Recently this question came up in a chat I was part of over on Twitch and after I thought about it, I thought the question would make a great blog post…so here I am answering this question for you all.

How Do I Write War Scenes? 

I thought about this question for a little bit before writing this post and after hearing the other author’s answers. I think my answer to this question is that I write war in glimpses.

Each of the scenes I’ve written for First to Fight and now for Second to Fall have been through either Collin’s or Kyle’s eyes. Mainly the reader is only seeing, hearing, feeling, and even smelling what my main character is. So I write war scenes from their POV, not everyone else around them, you won’t see the whole huge picture. You’re only seeing/reading what they see or feel. So glimpses are the best way to answer this question for me. You only see the bits and pieces of the whole war, my characters tiny part of it all.

As the author I only want you to see a glimpse of the whole. You’re not even getting everything that’s going on with the main character, because everything is chaotic and crazy. Just a glimpse is all that is needed to get you, the reader, to imagine the whole.

So there you have it, how I write a war scene.