In most genres, whether it’s mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, or horror, the characters are forced to do a certain amount of fighting. However, scenes involving physical action can become a wall of mindless mayhem.
Scenes of conflict are crucial to the advancement of the story. They should be inserted into the novel as if one were staging a pivotal scene in a film.
For my own planning purposes, I have four levels of conflict, ranked by the escalation of action and the broadness of the conflict.
Level 1 – Quarrel – interpersonal disagreements, disputes, angry words, shouting, everyone walks away.
Level 2 – Skirmish – 1 to 5 combatants total, with one-on-one physical violence. Minor wounds, everyone walks away.
Level 3 – Melee – small gangs or squads clash, some combatants are seriously wounded, and someone may die.
Level 4 – War – full-on battle, many combatants, each side attempting…
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Choreography of physical violence is HARD. I always get some help from the male members of my critique group – they are so much better at it!
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I agree–I get a lot of help from my group too..
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Have you seen this Tom Gauld cartoon, Chris? It is also a Writing prompt for the less serious writers:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/picture/2022/jun/04/tom-gauld-on-the-childrens-book-series-generator-cartoon
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Good one, Fran – I’ll post that methinks 😂
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Friendly feeling dragons in a secret cupboard battle a greedy farmer. That will be my take😆
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I look forward to reading that tale, Fran
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How good is your German?
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Ein bisschen und aus der Übung, Fran 🙁 (I had to Google the out of practice bit 😱)
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Oh, well, then I have to write and post something on my blog …
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I’ll get an email notification when you do, Fran 👍🤗
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Ouch, now I am forced to😆
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❤ Thank you, Chris ❤
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You’re welcome, Connie 🤗
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