on Fiction University:

A strong fight scene is more than just who throws the punches.

One of the first fight scenes I ever wrote was for a fantasy novel, so it involved swords and daggers and a lot of fancy footwork. I wanted to keep track of who did what and where they were, so I used little pewter figures from my D&D box. Step-by-step, I moved the figures around and had my “characters” act out the fight.

While this was a useful way to keep track of the movements, it made for a pretty boring scene, because I focused way too much on the mechanics and not enough on the story.

This is a common problem with fight scenes. Describing the fight isn’t the same as showing the action.

Fight scenes are fun to watch in a movie because they’re fast, they show off athletic skill, and they usually have some serious cool moves and choreography. You see it happen in real time and there’s no slow down in the action.

Reading a description of the same scene doesn’t create the same excitement or enthusiasm. Writing it out takes longer than doing it, so the scene tales longer and feels slower.