What is your sources on fighting, do you just imagine how it should look like and write it or have you done some ressearch on th

From: Raymond E. Feist
Date: 21 September 2008

I was a competitive fencer in college, back in the 1960's.  I competed foil, but I've used epee and sabre in practice.  The trick for me is to pick a point-of-view and go from there.  When I fenced I was only peripherally aware of the on-lookers, but I was aware of them; back then there were no electronics--we had judges so you had to make sure your right-of-way was
not only established but visible to the judges.  So, when it came time to write battle scenes, I merely started with the idea that whoever's point of view I was using was going to have something like "tunnel vision" and would only see what's in front of him/her. So after that it was read some books on period weapons and tactics, then get into the head of what the
characters were doing in the middle of all that chaos.  Watching a few decent films with action scenes helps a bit, too.  For a surprisingly decent film with some decent battle stuff, check out the old Kirk Douglas/Tony Curtis film The Vikings.  The DVD has a little special on it showing how they did some of the research.  You won't find one guy in the battle with horns on his helmet.  The only Vikings with horns on their helmets play in Minnesota in the NFC North Division of the NFL.

Best, R.E.F.

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