[Nai's scrapbook]When you're evil

[Nai'shee]

Nai my darling...

When you tell me, "You don't want to know," I canNOT resist the urge. I perused youtube, and I came across these videos. I really don't know what to say about them. But, thank you. For giving me this glimpse into Serbian culture.

Okay, now I'm embarrassed. But it's true that majority of people listens to that and claims there's no atmosphere without that music. Plus, you can start to imagine all the lyrics some people are able to write. _ _" But, honestly, that's just about modern 'culture', caused by money and stupidity, I can't begin to describe our artists earlier (not just musicians) and our tradition.

I'm glad to hear you've got a school like that though. I wish my high school had been like that. My college is, but my high school was pretty worthless. I got almost nothing out of high school (i never paid attention in class, taught myself everything out of the textbook, and instead of participating in class I spent class sessions reading books or writing my own stuff).

Thanks, Minnie. I'm sorry to hear that. I guess you did the same thing as I did in elementary, got your As on bare intelligence and a bit of going trough notes before tests and then forgetting most of what you "learned". I'm glad to hear it's better now, tho.

[Nai'shee]

Random Yahoo!Answers guy on writing fighting scene (for future reference)

1) When you're trying to increase tension in the reader/scene, use shorter, simpler sentences because they are more quickly read and increase the pacing and ..thus...the tension.

2) Stick to one character's perspective during the fight (instead of head-jumping to everyone involved. I once read a book written in omniscient perspective that did this and it wasn't executed well). By remaining in one character's head, you would focus on details that only that one character would notice and then you would describe those details in a way that only that character would notice. This personalizes the fight scene and develops characterization.

3) Avoid writing a play-by-play of every action that occurs in the scene. Only tell me what's physically happening in between the scene's dialogue/monologue. I'm more interested in learning what he's thinking or what they're saying than what they do. And when you do show what's physically happening, make sure you limit it to the important actions that push the scene along. I don't need to see them circling each other or gauging each other--sizing the other guy up. I need to see the actions that tell me something important about that character and/or the situation.

4) Be selective with your details. Fight scenes are tense and require fast pacing. You wouldn't pause the action and describe a butterfly or a dog frolicking through a field unless it was relevant to the fighting itself. (This might seem obvious but you'd be surprised).

5) Avoid overuse of adverbs/adjectives. Nothing is more cheesy than reading "He punched profusely" or "he moved fluidly"...instead, pick a strong verb that prevents using adverbs like 'profusely' and 'repeatedly.' Try 'pummeled' instead or choose the verb that best tells the reader what happened without dressing up the action with too many 'ly' 'ing' adverbs.

6) Do your research. It's all about naming things properly. It's about describing things with enough brevity that you don't interrupt the flow/pacing of the scene. It's about choosing organic enough words that they'll blend into the rest of the narrative without jarring the reader or taking anything away from the scene. It's about conveying a message and pushing plot or character development along. If your fight scene doesn't do the above, then it doesn't belong in the story.

7) Consistency. This has to do with character development but obviously you wouldn't make your characters behave in a manner that is inconsistent to who they are. You can't, for instance, suddenly tell the reader that Jacob knows karate without having foreshadowed this earlier in the story. Likewise, if Jacob is a coward and never fought before in his life, how could he know karate since karate is the type of sport that requires physical practice? It's inconsistencies like these that ruin fight scenes.

-Gemi

[Naeya]

Nai, thanks so much for posting that! I'm the worst at writing fight scenes, so it's always great to read helpful tips about improving them. I'll definitely be reading this for inspiration before tackling my fight-focused posts.