Making Fights Realistic in Historical Fiction and Fantasy

William Wallace, his hair fluttering in the breeze and his face painted blue with woad, wearing but a kilt and leather jerkin, raised his massive two-handed sword above his head and yelled hoarsely for his troops to follow.

Err, nope. William Wallace was a devout Christian, never actually wore a tartan kilt (they became popular three centuries later), and certainly never sported blue face-paint for battle (associated with the Picts, centuries earlier during Roman Britain). He’d likely w...