I take it a step further in my choreography. I let my inner gamer take over. I'll actually setup a map, use miniatures, and even roll dice to determine how well or poorly each action is done. It makes the fights dynamic and usually not one sided. I loved how Indiana Jones usually got his butt kicked at first before springing back to win.
It's a lot of fun and you can make your antagonists do smart things instead of getting their butts whooped. You don't even have to use real mechanics, I roll 2D 6 and the higher I roll the better they do.
U r a beautiful person my man. That is similar to what i do. I didnt know if that was normal. Either it is or we're both insane. Whatever it takes to get that novel out am i right?
I tried doing this with my book but I expanded it into a fullblown rpg with persuasion, taunt, and weapon class skills. It got so difficult for me to manage I just dropped everything except the character sheets which I now use just as a vague reference.
I don't think that's a good Idea, if you want to write a character that is meant to be so much more powerful than another leaving it in leaving it in the hands of lady luck isn't the best way to convey a character fighting another character that is way out of it's league.
Fight scenes are probably my favorite part of the book to write...I tend to just imagine the fight scene as a movie in my head with every move shown. (It's easy for me since I'm a martial artist and have a lot of experience sparring.) After that, I try and par it down with quick powerful words so those who don't know fighting will get it, but not dumb it down completely. "His opponent rushed at him with a jab and followed with a left hook. He parried the jab and ducked under the hook and twisted his body to return with a rising shovel hook to the liver that double his opponent over." This isn't bad, but to someone who hasn't fought it's going to be a little slow and ponderous. You want just enough technical detail to be correct, but allow the reader to imagine the scene in their mind. "His opponent lunged forward with a flurry of punches he batted away. His breath coming in gasps, he ducked under the massive swing and countered with a shot to the ribs. There was a snap. 'that had to have broken something,' he thought."
I love that I have been looking into fighting styles but I don’t use a lot of the vocab I have learned because I don’t really expect the avg person to understand right away So both eg. seemed great Especially the second since it was easier to understand But the first did have me thinking a bit more about what I have learned and if the reader would get it.. but it was nice to see how a fighter sees a fight scene in their head
Fight scenes are hard for me to write. My strength is dialogue so having a fight not broken up by banter, like between an animal and a person, are especially difficult. I like to choreograph it in my mind, like a movie, then try and describe what I see in my mind.
Clarky Clark I'm the opposite. In my most recent piece of writing, I can go for huge bricks of purely actiony fighting with only a few lines among three characters.
I'm the opposite. Fights are fairly easy for me to write (I think) but I always need to think so much when they're talking. What to say, how to say it, who's saying what? What are they doing as they talk etc etc etc. XD So hard.
This is late, I know, but if it helps, you can act the motions out in real life. This applies to most actions, really. If a character is going to feint with a sword and you're not sure how to convey that, try acting it out and describing it from there. Hope this helps! :D
Medieval/fantasy setting. X is a cold-hearted contract killer. Y is a massive berseker-type security guard for a wealthy man, Z. In a crowded plaza, X is stalking Z. Taking a quiet path around the buildings, X goes for the kill. His plan is use the crowd's cover to reach Y, stab his windpipe, and disappear back into the mob, right under big Y's nose. X walks calmly, breathing deep, focused. The thrill is always there, even after all this time. But it must be tamed. Sharp steel makes the leather hiss. Y heard, stopped the diving blade and punched hard. X's vision was blurry. His back against the wall, his feet off the ground, Y was crushing his throat. A desperate kick to the testicles sends them both to their knees. X draws a second blade and buries it in Y's neck. Coughing, X stands up. Before him, an empty plaza and Z, looking shocked. Z's eyes flinch. I must run! A blade rotates through the air, gleaming in the sun. Gasping for air, gurgling blood, Z's last sight was Y. Standing up, behind an oblivious, beaten-up X. (I tried)
I'm in the middle of writing a book called The Sacred Moonstone. The protagonist finds out the magic powers of her moonstone necklace in the middle of the fight when it falls into her hand and throws the antagonist into a window.
Great new background. I like the "26 Letters, Infinite Possibilities" signage. I have something to inspire my writing directly over my desk as well. Noticed the audio was "tinny" but I'm sure that will be resolved soon enough. Great video which can be used for script writing fight scenes as well. Thanks, and it's really nice to see you back making videos! #peace
With #2, I immediately thought of Durarara!! and the fights between Izaya and Shizuo. They fight pretty much every time they meet and those fights always end with next to no significant change to the plot progression. Yet, I feel like they still work very well. I don't really know why; the first one was comedic but the joke basically runs out after the second one, so that can't be all. I've only watched the show and not read the book, so I can't comment on how it's written. Has anyone else watched or seen Durarara!! ? What do you think?
The novels are very different. Their rivalry looks unjustified, but it gradually becomes obvious. In high school, Izaya saw Shizuo as a danger to Shinra (Shizuo even beat Shinra once) and he did whatever he could to get rid of him. Izaya tends to care for his only friend too much. He even mentioned to Shinra's sister how much of a threat was Shizuo to Shinra. That started it. About the significations of their fights, it actually moves the plot forward for their "story". As Durarara!! doesn't really have a true protagonist. They fight casually at the beginning, but in the end, it becomes a blood bath. I know that in the anime, there are countless fights between them, but in the novels there are only three. Also, the anime makes them obsessed with each other. Simon says to Izaya: "You just don't want to lose to Shizuo, you have some sort of complex to him" I think it was the last episode of the first season. Anyway, in the novel he didn't say that, Simon doesn't even mention Shizuo at all. This phrase changed the way viewers see izaya. There are many things to say, but this post is getting too long.
David Ciulin Mm, I agree. Comparing the light novel and the anime, Izaya and Shizuo's fights appear almost like a running gag in which casual, inconsequential clashes can be squeezed into the episodes. But since you mentioned that, I'm motivated to go back and re-read the earlier volumes of the light novel. I said I'd try to read Durarara!! SH but I still haven't gotten around to it.
Chidz Hustle I honestly can't really justify 'Shizaya' as a ship, in my opinion. I'm not much of a shipper regarding any type of media so I guess I'm in no place to criticize or encourage shippers. They're free to do as they please. I just don't see Shizaya. There's not much of a palpable indication of a romantic relationship in the light novel or the anime adaptation from what I can see. I also just don't think of Durarara!! or most series that I'm into as practical to ship any of its characters. It just doesn't seem like that type story to me. I mean, I guess if I really stretched my viewpoint, I could see Izaya as 'obsessed' with Shizuo. Romantically? Meh. If it was canon though I think it would only be one sided. Izaya goes out of his way to create discord in Shizuo's life, but he also does that with anyone he invests his interests in. Shizuo doesn't do this though. I like to use the fanbase coined mentality that Izaya could be (in a twisted way) fixated on Shizuo but not vice-versa. That's my take on it, anyway. You?
Leo Anbu It happens often enough that you know it will happen with a guarantee, however the dynamic between the show and the characters makes it so when they fight it's more of an ode to the normal. A common theme in the show is making a comnection to the normal, in extreme contrast to the headless celtic immortal, brood mother sword zombie curse, and the other crazy stuff.
I love your videos Vivien. Is there a fight scene by another author or yourself that you can recommend as a good reference, and one that you consider poor? I'd like to see some contrast for what I'm working on.
Great advice video and it''s just what I'm needing to improve my fight scenes. I'd have never thought of including deadline to up the stakes or even making sure I include using the environment. Thanks x
Here’s a video I would LOVE to see. How to avoid frequently using “he did this” “he did that”? I know they’re wrong and I hate using them so much in my writing but I don’t how to fix it. Anyone else have this problem?
For example: “He peered around the corner. The searchlight slowly passed by. The coast was clear. He braced and lept across the alleyway to safety. But a he heard a yell behind him; he had been seen. He turned around to face the guards bearing down on him.” Haha, came up with that on the spot so its not the best example. Still, there are 6 he/hims in that short paragraph alone :/
Pèpe DeClercq Thats great! Much better! I’m not a writer either...... I’m a.... story maker upper?? I even kinda hate writing but can come up with (I believe) are original ideas and intriguing characters. My friends and family have always been encouraged me to get something published so I’m trying to improve (a lot)
What's helped me most with fight scenes is attending Taekwondo, and studying martial arts. It gives me more perspective on the attacker, and also the victim. What places are most vulnerable. What moves give you most leverage. How someone actually reacts in a fight. Not to mention how much it hurts! Obviously not everyone is going to do some form of martial arts, but researching it and gaining information would (I think) help a lot!
I think that is fine for a slightly slow motioned fist... if u want it to be faster I would take out the curled sand cooked part If the intention is to have it slow motioned then keep it there but reading it, the fist felt slowed down then when he lands into the tree that was sped up bcuz there was no additional description in the tree part
If think it’s fine, but if I were you, I would include the part where he actually hit him. Like after he cooked his hand back, it knocked his opponent? Maybe.. but if I were you, I would put something like this “Cooked it back as far as it could, and flung his hand toward his opponents head (or anything you want), knocking him back several years into a tree” or something like that. You just need to mention the sort where he actually hits him, and I recommend mentioning the part of the wound, like where he got hurt. In my example it was the head. Because maybe after you’d want to describe his injury, or something like that. This may have been a long time ago but still for future readers
Too long for such am action. Well, too much commas. No need to stretch it out. He injected strenght into his arm and knocked away his foe, far into a tree. Or His powerful arm cut through the air as he drives it onto his oppenant's belly. Keep things simple
I really love her tips and they're really useful, but are there any TH-camrs who have actually published multiple books? Vivien and Jenna are great but both of them only have one book. It makes me wonder how their advice is so good.
Kristen Martin has a trilogy out and a fourth book coming soon. I haven't had the chance to read them, since I'm behind on my current reading. You should look into her, her vlogs are pretty informative.
They haven't written only that one book in their whole lives - a lot of story starts, bad novels, tibits, practices - I am familiar with most of the advice, and I haven't even started writing a novel.
Zaid Phyre KM Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors. She has a ton of material for writers but she's also published multiple novels. And also, I agree.. this is the first time I'm hearing this author but she's good.
You can be a great art critic without being good at drawing or painting. So you can give good advice about books without writing tons of them. It's enough to read and watch a lot to get a good idea of what's working. At least i think so. :)
On the fight scene necessity thing, I wrote a story with a fight scene (part of a tournament) and made the fight over quickly and glossed over the rest. Basically the MC best their opponent so quickly it was basically just a single move. I did this because the tournament was plot important as a thing, but the individual fights were not. The MC being a prodigy compared to the other competitors was the point of the whole thing. Later I included a more drawn out scene (several chapters later with relatively low stakes in between) against a more equal opponent to show the MC’s actual ability and establish key abilities that will be used in combat situation for later. I haven’t gotten there yet, but there is one more planned fight scene in the climax of the story. So three fight scenes, each getting progressively more detail as the details of the actual fight become more important to the story and as the stakes get ever higher.
Watching too many movies when you want to be a writer is a good thing ( in my opinion of course) as someone who tries to write every day I can tell you that I think I have a good grasp on action scenes. The only thing I describe in my fight scenes are the environment and the people that the protagonist is fighting, I also add in some exchanges before, during, and after the encounter. This is just so I can add tension, humor, and a quick one liner or two. I taught myself how to write action by watching Quintin Tarantino movies and some good Clint Eastwood movies (Dirty Harry, A Fist Full Of Dollars, Gran Torino) those movies built tension and drama around their action scenes and carried some wight to them, that's the problem I had with John Wick 2. The drama was there, but the fight scenes lasted for like 20 minutes to the point where you just wanted the fight scene to end, unlike the first one where the action was fast paced and kept you on the edge of your seat. Sorry for my rambling but I just discovered your channel yesterday and I love writing stories in novel form or screenplay format, hell Im even trying to write a graphic novel, anyway great video I'll be sure to keep watching your content.
I set up notifications for your channel but never got any and just realized you have a bunch of new videos! So I will binge all your awesome videos! They are always so good =)
A method I've found useful is to pick out a song or other piece of music which matches the mood and tempo of the scene, and mentally choreograph the fight to its rhythm and flow. Music often comes pre-formatted to the ideal flow of action sequences. This is why a the soundtrack of a film can make, or break the overall success it sees.
i love me some good fight scenes! i always get frustrated when a book only includes fights towards the end or generally just really short/unexciting fights, but that's a matter of preference. that's why i want the fight scenes in my book to be especially well-written and fun. thank you for this video:))
Wow very very good advice LOL thank you so much I'm working on a light novel i have'nt picked up since i was 16yrs. Now im 27 and finally getting back into it but it's just been very difficult so much stuff goes through my head so hard to just focus on what I'm trying to write or even get it on paper sometimes. And the way my brain works I already have ideas and titles for four other books so it's hard cuz my mind decides to jump backwards and forth between all 5 and total and I'm not getting enough done...😣 and on top of having kids, doesn't help as much with trying to have free time to get things done. This was very helpful I'm new to your channel so I will be subscribing thank you very much can't wait to get more tips from you!😍👍
In a fight, the consciousness is typically focused very narrowly, at least most of the time. You can create a momentary pause to allow the protagonist to refocus, and identify a new threat or opportunity but then the focus must be laser sharp again. Also the POV should remain fixed to build up the intensity, concentrate on one person's experience of the fight. At least, IMHO. Battles are a different proposition but, of course, battles can include one or more fights. Great video.
Thanks for the great tips Vivien!! I have a fight scene coming up and I'm kind of nervous about writing it lol. I love the new background!! looks so fresh :D
new subscriber here. it's great stumbling on this channel. i love the way you deliver and share these tips in your videos. extremely useful and engaging. :D
Fight scenes are not typically written in scripts. Certain beats are written but mostly it’s left up to the stunt department in preproduction and production stages.
Hey vivien! Love your friendly personality. You're a really cool and helpful person I was wondering if you could make a video series where us viewers and aspiring writers send you small drafts of our work and you can edit them. Nothing too long of course. If its too much in your schedule tgats fine but i feel like thats a really cool idea. If you could do it we could get some great practical examples. Please reply if you would do it or not. Thanks! Btw ur intro looks really neat.
Hey!!! Great video Vivien! I dont think I have any fight scenes in my book yet, but I will definitely practice a lot with these tips when it comes to one! :-)
Regarding pacing of fight scenes, I have a question I've long puzzled over. A fight, depending on the weapons/styles can be over very very quickly, perhaps in a few seconds. Certainly a fight can take a long time, but often the actual fighting is a tiny fraction of the time. And yet so much happens and it might even be the climax of the story. With rapiers, foils, etc, a flurry of blows, feints, riposts, etc leading to a death will often be over in less than half a minute or even, say, 10 seconds. No amount of detail can be read in 10 seconds. On the larger scale, the setup of armies, maneuvering, posturing, can take many hours or days but then the actual fight might take an hour (or even a few minutes. Some tank battles and many WWI and WWII dogfights were over in minutes). Not all the time, because some battles take days or even months (seiges, campaigns, ...). The "infinite ammo" syndrome in so many gun-fights in fiction drives me up the wall. Most single-person machine guns only carry enough ammo for 4 (or less) seconds . So how much detail should be given? I write sword fights mostly, and with rapiers, there could well be a dozen actual attacks, the hero almost dies, recovers and then wins (or not). There might be more than just 2 fighters; the fates of 6 combatants (let's say) might be at stake, but it's all, say, 15 seconds. And I dislike "slow mo" in combat scenes. My solution so far is to ignore the blow-by-blow but describe only the actual tide of battle and the POV character's focus, until some tide-turning critical blow is made. He/she learns about the other character's fates when there is a lull, or the whole fight is over, whichever comes first. Any thoughts?
Writing my first story, this is helpful, thank you! My fight scene is maybe to big? Too much going on. Not sure how to write a scene where there are 3 different fights happening at once. 😂 Is it too much?
Um....I little quetion what happens if the characters are like very powerful? Like flying at high-speeds, super strenght, energy beams type of attacks? Or kind of OP characters?
Great work, however i have 2 questions to ask and I expect you to help me in them. First is that about the detailed vs the quick description of fights, specially for a criminology novel and also wether that necessary to make the protagonist injured or scared specially for science fiction novels, in particular cloning based ones. Thank you.
Has anybody ever watched a show or movie using the audio descriptive service? It's for blind people. Daredevil has it. I love watching shows/movies with this on. Watching Daredevil with this on REALLY helps me to describe fight scenes.
Hello, I am a medical student, M3, and i have never writen any novel (or anything other than papers for that matter), but i have so many ideas that i put by for years for a fantasy novel, and i'd like to start writing for the first time. The thing is that while world building and story outine is not that hard, i struggle with writing per-say. Do you recommend that i enroll in a writing course ? or an english language course ? if yes for either, do you have any recommendations ? Thank you :D
I'm going to look over some of my fight scenes in light of this, and see what I think of them. One in particular I'm thinking of... OK, Paula's first fight is easy for her. Unscathed indeed. But the scene is just to establish that she is in fact a skilled fighter. Later on she gets her head banged and her shoulder cut and the wind knocked out of her and all sorts of unpleasant stuff. Makes it that much sweeter when she wins. Actually, Paula's first fight is the one I'm going to look at first. Easy, sure, but is it any _good?_
love this video. The only thing I would disagree with is the pre/post fight scene dialogue portion. Yes you want to give the reader a reason to care about the fight, but that doesn't have to be dialogue. Internal monologue can do the trick, maybe a short proclamation if that's the character's deal but I would posit another option. If you've developed the relationship between hero and villain well it can just be a look of recognition before both parties jump into action. It doesn't have to be a princess bride (god I love that movie) witty banter exchange. TV, movie and anime fight scenes with too much internal monologue or too much dialogue can cheapen the experience in my opinion. That said the characters should show emotion I mean that is the big payoff for a fight scene after all XD. Alternatively they can be struck by their own callousness after the fact, that can be a fun twist. As with all techniques though, for the love of god don't overuse it. I just want to say again I really like this video it was super helpful.
Isaac Asimov said that if you want to write good science fiction, you have to know something about science. If you want to write a good fight scene, you have to know something about fighting! If you're hero knows Kung Fu, you can watch Kung Fu training videos. Master Wong has some excellent, short videos on street fighting. There's one on: How knowing Aikido will get your butt kicked in a street fight. And one on fighting defensively versus fighting to attack. - - - - - Viven, you need a decent microphone! The microphones on video cameras are always poor quality. That's why your voice sounds so echo-y. An external microphone is the single, best way to improve the sound quality of your videos. You could buy a lapel microphone with a long wire, or a boom microphone and a stand to hold it.
Hi Vivien, I am fairly new on your channel. I must compliment you for the amazing job you are doing and for the quality of the content that you post. I have a question. I find that a lot of tips can be applied in RPG's and Role Playing Games. Have you ever played?
Wouldn't it help to set up the rules to your characters' style of fighting? I'm thinking of Frank Herbert's "Dune" as an example. It seems that he spends time setting up the fighting styles so that when the climatic fight happens, you the reader, already have a sense of pacing.
There will be fight scenes in my Isekai series I am still worldbuilding and there will be errors in my worldbuilding since it will be my very first book series so creating a book/book series will very new for me. So sorry if the plot, world, and everything isn't perfect or realistic enough.
Good afternoon, today I discovered your channel, but I have a question about this video, the fight scene that you talk about is maybe an assault or a stole with physical contact? or I can use those steps if I wrote a simple discussion, maybe into brothers or friends... Thanks for your attencion!
So the fight scene I'm trying to write is an impromptu sparring match between 2 pairs of friends in a roller rink right before one pair is going to propose. While this is going down Someone to you is playing in the background. I think I've made a mistake thinking up this scenario 😅😂
pretty Helpful i'm writing my own story and i have a issues with writing fight scenes in my book. i'm not so descriptive i can imagine in my head what is helping but i can't write it down.
When you said that the character should get hurt sometimes, I remembered of my lady fighter named Emisa (based on Elsa). Well what did you say? The character should be immediately tired after the fight or not?
When she was talking about dialogue during fights, all I could think of was “Amy! I’m so glad you’re here!” *kicks robot* “In a totally non-romantic-“ *spin dashes another robot* “-comrade-in-arms type way.”
What about describing the same fight but from two different perspectives? Without boring the reader. First protagonist side, then antagonist side for example. Is it a good or bad idea? And how and when would one best use such an approach? I remember that was used in the book Predator VS Aliens - Prey. It is an awesome book btw. :) I loved when they did that, showing the same things but from different perspectives. But I'm not sure I can do that in the same great way.
Syster Yster Hi 👋🏼 I know I’m not Vivien but I wouldn’t recommend doing this but we writers have crazy ideas and if that’s what you want to do then go for it. But to make it a top tier fight, I would suggest a couple of tips. The first is having tremendously high stakes for either character. This fight should focus on the emotional impact (aka a battles of ideologies or grudges) as well as the physical confrontation. In other words, it should be part of their emotional or character arc as well as a physical fight. Another piece of advice would be to switch perspectives mid fight. This way you’re not rehashing events or boring your reader by repeating something they already know is coming. Inner dialogue is good. Plain old dialogue is good too to keep readers invested. Overall, I hope this is helpful. I hope I never came across as rude or condescending. Best of luck to you with your fight scene.
The best action I've read probably comes from Mathew Riley. His books don't just have action scenes, they are giant action scenes, but in the best possible way. I recommend "The Great Zoo of China" by him. It's a master class in this stuff.
Jackie Chan once said something interesting relating to combat in his movies. Alternate between combat and calm scenes, so neither becomes too long or boring.
Hey Vivien, I've been told I have amazing skills when it. Comes to fight scene narration but I fall flat with all the other stuff. I've been trying to figure out s good method for all my character dialogue but still seem to have alot of trouble. Any tips or advice. (P.S I just finished watching your 9 things to make dialogue better Video)
Hello! This isn't theme-related, but maybe you can take a few minutes to help me. I'm currently writing a book, meaning I have an outline and around 100 pages of manuscript. However, in the last time I noticed some issues with my protagonist. She is really passive in the first half of the story, and even later on, she isn't really a hero. And, also-she isn't a very interesting character. I also noticed that the most interesting scenes and aspects of the storyline only happen because of two other characters as those two are definitely more active and interesting. And I actually like them more than my main characters. So, should I make one of them my actual main character, thus changing the point of view from the story? Big parts of the story would also change. I think this would make my book more interesting, but I am hesitant since I put so much work in this book and I am afraid to delete it all. What do you think about that? (If everyone else wants to answer, please do it)
Yara, I don't know how helpful this will be, but I'll give it a shot. If you truly think that the story would be more interesting from a different character I would say go for it. If you don't even like the main character, the readers probably wouldn't either. If you do like her though and just aren't sure about it there's a few ways to make her a little more interesting. Give her some quirks you have to flesh her out. They don't have to be big. It just makes the character more human. You can also make a list of traits and bits. Maybe they have a coat with lots of pickets because they don't like carrying a purse or they only wear loose clothing because they're uncomfortable about how they look even though they say differently. You could try giving the character some inner-termoil (I can't think of exactly what it's called at the moment, sorry). Is there a big choice in the story that the character can't decide on how to act? Maybe they have a relative that they kind of hate, but can't because they've had some good times together. Do they have a developed back story or a dangerous future ahead. Do they have a special talent? There are so many questions that you can ask yourself to try and make her more interesting. Even a name change to something more unique could help. I hope this helps and you can keep writing!
Liana Boersma Oh, thanks for the answer! It's not that I hate the current main character, but somehow, she is just boring. She does have character traits, insecurities and interests, that's not it, but she's not the most interesting character in the whole book. I heard in another video that the protagonist should always be the hero, the one who fights the hardest and has the most to loose. And honestly, there's no way my main character is that person. The real "hero" is actually the described other character. She is also more complex than the current mc and stands out more. You have to imagine that my current mc is kinda like the typical Protagonist in YA Sci-fi, her personality as well as her looks. The other character would be something totally different. So I do think that changing the perspective would make things better. But I spent the last 2 years on the current version, the whole story and stuff. And I guess therefor I'm really afraid to delete it all.
+Yara U could go for a drastic personality switch. Passive to batshit crazy. Or passive to aggressive basically. U cpuld have something insane and or traumatizing happen that personality changes. Ex. Jaime lannister and. Theon greyjoy from game of thrones If u dont watch highly recommend it. U really see that some characters r completely different individuals by third or fourth season. U could do it in the mid of ur first novel. Or later on. But make sure the reader gets to know the pasive side and gets used to it and then do the change. And im making it sound instantaneous but i really mean thst it should be a gradual change. Have some reflection time maybe. Or some scenes where she tests the waters. Argues on her beliefs and choices. Ex batman wheter killing the joker. Ease into the process but make the final change drastic from initial point of vharacters personality. Anyway just wanted to help. Hope ur story goes well Good luck!
Aryan Joshi Well, she does really change by the middle of the novel, gets more active and aggressive. But I'm not sure-would readers like a protagonist that is really passive in the first part of the book?
+Yara good point. I suppose you could try making at least one of two aspects of here personality be unique. Just to keep the reader interested. But then youd have to go back and rewrite evrything. Or a better solution have her be one many mains. So switch povs every chapter so reader gets a the illusion of drastic change if personality every chapter bc ur changing the whole character! Plus you said ur other characters r main material anyway so ur set! Reply if u need help still. Or if u hated my idea or liked it tell that too. I wanna eventually start making help videos like her too. Its just my credentials r not very impressive.
1. Vary your pacing 2. Fights must have purpose 3. Believable (skilled? Battlecry? Applied training? Fatigue) 4. Use the setting (ex: unstable ground or fridges as weapons ) 5. Deadline of fight/ ticking timebomb 6. Emotional investment 7. Outline scene chronologically 8. Stop repetitive phrases. Focus on most painful moments and dramatic moments
lol, I enjoyed the John Wick movies. :D They are a bit like comedy for me. I like action. But I realize what you mean. The fights must lead to something and something needs to be at stake or they're not relevant. I also hate the Forgotten Realms books about Drizzt, the dark elf when it comes to the fight scenes specifically. I love the books, but the fights are stupid. Salvatore describes in endless detail every single movement and it just doesn't work very well. So, check there too. :)
Actually, right now, I'm doing something new... a hybrid per say... blending two styles of writing and it involves a lot of fighting and I would like a bit more guidance...
I wrote a fight scene recently, and it lasted like two hours in the story, but I skipped the whole brawl of it because it was a lesson. In fighting. But it's a fight scene.
I like your new setting, the video's a lot more focused on you because we don't have a huge background behind you and all your cute dogs around. I don't know if your camera allows for it but you should try to focus it better on yourself and maybe fade the background a little.
I wish I knew how! I noticed sometimes during autofocus it would blur and then focus on some of the wording behind me. I need to do some camera homework haha. Thanks for watching!
It will ultimately depend on the type of camera you own but I'm sure there are tutorials only on it. You're welcome. As a general rule, I really enjoy your videos because they give me a lot of information and help become a better writer. Thank YOU for sharing!
My character in my story fighting horde of monster, I don't know how to make the readers know that he fighting those monster for too long and he starting to get exhausted, I want to write it in a short but interesting sentences
i imagine a awesome fighting scence but when i put my pen down, i just write "they fight hard then die", the end :v
I think you just summed up the movie 300 lol
Good enough.
LMOU
Mood.
she punch
she attacc
but most importantly
they settled it and was done with that
Baam such a good fight scene
Don't write fight scenes if they're not necessary - now that is a great piece of advice!
Sii Kei Hehe. True!!!!
Sii Kei in the stories I'm writing fighting is one of the major things in it. So I feel like they are definitely neccessary.
Madara Uchiwa yeah. Anime has a lot of them that last forever.
Don't write any scene if it isn't necessary
I take it a step further in my choreography. I let my inner gamer take over. I'll actually setup a map, use miniatures, and even roll dice to determine how well or poorly each action is done. It makes the fights dynamic and usually not one sided. I loved how Indiana Jones usually got his butt kicked at first before springing back to win.
Shawn Enge this sounds like a awesome tipp gonna try it out. thanks mate!
It's a lot of fun and you can make your antagonists do smart things instead of getting their butts whooped. You don't even have to use real mechanics, I roll 2D 6 and the higher I roll the better they do.
U r a beautiful person my man. That is similar to what i do. I didnt know if that was normal. Either it is or we're both insane. Whatever it takes to get that novel out am i right?
I tried doing this with my book but I expanded it into a fullblown rpg with persuasion, taunt, and weapon class skills. It got so difficult for me to manage I just dropped everything except the character sheets which I now use just as a vague reference.
I don't think that's a good Idea, if you want to write a character that is meant to be so much more powerful than another leaving it in leaving it in the hands of lady luck isn't the best way to convey a character fighting another character that is way out of it's league.
Fight scenes are probably my favorite part of the book to write...I tend to just imagine the fight scene as a movie in my head with every move shown. (It's easy for me since I'm a martial artist and have a lot of experience sparring.) After that, I try and par it down with quick powerful words so those who don't know fighting will get it, but not dumb it down completely.
"His opponent rushed at him with a jab and followed with a left hook. He parried the jab and ducked under the hook and twisted his body to return with a rising shovel hook to the liver that double his opponent over."
This isn't bad, but to someone who hasn't fought it's going to be a little slow and ponderous. You want just enough technical detail to be correct, but allow the reader to imagine the scene in their mind.
"His opponent lunged forward with a flurry of punches he batted away. His breath coming in gasps, he ducked under the massive swing and countered with a shot to the ribs. There was a snap. 'that had to have broken something,' he thought."
I love that
I have been looking into fighting styles but I don’t use a lot of the vocab I have learned because I don’t really expect the avg person to understand right away
So both eg. seemed great
Especially the second since it was easier to understand
But the first did have me thinking a bit more about what I have learned and if the reader would get it.. but it was nice to see how a fighter sees a fight scene in their head
Fight scenes are hard for me to write. My strength is dialogue so having a fight not broken up by banter, like between an animal and a person, are especially difficult.
I like to choreograph it in my mind, like a movie, then try and describe what I see in my mind.
Clarky Clark
I'm the opposite. In my most recent piece of writing, I can go for huge bricks of purely actiony fighting with only a few lines among three characters.
I'm the opposite. Fights are fairly easy for me to write (I think) but I always need to think so much when they're talking. What to say, how to say it, who's saying what? What are they doing as they talk etc etc etc. XD So hard.
This is late, I know, but if it helps, you can act the motions out in real life. This applies to most actions, really. If a character is going to feint with a sword and you're not sure how to convey that, try acting it out and describing it from there. Hope this helps! :D
Medieval/fantasy setting.
X is a cold-hearted contract killer.
Y is a massive berseker-type security guard for a wealthy man, Z.
In a crowded plaza, X is stalking Z.
Taking a quiet path around the buildings, X goes for the kill. His plan is use the crowd's cover to reach Y, stab his windpipe, and disappear back into the mob, right under big Y's nose.
X walks calmly, breathing deep, focused. The thrill is always there, even after all this time. But it must be tamed.
Sharp steel makes the leather hiss.
Y heard, stopped the diving blade and punched hard.
X's vision was blurry. His back against the wall, his feet off the ground, Y was crushing his throat.
A desperate kick to the testicles sends them both to their knees. X draws a second blade and buries it in Y's neck.
Coughing, X stands up. Before him, an empty plaza and Z, looking shocked.
Z's eyes flinch. I must run!
A blade rotates through the air, gleaming in the sun.
Gasping for air, gurgling blood, Z's last sight was Y. Standing up, behind an oblivious, beaten-up X.
(I tried)
Julia: *finishes fight scene amd opens YT*
Vivien: *uploads a video about fight scenes*
Julia: Whyy haven't I seen this before😭
I have a fight scene coming up too. Thank you for this! :)
Thank you for watching :)
Drajon Same here!
I have always had trouble making my fight scenes believable. Another problem I have is making scary moments actually scary. lol.
Oh, GREAT video idea! Thanks :)
Thanks, I have always liked your videos. Oh, and nice office.
if you don't mind asking you .. can you make video for tips of scary scenes .. (would be appreciated ..)
I'm in the middle of writing a book called The Sacred Moonstone. The protagonist finds out the magic powers of her moonstone necklace in the middle of the fight when it falls into her hand and throws the antagonist into a window.
I like that I wish I could think of somthing like that
For some reason, this reminds me of the Rapunzel series
Great new background. I like the "26 Letters, Infinite Possibilities" signage. I have something to inspire my writing directly over my desk as well.
Noticed the audio was "tinny" but I'm sure that will be resolved soon enough. Great video which can be used for script writing fight scenes as well.
Thanks, and it's really nice to see you back making videos! #peace
Thank you! Yes, mic stand is on the way, but the next video will still have crappy audio :/
With #2, I immediately thought of Durarara!! and the fights between Izaya and Shizuo. They fight pretty much every time they meet and those fights always end with next to no significant change to the plot progression. Yet, I feel like they still work very well. I don't really know why; the first one was comedic but the joke basically runs out after the second one, so that can't be all. I've only watched the show and not read the book, so I can't comment on how it's written.
Has anyone else watched or seen Durarara!! ? What do you think?
The novels are very different.
Their rivalry looks unjustified, but it gradually becomes obvious.
In high school, Izaya saw Shizuo as a danger to Shinra (Shizuo even beat Shinra once) and he did whatever he could to get rid of him. Izaya tends to care for his only friend too much. He even mentioned to Shinra's sister how much of a threat was Shizuo to Shinra.
That started it.
About the significations of their fights, it actually moves the plot forward for their "story". As Durarara!! doesn't really have a true protagonist.
They fight casually at the beginning, but in the end, it becomes a blood bath.
I know that in the anime, there are countless fights between them, but in the novels there are only three.
Also, the anime makes them obsessed with each other. Simon says to Izaya: "You just don't want to lose to Shizuo, you have some sort of complex to him"
I think it was the last episode of the first season. Anyway, in the novel he didn't say that, Simon doesn't even mention Shizuo at all. This phrase changed the way viewers see izaya.
There are many things to say, but this post is getting too long.
David Ciulin
Mm, I agree. Comparing the light novel and the anime, Izaya and Shizuo's fights appear almost like a running gag in which casual, inconsequential clashes can be squeezed into the episodes. But since you mentioned that, I'm motivated to go back and re-read the earlier volumes of the light novel. I said I'd try to read Durarara!! SH but I still haven't gotten around to it.
Chidz Hustle
I honestly can't really justify 'Shizaya' as a ship, in my opinion. I'm not much of a shipper regarding any type of media so I guess I'm in no place to criticize or encourage shippers. They're free to do as they please.
I just don't see Shizaya. There's not much of a palpable indication of a romantic relationship in the light novel or the anime adaptation from what I can see. I also just don't think of Durarara!! or most series that I'm into as practical to ship any of its characters. It just doesn't seem like that type story to me. I mean, I guess if I really stretched my viewpoint, I could see Izaya as 'obsessed' with Shizuo. Romantically? Meh. If it was canon though I think it would only be one sided. Izaya goes out of his way to create discord in Shizuo's life, but he also does that with anyone he invests his interests in. Shizuo doesn't do this though.
I like to use the fanbase coined mentality that Izaya could be (in a twisted way) fixated on Shizuo but not vice-versa.
That's my take on it, anyway.
You?
Yeah, I think the reason the fights worked is because it was sorta like a running gag throughout the show.
Leo Anbu It happens often enough that you know it will happen with a guarantee, however the dynamic between the show and the characters makes it so when they fight it's more of an ode to the normal. A common theme in the show is making a comnection to the normal, in extreme contrast to the headless celtic immortal, brood mother sword zombie curse, and the other crazy stuff.
I love your videos Vivien. Is there a fight scene by another author or yourself that you can recommend as a good reference, and one that you consider poor? I'd like to see some contrast for what I'm working on.
Great advice video and it''s just what I'm needing to improve my fight scenes. I'd have never thought of including deadline to up the stakes or even making sure I include using the environment. Thanks x
Here’s a video I would LOVE to see. How to avoid frequently using “he did this” “he did that”? I know they’re wrong and I hate using them so much in my writing but I don’t how to fix it. Anyone else have this problem?
For example:
“He peered around the corner. The searchlight slowly passed by. The coast was clear. He braced and lept across the alleyway to safety. But a he heard a yell behind him; he had been seen. He turned around to face the guards bearing down on him.”
Haha, came up with that on the spot so its not the best example. Still, there are 6 he/hims in that short paragraph alone :/
Pèpe DeClercq Thats great! Much better!
I’m not a writer either...... I’m a.... story maker upper?? I even kinda hate writing but can come up with (I believe) are original ideas and intriguing characters. My friends and family have always been encouraged me to get something published so I’m trying to improve (a lot)
What's helped me most with fight scenes is attending Taekwondo, and studying martial arts. It gives me more perspective on the attacker, and also the victim. What places are most vulnerable. What moves give you most leverage. How someone actually reacts in a fight. Not to mention how much it hurts!
Obviously not everyone is going to do some form of martial arts, but researching it and gaining information would (I think) help a lot!
This was very helpful, the novel I wanna work on is gonna be chalked full of action scenes; something I find incredibly hard to describe in writing.
He curled his hand into a fist, cooked it back as far as it could go, and knocked his opponent into a tree, several yards back. Was that okay?
lol would read both fight scenes
He cooked his own fist? He must have been hungry.
I think that is fine for a slightly slow motioned fist... if u want it to be faster I would take out the curled sand cooked part
If the intention is to have it slow motioned then keep it there but reading it, the fist felt slowed down then when he lands into the tree that was sped up bcuz there was no additional description in the tree part
If think it’s fine, but if I were you, I would include the part where he actually hit him. Like after he cooked his hand back, it knocked his opponent? Maybe.. but if I were you, I would put something like this “Cooked it back as far as it could, and flung his hand toward his opponents head (or anything you want), knocking him back several years into a tree” or something like that. You just need to mention the sort where he actually hits him, and I recommend mentioning the part of the wound, like where he got hurt. In my example it was the head. Because maybe after you’d want to describe his injury, or something like that. This may have been a long time ago but still for future readers
Too long for such am action. Well, too much commas. No need to stretch it out.
He injected strenght into his arm and knocked away his foe, far into a tree.
Or
His powerful arm cut through the air as he drives it onto his oppenant's belly.
Keep things simple
I really love her tips and they're really useful, but are there any TH-camrs who have actually published multiple books? Vivien and Jenna are great but both of them only have one book. It makes me wonder how their advice is so good.
Kristen Martin has a trilogy out and a fourth book coming soon. I haven't had the chance to read them, since I'm behind on my current reading. You should look into her, her vlogs are pretty informative.
They haven't written only that one book in their whole lives - a lot of story starts, bad novels, tibits, practices - I am familiar with most of the advice, and I haven't even started writing a novel.
John Green from the Vlogbrothers?
Zaid Phyre KM Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors. She has a ton of material for writers but she's also published multiple novels. And also, I agree.. this is the first time I'm hearing this author but she's good.
You can be a great art critic without being good at drawing or painting. So you can give good advice about books without writing tons of them. It's enough to read and watch a lot to get a good idea of what's working. At least i think so. :)
On the fight scene necessity thing, I wrote a story with a fight scene (part of a tournament) and made the fight over quickly and glossed over the rest. Basically the MC best their opponent so quickly it was basically just a single move.
I did this because the tournament was plot important as a thing, but the individual fights were not. The MC being a prodigy compared to the other competitors was the point of the whole thing.
Later I included a more drawn out scene (several chapters later with relatively low stakes in between) against a more equal opponent to show the MC’s actual ability and establish key abilities that will be used in combat situation for later. I haven’t gotten there yet, but there is one more planned fight scene in the climax of the story.
So three fight scenes, each getting progressively more detail as the details of the actual fight become more important to the story and as the stakes get ever higher.
Watching too many movies when you want to be a writer is a good thing ( in my opinion of course) as someone who tries to write every day I can tell you that I think I have a good grasp on action scenes. The only thing I describe in my fight scenes are the environment and the people that the protagonist is fighting, I also add in some exchanges before, during, and after the encounter. This is just so I can add tension, humor, and a quick one liner or two.
I taught myself how to write action by watching Quintin Tarantino movies and some good Clint Eastwood movies (Dirty Harry, A Fist Full Of Dollars, Gran Torino) those movies built tension and drama around their action scenes and carried some wight to them, that's the problem I had with John Wick 2. The drama was there, but the fight scenes lasted for like 20 minutes to the point where you just wanted the fight scene to end, unlike the first one where the action was fast paced and kept you on the edge of your seat. Sorry for my rambling but I just discovered your channel yesterday and I love writing stories in novel form or screenplay format, hell Im even trying to write a graphic novel, anyway great video I'll be sure to keep watching your content.
I set up notifications for your channel but never got any and just realized you have a bunch of new videos! So I will binge all your awesome videos! They are always so good =)
A method I've found useful is to pick out a song or other piece of music which matches the mood and tempo of the scene, and mentally choreograph the fight to its rhythm and flow. Music often comes pre-formatted to the ideal flow of action sequences. This is why a the soundtrack of a film can make, or break the overall success it sees.
finally, I got a proper grasp of what "pacing" really means, thank you! Your content is so useful! Greetings from Germany :*
Are there any books/authors that you think have especially good action scenes?
InghamL99 GRRM A song of ice and fire; Robert Jordan Wheel of time and Conan series; Brandon Sanderson The way of kings
I think Tolkien did a great job of high stakes medieval battles in the Two Towers, the battle of Helm's Deep was fantastic in the book.
i love me some good fight scenes! i always get frustrated when a book only includes fights towards the end or generally just really short/unexciting fights, but that's a matter of preference. that's why i want the fight scenes in my book to be especially well-written and fun. thank you for this video:))
Love the advice and the new office background! It looks very pretty!
Thank you so much!
This helped so much with figuring out the antagonist, I'd been stuck on outlining that point for days
Your tips are Super Helpful!!
Wow very very good advice LOL thank you so much I'm working on a light novel i have'nt picked up since i was 16yrs. Now im 27 and finally getting back into it but it's just been very difficult so much stuff goes through my head so hard to just focus on what I'm trying to write or even get it on paper sometimes. And the way my brain works I already have ideas and titles for four other books so it's hard cuz my mind decides to jump backwards and forth between all 5 and total and I'm not getting enough done...😣 and on top of having kids, doesn't help as much with trying to have free time to get things done.
This was very helpful I'm new to your channel so I will be subscribing thank you very much can't wait to get more tips from you!😍👍
I don't frequently write novels, I only write for school, but this channel seems really cool and useful. Have a sub and like
In a fight, the consciousness is typically focused very narrowly, at least most of the time. You can create a momentary pause to allow the protagonist to refocus, and identify a new threat or opportunity but then the focus must be laser sharp again. Also the POV should remain fixed to build up the intensity, concentrate on one person's experience of the fight. At least, IMHO.
Battles are a different proposition but, of course, battles can include one or more fights.
Great video.
#3 Was so true! It happens to me most of the time. Thank you for this advice!
Thanks for the great tips Vivien!! I have a fight scene coming up and I'm kind of nervous about writing it lol.
I love the new background!! looks so fresh :D
Thank you so much! Glad I could help :)
This is my first time watching one of your videos and it was VERY helpful. THANK YOU😁
I subscribed and liked immediately after this
A new Vivien Reis video is a good day.
new subscriber here. it's great stumbling on this channel. i love the way you deliver and share these tips in your videos. extremely useful and engaging. :D
OOOO! New Background!
YAY!
Great tips. thanks. I can see your principles at work in the really good action writers.
Thank you so much lol, I'm writing a giant Daredevil fanfiction that is basically the size of a novel for my Adv. Creative Writing class.
Fight scenes are not typically written in scripts. Certain beats are written but mostly it’s left up to the stunt department in preproduction and production stages.
My first book is coming out 2018
Hey vivien!
Love your friendly personality. You're a really cool and helpful person
I was wondering if you could make a video series where us viewers and aspiring writers send you small drafts of our work and you can edit them. Nothing too long of course.
If its too much in your schedule tgats fine but i feel like thats a really cool idea. If you could do it we could get some great practical examples. Please reply if you would do it or not. Thanks!
Btw ur intro looks really neat.
Hey!!! Great video Vivien! I dont think I have any fight scenes in my book yet, but I will definitely practice a lot with these tips when it comes to one! :-)
Super helpful indeed! Thanks for the video!
Thanks for sharing! Very helpful.
Thanks for this video! I have been having issues with a fight scene and this really helped.
I'm so happy to hear this! Thanks for watching :)
Regarding pacing of fight scenes, I have a question I've long puzzled over. A fight, depending on the weapons/styles can be over very very quickly, perhaps in a few seconds. Certainly a fight can take a long time, but often the actual fighting is a tiny fraction of the time. And yet so much happens and it might even be the climax of the story. With rapiers, foils, etc, a flurry of blows, feints, riposts, etc leading to a death will often be over in less than half a minute or even, say, 10 seconds. No amount of detail can be read in 10 seconds. On the larger scale, the setup of armies, maneuvering, posturing, can take many hours or days but then the actual fight might take an hour (or even a few minutes. Some tank battles and many WWI and WWII dogfights were over in minutes). Not all the time, because some battles take days or even months (seiges, campaigns, ...). The "infinite ammo" syndrome in so many gun-fights in fiction drives me up the wall. Most single-person machine guns only carry enough ammo for 4 (or less) seconds . So how much detail should be given? I write sword fights mostly, and with rapiers, there could well be a dozen actual attacks, the hero almost dies, recovers and then wins (or not). There might be more than just 2 fighters; the fates of 6 combatants (let's say) might be at stake, but it's all, say, 15 seconds. And I dislike "slow mo" in combat scenes. My solution so far is to ignore the blow-by-blow but describe only the actual tide of battle and the POV character's focus, until some tide-turning critical blow is made. He/she learns about the other character's fates when there is a lull, or the whole fight is over, whichever comes first. Any thoughts?
thank you for this I've just started my book I'm trying to get good at writing
Thank you, Vivien!
I learn how to speak well by watching your videos. Very clean accent.
Writing my first story, this is helpful, thank you! My fight scene is maybe to big? Too much going on. Not sure how to write a scene where there are 3 different fights happening at once. 😂 Is it too much?
Love the new background. :-)
Um....I little quetion what happens if the characters are like very powerful? Like flying at high-speeds, super strenght, energy beams type of attacks? Or kind of OP characters?
Great work, however i have 2 questions to ask and I expect you to help me in them. First is that about the detailed vs the quick description of fights, specially for a criminology novel and also wether that necessary to make the protagonist injured or scared specially for science fiction novels, in particular cloning based ones. Thank you.
Has anybody ever watched a show or movie using the audio descriptive service? It's for blind people. Daredevil has it. I love watching shows/movies with this on. Watching Daredevil with this on REALLY helps me to describe fight scenes.
Hello, I am a medical student, M3, and i have never writen any novel (or anything other than papers for that matter), but i have so many ideas that i put by for years for a fantasy novel, and i'd like to start writing for the first time. The thing is that while world building and story outine is not that hard, i struggle with writing per-say. Do you recommend that i enroll in a writing course ? or an english language course ? if yes for either, do you have any recommendations ? Thank you :D
New Subscriber Here! I appreciate you for making this video. I honestly needed to see this. Thanks! A lot😏🤘
I'm going to look over some of my fight scenes in light of this, and see what I think of them. One in particular I'm thinking of...
OK, Paula's first fight is easy for her. Unscathed indeed. But the scene is just to establish that she is in fact a skilled fighter. Later on she gets her head banged and her shoulder cut and the wind knocked out of her and all sorts of unpleasant stuff. Makes it that much sweeter when she wins.
Actually, Paula's first fight is the one I'm going to look at first. Easy, sure, but is it any _good?_
love this video. The only thing I would disagree with is the pre/post fight scene dialogue portion. Yes you want to give the reader a reason to care about the fight, but that doesn't have to be dialogue. Internal monologue can do the trick, maybe a short proclamation if that's the character's deal but I would posit another option. If you've developed the relationship between hero and villain well it can just be a look of recognition before both parties jump into action. It doesn't have to be a princess bride (god I love that movie) witty banter exchange. TV, movie and anime fight scenes with too much internal monologue or too much dialogue can cheapen the experience in my opinion. That said the characters should show emotion I mean that is the big payoff for a fight scene after all XD. Alternatively they can be struck by their own callousness after the fact, that can be a fun twist. As with all techniques though, for the love of god don't overuse it. I just want to say again I really like this video it was super helpful.
Thanks, very helpful for someone who wants to right about Giant Monsters
Isaac Asimov said that if you want to write good science fiction, you have to know something about science.
If you want to write a good fight scene, you have to know something about fighting! If you're hero knows Kung Fu, you can watch Kung Fu training videos.
Master Wong has some excellent, short videos on street fighting. There's one on: How knowing Aikido will get your butt kicked in a street fight. And one on fighting defensively versus fighting to attack.
- - - - -
Viven, you need a decent microphone! The microphones on video cameras are always poor quality. That's why your voice sounds so echo-y.
An external microphone is the single, best way to improve the sound quality of your videos. You could buy a lapel microphone with a long wire, or a boom microphone and a stand to hold it.
My story is about two monsters. I plan to mainly focus on what goes on with the human characters in the fights
Hi Vivien, I am fairly new on your channel. I must compliment you for the amazing job you are doing and for the quality of the content that you post.
I have a question. I find that a lot of tips can be applied in RPG's and Role Playing Games. Have you ever played?
Read Robert Ludlum's BOURNE trilogy. The best action descriptions.
Wouldn't it help to set up the rules to your characters' style of fighting? I'm thinking of Frank Herbert's "Dune" as an example. It seems that he spends time setting up the fighting styles so that when the climatic fight happens, you the reader, already have a sense of pacing.
There will be fight scenes in my Isekai series I am still worldbuilding and there will be errors in my worldbuilding since it will be my very first book series so creating a book/book series will very new for me. So sorry if the plot, world, and everything isn't perfect or realistic enough.
really nice suggestion
Good afternoon, today I discovered your channel, but I have a question about this video, the fight scene that you talk about is maybe an assault or a stole with physical contact? or I can use those steps if I wrote a simple discussion, maybe into brothers or friends... Thanks for your attencion!
So the fight scene I'm trying to write is an impromptu sparring match between 2 pairs of friends in a roller rink right before one pair is going to propose. While this is going down Someone to you is playing in the background. I think I've made a mistake thinking up this scenario 😅😂
pretty Helpful i'm writing my own story and i have a issues with writing fight scenes in my book. i'm not so descriptive i can imagine in my head what is helping but i can't write it down.
I was going through my feed and I saw this video and I thought it was funny because I had a fight scene coming up in my story 😂
When you said that the character should get hurt sometimes, I remembered of my lady fighter named Emisa (based on Elsa). Well what did you say? The character should be immediately tired after the fight or not?
Am I allowed to do that ......I am kinda beginner writer
can you please make a video about character having intimate moments or how to write a party scene,
When she was talking about dialogue during fights, all I could think of was “Amy! I’m so glad you’re here!” *kicks robot* “In a totally non-romantic-“ *spin dashes another robot* “-comrade-in-arms type way.”
Great suggestions! Thanks
What about describing the same fight but from two different perspectives? Without boring the reader. First protagonist side, then antagonist side for example. Is it a good or bad idea? And how and when would one best use such an approach? I remember that was used in the book Predator VS Aliens - Prey. It is an awesome book btw. :) I loved when they did that, showing the same things but from different perspectives. But I'm not sure I can do that in the same great way.
Syster Yster Hi 👋🏼 I know I’m not Vivien but I wouldn’t recommend doing this but we writers have crazy ideas and if that’s what you want to do then go for it. But to make it a top tier fight, I would suggest a couple of tips. The first is having tremendously high stakes for either character. This fight should focus on the emotional impact (aka a battles of ideologies or grudges) as well as the physical confrontation. In other words, it should be part of their emotional or character arc as well as a physical fight. Another piece of advice would be to switch perspectives mid fight. This way you’re not rehashing events or boring your reader by repeating something they already know is coming. Inner dialogue is good. Plain old dialogue is good too to keep readers invested. Overall, I hope this is helpful. I hope I never came across as rude or condescending. Best of luck to you with your fight scene.
The best action I've read probably comes from Mathew Riley. His books don't just have action scenes, they are giant action scenes, but in the best possible way. I recommend "The Great Zoo of China" by him. It's a master class in this stuff.
Jj Mallek I agree, the great zoo is my fav of his
Jackie Chan once said something interesting relating to combat in his movies. Alternate between combat and calm scenes, so neither becomes too long or boring.
dialog during a fight scene. can anyone say anime.
DBZ is the best at it. lol
yes it was
Any fight from JoJo
Hey Vivien, I've been told I have amazing skills when it. Comes to fight scene narration but I fall flat with all the other stuff. I've been trying to figure out s good method for all my character dialogue but still seem to have alot of trouble. Any tips or advice. (P.S I just finished watching your 9 things to make dialogue better Video)
So many great tips, thank you :)
John Wick 2 was dope though. You have to admit XD. Thanks for advice, my fight scenes were a little too long before I watched this!
How many is to much. My story(that is currently sent to some publishers) had 5 and is 300 pages long. Is that to much?
Hello! This isn't theme-related, but maybe you can take a few minutes to help me.
I'm currently writing a book, meaning I have an outline and around 100 pages of manuscript. However, in the last time I noticed some issues with my protagonist. She is really passive in the first half of the story, and even later on, she isn't really a hero. And, also-she isn't a very interesting character. I also noticed that the most interesting scenes and aspects of the storyline only happen because of two other characters as those two are definitely more active and interesting. And I actually like them more than my main characters. So, should I make one of them my actual main character, thus changing the point of view from the story? Big parts of the story would also change. I think this would make my book more interesting, but I am hesitant since I put so much work in this book and I am afraid to delete it all.
What do you think about that? (If everyone else wants to answer, please do it)
Yara, I don't know how helpful this will be, but I'll give it a shot. If you truly think that the story would be more interesting from a different character I would say go for it. If you don't even like the main character, the readers probably wouldn't either.
If you do like her though and just aren't sure about it there's a few ways to make her a little more interesting. Give her some quirks you have to flesh her out. They don't have to be big. It just makes the character more human. You can also make a list of traits and bits. Maybe they have a coat with lots of pickets because they don't like carrying a purse or they only wear loose clothing because they're uncomfortable about how they look even though they say differently. You could try giving the character some inner-termoil (I can't think of exactly what it's called at the moment, sorry). Is there a big choice in the story that the character can't decide on how to act? Maybe they have a relative that they kind of hate, but can't because they've had some good times together. Do they have a developed back story or a dangerous future ahead. Do they have a special talent?
There are so many questions that you can ask yourself to try and make her more interesting. Even a name change to something more unique could help.
I hope this helps and you can keep writing!
Liana Boersma Oh, thanks for the answer!
It's not that I hate the current main character, but somehow, she is just boring. She does have character traits, insecurities and interests, that's not it, but she's not the most interesting character in the whole book.
I heard in another video that the protagonist should always be the hero, the one who fights the hardest and has the most to loose. And honestly, there's no way my main character is that person. The real "hero" is actually the described other character. She is also more complex than the current mc and stands out more. You have to imagine that my current mc is kinda like the typical Protagonist in YA Sci-fi, her personality as well as her looks. The other character would be something totally different.
So I do think that changing the perspective would make things better. But I spent the last 2 years on the current version, the whole story and stuff. And I guess therefor I'm really afraid to delete it all.
+Yara
U could go for a drastic personality switch. Passive to batshit crazy. Or passive to aggressive basically. U cpuld have something insane and or traumatizing happen that personality changes. Ex. Jaime lannister and. Theon greyjoy from game of thrones
If u dont watch highly recommend it. U really see that some characters r completely different individuals by third or fourth season. U could do it in the mid of ur first novel. Or later on. But make sure the reader gets to know the pasive side and gets used to it and then do the change. And im making it sound instantaneous but i really mean thst it should be a gradual change. Have some reflection time maybe. Or some scenes where she tests the waters. Argues on her beliefs and choices.
Ex batman wheter killing the joker.
Ease into the process but make the final change drastic from initial point of vharacters personality.
Anyway just wanted to help. Hope ur story goes well
Good luck!
Aryan Joshi Well, she does really change by the middle of the novel, gets more active and aggressive. But I'm not sure-would readers like a protagonist that is really passive in the first part of the book?
+Yara good point. I suppose you could try making at least one of two aspects of here personality be unique. Just to keep the reader interested. But then youd have to go back and rewrite evrything.
Or a better solution have her be one many mains.
So switch povs every chapter so reader gets a the illusion of drastic change if personality every chapter bc ur changing the whole character!
Plus you said ur other characters r main material anyway so ur set!
Reply if u need help still.
Or if u hated my idea or liked it tell that too. I wanna eventually start making help videos like her too. Its just my credentials r not very impressive.
Thanks! This actually helps a lot!
I am so glad. So FUCKING GLAD!!! That my writing matches this video. It means I have improved.
1. Vary your pacing
2. Fights must have purpose
3. Believable (skilled? Battlecry? Applied training? Fatigue)
4. Use the setting (ex: unstable ground or fridges as weapons )
5. Deadline of fight/ ticking timebomb
6. Emotional investment
7. Outline scene chronologically
8. Stop repetitive phrases. Focus on most painful moments and dramatic moments
lol, I enjoyed the John Wick movies. :D They are a bit like comedy for me. I like action. But I realize what you mean. The fights must lead to something and something needs to be at stake or they're not relevant. I also hate the Forgotten Realms books about Drizzt, the dark elf when it comes to the fight scenes specifically. I love the books, but the fights are stupid. Salvatore describes in endless detail every single movement and it just doesn't work very well. So, check there too. :)
Vivien- Outline for plot. Me- "Duh". Vivien- Outline for actions. Me- (light bulb on, sound of angels singing). Thanks
Actually, right now, I'm doing something new... a hybrid per say... blending two styles of writing and it involves a lot of fighting and I would like a bit more guidance...
Very topical!
Thank you!
I wrote a fight scene recently, and it lasted like two hours in the story, but I skipped the whole brawl of it because it was a lesson. In fighting. But it's a fight scene.
This really helps! Thank you 😊
I like your new setting, the video's a lot more focused on you because we don't have a huge background behind you and all your cute dogs around. I don't know if your camera allows for it but you should try to focus it better on yourself and maybe fade the background a little.
I wish I knew how! I noticed sometimes during autofocus it would blur and then focus on some of the wording behind me. I need to do some camera homework haha. Thanks for watching!
It will ultimately depend on the type of camera you own but I'm sure there are tutorials only on it.
You're welcome. As a general rule, I really enjoy your videos because they give me a lot of information and help become a better writer. Thank YOU for sharing!
My character in my story fighting horde of monster, I don't know how to make the readers know that he fighting those monster for too long and he starting to get exhausted, I want to write it in a short but interesting sentences
thank you so much! now my end fight won't suck as much as it does!*grimaces*