Happy Halloween! In this 19th edition of the Not Dead Yet Newsletter, I talk about writing combat in stories, Halloween in an Asian country, and more.
Combat in stories
In a story, a sword fight can be technically detailed, full of elaborate choreography, and still leave the reader completely confused. I've done a lot of training in weapons martial arts, specifically fencing, Kendo, HEMA, and Eskrima, all of which have some form of full-contact sparring. That gives me a lot of experience and knowledge that I can draw on. It also gives me lots of opportunities to get in my own way. Because knowing something about the mechanics of weapons, distance management, and timing is very different from writing about it.
There have been so many times I wrote overly detailed fight scenes only to have beta readers tell me they got lost in the morass of details. It's a bitter pill to swallow.