Battle Scenes

Via SF Signal, I went to this article on do's and don'ts of battle scenes. It's helpful, as far as it goes. But......there are some subtleties and details it doesn't get into.For example, the question of pacing in a battle scene (battle scene = single combat all the way up to raging war). The conventional wisdom, although some beginning writers don't seem to realize this, is that when you transition from non-action to action scenes, you should shorten your sentences and use that shortness to work to create tension, along with how you describe the action. I've certainly done that in the past--in something like "Balzac's War," for example. It creates a different rhythm, and it tends to approximate the energy rush you get in an emergency situation.None of this works, though, if you don't describe things in the right sequential order and if you don't use proper cause and effect. If someone fires a gun, that bullet goes somewhere. For example. Think of martial arts movies and their intricately staged fights. Just imagine if one element was out of order, how that would disrupt the entire effect. That's why it's sometimes a good idea to map out in your living room with a friend or two just how the action in a fight scene is going to go down.It's also worth noting that some of the best fight scenes in literature go against this basic principle. The intense battle between Flay and the Cook in Titus Groan (or Gormenghast, I can't remember which book it's in) plays against the idea of terse, tense, short sentences. Their fight is a long ballet that takes place over about 20 pages. It unfolds in an odd way--long sentences, almost leisurely, and yet the tension is almost unbearable. (It's also worth noticing that the build-up to that moment takes place over so many pages that 20 pages of fight scene seems more like 5 in a normally paced novel.)Finally, the article gives the advice that you shouldn't stop to describe, say, a flower on a battlefield. And yet, some of the best effects are created by focusing on tangential details. To use one that's cliche but proves the point: the bloodstained hand grasping at a strand of grass, only to go limp. Sometimes, by focusing on the backdrop of a battle, you can get across the point of major major death and violence in a much more interesting way.Jeff