Step 2: Weapons and Weaponry
There is two types of fighting, armed and unarmed. Some of the time, your fandom will dictate what sort of fight you're writing - if you're writing in Highlander then you probably have a sword duel - but other fandoms - for example Buffy - have more flexibility and choice.
If you're going for armed combat then weapons choice comes into play. What you choose has to make sense, based on your location and based on your characters. Is it realistic to give a small character a big weapon? How practical is it for someone who's under five foot to wield a sword that's as long (or longer) as they are? Does that weapon exist in the time period you're writing for?
Research is a sad fact of writing, and when choosing weapons for your characters to use, it is definitely worth doing some just to make sure you're not making obvious mistakes. To make life easier, we have created a basic weapons database which contains data such as the date the weapon was first used, the length of the weapon (extremely useful for swords) and, with guns/muskets, the relative accuracy.
Beyond the obvious, there are other types of weaponry available to you in your scene, so even if you start off with unarmed combat, there is no reason why it has to finish unarmed. This category of weapons includes bottles, books, handfuls of dirt, chairs, tables...in fact, just about anything that isn't nailed down can be used as a weapon.
One other thing to consider when picking weaponry is the relative strengths and weaknesses of your characters. An honourable character is unlikely to do something as inherently dishonourable as throwing dirt into the face of their opponent. An experienced, trained fighter will be much more aware of their surroundings and so be more open to improvisation and using whatever comes to hand. Someone who is trained but who has little or no experience is much more likely to stick to their training only. Someone with no training at all may either improvise out of desperation, or they may freak out and cling to whatever their weapon happens to be (in which case, this is entirely likely to be a very short fight).
Tips:
- Know your characters and know your fandom. This makes it a lot easier when it comes to choosing weaponry.
- If you're writing for Highlander, it is definitely worth while learning some of the technical terms when it comes to swords and parts of swords - this is possibly the one fandom out where the majority of readers do know their jargon.