My Fight Scenes Reek

I’ve discovered I’m not good at writing fight scenes. The last two books I read made my scenes look so unfortunate.

“He sheathed Retribution and grabbed the hand holding a blade aimed at his belly and yanked a skinny highlander across the circle to stab his fellow. Reaching around his own back with a knife, he diverted a sword thrust while his other knife found an eye socket. Two spears came for him and he dropped to the floor, yanking both forward.” The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. 

How can I write with this much detail?! Then there’s The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski.

“Geralt jumped to the side, spun a swift pirouette. The striga rubbed against him, also spun around, slicing through the air with her talons. She didn’t lose her balance and attacked anew, mid-spin, gnashing her teeth fractions of an inch from Geralt’s chest. The Rivian jumped away, changing the direction of his spin with a fluttering pirouette to confuse the striga.” 

The fight scenes in R.A. Salvatore’s The Dark Elf Trilogy are pure awesomeness. They made me realize mine could use more than a little work. I guess I could simply not put my characters into any fights but what would be the fun in that?

So, I turn to Google. Turns out, writing fight scenes is harder than I expected. Good thing I enjoy doing research.

If your fight scenes need some help as well, check these articles out. They gave me a lot to think about.

Fight Scenes 101
How to Write Fight Scenes with Alan Baxter
Let’s Fight 
Writing Fight Scenes

I’m on the hunt for a good book as well. Any suggestions? If you write fight scenes, I’d love to know how you learned to write them.