Write what you Fight

They tell you to write what you know. How is a fantasy author supposed to comply with this rule since fantasy is composed mostly of things that never happened?

Sword and shield combat is something I was lucky enough to have experienced, however, and it greatly aided my ability to write the combat scenes in my first book, The Cost of Haven: Book 1 of the Great Cities .

This video of two large men fighting shows an idea of some of the training that I went through in Montana. It is showier than the normal fighting that I did, but some of the stances and the moves that they perform are exactly what I was trained to do. In fact the warrior who wins this fight was the knight who trained me the most. I must salute him for he's a great fighter. His name is Sir Dahoud.

Here is the translation of some of my fighting experience into the first chapter of my book:

EXCERPT FROM THE COST OF HAVEN

He followed Deagan out to the center of camp. They squared off and with one resounding bang, Deagan rapped on his own shield with the stick. It was a call to fight.

Deagan stood there with his blue eyes locked onto those of the younger man. He was relaxed and didn’t move. The lad took a step forward, cowering even as he advanced. He looked over the edge of his shield with intense concentration. The lad stepped even closer, now within inches of swinging distance. Deagan moved his back foot forward, not even enough to change his posture, then crack! The young man went reeling from a blow to the temple. He hadn’t seen the strike coming; he didn’t react.

“Come in swinging this time lad. Don’t get in swinging distance if you don’t intend to swing yourself. What’s your name?”

“Eli,” he said raising his guard again.

“Did you see me move my foot, Eli?”

“What?” Crack! Eli was hit again in the temple, by the same trick. He was quick to raise his guard again and this time he came in swinging. Deagan turned from side to side on the balls of his feet, moving his whole body behind the shield that bore his coat of arms, a single sword. Eli produced a predictable pattern of strikes that fell reliably on Deagan’s shield. Then Deagan stepped back twice to draw the young warrior into a rapid charge. Eli took the bait, and when the young combatant was between footsteps, Deagan advanced half a step and raised his shield to connect with that of the charging youth.

The boy flew off his feet and looked up to find the knight standing over him. Deagan leaned in and slowly dropped his stick on the boys face. They were both laughing.

“How did you do that?” Eli laughed as he took the knight’s hand and rose to his feet.

“That my young friend, is the question you should be asking.”