 Action/Adventure: May 13, 2009 Issue [#3048] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Edited by: Vivian  
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Hi, next month will be my final regular newsletter for Action/Adventure.
I considered writing about adventure without much action, as found in Nero Wolfe stories, this month, but then the baseball season caught my fancy.
Viv |
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Batter Up
My grandsons' and great-grandson's baseball teams play games already. Of course Granny and PaPa have to be at every game possible. I take my camera and try to catch as many action shots as possible. Baseball certainly does have action, often spells of action linked by times of tedium unless the viewer's child or grandchild is playing.
Sports make excellent fodder for action/adventure stories, poetry, or novels. A middle-school-aged baseball team fighting its way to a championship allows for action galore. Add a touch of mystery, and the adventure increases: my combination for The Base Stealers Club and Case of the Missing Coach, books for 'tweens (readers between the ages of ten and fourteen, even though adults seem to enjoy it, too). Some of the most interesting stories evolve around baseball: Field of Dreams, A Team of Their Own, and Angel in the Outfield are just three examples of movies.
The trick to making sports action/adventure well-written is to be sure that readers, whether sports fans or not, find the work interesting and understandable. I can write about baseball and describe games so that the non-baseball fan can follow the action because I understand baseball. I played the game, coached a Little League team, kept books for teams for my sons, and follow my grandsons' and great-grandson's teams and games. Then using my teaching experience of being able to present material so that all students can grasp the underlying concept, I write the action scenes, giving insight to terms and happenings.
Hmmmm ... that last paragraph sounds like "write what you know." No one would want me to try to write a book about hockey because I know absolutely nothing about hockey except it takes place on the ice and people seem to enjoy hurting each other. However, if I did want to write about hockey, I would need to research, including attending many hockey games.
Another writing tip about using sports as the background, write for the audience. If the writing is for hockey fans, then the material included can be more hockey intense, using terms unfamiliar to people who don't know or understand the game. If for the general population, then the information in the work should be understandable to the non-informed. Writing for children sometimes requires a lower reading level than writing for adults. Vocabulary should be age appropriate and/or have a glossary of terms if needed.
Using sports as the background for writing action/adventure opens up a vista of settings, characters, and plots. I don't have many sports based stories in my port, but two there are "Lemonade" and "Brother Against Brother" . Hope you enjoy them. |
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Readers Speak
StephBee 
Viv, two thumbs for a great newsletter. I agree - for action/adventure to work, you've got to have a great hero to pull it off. The hero has to have some character development, which can be challenging, but with a little pre-work, can be done effectively.
I hope my hero and heroine in the book I'm writing can pull it off. It's my first foray into romantic suspense, which requires much action and adventure --
and of course romance.
NanoWriMo2018 Into the Earth 
wonderful tips for us to keep in mind when we write any genre! as always, great NL!
Thanks.
Poplar 
Thanks so much for a great, informative newsletter! Those tips are just the ones I've been searching for!
I'm glad I was able to help.
Raine
A hero can never be perfect. He/she has to have a weakness otherwise they aren't believable. The most fun is to take that weakness, exploit it and then make it the instrument of their triumph. Heroes are people, doing a job no one else wants to do and they do it because it needs to be done.
That's so true.
Thanks for being with me each month. I'll wait until June's issue to say goodbye.
Viv |
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