What can a fight scene prove about characters?
My story begins with a woman minding her own business and is forced to fight for her life; against a grotesque (but unseen) creature. The creature is too strong for her, she isn’t strong enough to defeat the creature but she starts hitting it without tiredness; until she is forced to flee ( I thought that this would make the character stand out more )
I have read that to write a fight scenes the words have to be simple and must be carefully written - the rest of the story never seems to refer back to this very scene even though I think it could prove that the character has got courage and survival instincts - if I weren’t to write a fight scene at all would my character/victim seem less insightful?
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As Totumus Maximus noted in a comment, the fact that your character loses the fight shows, right off the bat, that she is not going to be an overpowered Mary-Sue who wins everything without even trying. The fact that she can't defeat the creature (and probably knows she can't) but tries anyway shows that she is courageous and doesn't give up easily, which are very heroic qualities.
However, I'd say it's just as important, if not more important, to consider how your hero fights. Consider the scene in which Indiana Jones is confronted by a swordsman in a crowded market, and instead of engaging him in a drawn-out sword-fight, he just shoots him. It's not much of a fight, sure, but it shows Indy's practicality, no-nonsense nature, and ability to adapt to unexpected challenges - and does such a good job of it that it's become one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history.
There are plenty of other ways of showing your character's personality through their fighting style:
- If her blows are wild, poorly-aimed swings, she's either unskilled, scared out of her mind, or both;
- If she charges in head-first without any kind of strategy, she's probably reckless, hot-headed, or impulsive;
- If she instead hangs back and tries to look for potential weaknesses or openings, she's probably a more intelligent, analytical person;
- If she's a more sly, trickster sort of character, she may engage in more underhanded tactics, from minor things like engaging enemies in witty banter to try and put them off (probably not applicable to your story), to stuff like attacking enemies from behind, or while they're talking... or, indeed, bringing a gun to a knife fight.
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