This week: And Then What? Edited by: Jeff  
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"Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the Noticing Newbies Official Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 350 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter!  |
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And Then What?
One of the hallmarks of a compelling action/adventure story is fast-paced action. And one of the biggest issues with action/adventure stories when they don't work is that they just sort of meander along until it's time to wrap things up. Having read screenplays professionally for a number of years, and being an avid reader of action/thrillers, I often see this flaw when writers are unsure of how to fill the second act with rising action.
For example, let's take a standard police procedural narrative. A crime is committed, the protagonist investigates the crime, and then solves the case at the end. What happens in a lot of situations is that the second act is less rising action and more "the same but slightly different," where the protagonist investigates clue after clue until the requisite number of words, pages, etc. goes by, and then the final clue allows the protagonist to figure it all out and bring the story to a conclusion. And while that particular narrative can certainly work if the clues build upon one another and/or truly keep the audience guessing throughout the story, but it's really easy for that narrative to feel repetitive and then, rather than rising action, you have stagnant action and tension that doesn't increase for a big portion of the story.
One of my favorite techniques to combat this problem when I'm the writer of this kind of story, is to ask myself "what happens next." And not just in the sense that I'm stringing together one plot point after another ... but what happens next at the end of the story. In other words, what if your ending is just a midpoint?
Let's look at that police procedural narrative again. What if, instead of the protagonist discovering clue after clue until the very end where they solve the case ... what if the protagonist is sure they've solved the case and they make an arrest and lock up the bad guy for the crime, but that happens only halfway through the book? What does the second half of that book look like? Does it turn out the person they arrested wasn't the perpetrator at all? Or that the person they arrested was the perpetrator, but getting discovered and arrested was always part of his plan? That spins the narrative off in a completely different direction, and one that can sustain the action and tension in a story throughout the rest of the book, movie, etc.
The "and then" exercise can be a very useful when putting together a story in the first place, but it runs the risk of not really heightening the action or raising the tension as much as just extending the story along the same track. However, if you take the "and then" exercise and apply it to your story as a whole (e.g., "the protagonist thinks he's solved the case, and then..." or "the bad guy gets arrested, and then..."), you start to change the structure of the story. If you truly use the ending of your original story and shift it to a midpoint twist, then you've condensed your original narrative into half the length it previously was, which allows you to streamline what you've already written, and spin the story off in a new and dynamic direction.
The action/adventure genre is build on the idea that exciting things happen, and that they happen a lot. If you're stuck on your story or wondering how to inject some more excitement or twists and turns to the story, consider condensing your story into a tighter structure, and then ask yourself what happens after that.
Until next time,
Jeff
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EXCERPT: Out in the weathered gray barn, Rusty was busy currying his horse Bay Boy. Tan with a dark tail and mane is a beauty. Rusty reluctantly started towards the house, but stopped at a corral post, letting it hold him up while he sorted out his thoughts. His eyes went toward the west, to the mountains. His heart longed to put these treeless plains behind him and explore those far-off mountains. The only time he got to go anywhere was when he drove their pickup 20 miles into town.
EXCERPT: In the halcyon days of my youth, I was in the Sea Explorers - BSA, often called Sea Scouts, (yes, we had sea scouts in the caveman days!) Back in the mid-1960’s the skipper of the SES Tuolumne, out of Modesto, California, was Doc Van-Valen, a local Podiatrist. For an up-coming Scout-o-Rama, Doc added a crowd-pleasing prank for our demonstration of the Scuttlebutt Hoist.
EXCERPT: Milo enjoyed his book and the quiet solitude. A briny wind threw sand at him. His gaze lifted to the tumultuous sky, the reason for the empty beach.
The ocean frothed under the heavy wind. Each wave rolled in with white curls arching and smashing. The ocean didn’t play nice during storms. It didn’t gently kiss the beach, it attacked with slaps and punches, tearing at the sand.
His gaze landed on a lone figure playing roulette with the unpredictable waves. He would let the water try to drag him in before jumping away with laughter.
EXCERPT: Adrian brushed aside some tall grass, and moved through the overgrown street. It had been twenty four years since the fall, and the overgrowth spread far and wide. The tall buildings above casted shadows on the streets below in the afternoon sun. They were partially covered with brambles and vines, creating a pattern of green that before the fall, you could have only seen in the botanical gardens.
EXCERPT: As Tiberius ran for the door the power of the medallion froze the door in time and turned on the pipes in the corner of the room. It was slowly flooding. Tiberius was going to drown.He had to find a way out.And fast. He pulled out his magic pendant and summoned the ancient aztec wind god wind god Ehecatl to use the raging winds of the west to blow down the walls
But his power wasn't strong enough.He was running out of ideas. Ah! Of course! He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before he whistled for the water god Xiuhtecuhtli and he sucked up all the water and used it to create a tidal wave strong enough to knock down the walls, Tiberius escaped!Now it was time to catch that pesky medallion. He ran through the grassland towards the horizon.
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Action/Adventure: April 19, 2023 Issue [#11919]
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