a v a asked Jennifer A. Nielsen:

Do you have any advice for writing sword fights? I'm working on a story about pirates, so they do it rather harshly but I'd like it to be filled with action, but not too...gruesome.

Jennifer A. Nielsen I have a couple of things you could keep in mind. First is to use the terrain as you write. Your characters need to deal with rocks or water or sand or elevations and all of them will impact the fight. Second is to break up the battle descriptions with dialogue and thoughts - let your characters react to what is happening. Third is to avoid too much detail. Give enough to keep your reader oriented to what is happening, but you don't need to describe everything. And fourth is that you can describe that an injury happens, let your character react to it, but you don't have to describe the injury itself in a ton of detail - just enough that your reader understands what is happening. Good luck!

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