Loading a bow

[Tom]

Can you load a quiver ?

Technically you can, but in a fantasy setting I think "stocking" or "filling" the quiver would sound better.

Now this has me thinking of Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Make Bright the Arrows"...Stock well the quiver/ With arrows bright:/ The bowman feared/ Need never fight.

 

[Mindfire]

Why do we never see that in movies? I mean, it's such a tactical thing, war, yet when we see it, we're led to believe brave soldiers line up and take a look at their enemy's formation, and generals shout orders out for all to hear, and then the charge.

Simple answer, really. Writing tactical war is hard. Writing glamorized, archetypal-heroic war is easy. At least by comparison. One requires lots of research, the other not so much.

 

[Caged Maiden]

@ Russ You're my hero. Our conversation in the middle of this arrow-rainstorm feels a bit appropriate for the topic (that may be happening only in my head). So, of course I agree with archers upon a battlement of some kind. They would have a great view. I was just saying that the combat I've personally been involved in is somewhat more limited. Sure, we're re-enactors and no one really dies, but you know...you aren't out there trying to lay down your "life". I mean, it's like a long walk to the resurrection point IF they allow one.

I have a couple battle scenes in some of my books and I've worked really hard to draw from personal experiences. As much as I keep my characters big and my scenarios small (meaning my character may be a tough warrior, but he's struggling with maybe feeling past his prime, or down and out for whatever reason, OR my character is green and not facing targets, but monsters who regenerate and the only way to kill them is a strategic shot that's near impossible), I always wonder whether I'm even connecting with the target, or putting them all in the hay bale. I do my best, but can I compete with writers who are really passionate or interested in the making of war?

Do you write a lot of battle into your books? I'm curious what a writer might do to find a happy balance between story and fighting. See, I've never written what I'd call an epic battle. I've planned a few. I've glossed over a few in first drafts. But it's a difficult thing for me because I almost can't picture it in my head. The close up stuff is easy. The bigger picture? Near impossible for me. Any advice would be helpful. I have a situation (not written) where a character leads a group of mages and werewolves to a faraway keep. Through occupied land, no less. Oh, and she has with her a big freaking dragon who poisons the area around her. HA! So when this crazy group arrive at the keep, her husband's dwindling army are inside. I wanted the bad guys to kinda see the dragon and run away or something, but I don't want it to be what I call a "bandaid fix" meaning I wrote myself into a corner with crazy shit and now need to slap a huge, dragon-shaped bandaid to fix it. The dragon is there for her own reasons. OMG, just talking about this plot makes me laugh, but I promise, it's good. Or it is in my head...

 

[skip.knox]

Well, I cheated. You could too.

I cheated by using the Battle of Adrianople. That set out the basic geography, tactics, etc. Then I added in the bits I needed to keep the focus on my characters. I didn't want or need to narrate the larger battle, the way the history books do. I just needed all that for context. Boundaries.

You could do the same. There are lots of well-narrated battles, from sieges to pitched battles to skirmishes. You could select from among those for the basic parameters.

 

[Russ]

@ Russ You're my hero.

Now I am officially blushing.

I do my best, but can I compete with writers who are really passionate or interested in the making of war?

Probably not, in the same way that I cannot compete with writers who write really strong and deep emotional scenes. But I try not to think of writing as a competition. I write the best I can, try to emphasize my strengths and improve on my weaknesses. I try to produce the best product I can, not beat someone else's. And I can let you in on a little publishing secret, it is not always the best writing that sells the most. You don't have to write better combat than the combat junkies, you just need to write the combat that your story needs.

Do you write a lot of battle into your books? I'm curious what a writer might do to find a happy balance between story and fighting. See, I've never written what I'd call an epic battle. I've planned a few. I've glossed over a few in first drafts. But it's a difficult thing for me because I almost can't picture it in my head. The close up stuff is easy. The bigger picture? Near impossible for me. Any advice would be helpful. I have a situation (not written) where a character leads a group of mages and werewolves to a faraway keep. Through occupied land, no less. Oh, and she has with her a big freaking dragon who poisons the area around her. HA! So when this crazy group arrive at the keep, her husband's dwindling army are inside. I wanted the bad guys to kinda see the dragon and run away or something, but I don't want it to be what I call a "bandaid fix" meaning I wrote myself into a corner with crazy shit and now need to slap a huge, dragon-shaped bandaid to fix it. The dragon is there for her own reasons. OMG, just talking about this plot makes me laugh, but I promise, it's good. Or it is in my head...

I do write a fair amount of small scale combat and larger battles. The quartet I am writing is really about two wars, a civil war and a war against an external opponent. So it needs a lot of combat, small scale and large. Some of the combat happens "off screen", in that the characters hear a certain city fell after a seige, but we never actually see it happen. I think the first book will have two pitched "set peice" battles which I think is plenty. They also need to be different so the reader does not get bored and just gloss over it.

I agree with skip.knox that you can learn from and use the bare bones from historical battles. There are tons of them to look at and lots of good descriptions of them in used books, or on the internet. Those "20 most important battles in history" type books are a good primer. History is full of tales of people making their way "behind enemy lines" in all periods. Unfortunately they did not have many mages or dragons with them which is where your creativity comes into play.

And people have been "running away" for thousands of years. There is no reason that it cannot be credible in your work.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I'll have to skim the internet for battle examples, then. In my mind, I just can't imagine what to do in the actual scene itself. You know, those seemingly small details that set a great writer above a good writer who planned a good scene? I have to admit, I'm afraid to write the planned battle, so I've set the book aside for a short time (3 years) while I work on other things.
But now I've come to the closing scenes of my WiP and I have another battle, though this one is much more like a large street skirmish, which I'm more secure writing. It's actually an assassination attempt my MCs are going to foil. But I need to get the statistics in my head before writing (something I almost never do) for the sake of consistency. The target will have bodyguards, the city guards, and the elite religious guards will be on hand...by the dozen. It'll take a good bit of plotting on my part to outwit that many soldiers with five characters. Hope I can pull it off in a convincing way.

 

[Mindfire]

I'm curious what a writer might do to find a happy balance between story and fighting. See, I've never written what I'd call an epic battle. I've planned a few. I've glossed over a few in first drafts. But it's a difficult thing for me because I almost can't picture it in my head. The close up stuff is easy. The bigger picture? Near impossible for me. Any advice would be helpful.

I have a suggestion. It borders on the audaciously ridiculous, but I'm being earnest. You're a gamer, yes? Have you considered using a war/strategy game as a sort of battle simulator to help you figure out how some of these fights would go down? My top suggestion would be something from the Total War series, particularly Shogun 2. Granted, this idea has some drawbacks, the biggest being not being able to perfectly simulate the terrain, tactics, and weaponry at play in your story because you're somewhat restricted by the game's campaign. But I do think playing a game like this, especially Total War with it's real-time strategy elements, attention to historical detail, and great animations for combats between not only units but individual soldiers, would be great for helping you get into the mental groove of how a battle works. It might give you some perspective on the matter. I haven't played Total War to any great extent myself (yet), but what I've seen of Shogun 2 is awesome and it looks like the closest thing you can possibly get outside of actually becoming a military officer. Could be helpful.

 

[X Equestris]

I have a suggestion. It borders on the audaciously ridiculous, but I'm being earnest. You're a gamer, yes? Have you considered using a war/strategy game as a sort of battle simulator to help you figure out how some of these fights would go down? My top suggestion would be something from the Total War series, particularly Shogun 2. Granted, this idea has some drawbacks, the biggest being not being able to perfectly simulate the terrain, tactics, and weaponry at play in your story because you're somewhat restricted by the game's campaign. But I do think playing a game like this, especially Total War with it's real-time strategy elements, attention to historical detail, and great animations for combats between not only units but individual soldiers, would be great for helping you get into the mental groove of how a battle works. It might give you some perspective on the matter. I haven't played Total War to any great extent myself (yet), but what I've seen of Shogun 2 is awesome and it looks like the closest thing you can possibly get outside of actually becoming a military officer. Could be helpful.

Yeah, the Total War series is a pretty solid way to gain tactical knowledge. It isn't perfectly accurate, but it's pretty close. Medieval 2 is a good place to start if you're writing typical medieval European battles.