writing - FightWrite

Using Two Swords

FightWrite — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:36:05 +0000

I’ve just returned from the Writer’s Digest Conference and what a conference it was. There were great speakers, informative sessions and more food than you could shake a stick at. For my part, I had two successful classes with students who asked great questions. I will talk about one of those questions today. For this month’s FightWrite post on the WD blog, we will be looking at the two-sword fighting style. I have written on this previously but from a fighting perspective more than writing perspective. Is the Two-Sword Style a Thing? I am asked about the two-sword style at …

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Being a Good Writer (and Being Ok With It)

FightWrite — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 01:01:56 +0000

Book reviews are precious to us authors. For one, nothing sells a reader a book as much as another reader saying why it’s worth buying. Also, to us as professionals, reviews show us how our work is landing. We can read in black and white what’s working and what isn’t. We can see if we connected with our intended audience and how we impacted an audience we never knew we had. Reviews teach writers what they could never learn otherwise. And, sometimes, reviews teach us something about ourselves that we didn’t know we needed to learn. Recently I read a …

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Writing Scenes With Sparring

FightWrite — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 15:47:54 +0000

Sparring scenes matter. To write great scenes with sparring, we first need to understand what sparring is, isn’t, and what makes them great. If you look up “the best fighting movies of all time,” you will see a great deal of overlap in the top ten. I have seen many of those films and they all have something in common beyond fighting sequences. They all have scenes with sparring. Now, I don’t know about you, but I love those scenes. They are far more than action sequences. In this post, we will look at writing scenes with sparring. We will …

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Where Your Fight Scene Takes Place

FightWrite — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 15:31:00 +0000

When writing a fight scene, where it takes place is of the utmost importance. In fact, where a fight takes place is more important than who is fighting. Don’t believe me? Read on. The importance of where a fight takes place Think about it like this, would you rather fight a gorilla or a shark? Well, it all depends if you’re on water or land. On land, you could best a shark just by sitting and being patient. And, in the water, a gorilla is just a hairy anchor. You could win that fight just floating on my back. Where …

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What Fight Scenes Can Do For Your Story

FightWrite — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 15:34:10 +0000

What fight scenes can do a lot for your story is a lot! Like, a lot, a lot. Stuff that goes far beyond the fray. Don’t dismiss them as a one-dimensional. A fight scene can be so much more than a moment of action, a scene that just gets left behind as the story progresses. Trust me, those scuffles, clashes and battle of wills can give you a whole heap of options that you might not have considered. Those options can be carried throughout the story, or carry the story all on its own. mapping your fight scene Define …

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Types of Punches

FightWrite — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 13:40:00 +0000

Here’s a little compendium of the types punches as well as a proper fight stance which directly affects them. I’m not including martial arts specific strikes. And, I’m including elbows because they are a strike with the arm. (Also because I love them with all my heart.) I’ve included a video of me doing each punch and the time in the video in which the punch happens. If I don’t go over it in the video, I include a pic. What your character should NOT do when they punch Fight Stance :30 Fight stances change in different martial arts. But, …

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NaNoWriMo Fight Scene Guide

FightWrite — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:23:08 +0000

November is National Novel Write Month a.k.a. NaNoWriMo. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get that manuscript out of your head and onto the screen. You aren’t writing a finished product. You are putting the pieces and parts of the monster on the table. Sewing it together, shocking it to life and putting it in a sports jacket will come later. And, when you find yourself arranging the bones of a scene with a brawl, here is FightWrite™’s quick and dirty guide to NaNoWriMo fight scenes. NaNoWriMo Fight Scene Guide – Serve the Story But first, before we go further, …

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Fight Scenes with Injured Characters

FightWrite — Sat, 08 May 2021 02:43:00 +0000

Where there is a fight, there’s generally an injury. And, if you are writing fight scenes, chances are you will have to write a fight scene with injured characters. When that is the case, there are things you have to think about before you even consider the wound. I did a short IGTV post on this very subject. A lot of what I will cover is in my book, so be sure to check it out. It’s available online tons of places as well as in brick and mortar shops and your local library. And, before you go, subscribe to …

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How to Write a Fight Scene That Flows and Is Easy to Follow

FightWrite — Thu, 06 May 2021 21:23:52 +0000

I put a call out on Instagram for fight scene questions. @head_over_heels_for_books asked, “How can I write a fight scene that flows and is easy to follow?” Super great question which I answered on IGTV. But, I will include the answer here as well. IGTV – Making Fight Scenes Flow and Easy to Follow I am going to tackle the last part of the question first and that is how to make a fight scene easy to follow. I think if you ask ten writers this you will get ten different answers. But, here is my take. I …

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What Fighters Think About While Fighting

FightWrite — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 21:35:41 +0000

I got a question on “the Tweeter,” recently that, I have to say, I’ve received more than a dozen times. What do fighters think about while fighting? Very good question and the answer is probably not what you think. I answered Tim’s question in the most recent episode of the FightWrite podcast. But, I figured I’d post on it as well. Some prefer to read rather than listen. And I give different details in each. What are the thoughts and feelings experienced by people as they fight? To get to the heart of this answer, we need to go to …

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