Writer’s Guide to Authentic Weapons in Storytelling

This might be shocking, but I’m a huge fan of weaponry. No, I’m not a violent person and have never fired a gun before. However, when I write, I imagine fight scenes. The close calls with bullets. The nicks from swords. Bleeding wounds. Dripping steel. Weapons add a layer of intensity… when used correctly.

In The Art of Magic, I went into some combat techniques and weaknesses in regards to magic and magical weapons. Ignoring magic, there’s tons of weapons to choose from with many different pros and cons that must be accounted for. Otherwise, the story will fall apart because a sword can’t split bone or a hammer would leave more than a bruise. So, here’s a collection of weaponry and the troubles most writers face based on the findings of Rayne Hall in Writing Fight Scenes. Note: might be a little gory.

Common Weapons: Swords

There are three main types of swords: thrusting, cleaving, and slashing.

Thrusting swords like rapiers are popular for duels and pirates. The weapon is lightweight and thin and can cause bleeding, but not sever limbs or damage armor. Usually the wielder has a more athletic build.

Cleaving swords like machetes are common for gory combat and can sever limbs. It’s broad, sharp on both sides, and heavy. Because of these factors, the wielder is much stronger and the weapon is awkward to carry and lacks the spontaneous combat of a thrusting blade.

Slashing swords like scimitars are a nice blend of the first two. The curved, slender blade can sever limbs and cause massive bleeding, though it can’t cut through armor. It’s a good size for any person.

Some problems that arise when writing about swords could be A) having one sword able to do everything, B) a specific sword behaving unlike its form, C) the character being the wrong strength set for a sword, D) carrying a heavy sword all the time, or E) pulling a large sword from a sheath on the back. That last one is apparently impossible.

Common Weapons: Knife/Dagger

Knives and daggers are perhaps the best option for a warrior who’s walking around. Unlike a sword, knives are discrete, quicker to pull out, and are much lighter. Knives also add a sense of closeness to the victim, which could add emotional conflict as to whether to kill or not.

My understanding was that knives are shorter than daggers, but they’re fairly similar. Most knives are sharpened on one end and are slashing style while daggers are double-sided and more thrusting. Fight scenes will have a lot of blood, whether an organ is hit or not. The number of punctures is determined by how well the attacker knows anatomy and what the motivation behind the killing is (self-defense, assassination, vengeance, etc.).

Some issues are A) stabbing point blank at the chest and hitting the heart (rib cage), B) stabbing knife as butter knife, or C) regular dagger as throwing dagger. A weapon can only do what it is made to do.

Short-Range: Staff/Spear

Staffs and spears are common, cheap weaponry that works well for supplying an army. A staff can be any elongated stick, especially in the hands of an experienced fighter. Spears have a couple forms, but maintain a sharp tip at one end. There’s throwing spears, which are used first in order to do damage from a distance, and thrusting spears for the forward march.

Polearms are thrusting spears with a number of different capabilities and types. The long staff can prevent close-contact fighting, but they can be used up close with a change in grip. There are poleaxes (a tip and an axe blade), billhooks (sharp spike and hooked blade), and halberds (axe-blade/hook combo). The two mistakes normally made is not including or using spears and polearms. For large combat, such a weapon is more realistic despite its crudeness.

Short-Range: Clubs/Mace/Axe

Clubs are fairly simple: a massive stick, sometimes with spikes. Maces are the 2.0 of clubs, designed more effectively out of steel. Both weapons are heavy and require close contact. The plus side is they can smash armor. When on horseback, the wielder would be swinging it and leaning toward whomever he’s targeting.

Axes (common tool) and battle axes (heavier, longer staff) are cleaving blades that can go through armor because of the force being exerted from a downward swing. Best example would be a lumberjack. Similar capabilities as a cleaving sword, but it’s heavy and large.

One story problem is having the wielders be “mindless brutes,” swinging away without care. These weapons are heavy, so the wielder must have control or else smack themselves. And that would hurt. :|

Long-Range: Bow and Arrows/Sling

Bows and arrows are probably the most popular because of heroes like Legolas and Robin Hood. Archery is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. Arrows are easy to get/make, but bows are more treasured. Archers as a whole can change the tide by shooting volleys of arrows at an oncoming army. Close combat makes them useless. Fun fact from Rayne Hall:

Slings are the cheapest of all. Some string, a little leather, and a few stones, and anyone can fling a projectile. Again, easy to do, but hard to master. Not nearly as difficult as archery though. True sling wielders either swing it around once or not at all; the whipping motion can throw off accuracy and doesn’t add power.

Some story problems that arise with these weapons are archers shooting at sword fighters who are already in close combat and swinging a sling around wildly. Scenes where the archers are above the fighting and shooting is okay, but there’s more chances that they’ll hit their own men (unless their elf archers). If your archer needs to be in the fray, give them a knife as a backup.

Long-Range: Guns

I prefer more medieval methods, but guns are part of society and are used in modern fiction. These three types make quick work of a situation.

Rifles are common long range weapons with excellent aim but terrible concealment. Handguns are easy to carry, quick to shoot, but lack the accuracy and power of a rifle. Shotguns are the black sheep; nobody likes to read about the bullet spread of a shotgun because it could hit innocent people or creatures. However, it’s a good weapon for moving targets and isn’t as “uncontrolled” as some may think.

When aiming, a couple variables get added in the overall storytelling. First, inexperienced users rarely hit the target. Give them some background with weapons or use ricochet (bullet bounces off wall and hits something else) to add some realism and possibly kill the opponent. Second, circumstances change between the range and actual combat. A skilled marksman might hesitate or miss the shot because of adrenaline.

Possible slip ups are A) unattainable accuracy, B) a novice hitting their target first try, and C) a gun hitting impossible targets (pistol hits moving target from mile away). Check out videos on guns or talk to an expert about how to operate a gun and what the accuracy is like.

Improvised Weapons

Here’s where the imagination can roam. Sometimes a person is caught off guard, no weapon in sight. What they grab to defend themselves is an improvised weapon. Note: women normally grab something to defend themselves with, men don’t.

Household objects or items from a bag are always good. If the character has a hobby or job with certain tools, those tools could be used as a weapon also. This includes scalpels, mops, and knitting needles. The two mistakes to avoid are attackers waiting for the hero to arm themselves and the hero carrying something but forgetting it when attacked. Keep the writing clean and realistic; an adversary won’t wait.

Final Thoughts: Get Hands-on

A lot of information just got tossed at you, but it’s all to help with the writing process. And while this article sorts out some discrepancies, there’s no research like hands-on research. Watch videos of these weapons in action or go someplace where you can get your hands on some of them. Feel the weight, the power, the limits. The more you know, the better the story will be.

Citation: Hall, Rayne. Writing Fight Scenes. Scimitar Press, 2015. Print.