Thoughts of a Mad Man

Battle choreography: Character over Statistics

One thing I've noticed about writing battle scenes, is that we don't stat the characters but we do motivate them.





I had a fight involving two magi fighting another of their school who had decided to become a "Corpsebound Spellmaster."





Because they were lovers, every move they made was more about protecting their partner than about winning the fight. As a result, while they did emerge as the victor, they suffered terrible loss. Mortally wounded, Elisha sacrificed herself to fuel the evil magician Gian's magic book, allowing it to preserve his existence, albeit in undeath. They soon realized was a terrible mistake and together, they decided to Move into the LIght in the next story.





In Melihra Project, our warriors make choice after choice. Every sentence is a choice which reveals both their character and their purpose. Scarlett waits until her boss sits down in the car before evacuating. When somebody takes potshots at Melihra, she interposes herself--whether to protect her boss or prevent Melihra from shooting back. Meanwhile, Apione closes the doors the instant that Melihra sits down, because she is jealous of Scarlett's relationship with the bosslady.





Apione runs the car roughshod over the cart that jumps out, then swerves as if to avoid another pedestrian (really, to jolt the boss's injured back against the seat as she says, "Don't go making goo go eyes yet,"





Now this might be hard to do in battle after battle, but most stories don't have that much. And skills and powers are part of the person. Especially in short stories this calls for the more meaningful reasons first.