Self Harming in Fights

Hey, writing a book with a character that's immortal so she doesn't mind self harming herself during fights in order to get the upper hand. Like if someone attacks her with a knife she doesn't mind letting it go through her hand or getting stuck in her rib cage in order to grab it.

Are there any hand to hand techniques where this would be useful? Like grappling scenarios where if she deliberately dislocates or tears something, she could free herself?

TIA

 

Thanks for answering, but could you give me an example? I've tried googling but I haven't found anything with enough information. What lock, how is it held, how would dislocating a joint grant freedom?

 

Depending on how violent that person is they could push someone until their hand breaks and just keep going. Hands break very quickly in fights.

You'd also have to establish if your character is vulnerable to chokes, which cut off blood to the brain.

Here is an example of someone damaging themselves in order to win:


Arrhichion - Wikipedia

 

And also not having to dodge a blade if you're not worrying about the consequences.

 

Lol

That sounds like a controversial decision win.

I heard Arrhichion looked 'a bit rough' during the post fight presser too: didn't have much to say for himself.

 

Look up Wolverine and Deadpool because thats basically what they are/do

 

That's an excellent shout!

 

Such a person could punch with impunity and carry on punching with broken knuckles and shards of bone sticking out.

 

I love Deadpool! Unfortunately though comics don't really describe actions with words very well nor show all of the steps in fighting scenes, which is what I need atm. Wolverine was alright on the screen; too serious for me in the comics...though I guess I could just watch a movie for the fight scenes. She's trying not to kill her target given it's her brother and they're just friendly sparring (he is also immortal in the sense that they can heal from injuries - they're demons in charge of guarding Hel's Exit so they have faster healing than others of their kind; say takes a day to regenerate a full missing limb and they can only die by having their hearts ripped out or beheading). I like the punching aspect mentioned though. That's brilliant. What other bones break easily in a fight that could bring an advantage if the pain was gone? The nose breaks relatively easy, but like, what point is that? She can bleed all over him, great. Haha.

 

Personally I would try to avoid being too inspired by movies/comics. After all, that's already someone else's idea and I wouldn't want to copy other authors, if possible (uless you are writing just for yourself and don't have any publishing plans with your story, which I suppose you do?). On the other hand getting an inspiration from comics and thinking of something maybe similar but on your own is a good idea.

What about a scene where he grabs her wrist or arm somehow, but she sontinues to move in the painful direction until she breaks the arm/elbow whatever, so she can strike him when he doesn't expect it?

How far are you with writing? The topic sounds nice.

 

YES! That's exactly what I'm after. Thank you Nachi!

This is the second book in the series, the first of which I've recently published (thank you Amazon for making it so easy). In the first, the main character was a water elementalist, so I could make crap up when he fought vampires. This one, however, deals with a feisty demoness who likes to fight for the sake of fighting, so she spars a lot and takes pleasure in pain - or more like, she uses it to freak people out because even though all of the creatures are immortal, they're not immune to pain. There's this scene where she's stuck in a tower (think Rapunzel) and the only exit is to jump out the window. Obviously, she jumps and figures she'll just heal quick enough before he gets back.

 

As someone who likes to write and likes to read, I'd perhaps caution you to not become too bogged down in technical detail when describing the fighting; it'll make it seem too dry and a bit laboured in my opinion. If it were me I'd focus more on the visceral quality of combat reflected through emotion and sensation and just describe the literal physical action in broad strokes only.

Regarding limb dislocation and breaking: joints are designed to move within a certain range of motion, if they go beyond that range or move within a different plane then joints/ligaments/muscles break, tear and dislocate.

If you look on YouTube for high percentage submissions from MMA or Google wrist locks and small joint manipulation then you should get more than enough skeleton (no pun intended) to build your writing off.

 

Very much this.

I hate it when authors try to explain fighting step-by-step. It slows the action down and comes across as very "adolescent" in style to me. But then again, I don't like many popular airport page-turners, so if you want to make money from writing, don't listen to me!

Authors rarely attempt the same level of detail for other events. You know, "she shot him an icy glare" is sufficient; you don't need to describe every movement of her 43 facial muscles in exacting detail to get your dramatic point across. You can write about a plane journey without knowing how to operate rudders and ailerons. The only thing I find more off-putting than laboriously detailed fight scenes is laboriously detailed sex scenes. Yuck.

Let your readers' imagination do the heavy lifting would be my advice. People who know about fighting will fill in the blanks more realistically than someone with no experience could describe, and people without experience of fighting will fill in the blanks from movies.

Having said all that, the best way for you to get a feel for the physical would be to take some martial arts classes!

 

That's true, but if I just wrote: they sparred while they talked, that would super lame. I'm not going to go into full detail, but I like to have the full scene in my head so I can get the major points on paper. Also the way she fights is an insight to her character that I would like to portray. And though the genre is sub romance because that is by far the easiest to get into, I agree with the detailed sex scenes. I skip those entirely when I read and wish I could get someone else to write them for my book, but alas such is life. Sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.

 

Oo-er missus!

I think taking some martial arts classes would be best, even if it's just for a month or two, to give you a surface appreciation fo what's involved.

Another tack might be to watch MMA highlights on youtube, see what's happening frame-by-frame and steal moves for your characters.

 

Try not to read too much material similar to your own writing project.

You could get distracted and actually demotivating.

However.. Blade of the Immortal.
One of my favourite mangas and recently made into a film. The writer creator actually didn't know any martial arts and all the weapons were designed by himself. So a lot are impractical but look awesome.

And that's what fight choreography in films are about. To look awesome with some practicality.

 

But when you're dealing with people (or even animating CGI people), you have that visual anchor that helps to keep you somewhere in the vicinity of the laws of physics (even if that particular universe has an altered set of physical rules).

I still remember reading a bit of some low-rent thriller years ago, where a girl was picked up from behind so her feet were off the ground, and she reached back and threw the guy by his ears over her head. My brain nearly imploded while it tried to visualise how you could throw someone when your feet are off the ground, so the force acting against gravity had to have come from his legs, but then it's just him jumping over her head... does not compute... BSOD