Melee Combat, little help here...

[Uilos]

I'm a blackbelt in Jujistu, the unarmed kind they teach cops in New York. That being said it reflects much in the unarmed combat scenes in my stories. It can get technical, and sometimes you can get lost in the words. That's when I decided to blend technical realism with poetic liberties. It kinda closes all the gaps and adds to the imagery.

I suggest the fight scenes in the Dune series, especially the Original Dune. It gets down to it without getting stuck down in it. Also, I am a disciple of Frank Herbert.

I also agree with Corvidian, if your either of your characters are mouthy, let them get real mouthy, it adds to the tension. 

[Paynesgrey]

I humbly suggest you use any formal names for moves or strikes sparingly, if at all.  Too many books go on about ""Eagle Claw Striking Fist of The Mystic Schoolboy", "Jade Mantis Striking the Cinnibar Monkey In Autumn Foliage," etc..... I'm sure you get the picture.  My Obsidian Panda School will defeat your Steel Battle Carp Style!

Some of the best fights I've read were from John D. McDonald's "Travis McGee" books.  The narration style and flavor changed, depending on how serious a fight was going on.  I particularly remember phrases like "an uppercut that started somewhere around the floor and left me wondering where my head was going to land", it lends the sense of confusion and desparation that one feels when having one's brain sloshed around inside their skull.  And with brawls where he had the other guy totally outclassed, the writing style was more calm, casual and perky even.  A brutal paraphrase, "Eager to impress his audience, he came at me all studio black belt, "Hah!" and "Hiyah", so I stepped in and gave him a couple to the kidney, then eased him over to the couch and sat him down."  And there have been times where McGee butted heads with a true professional, and got handed his ass.  (For example, in one book, some MOSSAD boys left Travis McGee, Heroic Badass, wondering WTF? Hunh? Whuuzat?" )

Just a thought, and please remember, those aren't direct quotes, just soup from the bits I remember off-hand.

However, you go, good luck with the writing!

[Suilan]

Writing combat scenes is difficult. Reading about people exchanging blows is boring, no matter the blows have fancy names. You need tactics, twists, unforeseen complications. You also need characters the reader cares about, and high stakes.

Involve the setting (slippery ground, rain begins, rocky terrain, nearby cliff, good character fights from lower point plus is blinded by the sunlight, he stumbles over wounded, etc.)

Possible complications: some of the pov's friends are killed/in danger, but he can't help; weapons break; salves of arrows come in; the leader or one of the leaders is killed or wounded; or they make a last stand, surrounding the king, still holding their banner high; the characters might have been ambushed; the characters need to get close to a heavily defended place to be able to turn the battle...

In some combat scens, characters will have a perfect plan (which is ruined of course), sometimes they are desperate from the start.

In a fight among several characters, you need teamwork. Every member of the team has an important part to play in the master strategy. Then one of them fails or is killed, and the others need to improvise fast to save the plan. Say, a small group of comrades working together. The two archers are supposed to keep an eye on the bridge, and shoot at every enemy trying to cross, while the others sneak up on the enemy camp.

Or: half of the group is supposed to create a diversion, while the other sneak in from the other side of the camp, trying to steal something / free a prisoner.

Or: they try desperately to keep an escape route open, but then something unforeseen happens and they must decide to either abort the mission or to go on, whatever the outcome.

Or they stand in a circle, backs to each other, fighting desperately for their lives.

The important thing is that something goes wrong. The archers by the bridge are shot themselves. The diversion doesn't work well enough. Or one of the guys who sneak into camp has to kill a guard and he cries out. Or two men that cover the prots back fall... Or something is different than what the spies / scouts told the prot, the layout of the camp, the number of the guards... Or it was a trap all along... or the tunnels that one of the heros remembers from his childhood have caved in... or they finally storm the hill / the room that had been there goal, only to find an army / more bad guys waiting for them.