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RE: Writing the Prepared Professional
You make a lot of valid observations about writers and short cuts. The thing about having your characters train in martial arts and presenting it convincingly, means the author must train in martial arts. It can take anywher from 3 years to a decade to say get a black belt. Not the same as reading about and so It is not surprising that many writer-types do not train. Then just like the minutae of kit, a writer can get lost in too much action and violence and then the narrative begins to suffer.But certainly if you are going to have fighting in a novel beyond a few haymakers, you gotta know something more. Likewise you have to know weapons too. The author always has a lot to learn:) It seems.
Thanks!
Training in martial arts, while useful, isn't always necessary. The second-best option is to make friends with martial artists and ask them to see if you did it right. I did that in my latest novels to ensure I got the techniques right.
And to capture real-world fighting, you don't even need martial arts training per se. But you do need to understand that it's going to be a lot faster, closer and messier than what's commonly portrayed. And you still need to do the research.
In the end though, the point of the story is to entertain the reader. You only really need to know enough to pull off a convincing fight scene, dialogue, character moment, etc. Anything beyond that is a bonus.