Writing the aftermath of a fight?

Most of us deal with fight-scenes in one way or another. Be it a full-blown battle, a bar-fight, gun fight, or whatever situation you stick your characters in. But, the aftermath is often so complicated (especially if the fight is around a large group of people) that it gets to be a pain to write. There's the fighter's reactions, the watcher's reaction, and, if the fight was discovered and suddenly a large group of people know about what was supposed to be a back-alley fight, all sorts of problems occur.

Any tips for writing out the aftermath of a fight? What do you do to keep track of everything, and not overload the reader?

Thanks in advance!

~Rosey

I've never explicitly thought about the aftermath of a fight. I guess I try and do a little mental triage. Injuries are important, barely-restrained bad guys who might break free and begin round two of the fight are important, the viewpoint character's physical and emotional reaction are important. My viewpoint character is usually so beaten up by the end of the fight that I can get away with making everything else kind of a blur.

By the aftermath, do you mean a scene looking over the battleground (or any area where the fight took place), or more of a discussion/debriefing between characters about the event?

Firstly, I'd say that both types of "aftermath" scene can be useful. Sometimes only one, or neither, are used, although I think it's important to have some "calm" moments between action scenes - the reader could become exhausted or confused by lack of explanation or too much super-fast pacing, and realistically, the characters would be beginning to collapse from anxiety/exhaustion after more than a brief period of continuous fighting, especially if they're not actual soldiers (this could be part of the plot).

The battleground scene could simply describe the place, and what the characters are doing. Are they helping the wounded, seeing it from a hiding place, watching it disappear behind them as they escape etc?

The "post battle debriefing" is also important, and can show a lot about characters. Who wants to talk about it? Who wants to be silent (why? Anger/fear/sadness?)? Who wants to talk about the future? Who wants to talk - about anything but the battle? Also, if the scene was fast paced or confusing, you can use this to clarify what happened. It's okay if the characters don't know what's going on - but have a character express confusion, so the reader knows it's an in-story mystery, not something they've missed while reading.

There may be loose ends to attend to: funerals, hospital visits, injuries, rebuilding, depending on whether it's a short or long term scene. Also, if your story is set in a realistic modern world with the social order/structure relatively intact, people would go to counselling (people in fiction, even set in modern times, don't seem to go to counselling much, which is quite unrealistic). Even in a non-modern world, there might be some form of discussion, official or spontaneous, or someone you have to report the fight to, like a community leader.

If the fight was discovered, there would be different consequences depending on the universe. I get the impression you're writing about the modern day (sorry if I'm wrong ). If someone discovered a fight, they would probably call the police, not get involved themself, unless they felt very strongly about it, or thought they needed to help save someone's life.

The police would probably have riot shields, tear gas, capsicum spray, tasers etc to break up the fight. How much the media can report depends on the age of the characters - usually it's illegal to publish the names or photos of minors who have committed a crime. However, in a small neighbourhood rumour could get out (especially if the fight was in a public place), and then I guess people would tell their kids not to go near those people, never to talk to them etc.

Keeping track of things could be hard in the aftermath of a fight. Even in a relatively calm discussion between characters, emotions would be high; everyone would want their point of view. At the extreme, you could put them in a situation where the discussion is strongly controlled (eg. a police interview) so each character can say something without being interrupted.