To achieve this, you need to describe the fight with all the immediacy and stimulation of someone who isn’t just witnessing the struggle, but is a part of it. Use stimulating descriptionsĭuring a fight scene, you want your reader to feel your characters’ adrenaline coursing through their own veins. Mercutio faces certain death in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Image: 20th Century Fox Step 2. Think about the stakes as your characters perceive them: if they win, will they gain the respect of others? If they lose, what are the consequences? If they are risking their life, is their honor worth it? If the answer is “no,” you should probably use a different motivation. Use honor as character motivation for fierce fights between longstanding rivals, such as the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. While honor may seem like a less drastic motivation than survival, it can make for a very heated encounter - especially if insults are flying beforehand. Honor is the motivation to which we can attribute Shakespearean blood feuds, eighteenth century duels, and yes, modern-day bar fights. At the same time, he’s also defending the ideals of goodness and inclusion (in opposition to Voldemort’s ideals of “blood purity” and prejudice). A prime example of a character motivated by the desire to defend others would be Harry Potter, who constantly battles Voldemort to protect the wizarding world. This may be a person, an ideal, or a combination of the two - fights in fantasy and adventure plots often involve both. ProtectionĮven people who don’t like confrontation will jump to the defense of what they hold dear. Just remember: for survival to be a credible character motivation, the situation has to be absolutely dire. However, this need to survive can escalate any physical fight, such as the gang rumbles in The Outsiders, where someone could pull out a knife at any moment. For instance, Katniss in The Hunger Games has no choice but to attack and kill her fellow adolescent opponents if she wants to survive. Survival is an important motivation for any character, but especially for protagonists in horror and dystopian novels. Whichever you choose, use it as the catalyst for your fight scene, as well as to add the necessary layers of depth and complexity. Here are a few ideas to motivate your characters’ confrontations. Whether it’s over a lifelong grudge or a few heated words at a bar, people need believable motivation to start a fight in both real life and in fiction. When was the last time you saw someone start throwing punches out of nowhere? Probably never.
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