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Filed Under: writing
Tagged As: combat, project kingdom, realism, violence

It took me nearly a thousand words into the first chapter of Project Kingdom before I killed someone. Granted, the one who died wasn’t by any means a character in the novel. No, the one who fell is just a by-product of a violent scenario.

As a war veteran, I’m more than familiar with death. The problem is, how far do I water down life and death in combat for my readers?

I’m prone to lean towards realism while trying to maintain the sense of story. After all, I know that war is something for people with a serious stomach, and I don’t want to turn off any readers.

So, the first kill in my novel is rather cinematic.

Setting the scene

Edmon, the spearman in the following, is one of the two protagonists in my novel. He’s just one of dozens of characters, but the story follows him rather closely. In the following scene, he engages in the first act of fatal violence in the book. It’s by no means the last.

In an attempt to make the scene easier on the reader’s palate, I’ve made it more cinematic. My question is…

Too much?

A cry caught his attention, and instinct guided the blade of Edmon’s spear upwards. His eyes locked in horror on a pair of hands raised over a head, grasping the wooden handle of a large rock hammer.

Those hands went limp. That rock hammer fell slowly, tumbling downwards. Edmon watched it as it passed arms that framed a face covered in a beard, black tattoos, and soot. He watched the hammer fall before rough shoulders and a bare, barrel of a chest. He watched it fall in front of a stomach splashed red and wet in blood.

The hammer clanked and clattered against the ground, jumping up and down a few times until finally settling with a handful of shivers. Edmon reached forward and pushed the Bayard warrior with his foot, freeing the end of his spear. The fallen warrior slumped onto the ground, groaning slightly as Edmon kept on his flanking run.

The later violence proceeds in a much quicker manner, however, this scene greets the reader a scant five pages into the first
chapter.

What do you think?

How do you handle violence in your works? How do you handle violence in your works? Do you hide it behind clever art, or deal with in blunt realism?

As a war vet, as some one with kills attached to his name, I can say that there is no sense of morality attached to the act. But, for the reader’s benefit, should I construct one?

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