More to come...

**new

(top to bottom):

    How to get inspired 

    How to organize your project

    How to create a character

    How to create a world/city

**How to face the blank page

    How to build a chapter

    How to write gap-filling scenes

    How to write action scenes

Want to start a new project? Want to come up with a drawing or maybe a novel? Here are some tips to find inspiration. They work for every creative section but for now let's stick to writing.

Find your private workspace.

Depending on what you intend to work on, your ideal workplace might change. 

Example: Writing fantasy, I feel the most comfortable in the woods or at least somewhere outside with pen and paper. Writing crime, I love rain against my window, candle light, my typewriter and sitting on my sofa for work. For comical plays or situations I sit at my computer without any music etc.

Of cause some of us cannot really choose where to work, however we can get ourselves into the right mood.

Getting into the right mood:

Many things can help you getting into the right mood. You can hear music (my favorite Two Steps From Hell – instrumental soundtracks for all genres), look at fotos and pictures (your own or browse through online galleries like DeviantArt.com), light  conditions (is it easier with bright or dim light?), Movie passages or a book or comic. A window can help a lot, too. If  you are bound to an office for example, you cannot walk out of the door to  take a relaxing stroll through the near park. Instead you can take a look  outside and go for a mind walk. Imagine the many places you could go, look at  the sky and wonder how it might look on the other side of the world right now.

If nothing else works, I can only recommend the “what-if” game. The good thing is: you can play it anywhere you want, it’s entertaining and can get you just the right idea for your new project. The rules are easy. Get your fantasy working!
Example: You’re riding the bus. Take a look around. Don’t stare! That’s
impolite. The man all the way to the front is looking nervous. (Here we go!)
Why could he be nervous? He looks normal, neat, has an appropriate style…
nothing to be tense about. He presses the “stop” button. You check the name of
the bus station. Why is he getting off here? Doesn’t he look more like a
businessman? Maybe he lives here? There! Didn’t something just blink out of his
pocket? Again! He sees your gaze and stuffs the object hastily back into his
jacket, then get’s off the bus. (so far so good) Now. Imagine what might
happen, if you would have gotten off the bus with him. Would he talk to you?
Where would you follow him to? Would you discover a secret of great importance?

You can stop anytime you want. Don’t be impatient. It might take a while until you brain floods you with thoughts like those above.

All creativity aside, an extensive project sooner or later needs organization.
Especially if you have more than one going!

To prevent troublesome lapse of memory, write everything down. Here you need to find your own way again. Are you the type jotting down a few notes, or do you fill several pages? Do you doodle situations or describe them with words?
The most important thing is: Write your ideas down! There’s nothing worse than
forgetting how your character reacted in that specific situation or what
exactly he said. That is why I carry an idea-book around with me all the time.
There I can scribble, write, paint, or do quick notes, no matter where I’m at.
Very practical.

So what do we do, if you have all those notes in idea-books, napkins, bills,
pads or what not? We organize them and that can be a little tiring, but in most
cases, it’s worth the while. A good way is to collect all information, notes, drawings, etc. for one project in one folder. That way you never lose your thoughts and, even after time has passed, you can work on any of your projects without having to start from scratch. Instead you just take a look at the project-folder and you get every information you’ll need to continue.

Writing down your ideas also has another effect: You get reassured, that none
of your ideas get lost in your mind chaos, and so you can think of things more
important and gain back concentration for work.

Characters are of great importance to every story. However without the right plot and ups and downs of the story itself, their potential is wasted. So make sure your story is throughout deep and has lots of thought in it. Better keep the
pre-production longer, than rushing over a story and ruining it because of
impatience. Preparation is the utmost!

Now about the characters themselves. The most important characters which definitely need good preparation are the protagonist and the antagonist. Don’t let the good guy with all his deepness compete against a flat bad guy. That’s boring and lowers your whole story.
Get to know them!

I have a whole long list of questions about things useful knowing to get a
better feel when writing through one characters eyes. However I’ll break that
down on the most important ones.

Basic Facts

1. Name?

2. Pictures? (mood images on looks)

3. Age? (actual age and felt age)

4. Height and weight? (good for comparison to all characters)

5. Eye, hair and skin color?

6. Scars (physical and psychological), tattoos and other defining skin marks?

7. Education?

8. The room? (how does he/she live?)

9. Special talents?

Those are the most important things you can work with for a start. How does he/she look? Appearance shapes a character and when describing it, the reader already gets a feel for the likes and dislikes, etc of that character. Also it helps for orientation. A story with lots of characters can easily get chaotic, leaving the reader disoriented which black haired guy is which. Though embedding tiny details beforehand, like a tattoo, you as writer can merely mention the tattoo later on and instantly the reader knows who you’re talking about.

Scars either physical or psychological represent a fear, a weekness, a streigh or a memory. It’s good to have that for a character because it makes it more real and understandable. Don’t hesitate to make your character weak. Everyone has a weakness and so should your hero/heroine have one.

Education tells us something about the way he/she grew up, about his/her intelligence, social standard and sometimes even the way he/she might talk, aka use of language.

The room is mostly for you as writer and only to get to know your character. How does he/she live? Spartan with few things, a lonely mattress on the floor of a small room, walls empty; or packed with little statues, hanging things, pictures and furniture.
These are simply examples but the way we live tells a lot about our
character, our interests. If you care for your character at least consider this
point for a moment.

After that is done I have several things about their childhood. How they grew up, in a rich or poor family; How their parents were, who the most important person during that time was to the character and how he/she deals with other children.

Teenage has practically the same questions, since their character often had changed between childhood and teenage. How they handled love, emotions and so forth is very important in this stage. Did they make enimies or friends? Were they open hearted or more shut towards the world?

For teenage and childhood, you can always add the nice question of their greatest memory. That can be dramatic or funny things, or completely normal situaions like quarreling with someone or how their mother sat in the living room reading.

During adulthood:

1. Who’re they living with?

2. What are they working?

3. Are they happy? (why, why not?)

4. Enemies and friends?

5. What parts of his/her character does he/she not show? (and why)

6. Love interest?

7. Certain problems?

8. Certain aims or wishes?

9. Has he/she reached some goals from childhood or teenage?

And finally the most complicated things to do:

1. Hobbies/interests

2. Certain things that he/she doesn’t like? (weather, landscape, animal,

     attitude, etc.)

3. Habits (bad and good)

4. How does he/she tick when alone?

5. Fears?

6. Positive Characteristics

7. Negative Characteristics

These are only very few from a big characterization but it should help you get over a few things. Every character is different, like every story is. So make sure not to stick to these questions for every one of them. You have to be flexible, change some things here, delete this or add that question to live up to your story. Think of things you would want to know, when meeting that character in person or things that might be interesting later on in the story. Don’t hesitate
answering in a grand manner or in short either. If you answer several questions in one because you felt like it, that’s not a problem at all. This is merely a guideline to help you think of the right things.

If you don't know the answer to one queston (since every character is different etc, that can happen quite often) just skip it, come back to it later or leave it out completely.

I hope this helps for a start. Character developement is really a huge iceberg often underestimated because of it's small tip. But if you don't recognise the whole mass it comes back to you later, when the character during writing suddenly doesn't sound like him/herself anymore or readers get confused.
Good luck and try to enjoy it. For me that's one of the most exciting things to do before writing!

How to face the blank page

“How do I write a book?”

“How do I start my story? What should the first sentences be about?”

“My story doesn’t have a name yet.”

“When does the first word hit the page and how come it’s so difficult when I try to do that?”

“I can’t get over the first page!”

“Does anyone have the same problem?”
  

These are just a few concerns many, many people expressed to me over the years. Most of them, I had to face more than once myself. They are common problems that most writers have so to answer the final question: You are not alone.  

Before I start getting into detail about these questions, I’d like to state something to the whole “story vs. book” thing. When I’m asked about these things or when I browse through forums of story writers I often see the term “book” used in a strange way. For me, a ‘book’ is the finished product. It’s a finished story of min. 100 pages that has been printed and cased and (in most cases) is being sold. That’s what a book is to me. So when people say they want to write a ‘book’, I’m guessing they plan on having it published at some point or at least actually get to the ending. But half of them don’t even finish the first chapters. Sure, sometimes you don’t know if you will finish it or not. But that’s why you’ve got the term ‘story’ for. Use it!

But enough of terminology. Let’s get to the first question.

“How do I write a book?”

Like I stated before, wanting to write a ‘book’ is usually different than wanting to write a ‘story’. While a story is the core of a book and offers a lot more freedom to the writer, a book, above all means one thing: Stress and pressure which results in more stress and ends in a writer’s block.

Worst case scenario. But this happens to a lot of people. Why? Because they started out wanting to write a ‘book’. Simply by using this term they put themselves under much more pressure than needed. Most ‘books’ result from a good story that was mostly written for the fun of writing or to convey a message to the world that just happened to be liked by a publisher.
So my advice for this is: Don’t go for the book. Develop a good story, work on credible characters, writing style, atmosphere and have fun. If you notice after the first chapters that you’re not going to continue, that’s fine. Leave it. The next story will come around eventually. If you hit the 100 mark and could go on forever then, yes, maybe you should consider making a book out of it sometime. But a book is only as good as its story. Always remember that.

“How do I start my story? What should the first sentences be about?”

Also a very typical one. People start thinking about everything, before even starting to write. For some people that is the best method to a great story, bestselling books even. For others it only hinders them in actually getting started. Generally you should simply start writing. Get an idea, structure it if you like and then hit the keyboard or pen or whatever. You can always go back and edit, add, delete or change the order of the different story parts.
Now, if you really want to know how books usually start, go to your collection of books, visit a library or go to a book shop and browse the shelves. I do that a lot. Pick a book that stands out to you and read the first two pages. You can do that as often as you like. You’ll find out that it’s one of the best methods to get ideas while getting a feeling of what kind of ‘beginnings’ work for readers.

Generally the beginning of a book depends on the genre and the narrative perspective. In first-person narrations it’s for example more common to start with a character introduction. While third-person narrations often start directly in the action or lead the reader across the current scenery. Those are the most used types of ‘beginnings’ by the way:

1. Character introduction
   The text focuses on the main character and gives several information about him/her
2. Scenery introduction
   The setting of the story is introduced, mostly with a lot of atmosphere along the way to get the reader’s attention.
3. Action introduction
   The typical “What is happening?!” phenomena. A story starts in the middle of a fight or catastrophe or some other kind of action, leaving the reader wondering what is actually happening. A very clever way to tie the reader to your story since, if well used, it awakens his/her curiosity.

Each one focuses on a different aspect of the story and has different effects to the reader. Which one you can write the best or is most fitting for your story, I’m afraid you’ll have to find out yourself. It’s all about getting a feeling for your stories, developing a unique style and also a lot about self-reflection. What kind of ‘beginnings’ draws you personally into a book the most? What do you like or don’t like about the start of a book or story? Testing and exploring yourself helps a great deal when writing.

“My story doesn’t have a name yet.”

This is perfectly alright. I don’t know where the belief comes from that every story has to start with the title. I thought so, too but it’s not true. In fact, I know many writers who start a story with a working title. It’s the first thing that came to mind or something like “story 5”. It’s just something to help you organize your ideas, characterizations and other things related to the story.

Rarely the title chosen at the beginning of the writing process becomes the actual title of a finished work. Partially because publishers have a say in the title if you sell your story, and partially because you first have to get to know your story before being able to sum it up in a few words; before you know what your story truly is about. Especially the last part can change during writing. Sometimes you have different messages in one story that you have to choose from or find a title that covers most of them. The purpose of a title is, after all, to get the reader’s attention, to give him a prospect of what the story or book is about and sometimes, to give it a name that can be marketed well.
Conclusion: Don’t worry about the title. Use a working title and get back to it later.

“When does the first word hit the page and how come it’s so difficult when I try to do that?”

How and when the first words of a story are actively written depends a lot on the writer. Every writer has a different approach on this and if you’re new to the process it’s a lot about experimenting.

When
Empirically the first words get written either directly after the idea, out of a certain mood that hits you or after an early development of the plot of a story. In other words: Either you write first, then think or you think first and write later.

How

Again this can be very different for every writer but from what I’ve witnessed with some of my students* (Can’t find a better word for it) and myself it’s a lot about the flow. The flow is a state of mind, where your creativity flows right from your mind into your hands. May that be for drawing or writing, for some people its singing or dancing. If you’re in the flow, you don’t have to think anymore. You just act.
However when you’re sitting in front of that very first terribly white page… you don’t get into the flow. You think and think, eventually write down a few words just to delete or cross them out again. I sometimes wonder, why we get so impressed by a blank page. What’s so special about it?
I think for me it’s that one moment, where everything I’ve worked out in my mind finally becomes real. It’s a precious and scary moment, the beginning of a new story and often you get tangled up in perfection. You want to do it right, get the perfect wording. But there is no such thing as perfection.

So what can one do when approaching that blank page?
Some people leave the first page of a file or note book or whatever you’re writing on empty and start on the second one. That way they didn’t ‘mess up’ that very first impression but can sort it out later.
As for me: I have different ways of avoiding that problem.

1. I noticed that I only have that problem in note books and no the computer so I often write down the working title, maybe the date or something trivial like that onto the very first page so that it’s no longer empty but holds a purpose. After that I can write down freely.
2. I get into the flow before I start writing on my story. If I notice I’m nervous or cramped, I take a piece of paper or open another file and just write down whatever comes to mind. Don’t think about grammar or sense. Just write. Again: Don’t’ think! Very important. If you think too much it won’t work. With every word I write it gets easier and after a time, I leave that “paper of nonsense” how I call it, be and sit down to start writing on my story.
3. I get into the right mood. I do that through music and light mostly. You can read more about that in the “How to get inspired”. Once I’m in the right mood, I’m so excited to start writing I totally forget about that hideous blank page.

*mostly young writers who want a little guidance and some advice or simply someone who reads their story and gives feedback   

“I can’t get over the first pages!”

Probably the same cause as the “writing the first words” trouble. If you are too picky with your wording and structuring and whatnot, you’re not going to make it far without wishing to delete everything and start over again. Only problem is, you might keep on doing that and never really start the story. The method which worked the best for me really is to write and write and write. Don’t delete anything major. You can change a word or scoop things down or up a bit, but don’t delete until you’ve written down a few pages. Then, if you desperately want, go over the text and edit it, improve it. After the editing look over it again. It’s alright if it’s not perfect. Don’t be too hard on yourself just yet. After all you only just got started. Getting the right feel into your story might take some time. Again, you first have to get to know your story yourself, have to find out how it feels, how you want it to feel. Once you’ve done that, you can go back and edit and write new. If you delete everything you’ve done too often, you risk losing respect for your own work and the belief in it. Instead, try thinking like this: “Okay it’s not perfect but it might work. Let’s give it a shot. I worked for it, there’s a reason why I wrote this down, I want to get this story going…” and so on and so forth. Convince yourself that what you created has a right to exist. Editing is something you can do all the time. Editing. Not deleting. Should you really feel like it’s not the right approach, don’t delete it. Save it, leave it somewhere. That way it still exists. You can start afresh on another page or file or whatever. But this way you didn’t rip that part you already worked on out of existence. You theoretically can get back to it anytime. Maybe make a new story out of it someday. If you keep on deleting and deleting and being picky about every single word, you may never find the right ones.

Final word

Writing is a lot about expressing yourself. Everyone knows that. It’s about fun, it’s about work. But it’s also about psychology. If you know your own weaknesses and strengths you can become a great writer. You’ll not only be able to overcome obstacles like the blank page or a writer’s block but you’ll be able to create stories that matter; stories that convey a feeling, a message.; Stories that draw the reader into their very own world. If you know yourself, you can work with yourself.

Observing is generally a big part of writing. But that is another story entirely.

Why do we actually divide a story into chapters?
There are several reasons, in fact, but the main one is, to give the reader the possibility to get out and back into the book when interrupted. Sometimes chapters are used to change perspective or make a greater time leap. Sometimes they're used to get the reader going, by leaving him with a tense cliffhanger.
However that makes it harder for the author, since he has to think about how to structure his story, when to change to a new chapter and how to design it.

Most of the time, each chapter is like a little story itself. You as the author determine the length of cause. But the major fact is, that every chapter has a beginning, a middle and an end. And as it is so, each chapter requires some kind of built up, a climax and a downfall or a cliffhanger.

How do we determine when to start a new chapter?
After a little bit of practice, every author feels when to do that best. But everyone has to start somewhere so let me explain, when the most efficient point is reached to get a new chapter started:

1. Probably the most known one: The cliffhanger. This one is to keep the reader interested. The chapter reaches a certain climax, that gets cut off at a crucial point so that the reader can’t imagine what will happen next. For example: The mighty sword plunges into our hero who looks frightened into the face of his enemy. End. Terrible, right? So what do you do? Turn the page to see if the hero really died! Sometimes it’s as easy as that.
   
   
2. The aspect most authors start feeling, when writing: Essential change of setting, time or character. That means, if our story part has reached a certain conclusion of some way or another and the next part is to be written from a different point of view, you should change chapter. It’s easier for the reader to follow through chapter-character-changes, then having it change in the middle of the story, coming out of nowhere. If you have a time gap, like the classic “7 years later”, then you might want to change chapter as well. Same goes for the setting. Of cause, each of these changes, CAN work out within one chapter, if you do it right. Some write one paragraph about person A in Country X and then fly to person B in country Y in the next paragraph. But be careful with that. If you change too often within one chapter it might be better to have one chapter for person A in country X and one for person B in country Y. You don’t want the reader to toss away your work simply because of some organization matter, right?
   
   
3. The one mostly unknown: Starting anew. This one refers to a – if you ask me- very important matter in connection with chapters. What do you do if you don’t have a cliffhanger or essential change of setting, time or character? You still have to end chapters and start new ones. And if you only use the above 1. and 2. people will get easily bored or overwhelmed which is equally bad.
   For the more slowly chapters, emotional ones or funny ones, you can get an ending. The end of an eventful day that floats away softly with the stars shimmering above our heroin – getting her well owned sleep after weeks filled with nightmares. I love stuff like that! You can create an amazing atmosphere, get things a little creepy/cute/sad, without giving too much information or confronting a cliffhanger again. Simply the use of words, how you describe the same situation, can change the mood and build a smooth bridge to the next chapter:

Example 1:

The girl stopped. In front of her a huge garden emerged, framed by enchanted rose vines and rustling bushes, showing off blue sets of flowers. She sighed with relief, when a talkative robin came to greet her.

Example 2:

The girl stopped. In front of her a huge garden emerged, caged by long forgotten rose vines and  bushes, waiting for their next victim to get caught up in poisonous thorns. She staggered backwards, when a robin dropped dead from the sky.

Basically the same situation: Girl stands in front of a garden with vines, bushes, birds. The difference is, how you describe it. How you describe something, the words you use, can help to get a great setting, to give the reader a certain feel before leaving this chapter for the next. It carries him away, maybe supports a message that might be essential in the next pages.
Anyways I tried to give an example, how different things can be described. While the first one is cute and dreamy, the second one is filled with negative words.

The point is:

Use your chapters to get the readers’ attention, to make him anxious about the pages that follow and don’t overdo it with your cliffhangers and setting changes. Once you got your story set, think about the reader while deciding your chapters! And don’t get too overworked. Some authors stress themselves before even writing. FIRST the writing, THEN the worrying. If your head is filled with structures, rules and systems, how is it supposed to work creatively? Write your story down. You can still divide it into chapters later and work the endings and starts to match.

Every story has these moments, when the reader relaxes and the most exciting battles, plotturns and drama peeks come to a halt for everyday business.
For the writer however, these passages are the most challenging because in most cases they do up to nothing for the stories' development. They are gap-fillers. Pauses to give readers a moment to breathe between one deadly encounter and the next.

No matter how boring these parts seem, try not to rush through them, but learn to use them for your story.
Go into your characters, reveal back story parts, deepen character traits or clarify relationships. You can use gap-fillers to write down a scene you thought unimportant for the plot, but personally liked a lot. This is the chance to still get it into the story!

Another great opportunity lies within the world you've created. Even if its just an ordinary alley in real-life Taiwan, it holds its very own atmosphere and that's what I'm talking about.

Get your chosen scenery to life. Most of the times, during dramatic or fast-paces chapters there's very few space for landscape viewing or detailed descriptions. That's why, during those must-breaks, you can let out everything you had to hold back during the other chapters. Get into detail and poetry. Write about sunsets and chattering grannies sitting in their chairs on the street corner not to miss anything interesting in their neighborhood. Write about a bunch of birds circling over the rooftops of a sleepy old town in a forgotten valley. Write about the fantastic architecture, the dreamy vegetation or gloomy creatures crawling about. How is the atmosphere of the citizens?
Do they stroll down pretty streets jolly greeting each other? Or do they rather pass their time grunting in the shadows, taking every opportunity to steal from their fellowmen?
In case of a battle or fight in some way before hand, it's easiest to use the gap-fillers to show some character development. Let the character reflect on the former events.

a) How did it go? According to plan? Absolutely disastrous? Somehow surprising?

b) In what way did it affect the character (goals, fears, relationship, belief, etc.)?

c) What does he/she do next? (go to school? Prepare for war? Make a vacation? Buy groceries?) 

Even the greatest hero needs a break, some times filled with laughter, surrounded by friends. The point is, how he/she works up that part.

d) How does the hero of your story deal with what happened?

• Does he/she try to forget everything by acting as if nothing had happened?

• Does he/she lock him-/herself up in a room in the dark to never see sun again until the roommate enters?

• Does he/she burst into tears by the slightest hint because the pressure had gotten too high?

• Or does he/she try to distract him-/herself for a while to get back on the matter later with a clear mind?

(Again:) Don't hesitate to give your character a moment of weakness, of cluelessness, despair, fear or unfairness by being distressed. That's what makes them less perfect and to the reader more alike, aka more likeable.
Like the reader, your character can use this gap-filler to work up, what happened and then gather new strength for the chapters to come.

Example Prologue:

In a village by the sea, where everyone knows each other, a young man helped a lost stranger and as thanks got possessed by a demon. Granted with new powers he faught evil with his companions until he faces the mastermind behind a series of horrible crimes: his best friend and roommate.
Unable to fight him, our protagonist loses and falls unconscious, his friend disappearing without a trace.

I made up this little story as basic for my following example. The obvious next step would be to investigate, check the roommates' stuff, his background, doings, acquaintances, motives and such.
But at this point our poor hero isn’t ready for that. He got injured, he lost a fight, and what's more he was deceived by a person so close to him it's unbelievable he never noticed.
He needs time to think. Time to decide what to believe. Was he possessed like himself? Was he drugged, blackmailed or otherwise influenced? Or was he really evil all this time and our hero was blind enough not to see it?
So what would he do after getting treated at a local hospital?
I'd imagine something like this:

Example:

Beep... beep... beep.
„That makes seventeen fifty-five for ya.“

Expectantly the old cashier held out one hand towards the young man, showing off his nicest smile.
 No reaction. An empty bag hanging from his bandaged arm, the man kept on starring at the unpacked groceries as if in trance.

“Sam? Sammy, old boy! Come to your senses, will ya.”
Sam blinked, saw the cashier and the groceries and sighed.
“Sorry Mr. Haston. I'm a little... distracted today.”
Slowly Sams fingers got to work, first by placing money into the wrinkled hand in front of him, then by putting piece by piece of his purchase into the bag.
“Distracted”, the old man chuckled, “well that's for sure. Just don't forget the noodles or it won't be much of a meal.”
“What?”
Sam looked up just to follow the old mans' gaze downward again. The noodles Mr. Haston had referred to lay on the floor where the assembly line ended. Sam grunted. He grabbed the package, took his change and left; Right under the nose of half the village. Sometimes he hated this place.

It wasn't far to his flat. Only two streets actually. The first one with the shabby looking sign, almost swallowed by a rose bush and then the next straight on. He liked his flat. It wasn't much but enough for him and, well Lawrence.
He stopped at the crossroad. Sunbeams fell down onto a mass of black hair.

Sam turned to the street he lived in... and took the other one.
For some time he watched two children play at the beach, the heavy wind howling and the sound of the crushing waves tingling in his ears. The bag was still hanging from his arm. It didn't hurt much. In fact it was a very slight injury. Some bruises. The man watched a big seagull soaring the sky, then turned and went home.

Click. The door opened smoothly. Sam had oiled it just a few days ago. He had been sick of the loud noise Lawrence had made when returning home in the middle of the night. It wasn't his fault Sam woke each time. It was that stupid door creaking in the wildest notes. Now it was so silent, Sam had to concentrate to hear it close correctly.
He slipped out of his shoes and shoved them to the other pairs covering the floor. Lawrence shoes. He would have to give them away. The bag still in hand, Sam worked his way to the answering machine and pushed the blinking button.
A female voice reported day and time of the incoming call.
“Clack!”

The caller had hung up. Sams finger moved.
“Message deleted. Next message...”

He starred down at the phone for a minute. Nothing happened though, and he resumed to his original plan on storing the groceries away. On his way to the kitchen he heard a familiar voice.

“Uhm, hey Sam. It's Beccy.”

The feet stopped. Sam turned his ear towards the phone.

“We were a bit worried”, continued the female voice, “since you didn't contact us for some days now. Is everything- … I mean... just call, okay?”

“Yeah so we know some beastly bastard didn't get'cha”, mumbled a male voice. Both voices got into a quarrel then the “Clack!” sounded again and the machine announced stiffly: “No more messages.”

Sighing. Inside the kitchen, the young man took out some tea, opened a cupboard to put it away, when his nose met a terrible stench. Irritated the green eyes searched for the source and found a huge pile of dishes still dirty and crusted with leftovers by the sink. He blinked.
A crashing sound broke the silence, as the tea caddy hit the floor and fell open. Furiously Sam kicked against the kitchen unit, grabbed a dish just to smash it down leaving a chaos of shards and rotten vegetables in a stinky sauce all over the place. That moron had forgotten to wash the freaking dishes! If he already planned on bashing his best friends' face in, couldn't he at least have the decency to wash the dishes?

Tears ran over a red face.

Again and again Sams foot hit the sink. Pots and glasses shattered to the ground.
How stupid Lawrence was! How stupid Sam had been to go there without telling his companions. How stupid of him to believe he was strong enough to face such a dangerous man! How stupid he had not been able to hinder his best friend fleeing the scene...

The hits stopped.

How stupid... he had always been.
Exhaustion caught him and Sam stumbled to his bed. But sleep wouldn't come. He thought of Lawrence and what he had said and done. He thought of his belongings and what to do with it. He thought of his best friend returning, finishing him off for that ridiculous pair of shoes he had loved so much and now left at the door for dust. And he thought of himself becoming a beggar, now that the rent was unshared and unpayable for a poor student like him.
Finally, after hours of thinking, Sam fell asleep.

----------------------------

As always this is just an example of how you can pace and describe these kind of scenes. Take care that it fits to your personal writing style!
Anyways, why did I choose this particular way of storytelling?
I thought about what I might do – living alone, not having been home for a while, a little disoriented, probably hungry – I'd go for the grocery store.
Having bought the groceries he doesn't have a choice anymore, he has to go home sooner or later, back into that empty flat. That flat full of memories, full of things connected with so much confusion. So in realizing so, our hero decides to take his time before entering that now so strange a place. But he has to return and so he does, immediately confronted with different kinds of memories. His companions called, that gives him a grief assurance that there are still people caring about him. Well and I imagined that the normal rage over the unwashed dishes would easily turn into desperation and anger, over Lawrence and himself, the whole situation he has gotten into.
Exhausted he goes to bed where he mutters about his dark future and falls into melancholy. However the next day he would probably meet up with his companions and they would suggest investigating and because he's angry and doesn't know what to do or what to think he might agree to it until he has made up his mind entirely.

In general I tried to pace the part according to Sams feeling of confusion and absence. That I did with going into detail here and there and suddenly jumping to something or having him look at a seagull and suddenly turn to go home as if in sudden realization.

Stuff like that helps the reader to feel with your character. I used this gap to show the reader few parts of Sams every-day life and his current surroundings, without breaking my chosen pace and perspective on the things.

I hope this example was helpful. I enjoyed making it up!
However, don't blame me for it, since I made it up from scratch simply for the purpose to convey a certain message.

Action scenes aren’t unusual. In fact almost every novel has one.

You should take care not to break your own writing style and that your word speed supports the speed of the actual action scene you are writing down.

In the following you find some examples of my own. They are written rather hastily, so please excuse any mistakes. Also I like mostly to write in third-person and I use a lot of adjectives to discribe the scene. However I tryed to vary in that a little as well while getting those examples down on paper.

The most important thing is, for you to get the differences between the styles. It is the same situation, told in three different types/styles:

1. From far away.
This type is written, as if you would watch the scene from far away as a more or less neutral observer. Here you can use as many adjectives as you like. Therefor this type tends to getting longer.

Example:Two lines split the horizon, cut the dry landscape like dark blades. Mighty, so that even the sky could not fight them and withered in flames of war. A sign, trivial like the waving of a hand, and the lines collapsed. With unbelievable speed, the enemies broke through the lines, moving their way up to the second front, to Cedar, leaving a path of destruction. Fallen men, miniscule like dying leaves in autumn, slowly disappeared, taking all hope with them.

Cedar screamed, as black soldiers ran through his comrades, then drew his sword and started running. With every fiber of his body he threw himself against the next best soldier, brought him down, bobbed up again and stormed onwards. Over and over again he wielded his sword against the many faces of his enemies, faces of stone without feeling or life. And then… he was alone.

2. Close to the character.

This type is written very close to the character. Stick to the feelings and thoughts your character might experience in that situation. In a fight or dangerous situation, our body gets pumped with adrenaline and often it seems as if the world around us would slow down. We perceive things differently, things we would never recognize under normal conditions, like sweat drops on our opponent, flashing reflections from metal or we hear far away sounds. We react without thinking, and therefore often cannot remember much of what happened. If you use this your action scene might get a new drive and seem more dynamic.
This type can also get longer, depending on how you use it.

Example: Cedar felt how his muscles strained under the scarred leather armor. It was his duty to fight; it was every man’s duty. But as the wave of shouts and rattling weapons reached him, he doubted.

Who was he fighting for? Who was he even fighting against? He didn’t know.

Suddenly a darkness, deeper than the gauntest night, crawled up the hills, swallowing every man on its way. The first soldiers, covered in black metal, fought their way towards him. Cedar screamed with everything he got and as the adrenaline pumped through his veins, everything slowed down. Every move, every detail; He could see, sense, hear things he never recognized before. Suddenly a black soldier swung his sword. A loud crash, and the soldier lay motionless on the ground, Cedar storming onward, sword in hand. He didn’t know how it happened. But he didn’t care either. All he wanted was getting over with it. Flashing blades, streams of blood, Cedars hand ramming his sword wildly through black iron; Endless faces rushing by, Cedar ran on and on, even after all darkness had disappeared.

He ran and ran, until the sand made him stumble and finally stop. No soldiers, no life.

3. Combine 1 and 2.

This type is a combination of 1 and 2. However you should stick to fast and short sentences. In my example it is a little difficult, because a war usually takes some time. In a chase though, this type is absolutely perfect! I will give a short example of that too so you can see the difference.
The style can take you far away of the situation, or real close to your character. You can jump! Additional, you, as the writer can give all kinds of information or antedate events without losing speed.

Example 1: In the desert of endless sand, two kingdoms would soon cross swords, leaving a field of disaster and pain.
Somewhere in the army of Hurba, a young man awaited his destiny, ready to fight. Not for his country, but to discover a meaning in life.

A hand reached into the sky and the black soldiers of Laeven stormed towards their enemy. Inexorably the laevens charged the hills, leaving a path of disaster. No one survived the fight. No one, until they reached Cedar. With a furious scream he swooped into the flood of black soldiers, cutting down as many iron men as possible, until a scar of death marked the black moving line. Then, everything was over.
No soldiers, no war, no nothing. Just sand and a young man, lost in desperation.

Example 2: Silent footsteps whispered over the nightly roofs of the city. A ninja, draped in brown hurried over the shingles, flew like a bird back and forth between the houses, steadily moving, steadily running, southward. In the contorted shoi blocks, he vanished into the shadows of small alleys. Left. Two figures blocked his way. Back. They followed him fast, too fast!

Right. Hens distractedly cackled, as the ninja jumped over them and a second time, only few seconds later. Close… way too close. Faster!

Left, then right. Faster, faster! One of the followers vaulted the other one into the air, which landed right in front of the ninja. The alley was jammed. He tried the way up, but the figure grabbed him by the foot and pulled him back down. The ninja managed through a trick to escape over the wall. Left. Left again. Left.
Where to go? Right. Which… which is the right direction? Right. Left. Better right? Faster. Faster!
Deadend.

The second example works especially good in present.