Friday, January 1, 2010

Fight scenes

The kids were grumpy tonight and didn't want to go to bed.  Hubby was floating around asking questions and stealing the laptop and otherwise randomly distracting me.  And yet I managed to sit down and work through a fight scene that's been nagging at me for weeks.  That's a pretty fantastic feeling.  I can probably squeeze a bit more productivity out of the evening, especially since everyone else (well, aside from the whiny, elderly cat) is snoring away.

So here's my question for tonight.  Why are fight scenes so hard to write?  Apparently I'm not much of a fighter, and thus my characters make a lot of threats, but don't end up hitting each other very often.  My friend Mary, after reading my first draft, said "Steph, I've had boys fight over me before.  And there's usually not a lot of talking."  She has an excellent point.  And if there's anything I see a lot of in this house, it's boys hitting each other.  Granted, they're preschoolers and are usually fighting over a Tonka truck or the last piece of cheese, but still.  All that naked aggression.  They're completely uninhibited about whacking each other in the face.

Being the mom, I generally jump in and say "Now, now, stop hitting your brother.  Let's share.  Go to time out."  Etc.  But now I'm wondering.  Maybe I need to step back and observe.  Perhaps they could choreograph my next fight scene for me.  Hey, it's not lazy parenting; it's RESEARCH, people!

Don't worry.  I'm sure my kids will thank me someday.

4 comments:

  1. The kids will be FINE! They will learn valuable life skills by being allowed to fight it out. You know you aren't going to be there when they are in college and one brother short sheets the other brothers bed and all heck breaks out. (Is it sad that is the only brotherly college related story I could come up with?)

    PS - The Hunger Games rules! Catching Fire also sucked me right in! I am saving the last 75 pages or so for Friday because I have to sit in a waiting room while Drew has a visit with the bum doc. I could have finished it Sunday but not wanting to be bored on Friday won. Thanks for the recommendation! (Drew read them too. That is all he did two weekends ago was read Catching Fire and hunt.)

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  2. How can you save the last 75 pages???? Read them dang it! I have other books I can lend you. I'm also sure Drew is pleased you posted about the "bum doctor". That made me LOL.

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  3. Kaitlin has also been reading the books. She read The Hunger Games last weekend and is now on Catching Fire. She has been keeping that one from me and will return it on Friday. I KNOW it will suck me in and I won't spend my time trying to ignore how uncomfortable the chair is. (Ok so not as uncomfortable as Drew will be but still.) What he doesn't know won't hurt him as far as me talking about it on here.

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  4. Ok that cracked me up. Yes, he will definitely not feel bad for you when you whine about the uncomfortable chairs!

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