Free Writes and a Return

First of all, I apologize for the long delay in an article. We were out of town for a long while and then it took a bit of time to catch up on things. However, I'm back and will be posting weekly once again. 

The trip was fun writing-wise. While out of town, I tend to stray away from the novel I'm currently working on and do daily, longer free writes. In this way, the quality of my regular writing won't go down with inevitable distractions. It was fun doing free writes of books I plan on writing in the future or snippets about characters I've written about in the past in order to strengthen their characterization. Free writing has always been a great way for me to get a good feeling for future characters even if their story completely changes or they don't take such a prominent role. Is free writing something that you have found useful with your own writing?

Free writing was a lot of fun, but I also enjoyed returning home and returning to my regular writing. I had missed a lot of the characters and could think over some of the ideas I'd had in the past. Recently, while reading other fantasy novels and reviewing my own writing, I've realized I need a better balance of physical and verbal tension. Previously, I would write too many scenes where a physical altercation happened, to the point the story felt like a series of unfortunate events rather than having a strong plot. Currently, I'm worried I've started to swing the other way with too much discussion and not enough physical action. I'm certain there are books that do wonderfully sticking strongly to one or the other but I'd like to try doing a little bit of both and see how it turns out. 

I have finally started rereading my Isle of the Forsaken Gods book. I'm getting through it pretty quickly, though, I will admit last night I was so in love with a book I was reading called, The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman, that I didn't edit for as long as I should have. Tonight I'll do more editing to hopefully make up for time lost. 

What are different ways you do free writes? Do you like to read more about physical or verbal altercations or do you like a good mix? What is the last book you read that you couldn't put down?