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