User blog:QueenOfSwordsandStars/Combat Writing in Stories and Collaboration

Hey y'all, it's Liza aka QOS here with one of the posts in my series of blogs, Queen's Writing Help where I try to use my knowledge, experience, and personal perception of writing to help all of y'all keep honing your writing abilities in various subjects.

Today I want to talk about the subject of combat writing in terms of in stories and collaborations centered around combat, both magic and physical. To see my blog about my tips and advice for writing non-magical abilities, click here. For magical/supernatural abilities, click here.

And please, for the love of anything you consider holy, do not be the Black Knight.

'''Disclaimer: These are my personal views and tips on writing. You may take them with a grain of salt or as serious as you'd like.'''

Overall Tips
Less is More (Sometimes): A big thing I notice, particularly in rps, is that people love to have long posts with beautiful descriptive writing and syntax. In any other context, this would work if you didn't overdo it. But in combat writing, imagery like that distracts from the story itself. I've said this before and I'll say it again, keep your sentences short. Focus on the actions of the character, their thoughts, as opposed to what's happening around them. Only focus on the space if you are going to use in combat, and only in that instant. In combat, use details sparingly. They should be used in small increments to illustrate and draw attention to a point

Make Mistakes: In a fight, everything is based instincts and choices in the moment. There isn't time for active monologuing and your character isn't going to be able to respond to everything perfectly. I forget to do this too, but when I stumbled upon it made so much sense. Not much more to say on it.

Clarity: This falls somewhat into a contradiction of "Less is More", but a key part of writing combat, especially with a partner. You need to make sure that you are being clear enough with your character actions, which often means adding some detail. If your actions aren't clear, it is hard for readers to be able to really get into the scene and follow it.

Managing Time: In fights, especially close range, there's only so much you can do in the small window of time before your foe retaliates. Mainly, it depends on range. If you're in a close range fight you aren't going to be able to fire off more than one spell or punch at a time, unless your move is to create more space. In a long to mid range fight you've got a little bit more time, but sticking to one or two moves in battle is the most realistic and accurate way to go and makes the flow of RPS more enjoyable.

Specifically for Collaboration/RP
Bounce Boarding: When in collaboration, usually you are going back and forth with one or more other people. Because of this, there is often some discrepancy with it, but this can also be avoided. An important thing is to give your partner something to work with in a fight. Like a movement or an attack that they can go against. If you just write your character blocking and standing still, that can only go on for so long. Your partner has nothing to work with and it is harder for them to make a post. Make sure that your posts are somewhat open-ended, giving your partner(s) something to bounce off of into their post.

Go With The Flow: I see RPS as a lot of improv, especially when in tournament-style events where there is no real plot beyond fighting. One of the key things of improv is going with what your opponent has given you. Instead of saying "no" to something you think is unfair, you can try to communicate with your partner and ask them to revise their post, or just go with the flow of what they've done. This keeps the story in motion and carries the flow of it. By negating what another has said it disrupts the story and makes it harder to follow and less realistic.

Black Knight Syndrome: Remember that hilarious photo I put up there? That's Black Knight Syndrome and it's something I don't see too often in rps against people who have had experience, but noobies? Well. It happens a lot. So, a little background on BKS, it stems from the lovely movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which one character, even after having his limbs chops off, minimizes the injuries and tries to keep fighting. One of my biggest pet peeves in writing is accurate wound portrayal (I've got a section on it here), and Black Knight Syndrome is what happens when you completely ignore it.

Please, never be the Black Knight in your collaboration. It's incredibly difficult to deal with and is completely inaccurate. One of the keys to a successful combat RP is "going with the flow" and realizing that injuries do drag you down. It really sucks to be in an RP where all of your attacks are minimized by your opponent to a mere "flesh wound". There's a difference between acknowledging "Wow, that fireball could kill me but I've got strong enough defensive magic/physical options to come out of it fairly fine" versus "Ha, that fireball is like a baseball because my character is so incredibly amazing!!"

The best way to avoid Black Knight Syndrome when you're in a rp and feel like your character can accurately defend against something that has the possibility of lethal injury is use vocabulary to show that your character realizes the threat.

Combat Sequencing
Combat Sequencing is pretty obvious when it comes to writing a combat scene. You need to be able to properly convey what is happening on all sides of the fight, what all parties are doing in a way that is obvious to the readers. You should mainly use names. Not pronouns, not hair colors, not occupations. Always names because that is explicit, linking it only to one person. I said earlier that timing is very important, especially in rps. There's only so much you can do before someone else makes a move. That is very important

When you can, particularly in solo writing, or rps that are planned from start to finish, you should have a vague idea of what the actual combat is going to be like before you write and illustrate it. That is usually much smoother than battle rps for the sake of a fight, in which you don't have the same planning luxury.

Nonetheless, the flow and sequence of combat is them most important part of a fight. Making sure every move, every fumble, ever attack fits together and can be understood by the reader.

Attacks
Ah yes, offense. Attacks. What actually makes up combat. Looking at what I've said earlier, attacks are how combat advances. How a victor is decided, keeping in mind the chain of sequence, timing and the details around. I don't really have much to say about "how to write a proper attack" because I think it's pretty straight forward. However, I say that you should include the start of the attack, the attack itself and the results of that attack.

Once again, this is somewhat hard to do in an unplanned rp, as you don't know whether or not your opponent will block or dodge or take the hit. That's why RPS are different and I gave tips specifically for RPS. In Combat Sequencing and attacks for roleplays, you must leave the posts open ended, showcase what damage could be done and not damage is done.

Block versus Dodge
The other main part of combat rps is the retaliation to attacks, whether you end up landing the hit, your opponent blocks it or they dodge it.

One of the most common problems I run into when rping is picking whether to dodge or block an attack I believe is capable of being evaded. To decide this, I keep into consideration whether it is realistic to block the attack. With what I am going to block it with and how much damage I would sustain through the block. Versus how realistic it would be to dodge. If I could do it in time. If I could clear the distance without straining myself. But most importantly, is what would the character do? Is it in their nature to avoid it, is it in their nature to take it. What do their physical statistics say about them? If they've got stronger speed/agility, they're more likely to pass off a dodge. if they've got better durability/stamina, they'd be better off taking it.

Accurate Wound Portrayal
This is one of my biggest pet peeves in writing, is when people take damage in fights and don't portray the severity of what they took properly. I am not a doctor, so I don't have all of the nitty gritty details of what would happen if you had a knife wound or a gunshot, but I do know you wouldn't be carrying on like it was nothing.

There are plenty or resources out there to help accurately portray the severity of wounds and one I particularly use is from the Tumblr blog How to Fight Write. These guys are your holy fucking grail for stuff revolving around combat, wound portrayal and realism.

There's actually not much I can say about this besides, you need to do it. Use references, find out more information if you're going to take the hit and cope with your wound. Or really, just use common sense.

I guess that's all for this time, I haven't got much more to say. If you'd like to leave a comment, feel free, I'll try to answer any questions y'all have about the subject or expand on anything mentioned here.

~Liza (Queen of Swords and Stars)