getting it professionally edited prior to submitting it.

[berrybird-blog1]

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

[ave-aria]

How to apply Writing techniques for action scenes:

- Short sentences. Choppy. One action, then another. When there’s a lull in the fight, take a moment, using longer phrases to analyze the situation–then dive back in. Snap, snap, snap. - Same thing with words - short, simple, and strong in the thick of battle. Save the longer syllables for elsewhere. - Characters do not dwell on things when they are in the heat of the moment. They will get punched in the face. Focus on actions, not thoughts. - Go back and cut out as many adverbs as possible. - No seriously, if there’s ever a time to use the strongest verbs in your vocabulary - Bellow, thrash, heave, shriek, snarl, splinter, bolt, hurtle, crumble, shatter, charge, raze - it’s now. - Don’t forget your other senses. People might not even be sure what they saw during a fight, but they always know how they felt. - Taste: Dry mouth, salt from sweat, copper tang from blood, etc - Smell: OP nailed it - Touch: Headache, sore muscles, tense muscles, exhaustion, blood pounding. Bruised knuckles/bowstring fingers. Injuries that ache and pulse, sting and flare white hot with pain. - Pain will stay with a character. Even if it’s minor. - Sound and sight might blur or sharpen depending on the character and their experience/exhaustion. Colors and quick movements will catch the eye. Loud sounds or noises from behind may serve as a fighter’s only alert before an attack. - If something unexpected happens, shifting the character’s whole attention to that thing will shift the Audience’s attention, too. - Aftermath. This is where the details resurface, the characters pick up things they cast aside during the fight, both literally and metaphorically. Fights are chaotic, fast paced, and self-centered. Characters know only their self, their goals, what’s in their way, and the quickest way around those threats. The aftermath is when people can regain their emotions, their relationships, their rationality/introspection, and anything else they couldn’t afford to think or feel while their lives were on the line.

Do everything you can to keep the fight here and now. Maximize the physical, minimize the theoretical. Keep things immediate - no theories or what ifs.

If writing a strategist, who needs to think ahead, try this: keep strategy to before-and-after fights. Lay out plans in calm periods, try to guess what enemies are thinking or what they will do. During combat, however, the character should think about his options, enemies, and terrain in immediate terms; that is, in shapes and direction. (Large enemy rushing me; dive left, circle around / Scaffolding on fire, pool below me / two foes helping each other, separate them.)

Lastly, after writing, read it aloud. Anyplace your tongue catches up on a fast moving scene, edit. Smooth action scenes rarely come on the first try.

[uccelletto-di-kokuyo]

More for martial arts or hand-to-hand in general

What a character’s wearing will affect how they fight.  The more restricting the clothes, the harder it will be.  If they’re wearing a skirt that is loose enough to fight in, modesty will be lost in a life or death situation.

Jewelry can also be very bad.  Necklaces can be grabbed onto.  Bracelets also can be grabbed onto or inhibit movement.  Rings it can depend on the person.

Shoes also matter.  Tennis shoes are good and solid, but if you’re unused to them there’s a chance of accidentally hurting your ankle.  High heels can definitely be a problem.  However, they can also make very good weapons, especially for someone used to balancing on the balls of their feet.  Side kicks and thrusting kicks in soft areas (like the solar plexus) or the feet are good ideas.  They can also (hopefully) be taken off quickly and used as a hand weapon.  Combat boots are great but if someone relies more on speed or aren’t used to them, they can weigh a person down.  Cowboy boots can be surprisingly good.  Spin kicks (if a character is quick enough to use them) are especially nasty in these shoes.

If a character is going to fight barefoot, please keep location in mind.  Concrete can mess up your feet quick.  Lawns, yards, etc often have hidden holes and other obstacles that can mess up a fighter.  Tile floors or waxed wood can be very slippery if you’re not careful or used to them.

Likewise, if it’s outside be aware of how weather will affect the fight.  The sun’s glare can really impede a fighter’s sight.  A wet location, inside or outside, can cause a fighter to slip and fall.  Sweat on the body can cause a fighter to lose a grip on an opponent too.

Pressure points for a trained fighter are great places to aim for in a fight.  The solar plexus is another great place to aim for.  It will knock the wind out of anyone and immediately weaken your opponent. 

It your character is hit in the solar plexus and isn’t trained, they’re going down.  The first time you get hit there you are out of breath and most people double over in confusion and pain.  If a fighter is more used to it, they will stand tall and expand themselves in order to get some breath.  They will likely keep fighting, but until their breath returns to normal, they will be considerably weaker.

Do not be afraid to have your character use obstacles in their environment.  Pillars, boxes, bookshelves, doors, etc.  They put distance between you and an opponent which can allow you to catch your breath. 

Do not be afraid to have your character use objects in their environment.  Someone’s coming at you with a spear, trident, etc, then pick up a chair and get it caught in the legs or use it as a shield.  Bedsheets can make a good distraction and tangle someone up.  Someone’s invading your home and you need to defend yourself?  Throw a lamp.  Anything can be turned into a weapon.

Guns often miss their targets at longer distances, even by those who have trained heavily with them.  They can also be easier to disarm as they only shoot in one direction.  However, depending on the type, grabbing onto the top is a very very bad idea.  There is a good likelihood you WILL get hurt.

Knives are nasty weapons by someone who knows what they’re doing.  Good fighters never hold a knife the way you would when cutting food.  It is best used when held against the forearm.  In defense, this makes a block more effective and in offense, slashing movement from any direction are going to be bad.  If a character is in a fight with a knife or trying to disarm one, they will get hurt. 

Soft areas hit with hard body parts.  Hard areas hit with soft body parts.  The neck, stomach, and other soft areas are best hit with punches, side kicks, elbows, and other hard body parts.  Head and other hard parts are best hit using a knife hand, palm strike, etc.  Spin kicks will be nasty regardless of what you’re aiming for it they land.

Common misconception with round house kicks is that you’re hitting with the top of the foot.  You’re hitting with the ball.  You’re likely to break your foot when hitting with the top.

When punching, the thumb is outside of the fist.  You’ll break something if you’re hitting with the thumb inside, which a lot of inexperienced fighters do. 

Also, punching the face or jaw can hurt. 

It can be hard to grab a punch if you’re not experienced with it despite how easy movies make it seem.  It’s best to dodge or redirect it.

Hitting to the head is not always the best idea.  It can take a bit of training to be able to reach for the head with a kick because of the height.  Flexibility is very much needed.  If there are problems with their hips or they just aren’t very flexible, kicks to the head aren’t happening.

Jump kicks are a good way to hit the head, but an opponent will see it coming if it’s too slow or they are fast/experienced.

A good kick can throw an opponent back or knock them to the ground.  If the person you’ve hit has experience though, they’ll immediately be getting up again.

Even if they’ve trained for years in a martial art, if they haven’t actually hit anything before or gotten hit, it will be slightly stunning for the person.  It does not feel the way you expect it too.

Those yells in martial arts are not just for show.  If done right, they tighten your core making it easier to take a hit in that area.  Also, they can be used to intimidate an opponent.  Yelling or screaming right by their ear can startle someone.  (Generally, KHR fans look at Squalo for yelling)

Biting can also be used if someone’s grabbing you.  Spitting in someone’s eyes can’t hurt.  Also, in a chokehold or if someone is trying to grab your neck in general, PUT YOU CHIN DOWN.  This cuts off access and if they’re grabbing in the front can dig into their hand and hurt.

Wrist grabs and other grabs can be good.  Especially if it’s the first move an opponent makes and the character is trained, there are simple ways to counter that will have a person on their knees in seconds..

Use what your character has to their advantage.  If they’re smaller or have less mass, then they’ll be relying on speed, intelligence, evasion, and other similar tactics.  Larger opponents will be able to take hits better, they’re hits may be slower depending on who it is but will hurt like hell if they land, and size can be intimidating.   Taller people with longer legs will want to rely on kicking and keeping their distance since they have the advantage there.  Shorter people will want to keep the distance closer where it’s easier for them but harder for a taller opponent.  Punching is a good idea.

Using a person’s momentum against them is great.  There’s martial arts that revolve around this whole concept.  They throw a punch?  Grab it and pull them forward and around.  Their momentum will keep them going and knock them off balance. 

Leverage can used in the same way.  If used right, you can flip a person, dislocate a shoulder, throw out a knee, etc.

One note on adrenaline:  All that was said above is true about it.  But, in a fight, it can also make you more aware of what’s going on.  A fight that lasts twenty seconds can feel like a minute because time seems to almost slow down while moving extremely rapidly.  You only have so much time to think about what you’re doing.  You’re taking in information constantly and trying to adjust.  Even in the slow down adrenaline gives you, everything is moving very rapidly. 

Feelings will be your downfall even more so than adrenaline.  Adrenaline can make those feelings more intense, but a good fighter has learned not to listen to those feelings.  A good fighter may feel anger at being knocked down or in some way humiliated - their pride taken down.  Yet they will not act on the anger.  Acting on it makes a fighter more instinctive and many will charge without thinking.  Losing control of anything (adrenaline rush, emotions, technique, etc) can be a terrible thing in a fight.

Just thought I’d add in here.

[bamonnineties]

YES. YES.

[stylincheetah]

Such good writing tips! @myebi

[juliawritesbooks]

@jmlascar you’ve probably seen this already, but in case you haven’t, it’s got some good info on fight scenes :)