Saturday, January 12, 2019

Feb 7 -- Writing Fight Scenes, Self-Defense for Women


Howard and friend
Get ready for an extra-special meeting next month when SinC’s own Howard Lewis will provide a presentation on Martial Arts that will include a discussion of how to write fight scenes and self-defense for woman.

To examine writing fight scenes, Howard will start with generic scene guidelines. Then Howard will talk about how trained fighters approach a confrontation, what they think, and how they react. Engaging your readers in fight scenes will be compared to engaging your readers in sex scenes. If you can write one you can write the other. He’ll discuss what we can learn from Bruce Lee and how to use the Shaolin Temple’s five animals in designing altercations. You’ll read a fight scene as readers and then dissect it as writers. Bring any questions you have about fight scenes. Someone will know the answer.

Student Denise performing
a "Getaway" on Howard
You’ll read a fight scene as readers and then dissect it as writers.

Next he will look at how training women for self-defense differs from training for the martial arts, what a woman needs to know before an assault to help her mentally and psychologically survive an attack, and how women can use physiology and physics to “getaway.” Howard will touch on defense against a gun and how women can use weapons to defend themselves. Then the discussion will explain how writers can modify their manuscripts to actually help women’s mental attitude about defense.

There is still a lot of material. We’ll make it as far as we can.Howard Lewis modestly says he knows a little about writing and a lot about the martial arts. He studied Kung Fu for about 20 years and taught at the Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte for 10. The highest rank he holds is a fifth-degree black sash, or master, in the Esoma System of Kung Fu. He’s a certified instructor in Sil Lum Kung Fu, Esoma Kung Fu, Self Defense of Women, and Tai Chi for Arthritis. He has taught Martial Arts for Writers as a lecture, a hands-on class for the Writers’ Police Academy, and as an online course for the Kiss of Death Chapter of the Romance Writers of America.

Howard holds a fifth-degree black sash, or master,
in the Esoma System of Kung Fu.

MEETING DETAILS
Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday, February 7th, at The Runway CafĂ©, 21 Airport Rd, Greenville, SC.  Be there at 6:15 p.m. to meet Howard Lewis and enjoy chapter fellowship. Supper should be served at 6:30. Our speakers will begin after new and old business at about 7 p.m. Both dinner and the meeting are open to the public.

Please e-mail your dinner and drink order before noon on Thursday to Ellis Vidler (click on link).This speeds service and helps us plan. The link for our special menu is located on the right-hand column listing.

If you place an order and do not attend or fail to cancel by noon, you will be charged for the meal. And like always, we'll enjoy it. Look forward to seeing you.

JOIN US FOR COMING EVENTS

March 7—Debra Goldstein, judge, litigator, and author of the Sarah Blair mysteries
April 4--Parks Evans, Greenville County Coroner
May 2--Author A.J. Hartley, who blurs the lines between scifi and thriller
June 6--Jacki Molnar, law enforcement officer with broad range of experience