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DRAFT ZERO
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Damon Young

Guest

"Two people can be talking at cross purposes. Their words can be completely irrelevant to each other. In a way, it’s like they’re out of distance. They can’t cause any harm to each other. They can’t give or take anything away from one another — only when they move into measure. That there’s danger there."

— Damon Young  |  DZ-100: Scenes through Swords

2023

DZ-100: Scenes through Swords

What scene-writing tools can be learned from martial arts?
DZ-100: Scenes through Swords
Listen if you want to know why the distance between two characters matters more than what they say.
▶ More Info
In this slightly unusual episode of Draft Zero (but also incredibly on brand), Stu and philosopher-swordsperson Damon Young discuss how the lessons they have learned from martial arts can be applied to scenes. In particular, they discuss how approaching an opponent in a sword fight can be analogous to how characters approach conflict, such as: the distance between the characters, who chooses to engage first, how to feint, how to lure an attack by leaving yourself vulnerable, etc… →

"I’m taking advantage of the moment of that exhaustion when they have the least degrees of freedom. You know, it’s going to take them so long to start again. They’re already in distance because they’ve committed to their cut. Everything’s going wrong for them. Their sword is as low as it can possibly be. They’re going to have to pull it all the way back up and start again."

— Damon Young  |  DZ-100: Scenes through Swords