Cirb's Writing Reblogs

shiny-shell:I love their relationship. They’ve had a rocky past...

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:06:14 -0400

I love their relationship. They’ve had a rocky past cheating on each other and being apart and unsure of the nature of their relationship, but they smoothed things over and they joke about that stuff now. They’re just so honest and friendly with each other, but they’re also very wise in that they really understand that nothing is perfect but true, kind love will weather anything. Han-Seong and Yoo-joo just grow together so beautifully. ;______;

Character Development Questions: What is your character's living space like?

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:04:45 -0400

fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment:

A nice way to get to know the little details about your character a bit better, I think, is to find out what their living space is like. Since a person (most of the time) has a lot of control over what the place they live is like, it can say a lot about them.

So, here’s some questions you could ask yourself. Hope they’re helpful!

How big is their living space? Do they live in a cramped apartment or a huge house? Why do they live there?

What does their living space look like on the outside? Do they keep their lawn mowed or is it out of control? Maybe they have a few flowers growing outside? Do they take care of the repairs, or is their living space a bit run-down?

Is their living space in an isolated countryside, or a bustling city?

What does their living space look like on the inside? Messy? Clean? What do they accessorize their living space with? You could even go on to describe individual rooms, if you want!

For example’s sake, I’ll offer one of my characters: Caroline.

Caroline lives in an apartment in Seattle. She lives on the top floor because she likes being able to look out over the city from her windows. The apartment’s fairly nice and spacious because she’s a bit claustrophobic and can’t handle cramped living spaces. She decided to rent instead of own a home at the moment because she believes it is the best economical decision at the moment.

On the inside, the apartment is a bit messy (think Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion messy, haha). Caroline is prone to leaving dishes out instead of washing them straight away. Empty beer cans and cigarettes resting in the ashtray are a common occurrence on her coffee table. She likes pop art, so there’s a lot of it hanging on the wall in her living room. She has a lot of wicker furniture. Her walls are usually dark colors like midnight blue and dark green.

- Pen

ceiling-dee: leadles: Dilemmas, dilemmas…

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:44:15 -0400

ceiling-dee:

leadles:

Dilemmas, dilemmas…

cumberhug: p justanotherstupidape: smokingcolt: neeble: enoshi...

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:44:06 -0400

cumberhug:

p

justanotherstupidape:

smokingcolt:

neeble:

enoshimatroll:

endless-wandering:

idknowlol:

How cool would it be to tell people you woke up and your man had a warm cup if coffee for you. And y’all sat outside and talked while you sipped the coffee on a beautiful fall morning. and when you got to the last sip of the cup you realized he was asking you to marry him? That’s perfection, right there.

omg if only

no you know what would be funny though

is if you got up one morning and your guy is like “i made coffee for you” and you reply “i’m not thirsty right now, but thanks” and he puts the coffee in your hands and he’s goes ”no you have to drink it” and you look at him incredulously and repeat “but i’m not thirsty” and he’s like “drink it” and you refuse to and he just follows you around throughout the day, carrying the same cup of coffee and begging you “please drink it” and you’re so confused because it’s four in the afternoon and you don’t even like coffee

You don’t want to waste your dishware so you just keep using this mug. And then your friend comes over and you give them this glass. And you don’t realize it. When they’re done with their coffee, they glance up at you, and raise an eyebrow awkwardly. You smile politely because that’s the nice thing to do, not knowing what they just read.

You are suddenly sucked into a time vortex. Twenty years later. You are still married to your best friend. Your former significant other has become the neighborhood homeless person. They’re crazy. They talk to pigeons and throw crackers at you. You are fantastically rich. You have three kids. Everything is perfect in this alternate timeline where you gave your friend the “Marry Me” cup.

But there is something inherently wrong. You, and the hobo down the street know there’s something up. The very fabric of time and space is tearing at the seams.

Marry Me: A Science Fiction Saga

I give you a hamburger.

BEST CROSS-POST JOKE

another hipster post ruined good job

Some Writing Prompt Generators

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 17:39:56 -0400

sauntering-vaguely-downwards:

pibsims:

needlekind:

Serendipity (names, places, mapbuilding, etc.)
Quick Story Idea
Full Story Idea
Writing Challenges
General Character
Quick Character
really just all of Seventh Sanctum
RPGesque generators
Writing Prompts
Inspiration Finder
Story Arc
Fantasy Story Situaton
Adventure
Chaotic Shiny is just really good in general
Random Plot

reblog for my own reference

/high pitched screeching

michael-cliffoblue: Master post of au’s that need to be written

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 13:56:23 -0400

michael-cliffoblue:

Master post of au’s that need to be written

heartfilly: Shingeki no Kyojin characters on Mikasa Ackerman

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 13:43:08 -0400

heartfilly:

Shingeki no Kyojin characters on Mikasa Ackerman

michigrim: michigrim: I’d love to write a story that starts out as a normal spy thriller then the...

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 04:40:54 -0400

michigrim:

michigrim:

I’d love to write a story that starts out as a normal spy thriller then the big act 2 shoe drop is the fact magic exists and combat mages have been working behind the scenes forever.

I don’t mean wands and shit I mean guys and gals that can cast a haste spell, breach an apartment building, get to the tenth floor and kill you with a double tap from an HK416c in ten seconds USING THE STAIRS

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 04:19:04 -0400

Okay, so, this isn’t really a question I can answer because angel culture can look like however you want it to look like, and part of your job as a writer is to decide how you want it to look.

But… I know that’s not terribly useful advice, so I’m going to give you a few questions that can help you develop a culture for your angels when you don’t know where to start. Keep in mind that these are just starting points to get you thinking about angel culture. Culture is a large, complex, multi-faced thing so there are going to be a lot of things I miss out.

What do angels need to survive and how do they get it?

When I’m creating a culture the first thing I ask myself is: what do these people need and how do they get it? For humans this is food, water and shelter; and how humans get these things depends on the environment they live in. Now, think about what angels absolutely need and will not survive without. Do they need food like humans do? Then their culture needs to accommodate that.That mean’s they’ll either hunt, gather, farm or trade food. Each of these options leads to more questions? For example: if they’re farming what animals do they farm? Are they the same animals we eat or are they mythological? Or are they all vegetarians so only grow fruit and vegetables? What sort of agricultural technology do they process? If they trade, who are they trading with? What do they trade for food? How do they acquire that? Let’s say your angels don’t need food, but they do need something humans don’t need, like belief. If that’s the case then their culture will be structured around getting belief. How they would get belief (or whatever non-human need) would be up to you. You might come up with cultural rules/norms like every angel is assigned to a human to make them believe in them. Or maybe particularly powerful angels are sent to earth to preform miracles when belief starts to waver.

What physical attributes do my angels have and how could this affect their culture?

Make a list of all the things you already know about your angels and then think about what the logical consequences of a whole species having these qualities would be. For example: do your angels have wings? Then their building’s will have doorways large enough to accommodate their wings . Are they immortal? Then maybe they don’t celebrate birthdays. Are they genderless? Their culture is unlikely to be patriarchal. Are they created as fully formed adults? Then they probably don’t have a concept of childhood.

This is also a good time to think about how having magic might affect your culture. Do schools need to be fire-proof because of all the young children learning to control their fire-magic? Is it considered lazy to fill a kettle with magic , is it considered showy, or is it done without a second thought? It’s also worth thinking about the limitations and costs of magic in your world are. For instance, is it possible for angels to create massive earthquakes that would damage the world? If it is, what cultural rules/norms stop them from doing this? If your magic system has natural limitations, e.g. have to tough an object to set it alight, how would this affect culture? Would it be considered very rude to touch someone you didn’t have a very strong trusting relationship with, for instance?

What traits do angels, as a species, value?

Pick a concept (or a couple of concepts) that your angels value above all else. It might be something like personal freedom, family loyalty, democracy, athleticism, obeying authority, dignity, honesty, altruism, or originality. Once you know what your angels value you can start thinking about how their culture reinforces (encourages) this core value. This ‘encouragement’ could be positive (rewarding people for showing this value) or negative (punishing people for behaviour that goes against this core value).

Knowing what your angels value can help you make big decisions like what type of government their society has and what’s legal vs. illegal; but these values will influence the small things too. For example, it might influence the insults people use or what occupations have the highest wage.

What does power look like in angel society and who has it?

This is the time to consider what inequalities (if any) exist in angel culture. Is angel culture as a whole sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classiest, ableist, ageist, etc? This bias doesn’t have to be overt - it can come through in the little things (microaggressions). For example, a society in which the majority of people assume a woman with a stethoscope is a nurse instead of a doctor is sexist, but in a different way from a society that bans women from becoming doctors. Once you know who has the power and who doesn’t, decide what privilege those in power have. Does power mean you can vote, go to school, own property, run for election, murder someone without any consequences…. Now consider whether power is something you can achieve or if it’s something you have to be born with. It can, of course be a mixture of the two. If power comes from wealth, then someone might be able to achieve power through hard work, but the majority of people with power might have still been born into it/inherited it.

How do the angels interact with other groups?

You mentioned that angel culture is distinct from human culture, but now’s the time to think about exactly what the relationship between angels and humans is like. Do angels purposely distance themselves from humans? Do they admire human culture from afar without interacting? Do they see themselves and superior and try and control humans with violence/threats. Do they see humans and ignorant children who need to be gently guided in a hands-on way? Did they used to have a close relationship with humans until one of they’re own was killed, and have now become withdrawn as a result?

How much cultural exchange is going on? Can humans and angels communicate at all? How common is it? Do they trade goods? What about services? Do they share new medical or technological advances? Do they ever discus politics or philosophy? Does one group try and force they’re political or religions ideology onto the other? Do they copy or adapt each other’s fashion or architecture styles? Is the cultural exchange equal or unbalanced? Perhaps angels can observe and copy what they like about human culture but humans aren’t aware of angels at all.

Also, assuming for a moment, we’re talking about an earth-like setting, which human cultures are the angels interacting with? Humans have hundreds of different distinct cultures. Are angels interacting with humans from 1850s America? Or 1850s India? Or both?

You should also consider whether angels are a monolith? Do all angels share the same beliefs, values and cultural norms. Or are they’re several groups/subgroups of angels that all have their own distinct culture. If they’re are, how do they interact with each other?

One final note…

There are a host of other things to consider when building a culture (technology, religion and art, to name a few) but hopefully this has been enough to give you some idea of what you want angel culture to be like. If you’re still stuck on how to develop your culture try answering some of the questions on the blog or feel free to send in anther ask and I can give you my thoughts on specific topics.

I’d also just like to add that you don’t have to know everything about a fictional culture to write about it. It’s perfectly okay to make up the details (or all of it) as you go along. Really. In fact, with culture being such a large and complex thing, I’d say it’s unrealistic to expect yourself to know everything about it.

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 21:06:08 -0400

I can see two ways to attack a problem like this: Find some middle ground, or go cold turkey.

First, figure out what it is you like to write. Not the particular fandom, but what about it/them you like. Be generic: Do you like the suspense? Romance? Intricately plotted story arcs? Well-rounded, believable characters?

Make a list, make it as long as you need to. Then, do the same for the types of characters you are most attracted to writing about, the types of settings, historical periods, whatever details you can break down and qualify and quantify.

You need to develop some sense of who you are as a writer and what part of the landscape you are going to claim as your own.

Then, try this middle ground method: Write a fanfic based in your current world of interest. Write your heart out, from beginning to middle to end. Then, “file off the serial numbers” and turn it into a unique world/setting with a unique cast of characters such that copyright lawyers cannot come after you. Change names, alter ages, write it in a completely new setting or alternate universe. It may suck, but that’s fine. You really are just stretching your muscles. Don’t expect to complete a full Olympian workout just yet.

Or, try the cold turkey method: Take your list of likes and start picking names out of a hat or an online generator; choose one setting you like. Pick a plot from this list or some other like it. Write a few paragraphs summarizing the story, like you’re telling it as a bedtime story to a child and you only have 5 minutes before your 8 pm show begins.

When you find a story that piques your interest, start writing. Write a drabble or flash fiction or short story if that helps, or dive head first into a novel.

– Aliya

Making Better Magic Systems (Lesson 3)

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 21:05:24 -0400

davidfarland:

The High Price of Magic

Everything in life carries a price. It’s a law so universally understood that we feel it in our bones. Yet when we deal with fiction, some writers forget to consider the high price of magic.

The renowned author Nancy Kress has pointed out that a defining moment in her career came when a fellow writer pointed out to her that she needed to consider the economics in her stories—whether they were fantasy tales or science fiction. In other words, she needed to consider the cost of wielding power. With the very next novella she wrote, Beggars in Spain, she delved deeply into the realms of economics, politics, and questions of equality—and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her work.

There are magic systems where magic doesn’t carry much of a price. For example, in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, the fairy godmothers cast spells on a whim and anything is possible. But when anything is possible, then nothing in the story can really matter. The audience feels that at some deep level, and so there is little tension.

Now, the movie Sleeping Beauty works in part because it is a lighthearted fantasy, a comedy with no tragic overtones, and is appropriate for young children.

Yet for most fans, that just doesn’t work. Moving an object requires energy. If you want your wizard to move a mountain, then you must consider where that energy comes from, how it is applied, and what the magician must do to harness that energy.

For a story to be truly convincing, there must be a cost to the magic. For example, in the book Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins carries a cursed ring to the Crack of Doom to destroy it. He manages to get the job done, but he does it by putting a curse on Gollum, telling the wretched creature that if he ever tries to steal the Ring again, he shall be thrust into the Crack of Doom. Later, Gollum does exactly that, biting off Frodo’s finger and then dancing in triumph—until he slips into the Crack of Doom.

Thus, Frodo used the Ring to cast his curse, and eventually loses the very thing that he fought to protect—his beloved Shire. That is the price that he paid to use magic.

Similarly, if you study the tale of King Arthur, you will find that Arthur uses the magical sword Excalibur in an attempt to bring peace to Britain. But that sword too is accursed—created by the Fey—and despite his best efforts, Arthur’s attempts yield him nothing but an ignoble death. Despite the way that modern audiences love it, Arthur’s story was devised as a cautionary tale against using fairy magic or consorting with otherworldly creatures.

In my own Runelords fantasy, I establish the rules very solidly. A lot of fans have suggested ways that we could “fix” the magic system so that it doesn’t cost so much to those who give up an attribute, but to do so would be a mistake.

In my book Million Dollar Outlines, I talk about the idea that there are only a few possible outcomes to a story that are highly satisfying. I’ve found that when judging stories for Writers of the Future, my panel of judges will almost always give the award to the story that wrings the most tears from the reader. They usually pick the story where a protagonist wins what he wants, but must pay a high price to do so.

This rule is pretty universal. The price doesn’t need to be excruciating, but it does need to be there.

In fact, here is a secret to writing a good fantasy: the price of the magic must be bound up into the very source of the magic.

Of course, this doesn’t apply just to fantasy. It also applies to science fiction. Any powerful technology generally comes with a price, and the more powerful the technology is, the higher the price.

Thus, when you read a tale like Dune, young Paul Atreides goes to a planet where breathing the very spice-laden air gives him tremendous prophetic powers, so that he becomes almost godlike, but in doing so he becomes a target of jealous lords and ends up losing the woman he loves and his own humanity.

I could go down the list for hours, showing how in ancient fables the gods gave power to men, often only to teach them a hard lesson.

The same is true with any other system of power. If you want to delve into politics, there is a price to be paid. If you want to join a gang, consider the cost.

Even if you just want to write, there are certain costs. Fortunately, the benefits for writing generally outweigh the costs.

Sat, 09 Jul 2016 16:25:18 -0400

Figure Drawing/Anatomy Link Reference

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 20:19:45 -0400

arucelli:

Hey guys!

I know I’ve been asked a lot on what sites I use to practice/look for study refs, and I honestly just google for them. But here’s some that I’ve found to have gone back to over and over again because they’re just really helpful:

Nude/Clothed Models

http://www.quickposes.com/gestures/random

http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

https://www.pinterest.com/arucelli/ref-poses/

Only Clothed Models

http://senshistock.com/sketch/#

http://null-entity.deviantart.com/gallery/

(literally any deviantart model stock artist’s account, basically)

Nude Models:

http://www.freshdesigner.com/figure-drawing-reference/

https://www.pinterest.com/arucelli/ref-anatomy-female/

https://www.pinterest.com/arucelli/ref-anatomy-male/

http://tumbview.com/figuresfordrawing/grid/random/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7EWYwaF6E-H65W-hXeKvvO_xNA_kIs5w (videos of live models, for simulating a class setting)

I might update this list as I find more websites, but these are ones I definitely recommend!!

waalkr: OK SO this is how I showed perspective to a student that was having difficulty visualizing...

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 19:27:39 -0400

waalkr:

OK SO this is how I showed perspective to a student that was having difficulty visualizing it

Draw the buddy

Use a transformation tool

fill it up like a baloon not forgetting some things cover others

Keep going! That way you keep your proportions right, etc

And don’t forget references for the angles

writersrandomramblings: Overlooked.

Sun, 05 Jun 2016 17:05:23 -0400

writersrandomramblings:

Overlooked.

writersrandomramblings: Feeling words.

Tue, 24 May 2016 14:12:53 -0400

writersrandomramblings:

Feeling words.

Mon, 09 May 2016 14:34:08 -0400

Hi!

Okay so I’m on my phone, so sorry if the layout of this comes out all weird and stuff. Secondly, I’m literally in no way an expert in writing, I’ve just found techniques that make good reading through writing for a couple years, reading like tons and tons of books and what I’ve learnt through studying English.

So, that brings us to the first advice I would ever give anyone is literally read everything. Reading is the best way to make your writing better because you get to see what style of writing you like. Let it influence your writing, but don’t let it dictate it. Every writer has their own flair, find yours.

Different sentence lengths and structures are your best friend. If every sentence is the same length, or the same structure, your writing becomes monotonous (of course, unless what you’re going for). Different sentence lengths create rhythm and flow. When we speak, we don’t say like five words or ten words at a time in a sentence, followed by another ten words. We break language up, we extend it.

Shorter sentences tend to be more dramatic. They are concise and deliver the message bluntly, so the use of this will definitely vary on the personality of your character. Longer sentences tend to offer more information and therefore are great for emotions, or building up tension.

Get your characters set. You may not have to plan the entire story if you’re someone like me, who just writes as she goes, but character planning always helps you differentiate between your OCs and make sure you don’t mix their personalities.

Be descriptive, but don’t go too far. Unless of course, you wish to follow in the footsteps of George R.R. Martin, in which I would tell you, be tasteful and selective about it. You don’t need to describe everything in a room the moment a character enters. If it’s necessary and constant in the story, like the characters bedroom, or a common room, then explain it once, but never go into full detail twice. Mention small details, like how cold the room is or the ugly wallpaper. Anything which would draw your attention, as a person.

When explaining settings and places, try to create feeling. How does the character feel there? Instead of writing “X entered the woods and they felt scared.” Try writing something like, “X entered the woods, the hairs on the back of her neck standing immediately.” Or something like, “X entered the woods with bated breath, something didn’t feel right.”

Sometimes it may be better to describe how someone feels rather than just telling the audience they feel a particular emotion. Portray emotion through body language and make the character notice if somethings different. If someone is worried, most of the times you don’t have to say that they seem nervous, you could mention how they shuffled from on foot to another repeatedly, or how they were biting the inside of their cheek and their brows were furrowed. The only way we recognise emotions on people is through their body language, so use it.

Sometimes, it good to take a break from writing. Trust me. Sometimes all you need is a small break from your book, just a step back to figure out where you want to go with it, but always go back to it.

Practise. Writing is an art. Art takes a helluva lot of practise.

That’s all I can think of from the top of my head, so I hoped this helped, and good luck with your story!! (I have a tag called writing advice, which I think has another post like this on it, you can find it at tagged/writing-advice)

Have a great day, love! xx

How to Improve Written Dialogue in 6 Steps

Wed, 04 May 2016 17:38:35 -0400

mariavicente:

Dialogue is often one of the clunkiest elements I read in a requested manuscript. It’s difficult to balance the nuances of real-life speech and the guidelines for written conversation, but it doesn’t take much to improve the dialogue you have already created. Here are six steps to improving written dialogue:

Step 1: Sit at a coffee shop and listen to conversations.
Write down fragments of what you overhear. This is the best way to get real-world inspiration for your dialogue. For example, if you’re writing a book about teenagers, then listen in on a conversation between teenagers. No matter your protagonist, you can find real-world inspiration for how they talk, what they care about, and how they connect with other people through conversation. If a coffee shop doesn’t work for your research, then pick another public location. Parks, libraries, bookstores, restaurants… almost anywhere will work.

Step 2: Avoid dialogue tags.
Dialogue tags are almost always unnecessary. If two characters in your book are having a conversation, readers don’t need to know who said what after each line. Your readers can assume that the speech is moving back and forth. Dialogue tags can make your writing look clunky and also waste your allowed word count on absolutely nothing.

Step 3: Look up other ways to say “said”.
Even when you try to avoid them, sometimes you will need to use dialogue tags in order to let the reader know who is speaking. And when you do, occasionally find different tags than “said” to keep things interesting.

Step 4: Remove (almost) all name mentions.
Most writers have a bad habit of including characters’ names in speech in the early drafts of a novel. People rarely call each other by name in real-world conversation. Don’t let every line of dialogue start with someone’s name because it’s unrealistic.

Step 5: Get rid of the small talk.
Many people will tell you, when advising how to write dialogue, to make it sound as close to real-life speech as possible. This is one exception. Small talk happens a lot in real-life (how many conversations about the weather have you had in your lifetime?), but it shouldn’t be in your novel. No one wants to read small talk; readers are looking for interesting dialogue that is engaging and moves the plot forward.

Step 6: Read all dialogue out loud.
Go ahead. Do it. Read every single line out loud. Pretend your dialogue is the script of a play and act it out. The way you’ve written it (and the words around the speech) should include hints at the emotion behind the words. Reading your dialogue out loud is the best way to catch errors, judge its compelling nature, and check that it sounds authentic.

Now go forth and write great conversations!

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:39:33 -0400

*Curtsies* Okay. I think part of your problem is you’re looking at it the wrong way. You really shouldn’t ever have a reason to write a scene where things “are just normally going on.” Unless something happens in a scene to change the state of play and move the story forward, it shouldn’t be there. But that doesn’t mean that every scene has to be full of big bombastic action. For instance: in my WIP there’s a scene where my narrator and her best friend have drinks at the bar. That in and of itself is pretty mundane; they do this like every other day. But on this particular day it’s significant because of the conversation they have. Best friend tells her that the nephew of the family she works for will be arriving in town in a few days’ time. Again, pretty mundane, but that event–the nephew’s arrival–is what sets the entire story in motion. I’ve crafted the entire scene around that particular piece of information, because it’s the reason the scene is there. The reader needs to know the nephew is arriving and why that matters. But this is also the first time we meet the best friend and the first time we visit the bar. So the scene is also, to a lesser extent, about introducing the reader to him and this place where they hang out. Ergo, in the course of their conversation you also get a description of the bar, the bartender, the best friend, etc. And all that stuff can happen simultaneously. But here’s the golden rule of writing: don’t waste words writing shit you don’t need. If a scene doesn’t affect the plot, cut it, and craft the scenes you do have around how they affect the plot. Aristotle actually talks about this in the Poetics, which is something every writer should read, just by the way. In section 5 he discusses structure and unity and says this: “So the structure of the various sections of the events must be such that the transposition or removal of any one section dislocates and changes the whole. If the presence or absence of something has no discernible effect, it is not part of the whole” (trans. Malcolm Heath). Ask yourself what would happen to the story if you cut this scene, and if the answer is ‘nothing,’ get rid of it. Make your words matter.

When you manage to cut your outline (and you should be outlining; outlining will make figuring out what has to happen in those tricky middle scenes much easier) down to the bare essentials, here’s what I’d suggest: Look at each scene as a tiny story. Each scene should have a beginning, middle, and end, just like a whole book does. Find the story arc of each scene. What happens? Something has to. Once you isolate what the ‘event’ of each scene is, you can figure out what needs to be said beforehand to make that event make sense, and what needs to be said afterward to indicate how that event has changed the story. Then, move on. Don’t dawdle. Next scene. More here.

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 22:51:34 -0400

Not always, but swords are quite fast and lethal; single strike kills are quite possible. Having forty inches of high quality steel run through your heart or throat can kill you on the spot.

Even a glancing blow has the potential to seriously impair a limb. So, a strike to the arm or leg followed with an immediate kill is quite plausible. Also, bleeding to death is a legitimate risk, even to an extremity hit (particularly in the thighs and upper arms). In which case they could still bleed out in under a minute, depending on where they’re hit.

Generally speaking, most forms of media seek to draw out combat. You want to play the scene as long as possible for the audiences’ entertainment. We’ve talked about this before in a lot of different contexts.

This applies to gunfights, sword duels, hand to hand… it’s everywhere. In the real world the most important thing is to make sure your enemy is dead before they can kill you. In entertainment the most important thing is to make sure your audience gets to see the fight.

If you want to get an idea of how fast real sword combat could get, I’d suggest looking at competitive fencing. It’s not what historical combat looked like, but it should give you an idea, especially when dealing with light blades like the rapier but more specifically the epee. European sword combat became progressively faster as time went on when it came to dueling and the epee is essentially it’s pinnacle. As a spectator sport, modern fencing requires both electronic scoring and instant replay just to tell what happened. Depending on how fast you want it to be in your narrative it could be quicker than the eye can follow.

When you’re setting up a duel for film there are a few things you can do to make your life much easier. The most important thing is to simply slow down your actors. This extends the fight, and it makes the fight watchable. At full speed it can be legitimately hard to follow most forms of combat, including sword dueling. This also makes it safer for your actors, because they’ll have more time to react and more control.

You can move the blades outside of the actors body lines. We’ve talked about the importance of this in combat before, but for choreography, it gives your audience a clear picture of what’s happening, and it helps your actors to time their actions off one another. This also leads to a lot of non-guard stances that make little to no sense from a practical standpoint, but look great on screen.

The second thing that can make your life a lot easier with staging duels is having the actors parrying constantly. This allows you to extend the duel theoretically indefinitely. This also provides the opportunity for cosmetic injuries, like a nick to the cheek or arm. It’s probably worth mentioning, a nick to the forehead isn’t cosmetic, because it will get blood in the victim’s eyes.

On screen, the threat of lethality can help maintain tension in long duel sequences. The reality that these characters would have been exhausted 10 minutes ago doesn’t matter. When the time comes to end the sequence it can happen on the spot.

When you’re writing a duel in prose, things are a little different. The visual padding that makes a movie sword fight memorable works against you. It doesn’t matter if your characters are on top of a crumbing tower in a northern tundra with snowy mountains in the distance. It’d look cool as hell, but your audience is interested in what your character is experiencing. In the duel, that’s their fatigue, pain, what they’re doing, and what their opponent is doing to them. Where your characters are, when it’s not immediately relevant, will kill your pacing.

Put another way, in a visual medium (comics, TV, film, even to an extent video games) the images are the substance. What the audience sees is important. In written text, what your character experiences is what’s important.

What this means is, when you’re writing you want to keep your duels short and punchy. Set the stage before the fight begins. You can still have your grand tableau. But, when the focus changes to killing, that is the most important thing for your character until after they’re no longer in danger.

When you’re writing fiction balancing your needs for to keep your audience entertained and your desire to hew close to reality is necessary. Many of the greatest duels in cinema history from Errol Flynn’s swashbuckling to the Princess Bride aren’t believable from a realistic standpoint. They are, however, extremely entertaining.

At the end of the day, if you are a writer then you are an entertainer. That’s what stories are. Even if you’re only entertaining yourself, the experience is what’s most important. Strike your own balance, learn how it’s supposed to work even if you don’t follow those rules, get a feel for what works well for you, and damn the rest.

But, yeah, you can flat out kill someone with a sword, that’s a thing.

-Starke

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