Sword fighting choreography

[therosesword]

Do any of you who have sword fighting (or hand to hand) in your stories or novels do any choreography before writing fight scenes? I've got a scimitar type sword (decorative) and my fencing foil. It's hard to do in a small apartment but I haven't wiped out the cat or a window yet.

Obviously I don't do move for move when writing but it seems to help. I've had discussions with some other writers regarding that and they seem to like to try the moves out first, but then others don't.

Thoughts?

Update:
Apologies, I should mention that I have been a student of sword fighting (a long time ago) so I do have knowledge. I'm really just interested to see if people do their own choreography. Again, my apologies.

Second update:
This question was more for prose writers as opposed to artists/comics. This is my first question here so please bear with me. I probably picked the wrong title.
sorry

[TAMAnnoying]

Ah I don’t know, it’s rough but what I usually try to do is just watch a lot of videos from YouTubers, I usually start with sword stances if I’m doing swords and the such, after that I just do my best to get an idea of how people would fight and the motions since I Don’t have a buddy to “fight” with (at lest not with the covid happening XD)

When I use to be able to get with a group or hang out with my friends who use the foam weapons it was a kind of fun experiment to play. But i always had ro reminder myself the weight differences and the fact that they’re either more or less noobish then the characters in the fight, I would have to change hand locations and foot positions.

There’s also the problem that because I live in a flat place I could never use my friends for doing fights on mountans or hills but yeah I make do if I can

[domisotto]

I just go by what I see in the video games, what’s memorable instead of blow-by-blow.

[Jen-Jen]

I do, but not always. I'm not trained, but I've played with my siblings/parents growing up. I just try to keep it fairly realistic.

[therosesword]

I was pretty horrible at fencing (although I could confuse people because I'm ambidextrous) & the years I spent in karate help but I need to see the scene in my mind's eye when I'm writing which is why I tend to try and choreograph. Right now I'm sure I have a neighbor going nuts watching me wave a sword around at 11 pm lol.

I had a long discussion with one of my editing folks (who's a swordsman) about a scene in my latest webnovel and we ironed out a few things that way. The fight even read better when we were done.

[oshirockingham]

Different types of swords have different techniques, from straight to curve, from one-handed to two-handed, from sword-only to sword and shield.
even from the stance alone they already have many different stances.
oh and speaking about the choreography, my sword-fighting depiction ain't pretty but closer to realism.
different skills and training could lead to different techniques.
here are the sword-fighting depictions in my comic so far.

[CosmicLeon]

dang half sword-ing! pretty dope!

but to answer the question, I would look up fighting video, and practice drawing frozen video frames. I did this when I was learning how to draw/use kusarigama. Even if you don't have the space, I think watching people spar it a good way to figure out the poses you are going to use, the stances. I cannot stress enough on depicting solid stances. I watch/read anime/mage with fights that have poor footing, and it kinda ruins it for me. But when they have good footwork/technique its exciting and awesome. One anime does that really well is assassination class room (though I know its not sword fighting)

[therosesword]

Definitely. Right now I'm using (aside from the foil which I use when my shoulder is acting up) pretty much what my character is using. I tend to favor something more along the lines of a Tanaka and Dao but not big on the broadswords. Also sticking with one sided and not a Jian style which really makes me do choreography because I need to see what the characters wrist is doing.

I'm probably being way to picky but I hate reading something and thinking "that can't work" so I tend to over-research. 95% of my research never leaves my head. lol

[therosesword]

Thank you, ummm, I am a swordswoman. Not a very good one and horribly out of practice (probably couldn't cut my way out of a paper bag at this point) but I spent a few years studying... which is something I did not mention in my original post and I apologize profusely for that because I see people are getting the wrong idea about my question.

[Dane_Sherbet]

Some of my favorite artists are pretty deep into martial arts. Jeff Johnson for instance. Lived experience can enrich one's art far more than even a close study of one's photo references.

[therosesword]

yup, stabbing yourself in the foot quite often teaches you that the move you thought was going to be written into the story really won't work.
Kidding aside, For me a really does make a big difference.