“How to Write a Good Fight Scene” by Jeff Bens (Fiction ’96)

How to Write a Good Fight Scene

The best fight scenes take place inside the characters as well as outside in their world. The details of the external fight may or may not carry power. The charge for the reader often comes from the way the fight emerges from and changes the internal worlds of the characters.

In life, a punch to the head is immediate and compelling. In fiction, it can be a weightless cliché. In my novel, The Mighty Oak, about a fading minor league hockey enforcer, there are physical fights. Here’s what I considered in trying to make the fights immediate and compelling for the reader.