Space Battles

Romulans, phase-inverters, friendships, OH MY!

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Transwarp
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Space Battles

Postby Transwarp » Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:53 pm

I was just cleaning files from a thumbdrive that was close to being full, and I came across a draft of a private message I had sent some time ago to another writer on this board who had asked for my thoughts on writing space battles. As I read through it, I realized it was the sort of thing that other writers here might find useful--or at least interesting--so I am posting it here. (Also, it helps alleviate the terrible guilt I feel for having written only one (ONE!) sentence over the past month in the latest chapter of 'Convicted.' All I can say in my own defence is that I have been travelling around Afghanistan, and the transient billets I've been occupying are not exactly conducive to writing.)

So anyway, here it is:

Space battles... Where to begin?

I think a lot of writers draw their inspiration for space battles from what they see on TV or in the movies, which are mostly visual affairs. This affects their writing, which can be heavy on the visual aspects: spaceships zooming around like airplanes in a dogfight, dodging torpedoes while multi-colored rays and beams flash between ships. There are explosions and fires and sparking consoles and people thrown about like pebbles in a can, and it all sounds very exciting.

Except it's not. After two or three paragraphs of zooming spaceships and flashing rays, I tend to get bored. You need SOME of that visual element in your story, but the most basic thing that you as a writer most never forget is that the story is ultimately about people -- people that you have made us care about on a personal level. Here then, in a nutshell, is my advice:

TRANSWARP'S GUIDE TO WRITING SPACE BATTLES THAT DON'T PUT YOUR READERS TO SLEEP, MAKE THEM SKIP TO THE END, OR SCRATCH THEIR HEAD'S AND GO 'HUH?'

1) Before writing the first sentence, You must know very clearly in your own mind EXACTLY what happens in the battle and why. You must know the number and types of ships on both sides (If it's a small enough engagement, I jot down the ships' names, even if I don't end up using them all.) You must know the type, quantity and capability of weapons systems (offensive as well as defensive) on all the ships. The tactics employed by each side must make sense with regards to the weapons they employ. (An example you may recall from 'Command': I made Romulan disruptors much more powerful than Starfleet phase cannons, able to do more damage with each hit. On the other hand, I gave phase cannons a higher rate of fire. Given this, the optimal Romulan strategy in a guns-only fight is to get in close where they can get a higher percentage of hits from their lower rate of fire. The Starfleet vessel, on the other hand, wants to stand off at long range, where hits are less frequent and the advantage swings to their higher rate of fire.)

I recommend that you plot the action on a piece of paper first. Nothing fancy; a rough sketch is probably all you need. This will help solidify in your mind what happens before, during and after the engagement. The better you understand the details of the battle, the clearer you can write it for your readers. Please remember that just because you know all these details, you don't have to share them with your readers. Give them only what they need in order to understand the action and propel the plot forward. Even if you don't use every detail that you so painstakingly prepared, it won't be a waste of time. I find that knowing all these details in advance makes the scene easier to write, making it sound more authentic. More 'real'.

2) The battle itself is happening at the tactical level. I suggest that you also have a clear understanding of the situation at the STRATEGIC level. Why is this battle important? What are the stakes? What are the strategic objectives on each side (and they are probably different). What does each side know of the other side's plans, intentions and disposition of forces? What's going on elsewhere in the war? Depending on the story, this may or may not be important, but I still think you need to have at least a rough strategic outline, for the same reasons that you need to know the tactical details.

3) While you are busy plotting out the action, here are a few of my pet peeves, which you are free to use or ignore as you wish.

ASTEROID FIELDS: The way asteroid belts and fields are depicted on TV and in the movies is completely bogus. You see dense fields of rocks and boulders careening about and colliding with each other. And of course, it's a great way for the good guys to escape from a superior enemy force, because the good-guy helmsman is MUCH better than the bad-guy helmsmen, and he can use his superior piloting skills to duck and weave through the crashing asteroids, while the pursuing bad guys are reduced to so much scrap metal. Hurray for our side!

In reality, the asteroids in an asteroid belt are hundreds or thousands of miles apart, and do not represent much of an obstacle to anyone. Of course, dense asteroid fields scattered randomly throughout space has been seen on TV so much that it has become a form of canon, despite being completely unrealistic, and it is perfectly acceptable to use as a plot device. I've gotten to the point where it doesn't phase me any more. I note it in passing and suspend my disbelief so I can enjoy the rest of the story.

NEBULAS: On TV and in movies these are EVERYWHERE in space; dense interstellar clouds of pea soup fog, where ships (or entire fleets) can hide from the enemy. In the Star Trek universe, it seems they are even more commonplace than the dense asteroid fields. And a good thing, too! Without a nebula to hide in, how could our hero pounce on the unsuspecting enemy force and defeat it? Nebulas are even better than asteroid fields for escaping from a superior enemy force, because you don't have to worry about your ship being pulverized between two mountain-sized rocks.

In reality, even the densest nebulas are pretty much vacuum and would not hide anything. They appear dense from Earth because they are so BIG. Some are light years across. But (like the TV asteroid fields) dense, ship-obscuring nebulas are also so prevalent that they have entered into canon. You may use them in your stories with impunity, and I doubt anyone would object.

In my mind, the most realistic model for ship-to-ship combat in space is not an aerial dogfight, but a naval engagement on the high seas. Like ships in space, seagoing vessels have no place to hide. The winner is the side that first overwhelms the other side's defenses.

4) Okay, you've plotted the battle. You know what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. At this point you are ready to begin writing. What you don't want to do is write a blow-by-blow account of the action. Such an account is fine, if you're the captain writing an AAR (After Action Report) or a military historian writing the official history of the war. But your readers don't care about that; they care about the PEOPLE.

5) What I try to do next is break the battle down and find the major decision points. These are the places where someone had to make a decision or select a course of action. This is where you find much of the drama and suspense in the battle. An example of a decision point in 'Command' is when T'Pol has to decide between saving the Starfleet corvette or the Andorian freighter. Other decision points may be whether to withdraw or press the attack; close to gun range or stand-off and fire missiles/torpedoes; reduce power to shields to increase weapons power, etc...

As a general rule, you should spend more of your word count on the decision points than on the action in between, because these are the pivotal moments that decide the outcome of the battle. We want to know who did what that resulted in victory (or defeat) and WHY they did it, and how they felt about doing it.

I might have more detail describing the first ship destroyed in the fighting, but the destruction of subsequent ships will get less and less detail. After all, intense descriptions of damaged ships trailing debris and vapor clouds can get old, fast. (Seen one, seen them all). Spend your time on what's new and different and interesting, not the same old explosions and pyrotechnics.

6) Don't neglect the eve of battle! If handled correctly, the long periods spent waiting for the violence to begin can be very tense and dramatic. It is the calm before the storm. The crew knows what's coming (at least the experienced hands do), and how they deal with that knowledge lets us see what they're made of. How well they handle the pressure. This is a golden opportunity to have their strengths and weaknesses revealed. Once the action starts, they will all be too busy to be scared, but the waiting beforehand can be the hardest to endure.

This is also a great time to set the scene. This is when the Captain receives orders from higher up. This is when the Captain talks to her staff, gets the latest intel and comes up with a plan. The reader can learn the tactical situation right along with everyone else. The XO can point out all the areas where the plan can go wrong, and the great danger to ship and crew if that happens. Or you can take us to the enlisted berths where the daily scuttlebutt is traded, along with the latest rumors. The guy who works on the bridge can relay what he knows. The guy who works in the comms room can add his two cents. The steward may have overheard something in the officer's wardroom. Together they can piece together the situation, and now the reader knows, too (from the below-decks perspective). You get the idea.

7) Finally, you have to read back over the whole thing as if you were reading it for the first time. Forget that it's a space battle; now you are reading a STORY, and all the normal rules apply. Is it interesting? Does it flow well? Can I understand what's happening and why? Are the characters' motivations reasonable? The rules for story telling are the same for all stories, whether it is an epic space battle or a love story. Next you tweak as required.

8) Congratulations, you have written a space battle!
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Re: Space Battles

Postby WarpGirl » Sat Aug 27, 2011 3:18 pm

As the original recipient of that wonderful advice, I have to say USE IT! :hug: Thank you Transwarp.
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Re: Space Battles

Postby Distracted » Sat Aug 27, 2011 4:50 pm

It all sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Actually pulling it off is a whole 'nother animal, but one never knows until one tries. Thanks for the very practical advice, Transwarp. 8)
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Re: Space Battles

Postby Cogito » Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:10 pm

Copy, paste, file-save-as.

Thanks!


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