Hit All Senses

One of the best ways to get visceral when describing a fight is to activate every sense possible. This includes sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Think of how you can use these five descriptors in your writing to immediately transport the reader to the scene.

Sight is perhaps the most obvious. You'll describe exactly what the characters are seeing and what the reader should pay attention to in the scene.

Hearing is a little more delicate. I think a fight scene is a perfect time to introduce onomatopoeia into your narrative. Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it is describing. By onomatopoeia, I don't mean turning your writing into a comic book style, with words like kapow or bang! Instead, I suggest using more subtle examples, such as:

Boom, Clang, Clap, Clatter, Click, Crack, Creak, Crunk, Fizzle, Gargle, Groan, Grunt, Gurgle, Hiss, Howl, Hum, Knock, Plod, Rattle, Roar, Rustle, Sizzle, Smack, Splash, Splatter, Squeal, Tap, Thud, Thumb, Whine, Whisper…

Taste is another sense to introduce into your fight scenes. But be careful with going abstract here. Instead of using phrases like, "he could taste fear in the air," go for something more concrete like, "blood mixed with strawberry lip gloss was a strange taste indeed." I hope you come up with something better than that, but you get the point.

Touch is perhaps one of the easiest senses to convey. Describe how the characters feel and interact with each other physically.

Smell is one of my favorite senses to add to a fight scene because it's rarely called upon. You often see or hear a fight, but can you smell it? In-person, what would the fight smell like? Probably sweat. Consider other scents, such as the ambient aroma in the scene. For example, if the fight takes place in a car garage, there may be the lingering scent of motor oil and tire rubber. Don't be afraid to add that into the scene to introduce a different dimension.