Battle scenes, how do you write yours? Help/

[anthorn]

So how do you write battle scenes? I'm stuck with mine, I'm currently writing a city seige, or rather one where the city is invaded and everyones screwed.
I know it'll be pretty one sided as the defenders are basically civillians and a few traniee soldiers.

Can battles be resonably described from a characters single point of view?

I have one view point describes the breach of the wall and the attempt to get back to the other army.

The whore perspective as she and the whore district pour boiling water on the invaders that come into their area before running out and slitting throats. (picture it like pirhanas)

The young traniee, a 14 year old girl with the main army, who'll either live or die.

I have one perspective from the Sorceress that blows up the gates that alllows her army into the city, but I'm thinking of just keeping it on the defenders side.

 

[Dozmonic]

There's loads of ways to write battles. Read some Conn Iggulden, David Gemmell or Bernard Cornwell for some well written battles.

Describe action by all means, but describe character emotions too. You can have a fierce battle that is only heard by someone hiding and that doesn't take anything away from it. It's like writing anything else, you just have to know what you want to portray from this battle.

 

[anthorn]

Ok thanks

 

[Brisby]

Might I suggest almost anything by Harry Turtledove. He also does quite well melding fantasy/magic in his battles. Specifically the books Sentry Peak, Marching Through Peachtree, and Advance and Retreat (War of the Provinces trilogy).

Best wishes on your writing.

 

[R M Tobias]

Ask yourself if you want the reader to have a lot of information about the battle straight up
In which case 3rd person omniscient or first person / 3rd person limited of a commander or person who can see and understand battles happening from a high point (castle battlement, atop a hill, riding on a griffon etc)

If you are more character focused, or want to provide the reader with smaller skirmishes within the battle that highlight war's confusion, bloodlust etc then perhaps take a first person or 3rd person limited of characters who are soldiers, civilians or other lower ranks.

It depends alot on what your objectives are in the first place.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree with Mr Tobias. Point of view seems important to me. I'm not sure whether you can still get away with a god's eye view these days unless there's someone to tell it through - a general looking at a battle plan, for instance (although I suspect you can). To a person on the ground it would probably seem more like utter chaos or a list of simple, dangerous commands: "Capture this hill... wait for more orders... clear this bunker, etc". Some of the best battle scenes I've read were in George MacDonald Fraser's memoirs, where he remembered the fighting almost as a mixed up list of events before it all stopped.

 

[Nik]

Is it still a 'controlled' battle, where orders may be issued and obeyed, or has it collapsed into melée, with the few warriors trying to stiffen the civilians' battle on the wall(s) ??

 

[anthorn]

I describe the breach of the wall as an explosion, seen from one characters P.O.V and then switch to the army swarming the city. Next couple of point of views have those fleeing from the wall, and encountering a group of soldiers, and two others describe the battle as a sound growing louder as it gets closer.

I end her point of view when the enemy comes into sight with the charge, a page later I enclude a small paragraph that describes her in hiding having completely lost her courage as her friends get slaughtered.

I also include the p.o.v of the "bad" guy who is disgusted at the city defenders using children who aren't properly trained to defend the city.

 

[grimorian]

Seems like a lot of POV's to bounce around to. Are any of these the POV of the main protagonist of the story?

 

[anthorn]

Lets see.
Zarine, is a P.O.V in a couple of chapters in book 2 starts out minor and after the battle slowly becomes a main character. The battle is over by the end of chapter eight, lasting one chapter- currently at 15 handwritten pages.

Anastacia, is a P.O.V character from book one that is seen in a minor role at the beginning but has a larger role toward the end of book one. She continues her main character status here for this book.

Krael, and Lulu, are minor characters only.

The Warlord and his Sorceress are a mix of both but their story will wrap up in Book 2

 

[goldhawk]

I end her point of view when the enemy comes into sight with the charge, a page later I enclude a small paragraph that describes her in hiding having completely lost her courage as her friends get slaughtered.

Because of this, I would be tempted to write the whole thing from her POV. If you start jumping heads, this scene will loose a lot of its impact. You would have to extend her POV well after the battle for the follow through or else, it may give the impression that her emotions are that important.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

If it's the pitched battle breech the wall type scene, then there is surely nothing better than the Helm's Deep scene in LOTR film. I'm not suggesting copying it but it does seem to cover a lot of the angles from the insignificant detail to the big charge and everything in between.

 

[anthorn]

Well I describe the battle as a distant thing, heard not seen apart from the part where the wall is breached.
After that I do the head jumping until I reach Zarine. I show her fear and then I end it with the charge.

When I return to the scene, she's hiding in an alley weeping with shame and remembering about how she'd wanted to be a hero and how she had spent the days before the battle preparing for the moment where she could prove herself and calling herself a fraud for hiding as she hears her friends die.