Too much to summarize here at SuperStars Writing Seminar, so I’m just going to pick the one thing that really helped me each day.
I attended two Craft Day sessions and they were both phenomenal: Writing Fight Scenes with Jonathan Maberry; and Building Worlds and Characters with Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. Both were dense with fantastic information. I am going to be thinking about them for a while.
After Jonathan Maberry’s presentation I asked him a question that particularly plagues me with writing fight scenes. I feel sick thinking about them. He told me that was natural and he gave me a recommendation for how to handle it.
He told me to write fight scenes using layers, like this:
- Determine the characters’ needs and wants that cause them to fight. This is critical. Don’t just throw fight scenes in just to have a fight scene. Every fight scene must reflect the motivation of the characters and must move the story arc forward.
- In an analytical way, perhaps using visual items like little figures, choreograph the fight and write the bare bones down.
- Take a Dramamine or sip some ginger ale or suck a ginger candy. Then add the emotional content leading up to, within, and resulting from the fight.
- Continue sipping ginger ale and write the damage done to the participants in the fight. Be clinical about the damage.
- Write the after-damage, both physical and psychological. Note that violence should create echoes through the character’s life.
Superstars is incredible! I am so lucky to be here to learn from the greats. I hope you are also having a great time today.
Be well, friends!