The cliffs were very close behind him now. In The Princess Bride, William Goldman writes a brilliant sword fight, and perhaps the most enjoyable fight scene ever put to paper: Fights happen quickly and your description needs to match that. Short, simple sentences keep the reader on their toes. Intensifying the pace of your writing can communicate the immediacy and suddenness of conflict. So, if you’re not describing what your characters are doing, how do you communicate the action? 2. Counter as it is to a writer’s instincts, ‘they struggled’ paints a far more vivid picture than describing the exact position of each combatant’s arms. Instead, let them know the outline of the fight and they’ll imagine the rest. This fight feels slow, and that feeling is paramount – if your reader is instinctively bored by a fight, you can’t convince them it was exciting by describing more of it. This might be exactly what you imagine happening, but the excessive stage direction stretches the moment out, turning a frenzied series of blows into a dissection of body language and intent. Turning ninety degrees to the side, he brought his right forearm up to counter the blow, formed a fist with his left, and threw it at my outstretched jaw. I stepped back, balancing my weight on my left foot, and threw my right fist out in a curved punch at his temple. A lot of poorly written fight scenes read like this: While describing a fight scene is a great way to paint an accurate picture, it’s not a great way to communicate a compelling experience. Let the reader choreograph your fight scene.
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