 Action/Adventure: April 12, 2006 Issue [#975] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Edited by: Puditat  
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Life without action is static, and by necessity, it would therefore be dead. Action writing takes the normal and shares it for all to live vicriously.
Adventure is the spice: the exciting, adrenalin-pumping, thrill that makes one feel so alive. Everyone has an adventuresome spirit. Maybe dreams of excavating some long-lost treasure, visiting a new country, or trying a new flavour of potato chip.  Some of us prefer our adventures to come between the pages of a book, and many of us like to write that adventure.
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Action vs. Adventure
Upon carrying out some research in order to write this newsletter, I came across this definition of Action/Adventure from author, David Poyer:
The adventure novel is a quest story, where the primary complications are physical danger to the protagonist. It usually takes place in exotic settings, or at least, in out of the ways corners or underworlds of areas closer to home. The protagonist is usually, though not always, male, and usually, though not always, in the age span from twenty to forty -- that span where a man is at the peak of his physical condition, best able to respond to mortal challenge in whatever form it comes. The "action" part of the description simply seems to be an adjectival doubler, a spare word used as an intensifier to underline the fact that the primary challenge to be met in the course of the novel is physical, life-threatening, but ultimately can be defied by force and courage in the way, say, that a mortal disease cannot.
I found his definition quite thought-provoking. In this, he puts the adventure quotient as more important than the action side of the equation. After a bit of thought, I can see his point.
A story full of action will only be a story if those actions happen with some purpose in mind. It is the difference between a show made up of snippets of crashing cars, and a movie in which the crashing cars occur because of the character's adventure. Think '100 Worst Car Crashes' versus 'The Italian Job'.
By necessity, the adventure will not be interesting to your readers, unless there is action to make things difficult for your reader. This is where I fell down in my first novel, one which I still hope to get published, but not before a lot of fixing. A young girl finds access to a secret world through a room in the building where she volunteers. I love the story, but there was little or no action. The other major flaw is the plot. And this brings us back to the adventure.
The adventure, naturally will become the plot. Poyer refers to the adventure as the 'quest story'. This conjures up images of dashing knights, ferocious dragons, trapped maidens, and any other number of fantastic scenarios. But a quest can also come in the form of a boy trying to find his lost dog, a wolf's effort to escape the men who hunt it. The quest/adventure/plot is why your characters are going through the action. It is the force that motivates them, the goal to be achieved by the end of the story, the reasons they find themselves facing the danger.
Action for action's sake may make a passable movie when it has the visuals to attract your eyes, but an adventure with no action, or action with no plot (adventure/quest), is going to fall far short of your reader's expectations.
This little study opened my eyes to a deeper, better way to write. It quite boldly shined the light on the flaws in my own writing.
Action and adventure is a balanced equation. It can be weighted a bit one way or the other, but essentially, a good story needs both facets present in a well-blended storyline.
Puditat
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 Interesting newsletter. I hadn't thought of nature as being a character. Good food for thought. Thanks, Pudi.
shaara
Shaara, thank you. 
Some people believe if ANYTHING happens in a story--like the stirring of a pot--that it qualifies as Action/Adventure.
While this may be a 'stirring adventure' to some, they are confusing 'movement' within the story with the word 'action' as used in the Action/Adventure genre.
Not every Action/Adventure story has to have gun-fights, martial arts, spies or dueling swordsmen, but the story's hero must face dangers that cause the adrenalin to kick in.
Place yourself in the protagonist's role. If you think, "If that was me, I'd be scared to death," then you've got an Action/Adventure tale.
Sorry, but cutting a hangnail doesn't qualify for this genre--unless you're in the midst of a volcanic eruption and laughing at Death
This distinction between genres wouldn't be important if we didn't have so many new writers on the site. Submitting a story about nothing more than movement to a real-life Action/Adventure editor is fruitless and disheatening to the novice.
wildbill
Very interesting comments, and ones that sparked me on the road, which led to this week's newsletter topic. Thank you for adding some food for thought. 
Yay!! You finally featured Life of a Dragon on one of your newsletters!! I'll let you know that it has been I who has been putting up the majority of the new chapters lately, as Dragonpuppy has been gone for a while. I'm glad to do it anyhow, because I love dragons so much.
Bmao
You're more than welcome for the feature. It's fun to write about what you love, and I'm pleased to hear you're having fun with the Interactive. Keep it up.
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