One of the things I've found over the years of RP and reading fiction (both 'fan' and published author, alike) is that no two people write out a fight scene the exact same way. People develop personal styles from the overwhelmingly detailed and accurate description of each footstep to almost abstract and elegant descriptions of stances countering other stances.
I guess if I were to answer your question as concisely as I could I would give it my 'catchall' mantra for roleplay and writing in general: "If you want to write well then read well."
I.e. read other authors who write combat and are even known for it, no less. See if it lets you visualize a fight while avoiding too many 'anime-esque' tropes and so on where physics and bodies move unlike normal bodies and physics =P
Personally I'm a detail-oriented writer when it comes to combat. I want to 'see' the fight in my mind as it's been described to me so it's more like a movie than "John punched Wilson in the head, Wilson groaned and took a few steps back". In reality you don't typically just "Punch someone in the head" or "slash your sword at their chest", you take a stance, you prep yourself, you launch your attack and depending on the simultaneous reaction(s) of the opponent it may or may not land home but even if it doesn't hit there's an action and a reaction and those are equally as important as simply hitting someone or them 'dodging'.
One thing if you want a really good exercise in writing combat is to challenge yourself to write out a combat scene from an Asian Martial Arts film, like Ong Bak or even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It sounds ridiculous, right? But imagine the effort that it took to choregraph that fight, someone somewhere has already written it thus you can as well =) Write out every detail as if you were the author of the story and rewrite it until you can stand to read it without going 'ugh!'. At that point you'll probably be more competent than most people who consider themselves "Lords of the Dance" when it comes to "RP Combat". Think of it as 'writing action' and you're already ahead of the game.
I guess if I were to answer your question as concisely as I could I would give it my 'catchall' mantra for roleplay and writing in general: "If you want to write well then read well."
I.e. read other authors who write combat and are even known for it, no less. See if it lets you visualize a fight while avoiding too many 'anime-esque' tropes and so on where physics and bodies move unlike normal bodies and physics =P
Personally I'm a detail-oriented writer when it comes to combat. I want to 'see' the fight in my mind as it's been described to me so it's more like a movie than "John punched Wilson in the head, Wilson groaned and took a few steps back". In reality you don't typically just "Punch someone in the head" or "slash your sword at their chest", you take a stance, you prep yourself, you launch your attack and depending on the simultaneous reaction(s) of the opponent it may or may not land home but even if it doesn't hit there's an action and a reaction and those are equally as important as simply hitting someone or them 'dodging'.
One thing if you want a really good exercise in writing combat is to challenge yourself to write out a combat scene from an Asian Martial Arts film, like Ong Bak or even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It sounds ridiculous, right? But imagine the effort that it took to choregraph that fight, someone somewhere has already written it thus you can as well =) Write out every detail as if you were the author of the story and rewrite it until you can stand to read it without going 'ugh!'. At that point you'll probably be more competent than most people who consider themselves "Lords of the Dance" when it comes to "RP Combat". Think of it as 'writing action' and you're already ahead of the game.
