How To Write a Fight or Battle Scene

Part 2 - Weapons

Weapons

"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Choosing your weaponry can take a bit of thought. Weaponry should be appropriate to the scene, the characters and the context of the story. For example, having a close action fight with one protagonist holding a crossbow and another holding a Swiss army penknife is probably unlikely. Weapons also need research, as a caveman holding a composite metal longbow is less than likely, and weapons have their own history of evolution, whether they be swords, falchions or ballistae.

Keep track of how many and what weapons your characters carry? Note this down if you need to. Having specific character sheets so you know what people carry / look like / armour etc can be handy: geeky, but useful. Even knowing how many arrows a character has left can be helpful to the story, and the devil's in the detail as always. Remember which hands are holding what too. If you have a left hander fighting a right hander you'll need to remember that when you're describing what blows are going where, which arms are attacking and defending, and which way they're facing. This is especially true if your characters have more than two arms!

Something you also need to know, or work out, is how the weapons work. You can't stab someone with a flail for example, oddly enough you flail at people with it. Think too about how your weapons can be used to attack and / or defend as this will change depending on what weapon the opponent is using. Even a shield can be used to belt someone with.

Finally, choose a weapon that fits the character. Giving a hobbit a massive two handed sword or King Arthur a dirk is kinda wrong. At a basic level, can they even lift it? Is it useful? Will the weapon render your character breathless and winded (and dead) after swinging it more than once? While I'm all for having strong lady characters for example, but very few ladies have the physical strength to draw a longbow more than a couple of times; let's face it not many men do either. I've drawn one once, and it's bloomin' hard work.

Think things through and get your weaponry realistic.