How would one on into detail about fighting with a wolf?

Question

Ok, I'm trying to write a book but I lack in going into detail when it comes to fighting scenes. (I'm working on that) Now I would just skip this and come back to it at a later date but I can't this time. as this seance in the book is essential for the rest of the book. That may not be much help but it's what I've got sorry. Now let me give a little more intel The main character is on his way back to his pack (Blue Moon) when his truck tuns out of gas, he pulls over and decides that since it's dark he'll sleep in his car for the night and walk to get gas in the morning. But in the middle of the night, someone wakes him up and drags him back to the pack (Crest Lining). but when he gets there he realizes that this is a very unstable pack where the alpha only wants power. as he's escaping the pack he comes across two kids and takes them with him (his wolf pleaded with him) But as he's leaving he's attacked by a wolf.

That's where I need the help, I don't know how to write this out

Answer 1

What are you, the author, trying to convey in this scene?

Why is this scene important to your story? A good scene typically serves multiple purposes for the author

Common reasons for including a scene:

• You wish to convey the emotional state of a character.
  Is the character angry? Resigned? Afraid? Compare these two scenes:

Paul slammed the wolf into the ground. "LEAVE! ME! ALONE!" he screamed as he beat his fist into the wolf's skull

Paul screamed and fell backwards, holding his hands in front of his face. The wolf charged, straight at him.

• You wish to convey something about the character's abilities/equipment/setting

Sara dodged to the side, using the wolf's momentum to send it sprawling.

Sara pulled her pepper spray out of her pocket, taking aim and catching the wolf square in the eyes.

• You wish to create plot complications, or otherwise advance the plot

The wolf bit down on Jordan's leg with an audible crunch. Jordan screamed in pain as they felt their bone snap.

Jordan climbed into the tree, just barely avoiding the wolf's snapping jaws. Unless they got help soon, they would be late to the party.

• You wish to set tone

Alex was in the middle of farmland, with nobody else around for miles. Nobody would be coming to help her, no matter how loudly she screamed.

Once you know what you're trying to communicate, you can figure out what needs to happen in the scene to communicate those things, and what details are important for you to highlight in the action.

A brief example from an iconic scene in Harry Potter 7 (SPOILERS!):

‘NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!’

Opens with Molly's emotional state, and motivations. Emphasizes emotions with a swear.

Mrs Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms. Bellatrix spun on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of her new challenger.

Illustrates more of Molly's emotional state through her actions, and also Bellatrix's emotions

‘OUT OF MY WAY!’ shouted Mrs Weasley to the three girls, and with a swipe of her wand she began to duel. Harry watched with terror and elation as Molly Weasley’s wand slashed and twirled, and Bellatrix Lestrange’s smile faltered, and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, and the floor around the witches’ feet became hot and cracked, both women were fighting to kill.

Sets the scene a little, helping to frame the action in the reader's mind. Also add's Harry's emotional state. Doesn't describe much about what is actually happening, except that the two are both evenly matched

‘No!’Mrs Weasley cried, as a few students ran forwards, trying to come to her aid. “Get back! Get back! She is mine!’

More about Molly's emotions, framed as action

Hundreds of people now lined the walls, watching the two fights, Voldemort’s and his three opponents, Bellatrix and Molly, and Harry stood, invisible, torn between both, wanting to attack and yet to protect, unable to be sure that he would not hit the innocent.

Setting up how important this fight is

“What will happen to your children when I’ve killed you?” taunted Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly’s curses danced around her. “When Mummy’s gone the same way as Freddie?’

“You-will-never-touch-our –children-again!” screamed Mrs. Weasley.

Emotional back and forth

Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilirated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backwards through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did.

Thematic tie in to previous similar fight, 2-second foreshadowing of important plot point to prepare the reader

Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.

Important plot point

Bellatrix gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: for the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.

Reaction to the plot point, and Voldemort's emotional state.

Note that very little of the actual fight is described. There's a couple of lines about spells and wand twiddling, but compared to the Dumbledore vs Voldemort fight in book 5 (which was trying to illustrate how skilled and powerful both of them were), very little is actually said. The scene instead focuses on the emotions of the two characters, and the importance of the scene to the greater fight taking place.

Answer 2

Confusion, Pain and emotion:

All fight scenes are a platform for you to transform the situation. Do you want your character to have an injury that affects the story? Do you want them riddled with guilt because of a killing? Do you want things to be chaotic so no one is entirely sure WHAT happened? Decide what outcome you want your story to have, then figure out how to justify it.

If you don't want your character mauled, then his opponent needs to make a mistake, be less competent, or extremely unlucky. So what needs to happen to make it so? If you're unsure how to write these scenes, DON'T make them long and complex. The wolf lunges and...What? It misses and impales itself on a branch? Your character stabs it with a knife? A rival wolf arrives and draws it off into a fight over who gets to kill your character?

I can't tell you what to write, but you can add a lot of detail in telling what things feel, smell, taste and look like. describe the teeth grinding on the MC's wrist, the stink of the wolf's wet fur, the noise of the growling, and the taste of the blood as the MC bites the wolf's ear in desperation. A few seconds of action can build to a long scene as time slows and every detail seems to stand out.

Or, if we're talking supernatural anyway, make the scenes incredibly chaotic. Describe the desperate struggles, the shrieks and howls, and knives or teeth meeting resistance and bringing death. Real fights are often desperate confused affairs with the outcome uncertain until suddenly a gun goes off. The fine details may be more of a distraction than the emotions of fear, hate and panic gripping the characters as they seek to kill and survive.

Answer 3

You mention that the scene is essential for the book, but did not provide any reason why that should be the case.

"Why" is the key

The reason why the scene is essential is the central point that decides how the confrontation is to be written, and whether it should be described at all.

To be essential, your fight scene should help the reader understand what the stakes are, or what difficult choice a character has to make, or the drama of the defeat after a prolonged strenuous effort. All these elements are central to the depth of the characters and make their combat prowess irrelevant.

If your fight scene is going to be merely a display of strength and agility, then it serves no purpose unless you are writing about sports.

What to write then?

Fights in fiction from the past were typically short. The cycle of King Arthur is a good example, despite the book being about knights on random fighting errands. Modern fiction is largely affected by movies, which are a visual medium, and benefit from (often blatantly exaggerated) choreography.

Keep the action short.

If for any reason you need it to be long, instead of the action, you can tell the reader what could happen if the MC were to lose, or what the MC is willing to give up in order to win.

If you really want to tell about the fight, first show how the MC is planning to attack and defend, and then show that the fight goes in a different direction. Rinse and repeat a few times until the end of the fight. This is a cheap trick to raise the tension.

Should it even be described?

For example, in 'Scaramouche' Sabatini intentionally skips describing the single most important duel of the book. Note that he describes plenty of duels until that point to show the reader that both contenders are masters in the art of fencing. Skipping the duel is ingenious: it raises the tension as we are left hanging to know what the outcome has been, and, above all, it leaves it to the reader's imagination to picture the scene. If you think you can create an epic duel, the reader's imagination is thousand times better at creating a duel that looks far more epic for that reader.

Answer 4

Writing a fight scene is a mainly about making sure you know what's going on, and that you're showing it in a way that makes sense.

Keep track of your stuff!

The number one thing that goes wrong in fight scenes is that authors lose track of their characters. You should avoid that at all costs. While you can certainly manage without it, I would strongly encourage that you draw a map of the area and use some kind of identifiers to show how your characters will move during the fight. This does not have to be detailed at all. For you, it sounds like you need a car, a road, and at least four people(MC, 2 werekids, 1 or more attacker(s)).

If you know where your people are, you can avoid a lot of things some people forget about.

Know your weapons

The next thing you need to know is the 'weapon' of each person in combat. I say 'weapon' because there will be people who are fighting with fists or sticks or a random rock. In your case, it sounds like you will be mostly fighting with fists and claws and jaws. All of these are melee, so most injuries will happen while two people are fighting it out at close quarters.

Because you have the werewolf aspect in this scene, you will also need a clear definement of what exactly that is, and the differences between a wolf-form and human-form werewolf. Is the human form stronger than a human, but weaker than him in wolf form? By how much? How big is your werewolf form? What wolf is it?

The more detail you have on that, the better you can make the fight scenes.

Now onto the fighty-fighty

Now that we are armed with the knowledge of what our engagers will be doing to fight, we can start to look at what they will be doing.

Your human will be throwing punches, maybe swinging around a stick or tire iron. Your kids are probably hiding in the bushes. Your attackers are probably attacking.

Do not forget your werewolves. If they are able to shift on demand, it can be a very useful move to extricate themselves from something like a choke hold or throw you off(depending on whether the shifted size is bigger or smaller). Make sure to include things like enhanced strength as a sickening crunch as you land the punch, a weakened arm by lower power, or a prosthetic leg by the lack of pain when it is kicked.

In the little details is where things get hairy and most authors make mistakes. I have gone through old fight scenes and had to rework a lot of it because I wasn't paying attention to how far I could reach or some other little detail.

Everything is possible, except for the mostly impossible

When you write each action, make sure it is possible for the character to do it. When you write

Henry dove to the ground and rolled, an arm snapping out to pick up the tire iron.

Actually get down there and try a parkour roll while trying to grab a marker. It's not easy, but if your character is a trained fictional professional, then you can handwave it and say he got it.

While in wolf form, you will have a much smaller range of motion and options. You don't have thumbs for one, so no weapons that aren't strapped to your paws. And those probably won't work very well. You will be limited to biting, clawing, and probably charging. A human will have a lot of maneuverability. This does not mean wolves are only useful for charging, they are very fast and strong animals.

In a fight against human form werewolves, a wolf would most likely be used to:

• chase fleeing hoomans
• intimidate
• doing what police doggos do in a fight, which is pretty scary if your the guy in the padded suit. Also severely limits movement, damages a limb, and distracts the target at the same time.

Rule of Cool

If it is not used elsewhere in the book, fight scenes are the number one place where you can get away with Rule of Cool. Yes, it is impractical to jump into the open with a pair of pistols and slide across a floor coated with machinery lubricant, but it's super awesome when you kill the two dozen mooks while bullets and explosions are flying around you. (There's a scene of this in Leverage but I can't find a clip of it on youtube. Will link when I find it.)

TL;DR

A fight scene is all about orchestrated movements. When they line up perfectly, you have a beautiful flowing scene. When they don't, things feel choppy and off-balance. Keep track of everything, and you will be able to have a very pretty scene.