A new (at least to me) type of writers block

[KevinEvans]

Gack!

I have a short story almost finished, and I have had a lot of fun writing it - Except, now the plot demands the bloody dismemberment of over 200 of the players. (it is a Napoleonic war era sea battle, the hero has to kill the whole crew of a galley before the board and swamp the crew of his sloop)

Gack! Pthoo! Ick!!
I never have run in to such a distasteful mental sludge before. The meme requires a very up close detail description too.

I can and will do it but, it is like diveing into a pool of ice-water.

Later,
Kevin

[blgarver]

Large battle scenes are a blunder for me as well.  I have one such scene in the novel I just finished over the weekend, in which the whole of the town's populace is possessed by the main baddie and ordered to attack two of the heroes.  I limped my way through that scene and was only mildly satisfied. 

I've got nothing in the way of advice for you, as I'm at a loss about my own writing, but I do feel your pain.  Good luck with it.

[warbossgrat]

Sounds interesting.  Possiblity of multiple weapon usage, powder keg, the classic people knocked off the rail maybe with a twist, funnel the poor victims so that sheer numbers won't be a problem.  Take groups separtely, break the chain of command if possible, the Hero has his work cut out for him especially if he is alone.   Sorry for the lack of depth with these just throwing out possible options.

WBG

[Starbeam]

It might possibly be a problem because it means looking into a part of yourself that most people prefer not to acknowledge.  Just a guess, anyway.  Could possibly also be an unconscious acknowledgment that there are readers who think that if you write it, you're capable of doing it.  Kinda difficult to give any advice without knowing what the exact problem with the block is, if it's with the actual writing, or with how to go about getting the battle done, or something else.

[KevinEvans]

(Sigh),

It's not that I can't write it, I was 14 years in the military, with four of them up close and personal in an SF unit.  Beyond that I spent 36 years to date in the SCA or my favorite absolute activity is to be chest deep in thousands of opponents.  (And watching them run)

Now I think it's more like Starbeam states, there is a place inside of me that is just a little bit grim.  Added to that, it's kind hard to destroy a lot of your world building, even if you are just pushing a lot walk ons into the pike.

Lastly the genre is one of my favorites, Jack Albury, Richard Bothiello, Horatio Hornblower, Honor Harrington, Long John Silver, and even Captain Jack Sparrow have all been literary heroes of mine.  And here I have a short story with a four gun Sloop squaring off against two galleys with 250 or more Barbary pirates each.  In the period the favorite weapon of the Pirates was the fire pot, that is a ceramic pot filled with burning pitch mixed with a little bit of sulfur that they would whirl over their heads and toss onto the opposing ship.  The battle is already plotted out, one galley finds out that keeping the powder magazine next to the canons is a really bad idea, and the other galley has its T crossed and finds out what's 64 pounds of shattered granite does when it goes from stem to stern of their little rowboat.

It's just that I've got a little more peaceful than the days that I used to shop radios out to massed artillery batteries.  (Grin)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone,
Kevin

[Starbeam]

(Sigh),

It's not that I can't write it, I was 14 years in the military, with four of them up close and personal in an SF unit.  Beyond that I spent 36 years to date in the SCA or my favorite absolute activity is to be chest deep in thousands of opponents.  (And watching them run)

Now I think it's more like Starbeam states, there is a place inside of me that is just a little bit grim.  Added to that, it's kind hard to destroy a lot of your world building, even if you are just pushing a lot walk ons into the pike.

Lastly the genre is one of my favorites, Jack Albury, Richard Bothiello, Horatio Hornblower, Honor Harrington, Long John Silver, and even Captain Jack Sparrow have all been literary heroes of mine.  And here I have a short story with a four gun Sloop squaring off against two galleys with 250 or more Barbary pirates each.  In the period the favorite weapon of the Pirates was the fire pot, that is a ceramic pot filled with burning pitch mixed with a little bit of sulfur that they would whirl over their heads and toss onto the opposing ship.  The battle is already plotted out, one galley finds out that keeping the powder magazine next to the canons is a really bad idea, and the other galley has its T crossed and finds out what's 64 pounds of shattered granite does when it goes from stem to stern of their little rowboat.

It's just that I've got a little more peaceful than the days that I used to shop radios out to massed artillery batteries.  (Grin)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone,
Kevin

My way of looking at it is to just give in.  It's one way to give in to the darker urges that I'm pretty sure most people feel, and it won't result in jail time, or anything like that.  People might look at you askance, but that can be a fun part of it.  I'd say it can be a bit of stress relief.  As for destroying all the world building that was done, well, it happens.  As a lot of authors/artists/whatnot would say "kill your darlings."  Not quite meant in the same sort of way, but I think it gets the point across.

[KevinEvans]

Well i finished it,

Actually it didn't end up as bad as I thought it would. A lot could be left to the imagination of the reader, and the rest was needed to define the primary viewpoint persons activities.

most of it is about like this. (this is the roughest of rough drafts, before even the first edit pass)

"Fire!"
With a shattering roar the lead cannon fired.  But rather than a single cannonball, the cannon belched fourth more than 70 pounds of crushed, thumb sized granite.  Like spray blown from the top of a wave by a hurricane, the broken granite slashed the length of the oncoming galley.  The spray of stone was soon joined with a spray of blood men and body parts flew through the air.  Sancho ran the length of the deck, to the after Canon.
"Fire!"
Another shattering wave of the Granite sprayed the length of the any galleys deck.  On the galley men were reduced to shattered clumps of flesh along the deck.


The truly amazing thing is how much space can be eaten up by combat narrative.
Regards,
Kevin