“Fight!”: Heather Atkinson on her love of writing fight scenes
I love to fight!
In my head anyway. In real life, I’m much more of a pacifist. I’ve lost count of the number of fight scenes I’ve written over the years and I really enjoy them. I’ve studied, in theory at least, several different disciplines, such as Kickboxing and Karate.
For me, one of the things I love most about writing is the psychology of the characters, something which becomes very important when writing a fight scene. Before you begin, your characters have to be very clear in your mind because how they react in such a situation will drive the fight scene forward. For example, how experienced a fighter are they? Are they a trained assassin, a street brawler, an expert martial artist, or have they never been in a fight before? Are they confident or shy, brave or cowardly, fit and athletic or unhealthy? All these factors will influence the outcome of the fight.
Another important thing to consider is location. I love the martial arts films of Indonesia, China, Japan and Thailand and they use their surroundings to great effect. The Raid starring the amazing Iko Uwais is one of my all-time favourites and is about an elite team of police officers storming a thirty-storey building full of incredibly violent criminals. This creates an intense, claustrophobic atmosphere. The building itself becomes a character, an entity that doesn’t want the good guys to escape. It’s extremely clever and shows location is key. Do you want your fight to happen in broad daylight in a busy street, or do your characters require privacy to really get stuck in? Will your scene just require an open space for the fight or will your characters use whatever’s at the location against one another? For example, knives and pans if the fight occurs in a kitchen. All these factors will ensure each fight scene is new and fresh. The possibilities really are limitless.
I’ve choreographed every fight scene to music, usually heavy metal for the brutal gangland brawls. For big, dramatic confrontations that have huge consequences for the characters, I’m inspired by much more emotive music, such as Final Ascent from No Time to Die or the beautiful Chevaliers de Sangreal from The Da Vinci Code.
My love of writing fight scenes is showing no sign of abating. As long as I continue to write, my characters will continue to fight!
Make sure to pick up your copy of Heather’s latest gangland thriller A Savage Feud here: https://mybook.to/savagefuedsocial