Writing a war scene, help with the headache

[J.D.Rajotte]

So I'm writing a war scene that includes about 14 primary characters or so, facing an army of non descript, run of the mill foes. The clear objective is to showcase the skills of the protagonists in play, but I'm finding that the sheer number of primary characters involved is making everything quite hazy and confusing to write. I don't want to put too heavy of a focus on any particular characters, and I keep getting confused as to what to do next or where to put my characters. Any thoughts or ideas as to how to organize this war scene in a less-hairbrained manner?

 

[Susan Boulton]

Does the reader need to know what each of the characters does during this battle, or is it enough that they known they are there.

I would suggest you use one, maybe up to three at a pinch points of view to describe the battle in detail from their point of view.

Remember battles are chaotic.

You could have your characters discussing what they did during the battle, bragging, beefing up their actions during a meal/drinking bout after.

Hope that helps.

 

[Flaviosky]

I'd do the following:

- Make sure each character is distinct from one another, maybe clothes, weapons, fighting style, etc.
- Separate each character's role in the battle clearly, hopefully with a whole paragraph or section for each one. If there are shared roles (let's say, archers, flankers, tanks, etc), there may be room of grouping some of them, so the reader follows a limited amount of characters at a time, before going to the next group.
- Use narration as objective as possible. Getting into the thoughts and emotions of 14 people may become messy, but you can dive into a couple of them if they're more important.

You could have your characters discussing what they did during the battle, bragging, beefing up their actions during a meal/drinking bout after.

This is useful too. During the battle too, having a character praising what the other just did, so you don't use narration in every single one of them

Good luck!

 

[Wayne Mack]

I don't want to put too heavy of a focus on any particular characters

Is there any specific reason for this constraint? As a reader, I don't think I could keep track of the locations of fourteen characters in any scene, so I suggest keeping the number of things to track much lower. Consider separating the characters into a center, left, and right flank. This limits the number of positions to keep track of to three plus enemy positions. As noted by another, consider telling this from the point of view of a single character. The POV character would recount what he or she did as well as a limited amount of actions from others in that flank. The other two flanks could just reappear (or not!) at the end of the battle scene when victory (or loss) is sealed.

 

[Parson]

When I have a headache I take two Tylenol and a nap. It could work for your scene as well.

 

[alexvss]

There are (to my knowledge) two Writing Excuses episodes about this: here and here.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

So I'm writing a war scene that includes about 14 primary characters or so, facing an army of non descript, run of the mill foes. The clear objective is to showcase the skills of the protagonists in play, but I'm finding that the sheer number of primary characters involved is making everything quite hazy and confusing to write. I don't want to put too heavy of a focus on any particular characters, and I keep getting confused as to what to do next or where to put my characters. Any thoughts or ideas as to how to organize this war scene in a less-hairbrained manner?

Who is the viewpoint character?

 

[tinkerdan]

The problem might be that the thread seems to be motivated by showing off the character abilities and I think that's a wrong approach for any story.

The war scene itself should have a plot purpose of its own that sets its importance first and secondly how you get there will showcase the abilities of those who are important to the plot. You may need more or other plot threads that show off various abilities or you may find that it can all be done within that plot frame--however let the story plot dictate what is happening.

Otherwise you have an elegant infodump that will most likely spoil any notion of action in the scene.

At the moment what I take from your dilemma is that you are trying to find a way to info dump all the character abilities for use in a latter scene. You might be better off slipping that into a number of various scenes that help move the plot while showcasing the talent.

 

[DLCroix]

I would not speak in terms of a fool, dear, but I would advise you to work on the concentration of features in two or three characters so that the rest are utilitarian troupes that allow that display or, on the other hand, see the deficiencies of those central characters . Another important aspect is that fourteen characters cannot be developed as well as you would like in one only scene. For example, the central battle of cruisers in book 3 of my saga lasts about 120 pages, 86k, covers two days of narrative time and several chapters that allow to develop other plot lines.

 

[Flaviosky]

The problem might be that the thread seems to be motivated by showing off the character abilities and I think that's a wrong approach for any story.

This is quite an issue, and goes beyond the question of "how to do it" and more into "why to do it".

Whether written perfectly, if the scene can be taken out and the story remains unaltered, then the scene may not have any sense

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree. I wouldn't do this, partly because dealing with 14 separate characters in any scene is really unwieldy, and also because this sounds as if it might be the kind of visual, martial-arts style depiction that would work much better on the screen than written down. While a guy who fights in an unusual style might work really well in a film, it could just be a lot of words to plough through in a novel. For me, the big place where a novel beats a film is in getting into its characters' heads, and I'd concentrate on doing that if I wanted to make a group of people seem different.

I wonder if there's a maximum number of characters that a reader can follow closely before they start to blur into one another. On the screen, I think it's between 7 and 10: I found the characters in Alien to be clearly defined, but the people in The Thing slightly blur into "another man with beard".

 

[sknox]

I echo and second all the above (even the aspirin). There simply is no such thing as fourteen primary characters, except in certain types of sub-sub genres. Even there, we rarely see all fourteen in action simultaneously. I'm not going to suggest the author re-think the entire book (though I'm certain any editor would, but editors are like that), but I will suggest that this isn't going to be the only time the author finds it difficult to impossible to get through a scene with so many primary characters. In addition, if the author is having trouble, chances are high the reader is going to have trouble as well.

All that said, the simplest (though not easiest) tactic is to split the fourteen into smaller groups. Group them by skills, or maybe by relationships. Don't make all the groups the same size, and aim for two to five in each group. Then, vary the challenges as well. One task might be to get behind the lines or into the camp. One might be to spring a trap. One could be to hold in reserve then deliver then blow. Heck, it can be as simple as you go that way, you stay put, and we'll circle round left.

And, after all that (*whew*), do try to find a way to have something significant happen to each group. Someone screws up. Someone offends or betrays someone. Someone saves somebody. Let there be consequences. You don't need to have consequences for all fourteen, but neither should this merely be a parade ground showcase.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Tolkien had 9 main protagonists in the LOTR books. Over the course of 1000 pages or so we get to know much about each of them. He had 15 in The Hobbit, and most people would be hard pressed to name them (other than Gandalf, Bilbo and maybe Thorin) and apart from their leader Thorin, there was little to discern one from the other of the dwarves; and again this was over hundreds of pages.

I think to incorporate the actions of 14 individuals in one action scene is probably being too optimistic.

But you could maybe have a commander who directs the rest, so for example

"A,B and C , take your bows and hide in those trees; try to pick off their commanders. D,E and F charge their right flank whilst G, H and I ride round the back and try to catch them in a pincer movement. J,K,L and M - you're with me , we'll hold the front and as for you N, I'm relying on you and your trusty weapon to cover our rear."

 

[PadreTX]

All that said, the simplest (though not easiest) tactic is to split the fourteen into smaller groups. Group them by skills, or maybe by relationships. Don't make all the groups the same size, and aim for two to five in each group. Then, vary the challenges as well. One task might be to get behind the lines or into the camp. One might be to spring a trap. One could be to hold in reserve then deliver then blow. Heck, it can be as simple as you go that way, you stay put, and we'll circle round left.

Sknox gave great advice. Is it possible each group could have a specific role, such as: sniper, electronics, medic? Would each group be allowed to have their own chapter, that way a reader would be knowing about two to five individuals at a time, like in a squad, instead of up to fourteen which one learns something about one character but remember it about another character?

I would suggest you use one, maybe up to three at a pinch points of view to describe the battle in detail from their point of view.

Susan's idea of point of view allows a different point of view for each squad (or small group) that allows each squad a unique point of view, and can therefore one point of view per chapter, told by the leader of the squad (or perhaps someone irritated by the squad leader).

Hopefully this suggestion is not too confusing.