In previous posts on writing and martial arts, Bruce Cordell, Jon F. Merz, Susan J. Morris, Jenn Reese, Mark T. Sullivan, and others have talked about how training in martial arts has lent, among other things, authenticity to their fight scenes. Below, in a delightful twist, they talk about ways that writing has helped them train in the dojo.
Bruce Cordell is the author of the Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy and the forthcoming Sword of the Gods. Jon F. Merz writes the Lawson Vampire Series, Jake Thunder Adventures, and contributes to the Rogue Angle series under the housename Alex Archer. Susan J. Morris edited the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep novels and wrote for and edited the best-selling Practical Guide series for Wizards of the Coast. Jenn Reese is the author of Jade Tiger and Tales of the Chinese Zodiac. Mark T. Sullivan writes thrillers such as Labyrinth, The Serpent’s Kiss, and the recent Triple Cross.
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What has writing taught you about the martial arts?
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Jenn Reese: My first novel, Jade Tiger, is full of fight scenes. Having to describe the action in a way readers of all types could understand gave me a new appreciation for the mechanics of joint locks, throws, punches, and kicks.
Does it make sense for my heroine to drive a palm strike into her opponent’s nose, or should she stomp on his instep or smash his kneecap instead? Writing these scenes made me think about martial arts – and the decisions martial artists make in a fight – in a whole new, more immediate way.
Being a writer has also helped me endure occasional injuries. I remember the first time I got clocked in the temple and almost passed out. My first thought was, “Remember what this feels like so you can write about it!” And at moments like those – which, sadly, are all too frequent for me — a little distance goes a long way.
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Susan J. Morris: In writing fight scenes, you get very used to thinking about people fighting in 3-D in your head–and thinking about all the possibilities from outside both fighters’ bodies. This is very helpful when learning angle-dependent moves, exploring the effects each of your tricks and using those effects to set up other tricks, and when exploring entirely new moves.
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Bruce Cordell: Writing helps me study martial arts because I’m mindful that when I’m learning a new technique it might be just the one to feature in an upcoming scene. However, there’s more to it than that. A given scene in a novel can’t rely only on the expertise of a character’s martial ability to carry the story forward–the fight must occur in the context of a larger narrative. A fight for the fight’s sake alone becomes meaningless. A fight has to reveal something, however minor or important, in addition to being an exciting conflict. Likewise, training in martial arts in real life is part of a larger journey. The question becomes, “Why am I spending so much time learning and now teaching this stuff?” The answer to that question has changed for me over the years, so it’s worthwhile to ask it every so often to make certain I’m not over-training, or under-training, or otherwise going off the rails.
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Mark T. Sullivan: Writing has changed the way I practice Aikido or Cross-Fit, or any of the mind-body methods I’ve studied over the years. I tend to think in terms of story and narrative, and so I was able to bring that as a way of understanding to each Aikido class. Because of my writing, for example, I recognized themes and natural progressions in the way Chiba taught. Interestingly enough, Chiba rarely talked in class. He did not say, he showed, and because I had been taught to show not tell in my writing I saw what he was up to and was able to rapidly progress. My favorite classes became the ones where he never spoke.
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Jon F. Merz: In the end, martial arts has saved my life on a lot of occasions. But so, too, has writing.
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Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher. He is the staff Interviewer for Clarkesworld Magazine and a frequent contributor to Kobold Quarterly. He teaches at Wofford College and Montessori Academy in Spartanburg, SC. He is also the director of Shared Worlds, a creative writing and world-building camp for teenagers that he and Jeff VanderMeer designed in 2006.
