Growing up in Brooklyn, East New York, watching Saturday kung fu flicks on Channel 5, and with my entire household being Bruce Lee fans, I love action sequences. Fight scenes to be exact. For me, there’s nothing better than a good fight scene. The intimate conflict between characters physically played out through hand to hand combat.
There is/will be a lot of fighting in Amachi’s story. She is a warrior after all, a Derjjuwa. So when I first started to develop her, I already knew that I wanted her to know different fighting styles. I wanted her to be able to switch styles depending on her opponent and situation.
For the Derjjuwa, I developed nine different fighting styles. Amachi doesn’t know all of them, but for the ones she has mastered I wanted to really bring the styles to life for the reader. I wanted each style to have its own “presence” so to speak. So when Amachi switches styles on an opponent, the reader can have a sense of excitement because they’ve come to learn what each style is capable of, what it’s used for, and how much damage it can do.
In order to achieve that effect, I had to consider a couple of things. Each style would need its own unique set of parameters:
- Philosophy – A short yet descriptive way to explain how it works.
- Ready Stance – The posture from which the styles various techniques can be executed
- Defensive Techniques – Block, parry, dodge
- Offensive Techniques – Types of punches and kicks
- Support Techniques – Holds, throws, and counters
- Primary Targets – Head, body, joints, organs
- Overall Effects – How the style physically and mentally effects an opponent
Let me tell ya, it was loads of fun developing the fighting styles for the Derjjuwa. There were other factors like speed, strength, agility, blah, blah, blah, but I think those mentioned above are key to making the styles not only seem real, but seem truly different from each other.
Below, I have an a link to a rough draft excerpt of one of the action sequences/fight scenes from Amachi’s story. Take a look. Amachi has stumbled upon some ruins, and stopped to explore the ancient structures. While inside one of the structures, she is confronted.
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