Fight Write

How to Write Believable Fight Scenes

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Pub Date 11 Jun 2019 | Archive Date 8 Mar 2022
F+W Media | Writer's Digest Books

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Description

Whether a side-street skirmish or an all-out war, fight scenes bring action to the pages of every kind of fiction. But a poorly done or unbelievable fight scene can ruin a great book in an instant.

In Fight Write you'll learn practical tips, terminology, and the science behind crafting realistic fight scenes for your fiction. Broken up into "Rounds," trained fighter and writer Carla Hoch guides you through the many factors you'll need to consider when developing battles and brawls.In Round 1, you will consider how the Who, When, Where, and Why questions affect what type of fight scene you want to craft.Round 2 delves into the human factors of biology (think fight or flight and adrenaline) and psychology (aggression and response to injuring or killing another person).Round 3 explores different fighting styles that are appropriate for different situations: What really happens in fights on the street? What is the vocabulary used to describe these styles?Round 4 considers weaponry and will guide you to select the best weapon for your characters, including nontraditional weapons of opportunity, while also thinking about the nitty-gritty details of using them.In Round 5, you'll learn how to accurately describe realistic injuries sustained from the fights and certain weapons, and what kind of injuries will kill a character or render them unable to fight further.By taking into account where your character is in the world, when in history the fight is happening, what the character's motivation for fighting is, and much more, you'll be able write fight scenes unique to your plot and characters, all while satisfying your reader's discerning eye.

Whether a side-street skirmish or an all-out war, fight scenes bring action to the pages of every kind of fiction. But a poorly done or unbelievable fight scene can ruin a great book in an instant.
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A Note From the Publisher

Carla Hoch is a writer and trained fighter with experience in nearly one dozen martial arts and fighting styles. She is the blogger behind FightWrite.net, a blog dedicated to teaching fighting to writers, and regularly teaches classes and workshops on fight writing as well as fight techniques for writers. She lives in Spring, Texas, with her husband, two children, gossipy guinea pigs, and a cat who finds Carla's computer to be a fine place to sleep.

Carla Hoch is a writer and trained fighter with experience in nearly one dozen martial arts and fighting styles. She is the blogger behind FightWrite.net, a blog dedicated to teaching fighting to...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781440300721
PRICE £14.99 (GBP)
PAGES 240

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Average rating from 11 members


Featured Reviews

Who would think that an entire book could be written about the construction of a fight scene? Carla Hoch has given us a book that has an entertaining and enlightening central focus. The writing, at times, is almost anatomical in its attention to detail. An interesting reading choice for any composition class.

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I really liked this book because it is obvious since the beginning that the author not only knows what she is talking about but she also undertook an enormous amount of research.
The theme of the book is at times very heavy, with a lot of information being thrown at the reader but the author defuses that by being funny, interacting with the reader and predicting our own thoughts in a way that is at times scary and never lets you forget that she is really good and speaking directly to each one of us.
It took me a thousand years to read this book because I was actually taking notes while reading it. Not only does she make use of other literary examples, but she also explains every movement in a way that is easy to picture
Throughout the entire book, you can find footnotes that let you further your own research and in the most technical chapters, the author herself tells you where to look for more information.
Also, each chapter ends in a little curiosity related to the theme that gives us a moment to breathe while still learning something.
This is a great book, that goes from the psychological consequences of killing someone to the components of a knife to what to expect from all kinds of wounds.

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This is such a useful book. Writing fight scenes is hard and most resources you find can be rather dry. But this book is fascinating, hilarious and useful.

I wasn't even all the way through the first chapter before I wanted to put what I was reading into practice.

A must read resource for all writers.

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