Fighting to Write

Here’s what I taught myself yesterday. Fighting with a sword while you’re a faery is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Every time I twisted my core, I left my back vulnerable, which if I were a faery it would mean that I’d be de-winged. Also my “swords” were really long, narrow, flimsy pieces of plastic poster framers that I’ve had for several years ago. Also I don’t have wings.
I know I’m not a faery warrior, but the central character of (what will possibly be) my next book is one so I need to know how to fight like a faery as there is a bit of a battle scene at some point. Try talking about a warrior without there being a fight scene.
Before my process so far is explained, let me assure you that I know nothing about fighting with weapons outside of that which I see on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and not one of those people had wings).
Anyways, my first step to working out how to write fight scenes was to hit the net. I looked up article upon article on how to write fight/ action sequences. Most of them were aimed towards people that would write the martial arts type scenes. I tend to think of Zaphne as being a bit of a scrappy, get a kick in where you can until you survive long enough to reach for a blade kind of warrior. One was really helpful though.
It pointed out that in order to really understand how a fight would happen, it helps to act it out and then make notes after about what worked and what didn’t.
So, yesterday afternoon I pulled out my faux swords, wiped the dust from them and took up my fighting stance after I put on some music to make me move a bit faster. I fought against invisible minions for several minutes, all the time aware of the placement of tables and overhead light fixtures that make up my reality. Each time I moved I had to be aware of where my wings would have been if I had been wearing some and also how often I would probably end up cutting my own arms/head/leg off if I were using real blades. I Everything I did was slow, calculated whereas in a battle scene it would be more fast paced as one would not stop to take notes on which swipe would have cut the tip of an invisible wing.
I hope that it makes my fight scenes stronger, but I think I’ll keep on doing it, more so because I need to work out other fight related things.
Also I need wings.