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 Action/Adventure: July 12, 2017 Issue [#8387] |
  Action/Adventure This week: A Flash of Action For a Vivid Adventure Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading   More Newsletters By This Editor   1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions 
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Look for the kernel of an idea. Climbing a mountain, crossing streams and valleys, would encompass a novel or at least a novella. But what if your adventurer has to make it to a cave on the face of a mountain within the hour, lest nightfall bring the radioactive bats? What if your adventurer is a tour guide who has no idea the cave he's just led his group into is bottomless, and he has one chance to keep them from being caught in it? What does he do? See where I'm going with this? Find a smaller topic and act on it! 
Start in the midst of the action. What is your character doing and why. A fire rages, a clock is ticking, an alarm goes off (siren or Baby Ben, it's your story). You don't have to describe all the details; your reader will fill in some of the blanks if you give them a vivid active start. And you can get on with the adventure.
Focus on a powerful or riveting image. Paint a picture with your words; show an eclipse of the sun, a train fallen sideways on the tracks, a house just ravaged by a tornado. An adventure can happen within that picture.
Keep your reader guessing until the end. Move them along, but don't give it all away. Make them want to share the adventure and reach the end with your character. Your reader may have no idea what is going on, or may think he/she knows the gist of the story, but is not quite sure. This will lure them on to the end. When they finish, there should be a good pay off or solution.
Use allusion to known events or places. Your readers can infer much of the background if your story occurs in the Eiffel Tower, or Grand Central Station, but they may not be know why your character's afraid of the train running off the tracks on Murderer's Row (reference Elliot Ness, Cleveland, torso murders). If you use lesser known events, remember to provide the reference early in the story so your character and reader can engage the adventure together. 
