How to explain a war scene?

For starters, avoid getting into details.

This is true generally, and even more so during battle. People are moving quickly! It is no time for details.

I've read a battle-scene where the author described specific attacks, and the impression I had was that the fighting was happening in slow motion. With classical music in the background. Really slow music.

The best battle-scene I remember reading included almost no descriptions of the actual battle, but of colors, emotions and cries. Needless to say, this scene left a powerful impression, and I actually felt like I was there.

Of course, since you're writing this from the king's perspective - and the king is normally in the back lines - you'll have to get into overall detail of what's happening on the field. After all, the king needs to know what's going on!

See also: Good action scenes

posted almost 13 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Yehuda Shapira‭

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How do you explain anything vividly? Observe with all your senses, and add emotions and thoughts. Do the research.

I will express hope that you have not personally been in a war scene, so you would have to find some other way of observing, or use your imagination. You could watch combat footage or news reports of war, you could interview veterans, you could read war memoirs, or you could read other fictional books with war scenes.

Then don't just describe the parry-thrust-advance of swordwork, but how it feels to swing the sword — how it hits his opponent, the shock that comes back up the king's arm (or doesn't), the smell of perforated bowels, the smears of blood and brains, the terrible screaming of dying men. Maybe find some Society for Creative Anachronisms chapter and talk to the folks there about how sword-fighting works. (Substitute whatever weaponry or tech is appropriate for your setting, of course.)

posted almost 13 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Lauren Ipsum‭

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