 Fantasy: August 01, 2018 Issue [#9030] |
  Fantasy
This week: Battle Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The only thing that makes battle psychologically tolerable is the brotherhood among soldiers. You need each other to get by.
-Sebastian Junger
The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.
-Sun Tzu
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
-Philo |
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A crucial part of any good story - fantasy or otherwise - is conflict. And there are not many better examples of conflict than actual battle.
Some people say that violence never solves anything. These people are demonstrably wrong. Violence has solved many problems - and caused many more. War is, whether we like it or not, a part of human experience, and writing depends on communicating human experience.
In fantasy, often a fight, or battle, or war, is the physical expression of an inner conflict. Even so, when writing about it, it's important to keep some things in mind to help you make clear the things you want to communicate to the reader.
There are many different kinds of fighting, such as a one-on-one duel, a bar fight, a battle, or an epic war. I'm focusing here on the bigger combats, because I think they're harder to get right. I'm also concentrating on classic fantasy battles - swords and sorcery.
Point of view - this is important whether you've got a battle going on or not, but it's especially important when there's a lot of action to deal with. Just as anything you right becomes more relatable when it's about one or a few individuals, battle scenes tend to be more emotional when you focus in on just one person is doing. This could be a fighter in the midst of a melee, or a general watching from some vantage point. Stick to that person, what she or he sees, hears, smells, fears, thinks. It's okay to switch points of view, but try not to do it in the middle of a scene.
Characterization - There are many ways to illuminate someone's character, and I think one of the most revealing is how that person reacts in battle. Are they bold, or timid? Do they fight face-to-face, or do they look for backstab opportunities? What do they do when they come across a fallen comrade, or a wounded enemy? Different people will react to battle situations differently, and a person who appears fearless may actually be quaking inside. And it says a lot about a person's values if they feel compassion for a wounded enemy.
Description - In actual battles, there's a lot going on. An outside observer will inevitably miss a lot. Someone in the midst of the fighting will only be able to see what's in front of them, unless there's some sort of break in the action and they've got a vantage point. While keeping to the fighter's point of view, it's unrealistic to add in information about what's going on over the hill - unless you have some way of communicating this to the POV character. Remember, battle is chaotic, and the character experiencing it doesn't usually have time to process or explain what he or she is seeing. You should know how the battle is going overall - your characters should not.
Target audience - How much you communicate about a battle is going to depend on who you're writing for. You'll generally want to keep descriptions of wounds and killing blows, for example, relatively mild if you're writing for a young adult audience. The risk here is that the true horrors of war may not be communicated to those who most need to hear about them. Keeping things sanitized isn't always the most responsible course of action.
Aftermath - All battles eventually end. It's what the combatants do at that time that's important. A good proxy for good vs. evil is how the victors treat the defeated. Are survivors captured as slaves, slain, taken prisoner, or treated by healers? And how does your POV character feel about the decisions?
Done right, a battle scene can further the plot, expose personality traits, and define the character of the societies involved. Done wrong, it's just another big fight. |
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Last time, in "Independence Day" , I discussed the concept of freedom.
Unfortunately for this month's content, no one exercised their freedom to send in a comment.
So that's it for me for now - see you next time! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
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