Step 1: Location, Location, Location
Your physical location will have an effect on your fight so before you start writing, you need to be sure that you know your way around the location and have thought about any potential obstacles.
If your characters are fighting in any kind of room, there may furniture that has to be considered - you can't have your characters just randomly walking through a table unless their name is Kitty Pryde. If this is a sword fight, then you also need to consider things like ceiling height. If it's a low ceiling, or if there are dangling light fittings, such as chandeliers, then it's probably not realistic to have two characters swinging their swords over their heads.
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Ceiling Height Experiment Stand in the middle of the room you're currently in and hold your arm straight up above your head. This is your reach. See how far away your hand is from the ceiling. Now repeat the experiment, but holding a piece of wood that is roughly three feet in length (which is a reasonable length for a sword). This gives you the clearance you would have for a sword fight in this room. |
Also something that needs to be considered is what kind of ground the characters are standing on. Sand or grit is far harder to move around on as compared to solid earth; a fixed rug is easier to move on than a polished wood floor. We aren't saying that all your fights should take place on something solid, firm and non-slip (that would be boring), but it is something that needs to be factored into your scene if you want it to sound believable.
A third thing to be aware of is whether or not your ground is level, and for that matter, whether the ground is stationary - for example, if you're writing for Pirates of the Caribbean, you may well be writing a fight scene on the deck of a ship which is generally anything but level or stationary!
Tips:
- Pick a location that you're familiar with. We don't mean limit yourself to places you've actually visited (that would be dull and restricting in the extreme). We do mean locations that your favourite show uses regularly. The more familiar you are with the location, the easier it is to fix it in your mind for writing. Once you're confident with your scenes, you can move on to less familiar and/or complex locations.
- Draw a plan of your location. It doesn't have to be high art, but it will help you keep the location straight in your mind, particularly if you're dealing with a complex location.
- Mark onto the plan the movements you think your characters are likely to make. Again, this will help you keep the location straight in your mind, it will also help you to avoid having your characters suddenly walk through obstacles.