: Re: How to express martial arts action in fiction? In the context of an actual as opposed to training fight scene in a fictional narrative, how would one express martial arts action? Generally,

@Frith254

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A few tips I've come across...

Fights are fast-paced, the writing should reflect that. I recommend frequent paragraph breaks running on short clips and sentence fragments.

A fight is about action/reaction so deeper thought really isn't an option. As a martial artist who has been unfortunate enough to find myself in self-defense situations before, you don't think about the moves or even your opponent's moves. It's all muscle memory, and you're more watching while your training pays off. Thinking costs reaction time.

It's more like, "Oh, they're lifting up their hands to... and I've blocked it already and punched them in the face." Well, they're going to... well, I already addressed that too, apparently. Hey my leg hurts, oh, the kicked it but I dodged most of it. Why am I spinning in a circle? Oh, that's why."

You think about your moves in training, but your "thinking thinking", you only reflect on them in actual combat. Though there is a part of your mind that's fighting, it doesn't bother taking the times to use words - that takes too long.

So, here's how I might write a fight scene:

He stared down his opponent, and he inhaled, then let out a long
exhale, relaxing the restraint he normally kept on his body. The world
came into a sharp focus, the sound of pounding blood in his ears grew louder and slower, as did everything else.
His opponent raised their hand for a crane stance, he lowered into tiger.

He pounced.

They stabbed down.

Twist. Grab.

A scream (theirs or his?)

Sliding, pull.

More screaming (theirs)

Grab. What? Neck (his)

Crack. Arm gone.

Breathing restricted.

Headbutt

Falling back (them)

Neck punch (good arm)

Connect... they fall, gasping.

He stands, the world becomes quieter.

He no longer hears the blood, his opponent is laying on the ground... his arms hurts immensely, oh yea, he broke it in the fight, he's going to need to splint, but his opponent is struggling to breath, he needs to end it before the fight restarts. He lifts up his foot, and presses it to his opponent's neck...

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