Fighting Rhythms and other rants

I’ve recently finished The New Magic by Joseph Malik (review to come soon — but his first book, Dragon’s Trail, was half of what prompted me to start writing advice on writing action scenes, as an example of how to do them right).

Anyway. You often hear the advice about writing fight scenes to “use short sentences.” It’s ok — to a point.

Take a look at the following excerpt from Murder In Absentia. As you read it, pay attention to the rhythm of sentences, to the variation in sentence ...