Cynthia D. Griffin

Category: writing fight scenes

Fight Scenes Part 5: Psychological Warfare

November 14th, 2014
Whew! We made it to number five! If you missed the other four parts of this fight scene series you can catch up Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction, Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Differences, Fight Scenes Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat, and Fight Scenes Part 4: Weapons. Here is the last, but certainly not the least installment of the series. Check out how to get the upper hand with messing with people’s heads, or how a fight can mess with a your (main/other) characters head.

Something to remember... When you fail to do something in a fight, it can be a serious psychological blow.

The arrogance of power assumes they will always be successful and can’t be stopped. They also feel entitled to seize anything they can take.

Some psychological elements are…
- Experience
- Temperament
- Desire/ intent
- Mental state
- Emotional state
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Fight Scenes Part 4: Weapons

November 10th, 2014
Missed the fist three parts? Check out Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction, Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Difference, and Fight Scenes Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat. Now let’s talk a little about weapons. These notes focus mostly on unconventional weapons or what Jonathan Maberry called natural weapons.

Weapons

The more a character knows how to use natural weapons the better he’ll be.

Types of Weapons…
- Core Body Techniques
- Surrogate Weapons
- Actual Weapons
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Fight Scenes Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat

November 8th, 2014

So far we have looked at Fight Scenes Part 1: An introduction and Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Differences now lets get into the really fun stuff… hand to hand combat. My notes are more geared toward getting out of a fight and how touch can be important in a fighting situation. So without further delay…

Ways to Get out of a Fight…

Rule #1: The more injury you make the least able the attacker is able to attack.

A hit to the nose can end a fight to a non-experienced fighter (which even a child can do).

Things a hit to the nose does to a person…

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Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Differences

October 27th, 2014
Here is the second installment of my Fight Scene series based off notes from Jonathan Maberry’s fabulous class. If you haven’t already, check out Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction. So lets’ get started. This post will be dedicated to how physical differences in all parties involved can make a big difference in how a fight plays out.

Physical differences are a BIG deal…
- Small against large
- Speed
- Longer reach
- Muscle density matters
- Length of hair matters
- Abilities matters, better trained more chance of win
- Location is big
- Clothing
- Tools
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Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction

October 20th, 2014

I finally managed to get through my notes from Jonathan Maberrry’s (the author of the popular Rot and Ruin series) a workshop I took. There was a lot of information so I am breaking it down into a five part series. I will start with this introduction, then part 2 on physical differences, part 3 on hand to hand combat, part 4 on weapons, and lastly part 5 on psychological warfare. Oh and make sure to look for the Fun Facts at the end of each post in this series!

So let’s get started as we look at some very basics of fight scenes and fighting information in general. The very first thing to remember with ALL fight scenes is…

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Category: writing fight scenes

Fight Scenes Part 5: Psychological Warfare

Fight Scenes Part 4: Weapons

Fight Scenes Part 3: Hand to Hand Combat

Fight Scenes Part 2: Physical Differences

Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction