  Action/Adventure
This week: Urban Escapes Edited by: Leger~  
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This week's Action / Adventure Editor
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Urban Escapes
A few people I know like to plan epic vacations. They hike huge mountains, they raft on dangerous rivers and attempt alligator wrestling. When they discuss their plans, all friends are invited if interested. While I enjoy seeing an alligator on a riverbank from the safety of a boat, I don't think I'd enjoy hugging one and trying to avoid a good snap on the arm. They call it fun, I call it common sense. I guess I'm made of tamer material.
While I don't enjoy dangerous outings, but I do like to get out with my camera and venture into new territories. I live in New Jersey and there are a lot of wilder places to visit within an hour or two driving distance from my home. I can drive down to the wetlands and beaches of the shore and photograph beautiful migrating birds. I can visit botanical gardens and see what people with green thumbs can grow. I can hike mountain paths in a national park and watch raptors ride thermal air pockets for hours. I've camped next to a wolf preserve and listened to their howls.
I like camping, but prefer places that might provide a shower and drinking water from a reliable source. Even then, things can go sideways. There was the time I camped in the Pinelands an hour from my home. Apparently we chose the weekend the gypsy moth caterpillars hatched in our part of the woods. You don't see the caterpillars so much, they're up in the trees, eating all the leaves and doing what those caterpillars do, defoliating the forest. The first morning, I got up and huddled near the campfire with my friend. I asked her if she thought it would keep raining all day. I heard the rain on the top of my tent. She looked at me and laughed. And laughed and laughed. When she finally calmed down, she explained it wasn't rain, it was caterpillar excrement. Oh holy handbaskets, you can be sure I kept my hand over my mug and ate dinner under the canopy she'd erected. Yeah, sometimes the adventure finds you.
While writing or planning your own adventures, think about urban escapes. Perhaps your character is on a day trip that goes awry. Or maybe, a simple picnic tripped fantastic when uninvited guests appear. Take out a map and see what kind of urban adventure you can find, and write on!
This month's question: What kind of adventure can you find close to home?
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Excerpt: Though I haven't been able to fit under a picnic table without dropping to all fours in years, my mom still seemed to think of me as the kid who once fell asleep and tumbled face first from the apple tree in our yard, breaking an arm in the process. That was why she wasn't aware of my plans for tonight. Getting parental permission for an adult-free campout in the Hundred Mile Woods had ultimately proved futile.
That was why I had lied to them. The first time I'd ever told one of such magnitude and I'd be lying again if I said it didn't weigh heavier on my shoulders than the backpack I was currently toting. Mom and dad were under the impression that Scotty Ray and I were camping in his back yard tonight, and though I knew a simple phone call could thwart my deception, I had decided that whatever the punishment, the risk was worth the reward. For the first time, I was about to brave the great outdoors without needing to check my watch to ensure I was home before dinner.
Excerpt: “Dad, it’s just a little snake. I found him over by that tree. His name is Slimy and I can feed him and take care of him and he is lonesome. There are no other snakes around. I think he’s all alone. All of the others snakes must have migrated for the winter. Can I keep him Dad; can I?”
Excerpt: The boys didn't normally sleep out this late in the year, but they were in the midst of a beautiful Indian summer, it was close to Halloween, and had talked about it for days at school before finally deciding to pull the trigger. Of course, they hadn't considered that it got dark much sooner this time of the year, and the nights were much chillier and all of the sounds of the night carried that much farther in the cool, dry air.
Excerpt: I saw a large shadow pass in front of the dying fire, blocking out what little light it gave off. About to lose it, my knees started to shake so bad I had to lay down right there in front of the flap.
Excerpt: Niagara Falls took Martin’s breath away. He was very impressed by the majestic waterfalls and by the thunderous sound of water falling so powerfully that droplets reached his suntanned face. He couldn't help thinking this would be the best vacation he ever had.
Excerpt: Humidity sat heavy in my lungs. I was on a weekend camping trip with a group of friends from high school and the hot, thick Missouri air was hard to breathe that day. We had all been out in the real world for two years now, trying to be grown up men. But for these two days we were choosing to be boys again. We were floating down the crystal clear North Fork River in canoes and rafts and cut-off jeans. Fishing poles and one-liners ready at all times.
| |  | Camping out (ASR)
Sophie is 6. She wants to camp out but there might be a monster in the yard.
#1898282 by sylvia  |
Excerpt: My dad says it is just a woods, but I think if you can’t see the end of a woods, then it is really a forest. So while we were tracking we found some strange foot prints. They weren’t big enough to be elephants. Marissa thought they might be elephant prints. We looked around for elephant poop but of course there wasn’t any. I told Marissa that if it was elephant prints, it was a darn small elephant. I could only fit one foot in the print and it wasn’t all that big. Then Marissa told me not to swear. I wasn’t really sure if darn was a swear word, but I didn’t think so because I heard my Daddy say darn when he was talking to the preacher and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t cuss then.
Excerpt: The snow was melted, the grass was green, and the water was cold and sweet. Bill hiked down the last mile of trail, admiring the beauty and serenity of ‘his’ valley. Dodge, his black lab, bounded ahead, excited to be back even more than Bill. It had taken them two and a half days to get here from the parking area, which was about fifteen miles west of Laramie. By the time Bill got to the clearing where he would set up camp, Dodge was splashing around in the first lake nearby, chasing frogs and butterflies.
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This month's question: What kind of adventure can you find close to home?
Last month's question: Do you allow your writing to take on the incredible or do you steer your characters into an outline?
k-9cooper replied: Isn't this what writing is all about. Getting the crazy out of your head and onto paper. Or email. How ever that is suppose to work. If I didn't get to write here on this website I don't know what I would do. Yes get the outrageous out there and see where it takes you. Love it. Check out Perfect Psychos part VI. Tell me if this is outrageous enough? Great ideas thanks
Mara ♣ McBain  answered: I try to let my characters lead the way. Anytime that I've tried to stick to an outline I end up fighting the characters and pulling my hair out! I love it when a muse takes a story in a direction I never considered.
monty31802 sent: I couldn't agree with you more, go with the flow. Great newsletter without wasting words.
Quick-Quill  responded: I stick to the outline, but sometimes an idea pops up and I go with it. We'll see if it works. |
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Action/Adventure: March 06, 2013 Issue [#5546]
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