A Scrimmage in Skirts: SMART Tips for Writing Female-Forward Fight and Action Scenes in Historical Fiction

Recently I was lauded in a review for the female-forward action scenes in my new novel The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. Frankly, I had never heard the term female-forward action scenes before, but I’ll take the compliment. To me, those scenes were just action scenes with females as the protagonists. To be precise, two fierce 42-year-old sisters in the Regency era who use their privilege and invisibility as “old maids” to pull other women out of peril.

(10 Myths Writers Shouldn’t Believe About Fighting: FightWrite™)

My Ill-Mannered Ladies novel has quite a few action and fight scenes, and I’ve been asked to share how I write them. So, allow me to introduce to you my patented* method of writing historical action scenes, which can be used for writing female, male, or nonbinary protagonists, and which suits any era. I call it the SMART method, mainly because I love a cheesy acronym.

S: Set up

M: Motivation

A: Abilities

R: Reaction

T: Tighten Up

To be clear, the SMART method is all about the classically structured three-act novel, so anyone writing experimental fiction may need to look away.

(*The method is, in fact, not patented.)

A writer lives and dies by their set ups, and by inference, their pay offs. By the time you get to an action scene in your novel—a scene that generally places your protagonist in a situation that increases their physical and emotional risk—a lot of things need to have been set up.

Firstly, all the character stuff. Who is your character, what do they want, how do they think they are going to achieve that goal, what are they willing to do to get that goal (never enough because part of the journey of a protagonist is realizing they have to risk more and more to get that they want), and what do they actually need, which is different from what they want. A protagonist’s need is an unconscious flaw or mistaken belief that is holding them back but has to be addressed so that they can be whole again.

Goals throughout a novel can change, but the need stays the same until it is resolved. It is the spine of the story, and once the protagonist realizes the truth of their need in the climax of the novel and addresses that flaw (or fails to), you are out of there. The story is done. Fin. What are you waiting around for?

Secondly, the setting needs to be set up. Where are they in space and time? This is particularly pertinent to my fellow writers out there who are creating historical fiction. How is the physical environment, the society and its expectations, the political situation, and the philosophical underpinnings of the era going to affect your protagonist as they move through their world?

For instance, in the Regency era, women of the upper classes were restricted in their movements by both societal norms (big gestures were vulgar and trained out of women) but also by their clothing. So, when my main protagonist, Lady Gus, must run and fight in an action scene, she not only has to fight the antagonist, but also her own life-long training to be small in her movements, and her long gown. Never underestimate the difficulty of kicking someone in a Regency muslin gown. I know, I’ve tried it. The key to all this is, of course, research. Every writer decides just how authentic their historical setting is going to be, but whatever the level, make sure it is vivid and consistent.

Thirdly, and on more of a scene level rather than the novel as a whole, you need to set up the actual stuff that needs to be in place for your action scene to work. I’m talking about the nitty-gritty stuff like the way the house is laid out if the scene is a rescue scene, or giving the protagonist the knife they’ll need before they go into the alley, or showing the full chamber pot that gets smashed over someone’s head (one of my favorite escape moments in the Ill-Mannered Ladies).

And of course, do I need to add that if you set up a weapon, then don’t forget to use it or at least subvert its use? Of course I don’t, you already knew that.

Why is your character about to increase the risk to themselves in this action scene? Have you set up her or his or their motivation to be there?

Nothing smells as bad as a character who is putting themselves at great risk for apparently no good reason. Make sure your protagonist’s motivation is true for them at that structural point in the novel and make it clear to your reader. Action scenes are one way to build stakes throughout a novel, so a protagonist probably won’t put themselves in too much danger at first, but then that willingness to take on risk will build as they realize they won’t get what they want (their goal) without more and more effort.

Extra points for making the protagonist’s motivation part of the mistaken pathway they are taking on their road to realizing their need. Wait, that sounds important—what does that mean? It means that your protagonist is living their life in a certain way and that way is not fulfilling or addressing their true need. They think that going after their goal in this same old way will solve their problem, but nope, it won’t. Therefore, they are motivated by something flawed and will have to find a new way to negotiate their life to overcome the flaw or mistaken belief that is holding them back.

For example, Lady Gus thinks that she is responsible for her twin sister’s happiness. No, Lady Gus, that is flawed thinking, and it is going to cause you a heap of trouble (which is great for the story). In fact, if you really want to get down to deep writing method, if you place your protagonist’s goal and need in opposition—for example, the goal to protect their heart at all costs in opposition to their need to be loved­­––then you will have instant conflict, the engine of a good story. You’re welcome.

Frankly, it would have been handy for Lady Gus to have been an eastern martial arts expert, or a knife expert, or, for that matter, any kind of fighting expert. However, because I strive to write my historical fiction with a high level of authenticity, it would not have been historically feasible for her to have those abilities. Eastern martial arts in England in the early 1800s were largely unknown, and a lady of her class did not learn how to handle a knife or box or fight with any skill.

However, within the confines of her class, sex, and her character, she can fire and load a Regency era gun (upper class women hunted), ride a horse (side saddle, learned from a young age), and she can swing a chamber pot with some force (the natural fury of an older woman). She can also read (not a given at the time, or indeed even now), and runs her own household, so understands organization and logistics. A good recipe for a resourceful protagonist of the early 1800s, and all set up before she goes into an action scene that requires those abilities.

So, when she engages in action or a fight, she does so with abilities that are within the possibility of a woman of her class and age and this makes the action scenes ring true for both character and era. And as a great reference for writing the physical and emotional realities of females in fights, I recommend Aiki Flinthart’s book, Fight Like A Girl: Writing Fight Scenes for Female Characters.

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If your protagonist gets punched, stabbed, shot, falls off a building, breaks an arm, or indeed does any of that violent stuff to someone else, then by the gods of good writing, give them a reaction.

Admittedly, adrenaline can delay an immediate reaction to some extent, but a reckoning should be coming their way so don’t forget to serve it up. It adds a dose of reality to the action scenes, but it is also part of the protagonist’s journey. It should be closely tied to the protagonist’s character.

For example, Lady Gus is not used to being in a situation that involves violent action, so when that violence first occurs, she has a physical reaction to it. An overload of adrenaline. But also, an emotional reaction that leads to some soul searching, which is part of her path to her fulfilling her need. Sometimes the reaction can and should be worked into the same scene, but often it can be worked into a scene afterwards where there is more time to reflect.

Similarly, if your characters are physically hurt, then that should be their physical reality until they ‘heal.’ If you are writing historical fiction, also keep in mind the limitations of the medical knowledge of your era. A swig of laudanum is not going to fix a sword through the chest and a re-balancing of the four humours is going to do sod-all for a broken leg.

And herein lies a small collection of potted writing knowledge that may be useful when writing an action scene, or any kind of scene.

And finally, one more universal writing truth: Learn to love rewriting because that is where the true art of writing lies. The first thing that comes out of your head is probably not going to be a work of genius. Then again, maybe … No, it’s not. Rewrite. End of story.

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