Kung Fu vs. Wire Fu
Are your fight scenes
realistic? Do they work on the page?
Steve Perry, Kamila Miller, Dave Smeds, Blake Hutchins,
Steven Barnes
Orycon 34 -- 2012
·
DS: The first thing, when doing an action scene,
is to get intensely into the viewpoint of my character. How is the fight
seeming to them. What are the threats to them. See it from the viewpoint of the
expert. In doing this, it makes it accessible, regardless of whether the reader
is familiar with the combat or not.
o
I know unarmed combat, but mostly I write about
armed combat. There’s some cross over in terms of what people are aware about
in fighting, but the techniques are different.
·
SP: I go for wire fu. Real fighting is boring.
Someone gets hit, and you don’t know what happened. You want to write for it to
be entertaining.
·
KM: I try to pull in the point of view really
tight. In the beginning, I tried to do it like a movie: choreographed. But for
writing, what’s important is the impact on the character.
·
SB: every fight has its own story arc. Look at
Sylvester Stallone: every fight is a 3-act story.
·
BH: When I write a fight scene, I start with
grounding in the sense. That makes it exciting. What is the scene meant to
show? It is real jeopardy, or show competence?
o
What does it feel like to feel outclassed?
o
What does it feel like to be hit?
o
What does it feel like to be tricked.
·
SB:
o
Fight scenes are like sex scenes. There’s a lot
going on, but what’s important is what it reveals about a character. A
character should not come out as the same person.
o
I start by asking myself who is this person at
the start, and who they are at the end. Either they change, or they learn
something about themselves, or they reveal something about themselves.
·
Pet peeves?
o
KM: The dude who wades through the battlefield
hacking and slaying.
o
DS: Karate kid: where you take someone with
almost no training, and they can beat people who have been training for years.
o
SP: Tom Cruise. A 5’8” guy can’t play Jack
Reacher, who is 6’5”.
o
SB: In PG and PG-13 movies, when people are
fighting other people far more capable. There should be ripping eyes and going
for the groin.
·
What do you love?
o
SB: The fight scene in From Russia with Love in the train cabin.
o
SB: Peter O’Donnell wrote the best fight scenes
ever.
§
He’s put people in a situation they could not
possible win.
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Then convince you they have to win.
§
Modesty Blaze books
o
You find the people who do know this stuff. You
have the scenes express something: somebody’s loyalty, their tolerance for
pain, the lengths they will go to.
·
Get the original episodes of the Green Hornet
with Bruce Lee. He’s genuinely good. The last few seasons are the best because
they bought up people he could really fight against.
·
Guilty Pleasures:
o
SP: Green Arrow on CW: the kids aren’t watching
this, so they just go wild. “kill them all”
o
SB: Wild, wild west
o
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