 Action/Adventure: October 23, 2013 Issue [#5906] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Who Needs Purpose? Edited by: NaNoNette  
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| Hello writers and readers of action and adventure, I am NaNoNette , your guest editor for this issue. |
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Who Needs Purpose?
In my last Action/Adventure newsletter, I suggested that a hero needs a purpose, that he has to face a dilemma, and that he has to have at least one conviction that he won't compromise.
Today, let me throw all of that overboard and instead tell you that your hero is in the best company if his adventure is meant to provide visceral escapism to those who read your tales. Action adventure readers should be treated to thrilling exploits of larger than life characters. Those characters should perform heroic acts, possibly in exotic locations.
It probably depends on your age or generation as to which hero comes to mind first when you think "hero," but I think most of us have at least an idea of John Carter, Indiana Jones, or Spiderman. Those heroes fight something or search for something. Once the desired outcome has been produced, they are dragged into the next adventure. The sole purpose of their existence is to ensure a reader or movie watcher has an entertaining time. Once the story is over, it is done with. Even in series, the past adventures may be referred back to, but they are completed and a new adventure is presented.
Taking such straight-forward approach works for many action adventure writers. In recent years, the most successful movie franchises are based on super heroes, closely followed by a gang of street racers who commit crimes all around the world.
Those give us:
 thrilling exploits: driving a car through the cockpit of a plane
 larger than life characters: gods from another planet fighting mutated humans
 exotic locations: Mars, jungle temples, New York City and more
But if the cookie cutter hero is all we need, where do scrawny heroes like Harry Potter fit in? Harry Potter breaks the mold and brings us back to purpose, dilemma, convictions. Harry Potter could have made many choices to make his life easier, but he didn't.
Considering the action adventure hero and how to present him/her goes back to the story we want to tell. How many layers we give our hero, or how few will not make or break our action adventure. This makes action adventure a perfect genre to write in since it's hard to mess it up. So, let your hero be as deep as you want him to be as long as he does something between brooding over the great questions of life. Or let her/him be as shallow as you'd like. If it works for Iron Man, who are we to disagree?
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Comments I got for my last Action Adventure Newsletter "The Hero's Journey"
Joshiahis  wrote: Dilemma! Flaws! Pain! Suffering! The backbone for all my failing, would-be heroes! :) (I just have to remember that they are supposed to win... usually... sometimes... but not in the linked story :) "Invalid Item"
Yes, heroes should win. If not a battle, then at least the war.
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  wrote: Heroes have plenty of problems. "Zena's Interview"
Isn't that a hero's duty to overcome problems?
Beckyl wrote: So, what if you have three heroes? How do you decide which one gets the dilemma? That's my... umm... dilemma.
That is a great question! I will make this my theme for my next NL in November. Watch for it on 11/6.
monty31802 wrote: A lot said in a few words. Thank you for a fine Newsletter.
Thank you for your kind assessment.
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