Writing Violence

Bibliography:

MacYoung, Marc. “Writing Violence #1: Getting Shot.” NNSD. Amazon Digital. 2014.

MacYoung, Marc. “Writing Violence #2: Getting Stabbed.”  NNSD. Amazon Digital. 2015.
MacYoung, Marc. “Writing Violence #3: Getting Hit and Hitting.” Amason Digital Services, inc. NNSD. April 20. 2015. 

Review: I have found the writings of Marc MacYoung to be informative, inspirational and just plain humorously good. These are meant to help authors in bringing realism, reality based that is, to their actions scenes. These two are only the first two of a planned series he is gong to write and publish. I am very interested in writing, both fiction and non-fiction (the Non is for my martial arts stuff). When he first put out that he was going to write these I could hardly wait. 

Now, I have read the first two listed above and will tell you that I believe these books are just as relevant to those of us who want to fully and completely understand the world of self-defense and martial arts, i.e., the self-defense martial arts world. As I read these I could not help but connect what he presents as very, very relevant toward learning, teaching and practicing SDMA. It just made sense to me that although his intentions are to help writers that he either on purpose or indirectly addressed a lot of information that anyone who is in the self-defense community will benefit (in addition, wouldn’t it be cool that our fictions would also serve a dual purpose to entertain and to inform). In the book on getting stabbed it added a whole new realm of understanding that knives are, “DANGEROUS!” Dangerous is not enough to fully convey that in the SD world you just want to fully and completely avoid knives. 

Anyway, I look forward to the next edition on punching/striking because as a karate-ka who, as anyone in the community knows, the use of the hands/fists become personal. I will add those editions as they come out in the bibliography.

Strikers, punchers all, get ready to rock your world because this book (#3) provides you a lot of information that will change the way you look at your striking arts system, like karate.

Over the years I began to understand that what I perceived as power in karate or martial arts was not actually all that powerful. Then I read the short book by Marc MacYoung, Writing Violence: Getting Hit and Hitting where the following quote slapped me in the face and provided me a way to explain why what I was seeing and even practicing actually did NOT mean I was powerful. Mr. MacYoung’s quote,

“Just because it has the external form doesn’t mean it has the internal mechanics that make it work. To the untrained eye, every blow looks brutal, horrible, and damaging. In reality, the level of force is hardly more than pushing or slapping someone - if that.” - Mark MacYoung, Writing Violence: Getting Hit and Hitting

I am barely through one-third of his book and I not only understand my striking system a lot better I can also articulate things better as well. Sometimes coming up with the proper words to describe things that are right as well as the all important things that are wrong is critical in teaching and learning. This book may be a way to write fiction fighting with more realism but it also, in my view, adds truth and realty to how one practices, trains and applies their striking art in reality.

Get this one karate-ka, get this one you self-defense people and get this one you fledgling fiction action hero authors - it is worth all 2.99 pennies you spend for the kindle version :-)