Help! How to write convincing sword fight scene?

there's some great thoughts on this in the "Dueling" thread right here on the adventure forum.
check it out!

awesome thanks

Ohhh...I love writing sword fighting scenes.

To draw it out as long as possible, I would strongly suggest......having a particular henchman whose better than the others, and nearly kills one of the "friends" you mentioned, (probably the one closest to your MC) and the MC gets angry, so he/she fights to get at this particular henchman.

Another suggestion would be having one or two of the friends fall into the water, and have to be saved.

On sword fighting itself, I would say put lot's of emotion into it. Put anger when the MC (or who ever's POV it is) makes a mistake or a bad move. Make them jubilant when they make progress. Make them panic as they see a friend injured.
Besides emotions, describe the swords of the opponents. What do they look like? Heavy or light? Skilled, or idiotic? Are they dripping with blood, or still clean? (Does blood fly from the blade when its swung?) Stuff like that.

Last, keep it real. I know it bothers me when something happens, and the charector gets right back up without being fazed. Keep it real, but also talk about the endurance levels of the MC. Have them stumble when they're getting weak, but pushing themselves on. Have them gasp, as they try to get themselves to stand back up from collapsing, before they're killed for this small second of weakness. Have them scream, or just give a small yell, (or have this for the friends there with the MC) when they are injured more seriously.

Good luck! Get that 50k written!
Night Silver

I haven't written and sword fights yet, not sure if I'm going to or not. I do have a few non sword fighting scenes, which I can tell you about how I wrote them instead, if that might help you out.

A real fight only lasts a few seconds. I figure it should take the reader no more than 5 seconds to read the fight. Thus my fight scenes tend to be quick and short.

Regardless of how many people are fighting, (even if it's a big battle) I pick out only two fighters, and focus on them. I describe the actual action between the two fighters, focusing more on the inner emotional responce of the one that is loseing, (even if they are not a MC) thus makeing the winning fighter seem much more feirce.

Generally my fight scenes are less than three paragraphs long. I use short setances(Less than seven words each). I use simple small words. I let it flow past the reader quickly, giving them the illusion that they are being pulled through the action at the same break neck speed in which the action takes place.

There's the end of one fight scene in the first half on my excerpt, and the start of a differant one in the second part of my excerpt. (a clip of 2 differant chapters). You can read those to see my writing style.

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Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

Personally, I write them short. A hollywood swordfight is grand, swashbuckling, and exciting. A real swordfight, in all probability, will be fast, confusing, terrifying, and lethal. If the thing drags on for five pages, it sort of loses its sense of seriousness. But if somebody dies in the span of maybe two paragraphs, to me that conveys a much greater sense of seriousness.

My swordfight is short, now that I reread my sword fight in one of my chapters. But, the fight did drag on for at least 2 pages, and that is because the character's would be talking and so on. You know, some characters would talk 'crap' and talk to feel more confident. That is way I put it. Depending on what your character can do (from magic to flygin- etc), the swordfight can go on for a LONG time... What happens if the character has a strange sword (as in, it is too powerful to break)- the fight can last for a long time. Also, if your character can 'fly' for some odd reason, the fight could be dragged on because the character will fight using flips (etc.) and attack the guy in different angles. So, it is hard to determine how a sword fight will go or how 'convincing' it is. There are times when my characters stop fighting for a quick second to add some comment that makes them look cocky (who doesn't do that)- or to insult the hero/make them more angry etc. A sword fight could be dragged on for pages. The longest sword fight I have is 2-3 pages long- and that is because of the reasons I mentioned above (talking, blood, pain, actions being described etc.). It's not mentioned in my novel excerpt yet (nor on the link I provided to read my story), but it'll be there- soon.... Hoped this help somewhat...

How about:

(I used and example MC name Lani)

Lani swiftly dove in and out of the foes flooding out to her, one by one falling as she plunged the balde into thier stomachs with a rip. More. The people were like samurais, dressed in all black, except for the red sunglasses that covered most of the skin. Lani took more and more out, turning and kicking so fast, that it felt like her arms would give out. But she couldn't give up, no matter how hard it was, her brother was at stake. He was in need. Lani ran towards a group of the masked maquars, slashing each of them, making all twist like a churro. Then it happened. Like in a movie, an especially large one dove for her, slashing a two blades so fiercly, it appeared like one. Lani dodged all of the blows except one small unexpected swipe that knocked her to the ground.

The main thing you need to keep in mind is that if everything works out just peachy for your characters it's unrealistic. A few of my fight scenes are like that (where none of my characters get hurt) and I need to fix them when I edit my story. Have them trade blows and then pick up a thesaurus to make it less repetitive, but make sure a main character or friend of gets hurt.

Watch almost any movie with Basil Rathbone in it (except all but one Sherlock Holmes movie, I believe) He was both an excellent swordsman and an instructor. It is much closer to reality than almost anything being shot today (what with CGI and harnesses, etc) Sadly Basil usually died in the movie fights, because he played a lot of bad guys except for Sherlock Holmes (he won that movie fight, BTW)

This is very helpful! I write fantasy and I'm currently slogging my way through the final battle scene. I've suddenly thought of so many ways in which I can make it better.

The first battle in my book has one of the characters die rather violently. Fighting an Ogre (middle of a larger battle) Ken and Deany have to keep the Ogre off Amber for long enough for her to cast the spell to end the beasts life. Soon after the fight starts Deany is thrown across the room distancing him from the others. The Ogre lifts Ken up by the neck and hits him against the wall, throws him to the floor and stomps on his chest. Deany throws a sword at the beasts back and runs between it and Amber. It takes it out of its back and flexes away the pain. It raises the sword above its head and Deany (now unarmed) looks back and forth between the Ogre in front and Amber behind, finally falling to the ground a moment before the spell is cast. The Ogre dies. (Not a direct excerpt.)

COME TO THE CHARACTER GYM! It is in the RPG forum, and lets you practice swordfighting scenes with other writers. COME TO THE GYM!