: Re: How can I write a panicked scene without it feeling like it was written in haste? I normally try to place myself in my character's shoes and I think to myself, "how would I react if I were

You write slow. It is fine to put yourself into the character and see how you would react, but take your time describing that. Get into the details.

This isn't a "real time" exercise, the length of the writing does not have to reflect the length of the action. The only time that is true is during dialogue, people know that sentences take a certain amount of time to say. They know it is seldom true that anybody talks in long paragraphs or soliloquys or speeches or sermons.

But that does not hold for action or exposition that has no dialogue. Thoughts are on the borderline, but it is fair to describe several wordless thoughts or impressions that go through somebody's mind, and even though that took six paragraphs, the reader will still get this all happened in a single second.

Consider when you describe a scene the character sees. You can spend a page on something they "saw" in three seconds of scanning a room. We still get it, they didn't stand in the doorway for a full minute as they walked in, the exposition about the setting is not a "real time" description.

The same goes for your panic attack. Don't rush the prose to match the rushed mood. Describe what is going on, thoroughly but as always without getting repetitive or irrelevant. Don't worry about "real time" or getting through it quick.

The author's job is to aid the reader's imagination, so they "see" an image of what is going on and what happened and the consequences of that.

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: Re: How can I write a panicked scene without it feeling like it was written in haste? I normally try to place myself in my character's shoes and I think to myself, "how would I react if I were

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: Killing a character and killing the protagonist are two very different things. The death of somebody close to a character is obviously life-changing and can set them on a new course. It is

: Just use English, in quotes, like any dialogue. When we write about medieval fantasy, the narrator is always translating ancient languages to English for the reader. It is understood, whether

: How do I write a romance that doesn't look obvious I'm writing a story, it's not focused on romance, but that's an important part as well. The point is that I have two characters and I ended

: Leaving wiggling room for your characters while avoiding contradictions So, I finally began writing my sixtieth or so first draft. And I noticed a small thing: As sunset came the sky became

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