  Action/Adventure
This week: Adventures Present in the Past Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Greetings! Welcome to this week's WDC Action & Adventure Newsletter.
One can say that life itself is an adventure, as we daily encounter (fellow writers, we don't merely pass by, we notice) something to solve, surmount, answer, question - you get the point And we can write of such adventure, real or invented, in a number of genres. Adventure stories and poems can be romantic, historical, science fiction, fantasy, mystery....
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Greetings, fellow Adventurers ~ Let's explore a scene or two and see 'where' the action is, where the adventure leads us.
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She pushes the mustang to the limit, racing for her life. They've been chasing her for what felt like hours but was really minutes. White knuckles wrap around the leather as she hunches forward willing more speed for greater distance between herself and her pursuers. A shot blows through her flowing hair, missing her scalp by a whisper. She takes the turns in the road without slowing, fearful of throwing a shoe.
or,
She pushes the mustang to the limit, racing for her life. They've been chasing her for what felt like hours but was really minutes. White knuckles wrap around the leather as she hunches forward willing more speed for greater distance between herself and her pursuers. A shot blows through her flowing hair, missing her scalp by a whisper. She takes the turns in the road without slowing, fearful of blowing a shoe.
*******
One word difference defined the period, the when, of this action. As the scene continues, she may encounter her pursuers, or the mustang may either 'throw' or 'blow' a shoe. Get it now, I'm sure, in the first, the mustang is a horse; in the second a car. The time period is set by this difference in perspective.
Writing action and adventure set in historical periods, whether they be centuries or decades ago can be fun, if you embrace the period. Your reader will be transported into an otherworld you create, be it a battlefield, a desert, a city or town, an unfamiliar continent or era. I think what's key to historical action and adventure, along with the pacing of the story or verse (consider epic poetry), is the natural immersion in the period or time. You as writer don't want to expound on the scenery or background of each character or even the events, not in print, but you need to know it so that with a word, or a subtle reference, you can take your reader into the time period so that he/she embraces the adventure and embraces the action.
If you're writing historical fiction in verse or prose, you already enjoy the research and have fun with it ~ but if you're just considering this particular type of adventure, a few techniques to help aid your research, in addition to the volumes available on line and in libraries. Consider the nuances, and how to achieve them.
Find experts on your time period or topic. For example, if your adventure is on the high seas during World War II, spend a few hours with a veteran who served on a battleship. You'll get a sense of the language, names for parts of a battleship, common slang terms used at the time, all of which you can incorporate into your adventure.
Don't judge your characters, let them speak with their own voice in their own time. They will have prejudices and sensibilities different than the ones we have in our time, but if you give them their voice, allow them to live in their own time, your story or poem will be timeless. Someone reading it fifty years from now will embrace the adventure of the time of which you write, rather than the time in which you are writer.
You generally want a strong protagonist or hero, and an antagonist you want to see fail or lose to drive the story. I've also read in several places that you want to give your 'hero' three tries at attaining the goal he's set out to accomplish on his adventure. Thwarted twice by his antagonist(s), then attaining the goal, gives the adventure life, your readers a ride, and it's believable that he tries and fails, learns from his trials, and attains his quest. Too many twists and turns may make your readers (and your hero) tire of the adventure itself.
Avoid first person viewpoint if possible, as it's easy to fall into 'telling' and lose the action, as well as drifting into backstory, which may give a historical perspective, but at the expense of action.
Consider action and adventure from a historical perspective. You can add elements of romance, fantasy, mystery, but keep it moving ~ and read some of the stories and verse penned by members of our Community then, try one of your own and make an adventureof it!
Write On !!
Kate
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{/i}Check out these adventures in story and, yes, verse, where imagination of the present flavored with facts and myths of the past, create an otherworld that just might have once been. Let the writers know if they've made it real, taken you there, with a comment or perchance a review.{/i}
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Action/Adventure: November 20, 2012 Issue [#5374]
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