Whether it’s heated arguments, melee scenes, or massive battles, fight scenes appear in most genres, and they’re very hard to pull off!
Let’s talk about what makes a good fight scene, look at examples, and then discuss some tips for writing your own.
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what makes a good fight scene?
While all writing, and what makes it good, is often subjective, what you may find are similarities and “rules” that primarily create an exciting fight scene.
#1 – relevance
Your fight scene shouldn’t be there just for the sake of being there. it should intertwine with the plot and the characters, just like any other scene. how do you raise the stakes?
why are those characters involved? what are your goals?
#2 – emotion
but it should still be exciting! Just because your fight scene is relevant doesn’t mean it’s allowed to be boring.
fight scenes are a type that should always be to cheer up or entertain the audience. they can be dramatic or annoying, but never boring.
#3 – subtext and depth
as in all scenes, there must be something deeper than what happens on the page.
what is not said? what are your characters fighting for? Do any of them have a secret goal or agenda that they’re covering up with some other excuse? what do they risk losing? what can they win?
#4 – characterization
fight scenes should have a strong character presence. if you could replace one of your characters with another character and the scene would end the same way, your characterization isn’t strong enough.
even in a big battle, it needs to be balanced with closer shots of your main characters (or the characters we should care about most in that fight scene).
examples of fight scenes
One of the best ways to learn what works is to dive in and learn from examples. Below are some examples of great fight scenes along with what makes them great.
as you read, start to notice what works with a fight scene, what you like, and how you can emulate it.
fight scene examples #1
here is an example of i am the messenger by markus zusak. the main character beating gavin rose for his own good, he doesn’t want to do it. he is very concentrated, almost sterile.
there is no passion or anger, or any emotion at all. this is a good example of how tone can affect a scene.
My hands go down and I grab him by the neck.
I feel like I’m out of myself.
I see myself dragging Gavin Rose into the bushes and knocking him into the grass, dirt, and fallen tree branches.
My fists pile into his face and I punch a hole in his stomach.
the child cries and begs. his voice trembles. “don’t kill me, don’t kill me…”
I look into his eyes and make sure not to look at them, and put my fist to his nose to wipe out any vision he may have had. he’s hurt, but I keep going. I need to make sure he can’t move by the time I’m done with him.
I can smell how scared he is.
pours out of it. it stretches and goes into the nose.
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I see his eyes and make sure not to look at them; he doesn’t want to be associated with this. he does it out of duty, for gavin’s sake. It’s clearly not something he likes. you might even be ashamed of it.
I can smell how scared he is. springs from him. he reaches out and goes into my nose. – this description really shows how much the main character doesn’t want to do this. the tone is evident at all times that this is not something pleasant or validating. it’s business.
This scene is relevant, exciting, distinctive, and has subtext and depth.
example fight scene #2
The following excerpt is from the silver chair of c.s. Lewis. four people fight a snake witch:
The instrument fell from his hands. His arms seemed to be pinned to her sides. his legs were intertwined with each other, and his feet were gone. the long green train of his skirt thickened and solidified, and seemed to be in one piece with the writhing green pillar of their entwined legs. and that writhing green pillar curved and swayed as if it had no joints, or if all were joints. his head was thrown back and as his nose grew longer and longer, every other part of his face seemed to disappear except his eyes. now they were huge flaming eyes, without eyebrows or eyelashes.
it takes time to write all this; It happened so fast that there was barely time to see it. long before there was time to do anything, the change was complete, and the great snake that the witch had become, green as poison, thick as jill’s waist, had thrown two or three turns of its loathsome body around her. of the prince’s legs. Quick as lightning, another great lasso was thrown around her, intended to pin the sword arm against her side. but the prince arrived just in time. he raised his arms and cleared them: the living knot closed itself around his chest, ready to crack his ribs like firewood as he tightened.
The prince grabbed the creature’s neck with his left hand, trying to squeeze it until it choked. this held his face (if it could be called a face) about five inches from hers. the forked tongue flickered horribly in and out, but he couldn’t reach it. with his right hand he withdrew his sword to deliver the strongest blow he could deliver.
meanwhile, scrub and puddleglum had drawn their weapons and rushed to her aid. all three blows landed at once: the one from scrub (which didn’t even go through the scales and was of no use) on the snake’s body under the prince’s hand, but the one from the prince himself and the one from puddleglum on his neck . Even that didn’t quite kill him, though he began to loosen his grip on Rilian’s legs and chest. with repeated blows they cut off his head. the horrible thing continued to coil and move like a piece of wire long after it had died; and the floor, as you can imagine, was a mess.
This fight scene follows various characters, describing what is necessary. it doesn’t randomly jump in to tell us irrelevant things the characters are doing; describes the important details of their interactions with each other and with the enemy.
The scene acts as a turning point for Rilian, who was previously under the spell of the Serpent Witch. It’s relevant, exciting, and since we see Rilian having such a big change, it’s characteristic.
example fight scene #3
here is the scene from brian jacques’s final battle of redwall. this shows a large scale fight scene.
Cluny wrenched the flaming torch from Rabbitslayer’s hands. she flung it into the face of the approaching warrior. Matthias deflected it with his shield in a shower of sparks and went after the leader of the horde. To get a brief reprieve, Cluny pushed Killconey into Matthias. the ferret struggled in vain, but was snapped in two with a swift blow. Matthias stepped over the slain ferret, expertly swinging his sword as he chased after Cluny. Ignoring his unprotected back, Matthias didn’t see burning fangs sneak up behind him. The rat raised his cutlass with both claws, but before he could attack, Constancia had thrown the net over him.
fangbura struggled like a landed fish as the big badger scooped up the net and swung it several times against the wall of the gatehouse. Dropping the lifeless thing, Constance dove with a terrifying roar into a pack of weasels.
The warlord’s thick tail whipped venomously at matthias’s face. She quickly covered his shield as the spike of poisoned metal rang harmlessly. Cluny tried again, this time lashing his tail rapidly at the young mouse’s unprotected paws. Matthias jumped nimbly to the side and swung his sword in a lightning arc. Cluny roared in pain as he severed the tip of her tail. the bloody stump lay on the grass with the barb still attached. throwing the abbot’s chair at his adversary, the rat seized an iron spike. Metal collided with metal as the warrior mouse parried Cluny’s attacks.
They battled through the green gardens of the abbey, right in the thick of the maelstrom of warring creatures. oblivious to the fighting around them, they tried to destroy each other, slashing, stabbing, lunging, and swinging in mortal combat.
Meanwhile, teams of sparra warriors lifted struggling rats high into the air to drop them into the middle of the abbey pool. the ferrets had cornered a flock of shrews and were threatening to slaughter them when a column of otters jumped to the rescue. keeping heavy pebbles locked in their slings, they continually beat the ferrets.
…
Cluny stood in the center of the room, his one eye straining to see Matthias in the steeple. blood dripped from the dozen wounds the mouse warrior had inflicted on him during the course of their battle. but now he knew that he had won; the voices had been right; he would soon see the last of the mouse warrior. “Come down, mouse, cluny the scourge is waiting for you,” he shouted.
matthias stood on the wooden beam. With a mighty swing of the ancient battle-scarred blade, she severed the rope that held Joseph’s bell. she seemed to hang in space for a second, then fell like a huge stone.
Cluny stood rooted to the spot, his eyes looking up. before he had time to think that it was too late. . . .
sound!!!
Joseph’s bell rang its last huge toll. the colossal weight of the metal crushed cluny the scourge against the stone floor of the belfry.
Tired, Matthias the warrior descended the spiral stairs, sword in hand. he pulled the sobbing puffin out of hiding from him. together they stood up and looked at joseph’s bell where it lay, broken in the middle. a bloody claw and a broken tail protruded from underneath.
matthias spoke: “i kept my promise, cluny. I went down shut up, fray hugo. it’s all over now. wipe your eyes.”
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Together, the friends opened the door and stepped out into the sunlight of a summer morning. redwall had won the final battle.
The bodies of both armies lay scattered on the grass and stones where they had fallen. many were sparrows, shrews, and defenders of the forest, but they were outnumbered by the slain rats, ferrets, weasels, and stoats.
Nowhere was one of Cluny’s infamous horde left alive.
jacques tells a cohesive and intelligible narrative; described in a way that makes logical, linear sense. it’s not just a random description of random characters fighting. we stay on the main characters, we know what they’re doing and why, and he intersperses with the description of the rest of the army, so we can feel the tension building and eventually know who’s winning. this shows a good balance between narrow and wide wheelbase description.
Now that we know what the different types of fight scenes look like, let’s look at some tips on how to write our own.
5 tips for writing a great fight scene
Want to write an epic fight scene on your own? here are some of the best tips to make sure your scene is greeted with sweaty hands and pounding hearts.
#1 – make sure you need a fight scene
Fight scenes are fun, but they shouldn’t be included just to have a fight scene. like any scene, it should be a must for the plot, the characters, or (ideally) both.
Your character must have a real motivation to fight. if they don’t, she probably doesn’t need to include the scene. even if they are acting in self-defense, there must be a reason your character is being attacked.
once you make sure the fight scene is necessary:
#2 – nail the rhythm
If your scene is too short, you could confuse the reader. if your scene is too long, your reader might get bored.
give enough detail to be meaningful and engaging, but not so much that it’s hard to read.
#3 – make it interesting
Instead of describing every punch, kick, or stab just to make sure your reader is following every muscle movement the characters make, try to describe actions that are interesting and exciting, and actions that characterize.
for example, anyone can slap someone. but if your character is fierce, and maybe a bit nasty, they might bite someone. that’s a more unique move, characterizing, and much more interesting to read than a slap.
perhaps your character is resourceful, so their fight scenes involve heavy interaction with the environment, grabbing weapons or using objects to trip up their opponents.
If your character is prone to panic, he may think too much and hesitate too much, inevitably losing the fight.
Think about your character, what they’re fighting for, how they’d fight, and then make it interesting.
#4 – work on inner thoughts and dialogue
This is a good way to break up the fight scenes so they aren’t all action (which can get boring) and give you another chance to show why the scene matters. > p>
what’s going on with the internal struggle of the characters? What do they say to each other? Perhaps they have allies that they communicate with to add a layer of action and interaction?
Her inner thoughts can also help guide the scene and clarify your characters’ motivations.
#5 – avoid being unintentionally repetitive
It’s easy to describe a character, beat for beat, in the same sentence structure:
she grabbed a brick. she smashed it against her head. she punched him. she tripped over her own feet. she died.
so be sure to vary the length of the sentences, the type of sentence, and the first and last words of the sentences.
Here’s a video that illustrates these five tips with real life examples.
Keep your fight scenes relevant and exciting, and, as with any scene, cover them up to be as dynamic and characterful as possible.
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