How to write Action scenes?

I think this depends on the viewpoint you want to present. If I'm writing from the perspective of a trained fencer, they may be able to describe every move of the fight, as if they were recording a chess game.

But for an inexperienced fighter, a fight might be a confusing blur: "he came at me, there was a BANG, and then I was lying on the floor with my ears ringing. I could feel blood and I thought he'd stabbed me. Then I noticed he wasn't moving, and my wrist hurt with the feeling of recoil. I couldn't even remember pulling the trigger."

Yes, but even that you can choreograph. The confusion. The hesitation. The blows from nowhere. I've done one so far where my character had no idea of how to fight ... so in the interests of providing a probably not that good example.....

...The Chua bitch turned the color of a white sheet. “You little bitch.” Her voice was a snarl. “I’m just trying to do you a favor here, but if you want to….

“Bite me,” I snarled right back at her.

“That’s it,” the Chua bitch yelled, half standing.

“Jay-Lin,” Ginny wailed, grabbing my arm just as the Chua bitch went to slap me. Ginny’s hand pulled me off balance. The Chua bitch’s hand hit my cheek with a smack that sounded down the length of the bus, knocking me back down into the seat. Next second she was half over the back of the seat trying to hit me and pull my hair while I covered my head with my arms. Ginny was screaming and yelling. The Chua bitch was screaming. Half the bus was yelling.

“Stop it … stop it.” I could hear myself screaming. I was terrified, crying. She wouldn’t stop hitting me. She just kept on and on and I couldn’t do anything because Ginny kept getting in the way when I tried to get my arms up to push the Chua bitch away.

“Quit it Pauline,” someone was yelling as well. One of the Chua bitch’s friends was grabbing her, pulling her back. Without the Chua bitch hitting me, I had enough room to give Ginny a push to get her off me. I was still crying but now I was mad as well. That Chua bitch’d hit me and hit me and pulled my hair and slapped me and I wasn’t taking that. Scared as I was, I went straight for her, punching her in the nose as hard as I could.

I’d never been in a fight before but I knew you hit with a fist, you didn’t slap like a girl. I’d watched enough Hong Kong Kung Fu movies to know that. I was mad and I really hit her as hard as I could. Owwwww! My fist hurt. My wrist hurt. My arm hurt. Jesus! But the Chua bitch’s nose squashed and spurted blood. Well, she had a nose like a pug dog to start with anyhow. Now it was just a bit flatter. She screamed, shook herself loose and went for me again. I punched her again, both arms windmilling as fast as I could, trying to hit her while she hammered away at me.

I was seeing red, so angry and so furious that my vision had tunneled in on the Chua bitch and no one else. She was hitting me but I didn’t care. I just wanted to hit her as hard as I could. And I did, or at least, I tried. Again and again. Hands grabbed at me. Grabbed my arms. I tried to break free, to hit the bitch again but those hands were too big and too strong and they were hurting my wrists. Someone was yelling at me, pulling me back. Mr. Durkowitz was on the bus pulling the Chua bitch away from me so I couldn’t reach her.

Jesus. Where had all these teachers come from?

“Jay-Lin Liu. Pauline Chua. Stop this disgraceful nonsense at once. Both of you come to my office. Now! You too Virginia Chow, Amanda Wong, I want to see all four of you. The rest of you, go to your classes.”
 
Choreograph the fight. Who. What happens move by move. Physical harm. bodies. Blood. Mayhem. Who does what to who. Weapons. Or hand to hand. Outline reactions. Any dialog. That outline is the skeleton of your fight scene that u can then start building out.

Most fights are over within 5 minutes. I've been in 00s of fights, and theyre over quickly. I know nothing about martial arts but I did learn how to restrain viokenbt patients quickly. I can put you on the floor and sit on your back before you know whats up.
 
Most fights are over within 5 minutes. I've been in 00s of fights, and theyre over quickly. I know nothing about martial arts but I did learn how to restrain viokenbt patients quickly. I can put you on the floor and sit on your back before you know whats up.

Real fights, yes. I've got a whole training scene in one chapter where.the guy explains to Jay-Lin what a real fight is like. Outside of sparring, I would aim to either run or finish it fast.
 
Thanks for all those usefull pointers guys.

Yeah, thats what my character(ray) is doing . He has sort of a demon inside him who wants to take control but ray doesnt allow it. But when he goes berzerk on seeing his near ones killed, he willingly submits to his demon side for more power and then he just starts killing the army of bad guys like insects. Most of the stories i have read shows how the character fight a few at max with his sense still intact. But my character starts killing hordes upon hordes of enemies without even knowing what he is doing. Much like in the anime 'Bleach' where Ichigo's demonic side takes over, after he sort of dies and then starts killing everything in its path.
 
Yeah, thats what my character(ray) is doing . He has sort of a demon inside him who wants to take control but ray doesnt allow it. But when he goes berzerk on seeing his near ones killed, he willingly submits to his demon side for more power and then he just starts killing the army of bad guys like insects. Most of the stories i have read shows how the character fight a few at max with his sense still intact. But my character starts killing hordes upon hordes of enemies without even knowing what he is doing. Much like in the anime 'Bleach' where Ichigo's demonic side takes over, after he sort of dies and then starts killing everything in its path.

See if you can pick up the "Gotrek and Felix" omnibus series of books. The fight scenes in those should give you a really good template for what you're looking to do. It's set in the Warhammer universe and the fight scenes are just really well done.

Sounds like you're more looking at sword and weapons fighting?

I got some help initially from "Writing Fight Scenes" by Rayne Hall. It wasn't great, but it did give me some insight into the whole approach. That said, I still found reading good fight scenes in other people's books a far more useful way to learn how to do it reasonably effectively.
 
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See if you can pick up the "Gotrek and Felix" omnibus series of books. The fight scenes in those should give you a really good template for what you're looking to do. It's set in the Warhammer universe and the fight scenes are just really well done.

Sounds like you're more looking at sword and weapons fighting?

I got some help initially from "Writing Fight Scenes" by Rayne Hall. It wasn't great, but it did give me some insight into the whole approach. That said, I still found reading good fight scenes in other people's books a far more useful way to learn how to do it reasonably effectively.

Thinking about this some more coz I love writing good fight scenes and really, out of everyting I've read lately, I think Gotrek and Felix and some of John Ringo's booms are the best. Most authors just don't do detailed fight scenez that well. My partner pointed me at Sven Hassell but he's all WW2 which is a bit different from what you're looking for.
 
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