: Re: What's Essential In A Combat Scene? I've just been reading a bunch of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. Although they were the most enjoyable read I'd had in ages I always found myself skimming

@Connie138

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A good combat scene has risk.

Just think about what you are saying. To skim forward and then just want to read the summery. This means that you are sure that the combat has no real consequence. You are sure you are not going to read how your favorite character died, just about some meaningless injury that will just be pepper at some later point, but by the end of the book will mean nothing.

A good combat scene should keep the reader gripping his chair. Every movement of a weapon can mean life or death. This is something the author needs to establish. First this means that all closely described action needs to have consequences. The moment one filler fight is introduced everything becomes boring. Make the scene change your story, or don't go into great detail.

All this falls away if you are writing something like Tom Clancy's novels. These books are the pornography of weapon combat, and the promise to the reader is completely different. If the reader is there to read about how every spring moves in a gun, then feel free to deliver that to them.

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