 Action/Adventure: May 10, 2006 Issue [#1031] |
  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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**Mindful of Action?**
This week's topic comes about from feedback I received to my last issue. Here is the feedback in question:
Well said Puditat! I've watched action movies that had hot babes and a lot of crashes but with completely awful storyline. These just left me feeling dissatisfied and thoroughly irritated!
A healthy balance between adventure and action is essential for a good story.
My husband made one curious comment though: an adventure just within the mind (but without much action) can still be engaging to a reader. I can only imagine something philosophical here.
What is your opinion on this?
Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
Interesting comments.
Your husband is right - an adventure in the mind can be very entertaining, but I think you will still find action, even if it is not of the 'active' kind.
I would hazard a guess that the action side of this type of story comes in the form of the tension. A single person can still provide conflict, and a progression of events must occur, or the reader will become bored with the 'rut' your character is too fond of.
Let's take an example - say of a man caught between his desire to kill and his hatred of evil. The story could be played out in the character's inner torment as he struggles with the moral compass and the need to kill to satisfy some failing in his life. Metaphor would provide much of the guidance for the reader, possibly even so far as the two aspects of his mind becoming separate identities - like the angel and devil seen on the shoulders of cartoon cat Sylvester.
While the adventure may be a man's finding his way out of a moral dilemma, or perhaps, into it, the action is the process by which he gets there. I believe, without any essence of action, the reader might well as be content with a medical journal.
Action in a 'mind adventure' becomes the steps he takes to battle the conflicting mindsets. He could perform physical acts to soothe the beast, or contemplate physical acts. Whether he does them or not, it is still conveyed as action. I hope that is in some sense, comprehensible.
It is true that this type of story probably contains less of the shoot-'em-up action that is found in so many pieces these days. But shooting is not a definition of action, merely a valid tool of it.
I would love to be able to cite examples of this type of mind-related action, but can think of none at this point. Do any readers have comments, an opinion, or examples they could provide to expand on this idea?
Puditat |
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This edition of the newsletter was really good. I never thought of action and adventure in this light before; it was indeed thought-provoking and made me excited to write a story right away.
Equilibrium
Cool!  Best wishes for the story.
Pudi,
Very well done. I loved the line about the 100 Worst Car Crashes vs. The Italian Job. That really put it all in perspective. You write an Adventure story, and then use the action as a tool to help tell the adventure.
billwilcox
Thank you, Bill. It's thrilling to get such affirmations. 
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