Fight scenes are a dime a dozen. Most fiction has it. But good fights are as rare as gold—and just as beautiful too. A good fight scene outshines a million terrible ones.
But what separates the good ones from the bad? Is it… the weapons? The physical descriptions? How the characters react?
The answer's not as clear-cut as you'd hope.
Today I'll be breaking down why your fight scenes suck (and how you can fix them). If this post ends up helping you, give me a reblog so I can help more writers! Share the love.
1). YOU'RE DESCRIBING TOO MUCH
Writers love to over-describe their fights—writing every punch, huff, expression, and micro-movement. You think you're doing a good job, but the truth is: you're slowing your scene down when fights should be fast. When you overdescribe, pacing suffers, and the fight gets boringly technical. Your readers will pick up on that and skip.
Think of it as writing in slow-motion.
A good fight? It's quick. It's dirty. It's written in choppy sentences and minimal verbs because everything's moving so fast. Explain just enough so your readers know where everyone is, who's punching who, whose weapons' hitting what. But if you find yourself describing the individual flecks of sweat on someone's fist as it's charging forward, well… then you've gone too far.
Tips for you:
Do not describe everything blow-by-blow.
Highlight important moments as they come.
Characters can always discuss details after the fact.
Describe just enough for readers to know what's going on.
Most fights end in seconds.
When in doubt: trust your reader to fill in the blanks. (They're good at that.)
2.) YOUR FIGHTS LACK MEANING
Readers read books for a feeling. Fights are no exception.
Give your character something good to fight for. Don't make it about survival, because readers know your main character won't die. So give your fight stakes. What happens if your protagonist loses? Will they be exiled? Will someone else die? Why can't your protagonist walk away?
Make sure we feel the consequences before and during the fight. Foreshadowing is your best friend.
A bad fight scene? It fills white space for its own sake. It meanders—it exists because "fights are cool, y'know". If a fight is meaningless, readers won't waste their time with it.
Ask yourself these questions:
Why should we root for your hero?
What's at stake?
Who has the upperhand?
What are the consequences? ← (!!!)
A fight that's actually meaningful will change the rest of the story.
3). YOUR FIGHTS AREN'T FUN (And you're not having fun with them)
I know what you're thinking right now.
"But my fight has stakes, my fight has just enough detail, aaaand it has meaning!"
But those are all technical things. You're scratching off a list of requirements and calling it a day.
Where's the banter? The plot twists? The power moves? How do the character's backstories and fight history come into play? Where are the injuries? And goddamn it—where are my car keys?!
A well-written fight is passable.
A well-written but fun fight sticks in your mind. Those are the fights you reread over and over—the kind of fight that says, "Look at me. Look at what my characters are capable of."
Have fun with your fights. Add weird weapons, add a crazy-ass plot-twist that changes the upperhand. Write your fight as a game of chess where each move levels the playing field. Or write your fight as a non-stop rollercoaster ride of twists, turns, curves, and loop-de-loops. A fight so intense and weird but undeniably you, that by the end of it, your reader is left breathlessly asking, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?"
Not every fight should be a cinematic masterpiece. Not every fight needs a plot twist. But I am saying that a fun fight should be your priority.
And if a "fun fight" doesn't fit your gritty and realistic medieval fantasy story? Fair enough, but don't let that stop you from adding something unique.
Different ideas you can steal:
Use your fight as a worldbuilding opportunity (you can get so creative with this!)
Add banter
The protag and antag are unexpectedly related (mentor/student, father/son, mother/daughter)
A secret or important plot device is revealed
Characters use the environment to fight (tossing sand in eyes, releasing a caged animal, etc.)
Reveal that your protagonist is more brutal than you'd have the reader believe
Add realistic injuries that suddenly change the fight (example: an injured arm can't block as well—perhaps your protag uses an unexpected item as a shield)
A special move unique to one character
A stronger third character joins the fight (forcing the two fighters to work together)
Changing locations mid-fight
Both fighters are progressively injured until they're both barely standing
The swordfight ends in a bloody fistfight
4). BONUS TIPS
These tips are just as important as the rest.
A combat injury can easily become a permanent one.
Read your favorite scenes and break down what they did.
Any character can experience PTSD, even if they're an experienced fighter (think: combat vets)
Don't get too flowery or wordy.
A good fight scene is mostly atmosphere and feel.
Make it visceral. Make it uncomfortable.
Keep it real—swords are heavy, armor is heavy. A simple cut may seem like no biggie, until the blood dribbles down and affects their grip.
In sum:
Don't overdo descriptions, give your fight meaning, and make your fights FUN. Oh—and never skimp out on reading! Studying other fiction is just as important as writing it.
Did this post help you? I'm glad. If you're struggling with your fight scenes right now, I offer feedback like this directly to your work.
This post was proudly written without generative AI.
How I Approach Pacing and Tension in Writing (with graphic!)
(Fuck the gremlins, we're posting things TODAY)
Hi, welcome to the first actual post on my Tumblr page in where I ramble about how to write the goodest things.
Today's lesson is on PACING AND TENSION!
Hard to explain in many words, so behold my crudely drawn graph of how I handle this shit in my own writing (and I apologize in advance for my chicken scratch kekw)
I tend to have very high-stakes plots, but I feel like this could end up applying to any sort of genre or plot. I know a lot of these graphs I saw in school were a single bell curve with a gradual incline into the climax, but in my experience, the best way to build tension, keep pacing as even as you can, and really build into the peak of a story is to have small points of buildup to smaller peaks (aka the tension points) with sharper curves down into downtime (allowing the character to breathe), before building up again. Each tension point gets more and more intense, with the downtime acting as the small buffers between the gradually increasing intensity of the tension until SURPRISE, SHIT HITS THE FAN, IT'S THE BIG BAD ISSUE COME TO A BOIL.
But of course when shit hits the fan, things aren't the same as they were before (or at least, they won't be for a while), so the shape changes. Instead of sharp curves up and down, you're looking at a more gradual downward incline, with dips for moments of recovery/acceptance before there's little spikes in tension as a result of whatever occurred in the climax. This isn't an exact science and definitely can be toyed with, but this is a model I like to attempt to adhere to when I'm focusing on coming up with my story beats and creating the groundwork for the big climactic explosion.
How do I get the plot to go forward in a convincing way? Mostly with interactions between characters? (PS, love you blog!! :])
Thank you!
My best advice to moving the plot forward in a convincing way is to obviously, not force it. If you're having trouble continuing, don't force yourself. You're either gonna burn out or create something you hate and the reader hates because they'll see that it's forced. If you get stuck on how to proceed: Back track. Go back to where you started writing, and reread. You may get an idea as you go.
Some people find story/plot maps helpful. Writing down or creating a visual representation of where you want to go.
if you can't write linear, try bouncing around. You might not know how to write that next scene, but you might have an idea for four scenes later, or three whole chapters later or just the end. Go write a different scene. You might get an idea of how they connect. I am incapable of writing in a linear fashion so I tend to do this one a lot.
When it comes to interactions between characters, try to remember: How much do real people communicate? People do not realistically talk to eachother 24/7. If your characters are on a long journey or something, there's realistically going to be some bouts of silence. If you don't want there to be silence, ask yourself 'which character would realistically break the silence and how?' but it is realistic and acceptable to gloss over bits and pieces with brief explanations of 'we tried our hand at small talk for a while until we lulled back into a comfortable silence' or whatever fits.
Sometimes when I am stuck and do not know how to proceed, I look at where I left off and I ask myself very simply: "Who?What? Where? Why?" Who is here, what are they doing, where are they, why are they doing this? OR who do they need, what do they need, where do they need to be, and why do they need this.
I hope something from this list is able to help. Best of luck to you!
We all love earth-shattering plot twists and heartbreaking character deaths, but y you can’t have those things without something to contrast them. That is what these scenes are for. They can take place during any time in the story, the point is that they aren’t a major turning point. I find these scenes harder to write because it’s a lot more difficult to make it interesting without as much conflict. So, here’s some tips!
1. Change the setting. Not every scene has to have your characters just sitting around and talking by themselves. Perhaps your characters are going swimming or playing a game or at a party. Or maybe they're on public transit. If the characters are doing something besides talking it can make the scene just a bit more interesting for you and hopefully your readers. Even better, have that setting directly cause conflict in the scene. For example, maybe the characters are discussing something private out in public. Maybe they got lost. Pretty much anything you can think of, do it.
2. Add character interaction. Pretty much everyone has a group of other people they interact with. What are their relationship with these people? Their friends? Family? Do they have any pets? Is there are any conflict between your character and their mother, for example? Their best friend? Do they have to walk the dog even though they don’t want to? Is there a pesky rival who won’t leave them alone? Whether they be allies or minor antagonists, having other characters can add some life and flavor to not just one scene but your story in general.
3. Add some conflict. This is rather common advice but people tend to talk about the why instead of the how and what. Maybe your character has to go somewhere or do something and they don't want to. Or perhaps they are trying to do something and fail a few times. Maybe they're hanging out with people they don't know very well and feel uncomfortable with it. It doesn't have to be super dramatic and it shouldn't be because these are the quiet scenes.
4. Look back on the past. When your scene takes place, what has happened to the characters so far? How has that changed their outlook? For example, my WIP has a scene I haven’t written yet where two characters go over to a friend’s house and help his mom bake cookies. Sounds boring, right? Except for one thing... the friend is missing, and the characters went over to try to figure out. His mom is trying and failing to bake cookies to cope with the stress. Now that’s a lot more interesting. Past events, either in the character’s backstory or during the course of the story, can really add that spice you need.
5. Foreshadowing. There is nothing more fun than introducing some cool symbolism or something and having your characters either misinterpret it or not notice it all. This always gets me hyped for the later events of the story/makes me feel like a literary genius (whether or not that's true doesn't matter, these are meant for your first draft). Only thing is if you have to know what's going to happen in your story, so if you don't write like that then welp.
6. What if? What if the character gets lost? What if the person they’re looking for is busy? Pretty much anything goes here. If you think of something that sounds cool, try it. If it doesn’t work, oh well. If it takes your story in a new direction, great! Maybe this version of this story will be better. If it isn’t, oh well. There’s no harm in experimenting.
7. Forget about it and move on. This is a last resort. If the scene is giving you immense writing block and none of these tips and move on, maybe it’s just time to get rid of it. It might be a good time for a break too. The best ideas often come to you when you least expect it... like when you’re lying in bed. If you don’t want to take a break, you can just fast forward and come back to it later. Don’t abuse this though... you actually want to write a concrete story, not a jumbled mess of scenes.
Anyways, these are my tips. Hope they helped! I’ve been working on this for months lol, I haven’t had much time with school and other stuff.
How do you come up with a complicated and political soul mate based love story when no one wants to listen to you talk about the intricate political conflicts of a separate island nation that actually has nothing to do with your main story but you think is important to setting up in universe jokes that you might want to include.
Sometimes we get scared about writing a story or even the thought of posting it.
I get this too. One example of this is that I got scared about writing certain stories for some new ships in fanfiction I found I liked. Fearing that it wasn't something that I could feel okay posting. Fearing how it would go. But after talking to my partner I felt more comfortable about it and have let myself write them to my hearts content.
My partner told me to not censor myself. That it is okay to like what you like.
A small note from myself. Just don't take it as okay to go out there in your life and commit a crime. Like going out there after underaged people because you like that as an example. I don't encourage that at all.
When it comes to stories like fanfiction sometimes we like certain characters together, even if it seems weird. Maybe the characters are mythical creatures. And you don't have to be ashamed of that. You like what you like.
Holding yourself back in story writing can make you not like it as much as you did before. When I found I shipped two mythical beings I held myself back, however when I stopped censoring myself I found so many opportunities for stories opening up. I found an enjoyment is seeing what stories I could come up with next for them. I no longer felt like quitting on writing stories about them.
Fear is a part of life. We can get scared and that's okay.
Try out the story. You could find a whole new possibility for stories for you to write. This is especially true for fanfiction writers.
Plus don't forget that there will always be at least someone who hates it. But people who will also enjoy it. Since we are our own beings who view the world in different ways. You don't have to put too much thought on someone who doesn't like the story you have made.
The waves on the ocean stopped moving as if time froze. The still water created a tunnel. You, a very confused surfer, decide to swim through and you make your way into a magical realm of the ocean.
