Fights and Weapons Masters: What you need to know to write a character who knows how to fight.
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Fights and Weaponsmasters: What to do when your character knows more about fighting than you.
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A presentation from the symposium: Life, the Universe and Everything, about the mentality of master fighters, common misconceptions about fights, and other info you need when writing a book about combat.
Transcript of Fights and Weapons Masters: What you need to know to write a character who knows how to fight.
Fights and Weaponsmasters:What to do when your character knows
more about fighting than you.
Further Reading
The Princess Bride (Good fights, Well-Written Fighters)
The Book of Five Rings (Mentality of a Warrior)
Iron and Silk (Pan Qingfu) Bayuex Tapestry (Accurate visual depiction of
Medieval arms and warfare) Terry Goodkind’s “Medieval Lives” (Historical
view of true medieval life)
Common Misconceptions
Fights go on forever
People get hurt and get back up
Depending on weapons, armor and style, fights last between 4 minutes and 4 seconds
Shotokan karate: 4 secondsFencing: until someone lands one good
hitArmor prolongs fights, but not
indefinitely
Trained fighters are trained to kill, maim, or incapacitate
Bodies breakFights to the death have no time outs
Weapons and Armor: Maintenance, what maintenance?Blades dull, get chinks, and rustArmor needs to be polished, oiled,
repaired
A sword’s a sword!
Weapons are built around where the weight center is, which determines how they’re used.
Armor is Useless!
Plate Armor
ExpensiveCustom-fittedCurved to reflect arrowsExtremely good protection
Plate armor is heavy, but full suits of mail were designed to support their own weight
Knights could do ballet in armor (if there ever was a reason)
Three layers: leather, chain, plate.
Chain Mail
Good at stopping swords, slashesBad at stopping daggers, stabsEven boiled leather is good protection
Some armor not always better than noneArmlets and bracers only good if
actively used for defenseIf they’re not aiming for your armored
parts, and you’re not actively using it, it’s just dead weight
Celts fought naked
Armor is like a protective coating!
Armor requires trainingArmor is used to deflect or redirect
blowsGood armor you go around, not through
Training isn’t important/It’s ok, I’m self-taught!The difference between a beginner and
a master isn’t 12 years, it’s 200No one can ‘teach themselves’, not
even from a bookTraining is the single most important
element in combat
Training gives you access to genertions of technical refinement.
Average reaction time: .5 secondsMaster reaction time: .12 to .2The ‘Fuzz’No Master will fall to the untrained
Notes on winning through numbers:Fighting in groups takes it’s own kind of
training.Greek Hoplites, PhalanxesMost times, if a group isn’t trained to
fight together, a 6 on 1 match becomes 6 one on ones.
People can/can’t do this, I saw it on the History Channel!
Yes
Shaolin Monks bend swords in their guts, break pipes on their heads, and break 2 by 4s on their legs
They condition their hands and bones to be hard enough to break stone
They practice moves like the ‘death touch’
Men can cut arrows in half in mid-flight.
No
No ninja on record has ever caught an arrow being fired at him at full speed
Yes ninjas trained in how to dodge bullets, but it was by watching hand movements and timing, not a DBZ thing
How master fighters view the world
A soldier learns to use a weapon. A master practices for hours every day.
When training you learn technical names and forms
On the field you think about weight placements, muscle tension, tactical movements, and openings
Fighters learn to read each other’s stances, expressions, and movements
You are what you think about all dayMaster fighters think about fightingFighters see the world in terms of how
to beat people
How to write a good fight
Good Fight/Bad Fight
Pirates of the Caribbean 1: good fight
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: bad fight
Good film fights: Rob Roy, Empire Strikes Back, Prince Caspian
A good scene
Develops characterFurthers plotConflictObjectiveTacticsEventsSeen through the character’s
eyes/knowledge and understanding
Fights are scenes!
Conflict (Why are they fighting?) Objective (What do they want?) Tactics (Fighting style, weapons, tactical
decisions) Events (What changes/happens? What’s
important?) Structure (rising action, climax, resolution) Who’s telling the story? How much do they
know about combat?
“If the writing is not exciting apart from the sword-work, it won’t be exciting with it.”-Martin Turner
Writing Exercise/Prompt
