Determining Your Character's Fighting Style

     Action scenes can get boring very quickly if done wrong, particularly when all is uniform.  One way to keep things spicy, and add some realism while you're at it, is to vary the fighting styles of your characters.

     The form that a character studied is part of this--someone who studied Tai Chi in college is going to be very different from a small-time Krav Maga master and a scrapper from the streets with ten years under their belt.  Tai Chi prizes fluid movements and the practice of avoiding violence and redirecting energy, while Krav Maga focuses on brutal efficiency, completely neutralizing the threat as quickly as possible.  Someone who learned to fight on the streets, on the other hand, is probably going to fight dirty, and while they'll try to end a fight as fast as they can, they probably won't be as quick or efficient in their attempts.

     Take a look at your characters--what kind of fighting experience do they have?  Were they formally trained, or self-taught?  How they were trained is going to be a huge influence on how they approach real-world fights.

     This goes beyond just the range of the actual techniques--what kind of relationship did they have with their teacher?  If they disliked her, they may ignore her advice out of spite, but if they loved him and treasured his opinion they'll be more likely to do as he would've liked them to.

     Was their trainer a pacifist that taught these techniques only to stem the flow of violence, or were they the kind of bloodthirsty warmonger that encouraged their students to get their swords bloody whenever they got the chance?  Do they prize mercy or revenge?  And what did mercy mean to them?  Letting an enemy live, or dispatching them as quickly as possible?

     If your character is self-taught, how did they teach themselves?  Did they read books and look up internet tutorials?  If so, which ones?  Who did they see as their "mentor?"  What did they take away from the advice?

     Or did they learn solely through experience, throwing themselves into fistfights and sword duels with reckless abandon and learning by trial and error?  What fights taught them the most, and why?  Did they learn the most by winning or by losing?  (Hint: you usually learn more from losing and then figuring out where you went wrong)  How did these attempts, wins, and losses effect them?

     Also, consider your character's personality; are they aggressive or more passive?  Are they friendly or stand-offish?  Cowardly or brave?  Are they more likely to leap into battle head-first or slide into battle only when their back's against the wall and they have no other choice?

     A character that's head-strong and aggressive is more likely to strike first.  They'll always be on the offense and avoid defense whenever they can, trying to be the first to draw blood.  This can be advantageous, since history teaches us that the offensive side is almost always the triumphant one, but can also leave the offensive party open to counter-attacks they may not be expecting,

     On the other hand, a character that's more timid and less sure of their skill may depend almost completely on defensive tactics.  These characters are focused more on surviving than on winning, and it's a dangerous game they're playing, since without striking out there's almost no way to disarm or eliminate the enemy, though by luring the opponent into a state of false safety and confidence, Mr. Defensive may be able to land a killer gut-punch at a key moment that Mr. Offense doesn't expect.

     Most of the time, your characters are going to be a mish-mash of offensive and defensive, but based on training level and personality, decide which way your characters lean; very few are going to be exactly in the middle of the spectrum.

     Characters may even find creative juxtapositions of training and personality; in my current work-in-progress, Sará, a half-demon half-angel princess, was trained in swordplay mostly as a defensive measure, since it was never expected that she would really have to fight anyone.  But Sará is a haughty, aggressive eighteen-year-old, demanding authority and fear even when she looks like a dirty little ten-year-old human girl.  Her training is defense but her personality is offense, so she uses defensive tactics in an offensive manner, which leads to more diverse fight scenes.

     You can also ask yourself what your character's range of environmental awareness is--someone with tunnel-vision will be less easily distracted and more concentrated in their fury, but can be easily attacked from the rear.  Someone that's constantly on the lookout for what's going on around them, however, is more easily distracted, which can lead to more injuries and even death, but is also less likely to be fooled by an attack from their flanks and will be able to use the environment to their advantage, perhaps by luring the enemy off of cliffs or snaring them in bramble patches.


     Take out a few of your main characters and look them over.  Ask yourself some of the questions from above.  Now assign each a different style of fighting, and think--how often to they thrust or slash?  Do they punch more or kick more?  How does their height or weight affect the way they attack or defend?  Are they a statue when they fight, staying in one place, or are they constantly on the move?  Forward or backward or side-to-side, or do they dodge and weave like the famed and acclaimed Basil Staghare?

     Do they all have a different fighting style now?  It's okay if traits overlap, but chances are good that no two characters will ever fight exactly alike.

     Okay.  Now using those styles as a guideline, go back and edit your fight scene to reflect your character's style.  Doesn't that inject so much more life and variety?  Does it open up new passageways and opportunities?  Great!  Now do that with all your fight scenes--remembering of course that as your story progresses, your character's fighting style may change to reflect the trials they've weathered.



     If you have any of your own tips on how to assign a character's fighting style, or want to share how your characters fight, drop a comment in the section below!  I'd love to hear from you!

4 Things I Learned Digitalizing My Notebooks

So last year, as I was preparing to go off to college 3,000 miles from home, I undertook an effort to digitalize my notebook collection so that, should I require my notes while at school, I wouldn't have to lug a metric fuckton of paper cross-country, or *sticks nose in the air, places steepled hand on chest* send for them.

This meant that I was exposed, in a four-month period, to aaaaaallllll the writing I had done (read: kept) since late middle school. Also pictures I drew, but I didn't learn all that much from that. Some things I did learn are as follows:

1. Write down your scene ideas wRITE THEM DOWN

In digitalizing my collected notebooks, I came to find that there were A LOT of places where I obviously knew where I was going with something, but because I knew where it was headed, I didn’t bother to write it down because why would I and let me tell you, should I have ever!  I have no idea now where SO many of my stories were headed, huge plot points, entire scenes, choice juicy dialogue, all disappeared from the earth forever because I thought I’d remember those ideas in perpetuity. Or at least until I got to that point in the story.

Make sure you take lots of copious, fully-detailed notes, kids, especially if you’re about to move onto the next WIP.  

2. Don’t just toss things--you'll need it as soon as you do

RELATED:  Don’t throw out old ideas or notes until you’ve at least procured (and backed up) a digital copy.  You never know what you might need later.  Even if you think it’s trash, keep those old notes and scene corpses and half-started stories; you might be able to revive, reuse, or repurpose those bits and pieces later, and the minute you toss something is the minute you’ll have an AMAZING IDEA that requires that you have those pieces.  It’s a pain in the ass.

3. Too many dialogue tags muck things up

Dialogue tags are those little things like “said” and “insisted” and “proclaimed,” the parts of language that let you know someone is talking and how they’re doing it.  Most young writers start out wanting to use TONS, because you always want the audience to know how your character is saying what they're saying--are they yelling this line?  Whispering this other one?  Growling hissing demanding commanding interrupting?
 

And dialogue tags are great!  …  In moderation.  But it doesn’t take long before dialogue tags reach a point of diminishing returns.  They get in the way, start gumming up the works, slowly leaching all the fun out of the work and reducing the novel’s pace to a snail’s crawl.  

Most of the time, guys, said will do.  Said and Asked are the meat and greens of the meal, and the rest of the dialogue tags are spices.  You can use as many saids and askeds as you want, and it’ll be fine. A few more diverse dialogue tags are nice to keep things interesting and variegated, but if you use too many you’ll over-spice the dish and it’ll become unpalatable.

A good rule of thumb:  If the audience can tell from context how a character is speaking, use “said” or “asked.”  If they can’t, stick a spicy spicy dialogue tag in there for some flavor.

4. Make sure things are HAPPENING

I came across MANY points in my re-reading where chapters go by and just NOTHING is happening--it’s all just DESCRIPTION, and not even that interesting.  It makes my soul die a little.  But it’s okay, because I learn from my mistakes usually probably maybe. This time at least. Hopefully.

Don’t go too long without letting something important occur--conversations, action sequences, a montage of family activities, make something happen sooner rather than later, or you’ll lose the audience.  The audience who may just be future you, quietly shaking her head at present you's sad, boring tomfoolery.  

*waves nervously at future me*

Fixing Talking Head Syndrome

What it is:

     "Talking Head Syndrome," as it's known in literary circles, is a condition characterized by the metaphorical detachment of your character from a physical form during dialogue or monologues, especially if world-building or info-dumping is involved.  Essentially, the monologue or dialogue goes on for so long with so few indicators of what's actually happening in the scene that the reader gets lost and confused and, worst of all, bored.

Why it's bad:

     Talking Head Syndrome results in a couple different things, but most importantly, it's boring.
     When THS creeps in, all that's left is words, words, words--words that usually aren't that interesting, don't hold our attention, and make us want to skip over everything to get back to the action.  We lose track of what's going on with the characters, where they are physically, emotionally, etc, and you lose opportunities to really get in touch with the character, advance the plot further, or entertain the audience.

How to fix it:

     There are a couple things you can do to try to cure your MS of Talking Head Syndrome.

• Action Tags:  Action tags are essentially what they sound like; the action that goes on during and between dialogue, and they might be the simplest way to cure your THS.  Instead of saying, "she said," which is a dialogue tag, you cap the end of a sentence (or interrupt the sentence, when it flows that way) with action.  

  For example, instead of, "'I hate this,' she said," you'd use, "'I hate you.'  She put down the clock and crossed to Henry.  

  This is a relatively quick way to let your reader know what's going on while your characters are chatting, which, when done right, won't interrupt the conversation and will keep the details clear in your audience's heads.  Plus, it's more interesting to read.
• Dialogue Tags:  Dialogue tags ("she said," "he asked," "they inquired," etc) are the Action Tag's annoying cousin.  A necessary cousin, who isn't always annoying, but can be.  These don't help terribly much with THS (you can load your MS up with them and still have talking heads as far as the eye can see), but they do help the reader keep track of who's speaking at any given time.  And not knowing who's speaking is a dangerous side effect of THS.
• Slash and Burn:  Another solution is to cut down your dia/monologues.  Instead of having those long-winded passages of speech that take up six pages, you can make it more of a back-and-forth to break it down into more manageable chunks, which can help create space for action and narration.

      Talking Head Syndrome is tricky; it's one of those issues that just keeps coming back around and around and around.  I'm 99.99999% certain that there are talking heads somewhere in your first draft, because it's endemic, and it's natural; when you get in the dialogue flow it's hard to break out of it.  It's not spilled milk, it's nothing to cry about, just try to keep things interesting, and remember to balance your dialogue, action, and narration, lest you end up with more of a play than a novel.