FightWrite™ Tips for NaNoWriMo
Trained fighter and author Carla Hoch offers you tips for NaNoWriMo to keep the writing going and getting your fight scenes into your draft.
If you are participating in National Novel Write Month, you have no time to waste and miles to go before you sleep. So, just for you, here are a few FightWrite™ suggestions to keep you writing. Even if you aren’t sure how your fight scene should go, you can keep going and that’s the key to NaNoWriMo—just keep going.
Remember, the goal this month is to get your rough draft out of your head and onto the screen. The finished product comes later. But you can’t get to a finished product without a productive process, and constantly stopping the flow of writing just ain’t productive. Ideas in motion tend to stay in motion until an opposing force stops them. When you don’t allow any scene in your rough draft to act as an opposing force to your ideas, to make you stop writing, those ideas are more likely to keep rolling and the words are more likely to keep coming.
Placeholder
If the words for your fight scene just aren’t coming, that’s OK. Don’t let it discourage you or slow you down. Instead, create a placeholder. Write as much as you can so that when you go back and fill in the scene, you will have a place from which to start. It’s especially important to note any injury or details that affect the storyline.
Be sure that you format your placeholder in a way that grabs your attention. It’s far easier to find something when it stands out. Also, you can document search the phrase “PUT FIGHT SCENE HERE” and jump to every unfinished fight scene in the work.
A placeholder fight scene might look like what I have below. This is a bit of a murder mystery MS tentatively called Night of the NaNoWriMo 9 to 5 Killer: Don’t Do It Dolly!
***** PUT FIGHT SCENE HERE ******
Jolene attacked, knocked out, black eye, broken orbital bone
Little memory of attack
Happens in parking lot of Dollar General
Attacker wearing black Dolly Parton hoodie, blond wig and baby Yoda mask? Lots of makeup? Glittery ski mask? SpongeBob mask?
****** EVIDENCE ******
9:25pm – video surveillance
lots of blood
blond wig hair
Imprint of Harrah’s Casino coin on Jolene’s cheek
***** PUT FIGHT SCENE HERE ******
I put all the info in list form simply because my brain loves lists. I have the injury noted and made sure to put evidence in its own section because that is information that can impact the rest of the story. Also, I can document search “EVIDENCE” at any point as I write if I forget what evidence I need to include. Notice that I didn’t put anything about the actual fight in this placeholder. That is fine. I will tackle it in the first edit. Also, you can see that I wasn’t sure about how to obscure the assailant’s face and put down several options. That allowed me to keep the momentum in my writing. I wasn’t throwing away ideas and I also wasn’t stopping the process.
Placeholder Plus
In a placeholder plus, there’s a few bits of action. But, let’s say I still haven’t decided how the fight will go so I can’t put too much. I will start with the injury/injury goal and go backwards. That way, I can make sure that the injury stays front and center as I block the fight scene later. An injury doesn’t have to take place in your fight scene. However, the injury goal will determine how the characters are moving. An assailant who means to punch will move differently than one who means to take someone to the ground.
As with a placeholder, make sure your placeholder plus includes info that will come up later in the story as well as any other details that pop into your head. Maybe you will include those details in the edits; maybe you won’t. That doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you don’t stop the words from coming out. It is far easier to keep going than to get going again. Just like an object in motion wants to keep moving, an object at rest just wants to be at rest. So, the less you let your words rest, the better.
As you look my placeholder plus over, remember that I’m walking backward from the injury which you don’t have to do. However, if you are not familiar with fighting, I very much suggest that, at some point, when you do start blocking the scene, you go backward from the intended injury in notes. That way, when you start writing the fight scene, you will be sure that the moves you include work toward the intended outcome.
***** PUT FIGHT SCENE HERE ******
Jolene is walking out of a Dollar General when she is assaulted.
She bought a 20 pack of toilet paper, cat food for her raccoon, and a family pack of bologna
Blocking: Knocked out – punched/hit with something in right eye (breaks her orbital bone) – Jolene shrieks, throws hands up – assailant jumps from bushes.
Jolene has little memory of attack; she remembers hearing someone sing her name and a crunching sound in the bushes
Attacker wearing black Dolly Parton hoodie, blond wig, heavy make-up almost clown like
****** EVIDENCE *****
9:25pm – video surveillance
lots of blood (she falls and hits the back of her head)
blond wig hair
Imprint of Harrah’s Casino coin on Jolene’s cheek
***** PUT FIGHT SCENE HERE ******
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Basic Structure
Sometimes you have a pretty good idea of how you want the fight scene to go. If that is the case, you have the elements of a basic structure. Again, this basic structure is simply a rough draft. It doesn’t have to look like the final product. For the basic structure of my fight scene, I will still add in notes about evidence and what will happen later so I have a sense of direction as I do rewrites.
Jolene walked out of the Dollar General just a few minutes before it closed. She walked to her car whispering to the raccoon that chirped at her from her purse.
She opened the trunk of her car. Put the toilet paper in. She smiled down at the raccoon peeking out of her purse then turned her head toward a noise. The bush at the front of her car scraped the headlights and a man’s voice sang, “Jolene, Jolene, Joleeeeeeeene.”
The man stepped out. Jolene shrieked and threw her hands up. Her purse and shopping bag hit the ground. The raccoon ran under the car, dragging the family pack of bologna with it.
The man stepped out into the light. Platinum locks hung down over the shoulder of his black Dolly Parton hoodie.
Jolene stepped back just missing a swipe of the man’s hand but not soon enough to miss the punch that followed. The strike threw her head left. Jolene stumbled to that side, then backwards. Her feet betrayed her. She fell. The lights of the parking lot faded.
***** EVIDENCE *****
Jolene busted her head. A lot of blood at scene. She is discovered by other patrons. She wakes up in hospital.
blond wig hair at scene
Imprint of Harrah’s Casino coin on Jolene’s cheek
Video surveillance
Does raccoon have evidence in fur???
The more you are able to write in the first draft, the easier the second draft will be. Notice that I said easier—not easy. Every stage of the writing process has its own peculiar hurdles and even the most practiced writers have tough moments. About the writing process, George R.R. Martin said, “…there’s bad days, too. Where I struggle and sweat and a half hour creeps by and I’ve written three words. And a half day creeps by and I’ve written a sentence and a half… You know, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.”
So, as you write, if you are struggling, remember that the struggle is normal. Also, keep in mind that getting a completed rough draft written is the hardest part of the writing process, and the part that most people never get through. And let me tell ya, your rough draft may look nothing like a book. It might look more like a maniac’s manifesto. But remember this, without a rough draft, all you have is an idea. And although a great idea is the beginning of a great story, only a rough draft is the beginning of a book.
Happy NaNoWriMo! May the words be with you.
Carla Hoch is the award-winning blogger of FightWrite® and author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes. She is a WDU instructor who regularly teaches on the craft of writing fight scenes, action, and violence as well as the mechanics of fighting for writers. Carla is a world champion jiujitsu player and has experience in almost a dozen fighting styles. She lives and trains outside Houston, Texas.
