 Action/Adventure: February 21, 2024 Issue [#12408] |
This week: Narrative Structure of Adventure Stories Edited by: NaNoNette  
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"Adventure is worthwhile." ~ Aesop
"Adventure is a path. Real adventure, self-determined, self-motivated, often risky, forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world." ~ Mark Jenkins |
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Narrative Structure of Adventure Stories
The most common narrative structure of adventure stories is the hero's journey as coined by literary professor Joseph Campbell. He didn't codify it himself. It's a structure that evolved naturally in stories. He only named it.
This structure includes several aspects that readers recognize easily.
A hero. Usually at the beginning of the book, frequently in the first sentence, the book's hero is introduced. This hero will have something unique going on. We frequently deal with orphans if the hero is a child. Adults are often professors, archeologists, reporters, or soldiers. Although they don't always work alone, they will end up doing most of the heavy lifting in the story.
A quest. Something shakes the hero out of the normal day to day. There is a distinct before and after. The hero often goes through a brief moment of unwillingness to give up the momentary comfort. Inevitably, the hero will accept the quest and embark on the adventure.
An unfamiliar environment. In adventure stories, the hero leaves and goes questing someplace far away. Or at least not formerly known. This is because an unfamiliar environment lends itself to raise the danger factor for the hero. Not only is there a quest, the hero also has to find the way. Mountains, the ocean, the desert, rainforest, all of these places are typical adventure settings.
A villain. The villain can be a person. It can also be something else. The villain is the reason why the hero goes on the quest. At the end of the story, the villain must be vanquished in some way. If not rendered fully incapacitated, the villain must lose out to the hero in some form.
Risk. Throughout the story, the hero has to encounter risks. Some of that risk can be from leaving home. But to have a real adventure, the risk posed by the environment and the villain can't always carry the story. The hero has to face some additional scary or upsetting situations that raise the stakes throughout.
Transformation. At the end of the adventure, the hero is usually changed. The character has to follow a developmental path that shows how living through the adventure shaped the hero's opinions, abilities, or life goals.
All of these elements probably sound familiar. Because they are. As a writer, you can use them or corrupt them. In the end, you will find them in the journey you send your heroes on.
How often do you read an action/adventure and have a sense of knowing the next story beat? |
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Replies to my last Action/Adventure newsletter "Action Scenes" that asked Have you ever felt an action scene in a book or story was useless?
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