A Work in Progress

Panel: Elizabeth Moon (M), Elizabeth Bear, Martha Wells, Jean Johnson, Lois McMaster Bujold

My Notes

This ship shoots ...

• Two ways that combat can fall: being stodgy and divulging everything, or like a 70's psycho battle
• Diane Duane and Joe Ambercrombie write good combat scenes
• POV can solve everything
• In a fight scene, it doesn't matter what everybody does
• You need to know, but your character doesn't
• Your POV dictates what you can and can't show
• Show a little more by "backing up" a little
• Does it further the plot?
• Use the "fog of war"
• Space combat is well done in Lois' books
• Small-scale vs. military combat
• You can "play act" the scene to see whether it works
• In military, be aware of the chain of command and the responsibilities that each person will have
• Someone in a fistfight is in the midst of chaos
• In martial arts, you know what you did after you did it due to training
• Use that moment when you get hit in the face
• The medieval guy will probably win because he aims for the knees
• When you're wearing a sword, you have a rudder
• Learn all the mistakes you can make when carrying weapons so your characters can make them
• Keep track of your ammunition
• At some point your hero should run out if you want your story to be realistic
• There's always ammunition and no one gets tired of carrying it
• Another place to get information is historical museums
• Chain mail is very fluid when it's all together
• CJ Cherryh writes great space battles—they're submarine battles
• They say start with the action, but then you need to put the reader in the character's head so readers have a reason to care about the character
• Remember that space is three dimensional
• Remember the side effects of injuries from battle during the rest of the story
• Remember shock
• Remember that muscles react to trauma and lock up
• If you get an injury, think about it from a writer's experience
• There is a mental impact to injury