#ask lew

chapter one

so uh. the final fight is actually sort of written already? the fight itself isn't but the whole finale is. actually a LOT of yellow rose au is written already, cherri and i wrote basically the entire latter half of it already like a year ago for fun lmfao. but bc we wrote just latter half scenes and no early scenes it's not publishable

whether that gets posted will kinda depend on how much editing it needs and whether or not the public stuff ever gets that far, but i would like it to get there!

i do like that you asked about different routes just bc fun fact, yellow rose au probs has the most alternate branches / aus of the au outta like, any of out aus. lots of alternate paths. classic hero villain is what i would eventually maybe post, but there's,,, how many alternates. true villain, swap, and double villain are some of the major ones i can think of off the top of my head but there's a lot

work is temporary. One Piece is forever

i've written a few, but i don't do it often. honestly, i usually try and write around them when i can, so im probs not the best person to ask. still, i can give you the little bits of advice i know

here's the big idea you want to keep in mind: your word choice, sentence structure, and punctuation control the breath of your reader. the way your sentences are built can, if only subconsciously, leave your reader breathless, even if they're reading in their head.

i can show you what i mean real quick with a short paragraph from tma:

Bring all that is fear and all that is terror and all that is the awful dread that crawls and chokes and blinds and falls and twists and leaves and hides and weaves and burns and hunts and rips and bleeds and dies!

reading a long chanting sentence without any punctuation in it like that makes you feel a little breathless, right? especially compared to the same paragraph again except i replace all the ands with commas

Bring all that is fear, all that is terror, all that is the awful dread that crawls, chokes, blinds, falls, twists, leaves, hides, weaves, burns, hunts, rips, bleeds, and dies!

you can definitely feel a difference in tempo from one to the other, right? when you're careful with your sentences, you can even control the beating of your reader's heart! with fight scenes, you want to keep your sentences feeling quick to keep their heart racing. leave your reader gasping for breath

for a fight scene—or, really, any action scene at all—your writing should be fast and direct (most of the time). you want short paragraphs, short sentences, and even short words when you can swing it. keeping things shorter makes them feel quicker and punchier, which helps keep the flow of a fight.

you also want to vary your sentence length and structure for this reason, because if your sentences feel monotonous, your fight will, too. use strong, direct words and especially verbs, ones with powerful or gritty or harsh connotations—slammed instead of hit, for example. things with oomph that'll make each word hit harder. you want your verbs especially to hit as hard as possible

paying close attention to your words and sentences is most of the advice i've heard and tried to follow with fight scenes. i still struggle a lot with them, esp choreography of them, but this is how i try and think of crafting rhem

this is far more niche advice but... fight scenes became significantly easier to write for me after i started fencing because it helped me understand the motions of a fight better. if you have the ability to try a combat sport, i'd recommend it, even if it's just a lesson or two—feeling the movements and motions of a fight with your own body really helps with understanding choreography. failing that, i would genuinely recommend reading up on the irl basics of a combat sport or watching videos of drills or fights, bc understanding the basic movements of a fight will help you know what actions you have to work with

i don't know how helpful any of this advice will be to you, but i hope it gives you something to think over!

if anyone else reading this has advice for writing fight scenes, please share. for more resources, i also have a blog for collecting writing references, @writefrence which has fighting references on there (tho you'll have to search bc the tag system is not even remotely up to date). you can also check @/howtofightwrite which is a blog entirely focused on advice for writing fight scenes!

hi eclim. this place is not a place of honor. no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. nothing valued is here. this message is a warning about danger.

thank y— AUGH!!!