How to Write Epic Battle Scenes for Fantasy Books
Table of Contents
Great and well-written fantasy battles are more than just swirling swords and flashy spells. Throughout the history of fantasy tales and epic fantasy stories, there’ve always been massive battles with high stakes involved. Epic battles are also pretty difficult to write becuase they require a ton of sensory detail and the ability to describe basically everything in words. It’s much easier to imagine a fight scene in an image form, but in text, it can be hard to convey the gradiosity of what’s going on. So, for today’s post, I’ll be talking about how you can write epic battle scenes for fantasy books (or really, any book you’re writing).
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1. Set the Stage With World Building
Before you even think about how your battle will play out, you need to think about what the surroundings are of your battle. That’s not necessarily just the phyiscal surroundings, but also the contextual surroundings. Consider the following elements:
- Landscape & climate: Where a battle is set and how to describe it depend on the landscape
- Cultural motives: Was this battle started as a conflict for cultural reasons?
- Political sparks: What led to this battle occurring? Was there a political reason for it?
Battles are often not just sudden events and have a backing for their existence. If you want to learn more about how to develop your world’s geography and history, then check out The Ultimate Guide to World Building, which includes worksheets for planning all of these things out!
2. Strategy Before Swordplay
Readers love seeing brilliant (or disastrous) tactics unfold. Strategy is all about different ways leaders charge their soldiers into the fight. There have been many different battle strategies that have existed throughout history and some have been more effective than others.
I think that one thing that’s pretty underrated in a lot of epic fantasy stories that include epic battles is a breakdown of the strategy of the battle. That’s why I included tons of battle strategy examples in The Ultimate Guide to World Building, which includes guiding questions to help you design your military and its strategy as well for your epic battle setup to be awesome!
3. Layer Raw Emotion Into the Chaos
Epic clashes land hardest when readers feel the soldiers’ fear, anger, or exhaustion.
Excerpt from Soldat, Page 227
“The sun was beginning to rise, signaling that it was almost dawn. I fired more shots at the oncoming Mutants. Most of them hit their target, but many missed. I cursed under my breath. My aim was off. That was probably because I was panicking and freaking out. My heart would not end its racing. I took in deep and ragged breaths. Even through my mask filters, I could smell the awful stench of corpses and metallic blood.”
Notice how sensory detail (smell, ragged breaths) grounds the reader in Joel’s panic.
4. Spotlight Relationships on the Front Line
Quick beats of camaraderie or banter humanize the carnage and give readers a glimpse into the brotherhood of the soldiers in your military.
Sometimes, these quick beats provide a bit of a respite from the chaos happening in the battle as well. This starts with creating great main characters as well, which is where my Ultimate Guide to Character Creation comes in. It includes over 150+ pages of instruction to help you out with creating your characters. Plus, you get tons of guiding questions, worksheets, and more to help ground the character in your narrative. Grab a copy here 👉 The Ultimate Character Creation Guide for Writers
5. Keep Magic Spectacular but Consistent
If you want to learn how to create a full-fledged magic system for a fantasy world, I have an entire section that breaks down the process in The Ultimate Guide to World Building. In the guide, I also talk a lot about militaries and magic and how you can combine them. Consider this example from my books:
Excerpt from Malware, Page 272
“Myth launched a wave of fire at me, and I brought up a defensive column of fire to break it… Lightning blasted downwards and onto the bridge. Myth countered it with rain and then ran at me once again… I unleashed the knife contraption at my boot and slammed it into his leg.”
Both combatants obey the established Mage-Arts rules and stick to them, allowing for consistency in the reader’s eyes.
6. Master Pacing & Rhythm
Pacing and rhythm matter a lot when you go to write your epic battle in a fantasy story. You want to combine the following styles in your scenes:
- Fast beats: short, staccato sentences for cavalry charges or spell volleys.
- Slow beats: longer reflections when heroes regroup, mourn, or strategize.
Including reflective moments that contrast against pure carnage can help to set and ground the reader in your epic battle the right way.
7. Show Aftermath and Consequences
Physical devastation, political realignment, and psychological fallout make the battle matter. A battle doesn’t just end when the trumpets are sounded or a retreat is called; rather, a battle continues with its effects through the characters. Consider these elements:
- Land scarred: burned fields, shattered walls, poisoned rivers.
- Power shifted: new alliances, deposed leaders, rebellious factions.
- Characters changed: PTSD, survivor’s guilt, hardened resolve. (You can use The Ultimate Character Creation Guide to plan these things out)
A battle should be remembered, especially one that’s considered an epic battle.
FAQs
As long as you need to make it. You need to convey the tactical and sensory imagery that occurs. Too short and you risk ruining the moment for your readers. Too long and you risk boring them.
Tighten your details and focus on pacing and rhythm.
The Ultimate Guide to World Building has one of the most extensive and in-depth breakdowns on military and war design for world building on the market.
Take Your Battles (and Your World) to the Next Level
A flawless fight starts long before first blood: during the world building phase. If you want a step-by-step, 340-page workbook filled with geography design, culture worksheets, magic-system breakdowns, and wartime planning, grab The Ultimate Guide to World Building.
Inside the Guide
- Worksheets for designing terrain, climate, politics, religion, and warfare
- Magic-system worksheets
- Military-hierarchy & battle-strategy planners
- Ecosystem and culture design
- Printable and digital versions for quick reference
👉 Get The Ultimate Guide to World Building
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