Hi, friends! It’s been a while since I did a writing prompts post, so I thought I’d do one that could be useful to writers of thrillers, crime novels, fantasy novels, and even romance and science fiction novels with strong action elements.
Since this is a writing prompts post, I’m not going to go into detail about how to write a fight scene—even though I actually love writing them. I will say, though, that it’s similar to writing a love scene in that you don’t need to describe every single move in detail. You want to get the excitement across and convey how it feels for your main character.
Okay, let’s dig in!
1. Two people fight without waking or disturbing a third person.
2. Someone uses an object that isn’t usually considered to be dangerous as an effective weapon.
3. It’s impossible to tell the real opponents from the ones who are illusions or holograms.
4. People fight in zero gravity.
5. People fight underwater.
6. People fight in a building that’s on fire.
7. Two people fight, and an unlikely bystander saves our main character.
8. Two people fight, but when a third person attacks our main character, his other opponent saves him.
9. Fortunately, his blood is also a weapon.
10. One of the fighters is drugged or drunk.
11. Someone’s trying not to hurt the person who’s attacking him.
12. Someone finds out that she’s fighting the person she meant to join forces with or save.
13. Someone fights while wearing something that makes them appear the opposite of tough or intimidating.
14. They fight naked.
15. They fight in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
16. A protester and counter protester fight.
17. Someone shoves his opponent into a body of water, and then rescues him when it’s apparent he’ll drown.
18. Someone gets help from an animal.
19. A friend, co-worker, or ally suddenly attacks someone.
20. One person dumps a gallon of something over the other person’s head.
21. One person chokes the other with a computer cord.
22. One person chokes the other with a string of Christmas lights.
23. Someone defends herself from an attacker while driving at top speed.
24. They fight in a hospital, which makes it easy for the main character to patch himself up afterward.
25. Bullying the bartender or server was a mistake.
26. She knocks out two men with one move.
27. They fight in a locked closet.
28. He celebrates his victory too early.
29. Someone leaps from a considerable height to land on an opponent.
30. Someone breaks the rules of the duel.
31. She accidentally wounds the person trying to stop the fight.
32. He accidentally wounds a bystander.
33. Someone was only pretending to be knocked out.
34. Her weapon gets stuck.
35. Priceless objects or valuable property gets damaged in the brawl.
36. Someone uses a bed sheet in the struggle.
37. The fight is a ruse to distract people from what’s really going on.
38. Someone repeatedly tries to avoid the fight to no avail.
39. Someone takes refuge in a disgusting place.
40. He finds himself battling a creature he didn’t believe existed.
41. They fight on slick ice.
42. He fights three challengers in succession.
43. Her glasses get destroyed and she can barely see.
44. He steals his opponent’s car, not realizing his allies rigged it with an explosive.
45. Someone’s ridiculous move or antic catches an opponent off guard.
46. Someone loses an opponent in the crowd and then finds her again.
47. A garden tool becomes a deadly weapon.
48. Someone hurls a shopping cart through the air.
49. Someone gets bashed with a crown or tiara.
50. He accidentally kills his opponent.
I hope you enjoyed these! And if you want even more inspiration for your writing, check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More.
[spacer height=”20px”]If you have thoughts about writing fight scenes, please share them in the comments! Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
Great prompts! The choking with Christmas lights idea made me think of “Die Hard” (we watched it not long ago, and Bruce Willis SHOULD have choked one of the bad guys with Christmas lights!!) I agree with your advice, Bryn, that every detail of a fight scene doesn’t have to be described. It’s definitely a case where “less is more”. Too much description and too much technical information can bog down the action. This is one area where I have to work really hard to get it right, but it’s so worth it when the scene comes together. I used #2 (non-dangerous dangerous weapon) in my current WIP; the MC had to get creative in a situation where she accidentally found out her “guest” was an assassin. You never quite look at ordinary things the same way again. 🙂
I’m glad you mentioned Die Hard, Lisa, because I really want to watch that this Christmas season! 😀 I think you’re so good at writing action and violence. That kind of sounds like a weird compliment, haha, but it’s true!
LOL…thanks, Bryn…I think… No, I seriously appreciate that compliment because action/fighting is not my forte. I’m a non-violent (and pathetically non-confrontational) person by nature, so it feels like bench-pressing a cement mixer whenever I sit down to write that stuff. I have two violent scenes left to write as I grind to the end of my story; I’m not sure if I’m stressing more about killing off beloved characters or the prospect of actually completing this story I first imagined 20 years ago. 🙂
And then there’s ‘The Quiet Man’ that seemed to try to include all 50 in one go! If you’ve never seen that fight sequence, rent the movie NOW. It’s epic.
The Misfits ( Funny Wonder Woman Mixed) Fight Scene
Ronnie McCow(Cowman) looks excited and at Captain Turd, who’s seemingly unimpressed by the presence of Wonder Woman before them as she greets them. Cowman almost leaps for joy and shakes her hand eagerly.
“Can you sign my butt Wonder Woman?” he asks, pulling out a magic marker and bending over. Wonder Woman shakes her head in disgust as Captain Turd confronts her. He introduces himself and Cowman and gets straight to the point.
“Excuse my friend here, but we really don’t need your help saving the world?” Captain Turd says.
“Why the hell not? I’m freaking Wonder woman!” she explains to him, eying him in disgust as well.
“No offense…but you’re a woman…” he retorts. Shocking both her and Cowman.
“Just because I’m a woman jackass? You guys need me!” she retorts, her face getting hot.
Cowman nudges Captain Turd.
“What the hell Turd?” he says punching him.
“I’m one of the strongest women in my universe…what the hell’s your problem Turd?”
“You’re nothing, I can beat your a#s easy!” Turd disses her, waving his dismissively.
“Well…fight me right now Turd. Let’s see what you got,” she says taking her Lasso and twirling it around.
Cowman tries to talk sense into Captain Turd, but Turd ignores him and tells him to step aside.
Captain Turd puffs his chest out and gets into fighting position.
“After I school you…you mind making me a sandwich sweetheart?” he taunts as Cowman face palms.
(Wonder Woman attacks him and it’s a hilarious one-sided fight, as Captain Turd gets manhandled and beaten up badly, while Cowman laughs and records it on his cell phone). He figures Turd will be taught a lesson the hard way as the beating continues in the background. His costume torn and ripped, Captain Turd painfully crawls toward him, calling for Cowman to help him. Wonder Woman walks up confidently, she knees Captain Turd in the face and puts her foot on his neck. Cowman pleads and apologizes for Turd’s sexist behavior. Wonder Woman rolls her eyes dismissively.
“I should kicks your butt too, first for asking me to sign your butt and associating yourself with this jerk…” she says while Turd tries to crawl away, but he gets caught in her Lasso of Truth. Cowman pleads with her and calls for a truce.
“I promise my friend won’t say anything insulting to you again. Is that right Turd?” he calls.
“No! Your still a whore Wonder Woman!” he calls. Wonder Woman face gets red again as Cowman does another face palm as she marches back toward him angrily. Cowman’s phone goes off and it’s a video chat call from Speck, they’re hacker and informant. (Captain Turd’s beating from Wonder Woman continues in the background). Speck asks how’s the meeting with Wonder Woman going. Cowman looks up at Captain Turd’s beating and lies, telling him it’s going great, shrugging and laughing it off. He informs him of Dr. Chlamydia’s plan as his virus is spreading and tells him they need to hurry and stop him before people in the city die from the virus and signs out as Captain Turd begs for mercy painfully and surrenders and apologizes to her. Cowman tells them they need to work together as a team.
Why the fuck would they fight naked. This isn’t a porno.
that is so true
For #2 my mind instantly went to toothbrush and I have no idea why.
This is awesome i’m in the process of making my own show and i could use some of these in the show. Thank you
Oh, that’s so cool! Good luck with the show!
Hi Bryn, thanks for sharing this awesome list!
To write effective combat scenes in thrillers, you need to be concise, considerate of emotion, and realistic.
Please read my blog: The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Combat Scenes in Thrillers
Hope this will also help, thank you!
Hi Paul, I read your blog on combat scenes. Thanks for the pointers. Very helpful.
So i am trying to write a scene between two wolves fighting (much alike the fight scene in Twilight Breaking Dawn) but I’m having a hard time really emersing the readers into the fight. Any tips
I suggest you check direwolf-wolf fight scenes in “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.
Thanks, Bryn, Great list with interesting situations for fighting. A lot of writing spice here.
Thank you for this list, it’s helpful!
I’m considering for my WIP a chapter where I blend together “bullying bartender/waiter was a mistake”, as this is sci-fi, the waiter is an android, and “MC gets help from bystander” which is the waiter from the previous scene. Both sequential scenes are from the viewpoint of this waiter which is not MC of the story.
I would also like to propose another prompt:
* A squad of soldiers gets ambushed and their leader injured and incapacitated.