Battle scenes:

This is a panel from one of the Life the Universe and Everything symposiums. Any inaccuracies or misinformation in any of these notes is the fault of the note taker.

One of the common pitfalls in battle scenes is that a lot of people don’t have experience
What is great in the movie is not necessarily great in the book
You can give an overall view of the battle but concentrate upon the individual conflicts of the characters that you like
There is a challenge of doing three things at once
Battle scenes don’t use consistent long sentences but short
Check out the blog horses in fiction, http://horse-journal.com/blog/horses-fiction-25354
One of the problems is the idea that horses will blindly run into a roll of Spears
Another inaccuracy is you can’t ride a horse hard for three days
When you’re doing a battle scene, do a one-on-one blocking.
Stories and battles always are always better if you personalize it. An example of this is Saving Pvt. Ryan
Another problem is a people will hit each other and don’t feel pain. That’s unrealistic TV
Put in sensory details.
If you start a book with the big battle the problem is that the reader has no reason to care because you don’t care for the characters.
Wright what is in the riders head. If you don’t write it than the reader doesn’t see that it exists.
It’s important to keep track of items in your scene. You need a sword later in the scene you need to be introduced in early. This includes you need to keep track of when a character is holding or where.
Don’t change the point of view in a scene do a new scene.
Don’t leave reader confused of location and times sequentially.
A character will describe a battle scene from their experience and will use their words.
I think it was on D day, the first boats landed on the beach were manned by inexperienced fighters because the general’s knew that experience soldiers would not get out of the boat.
What type of motivation behind the fight will influence the fight for example revenge or surprise fight. Other influences is if the person a soldier a ninja or inexperienced.
Take a look at the book: gru-nt by Mary roach
Another book is memoir which is a firsthand account of that
You need a good editor for things that are writer has forgotten. His soldiers need to have limitations
If you stop training your abilities and strength will drop as you lose reflexes and weaken muscle memory
One half of the soldiers that fought in World War II never shot the gun. In battle you rise or lower your reflexes
Book: writers guide to violence by Roy Miller
Writers should have personal experience or do research to learn about the limits and capabilities of guns, weapons, horses and medical experts
Do your research; does a railgun have a muzzle? No, it doesn’t.
How far does a certain gun shoot? What kind of damages is caused?
You need to know your weapons limits
If you usual technology know how it works
Need to keep track of bullets and supplies of arrows.
For infighting, you need to do blow-by-blow. Get emotions and motivations intermixed . Anthony Blake is smart and ruthless
Book: over focus on Gore
Movie over four curse on CGI.
People and audiences are interested in people.
You need to keep track of a character’s resources.
Book: face of the battle.