  Action/Adventure
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Where the action isn't
Scores tied.
A penalty shootout. The goalkeeper takes his position. The player runs up. And suddenly, the camera pans away -- to the stands, where the players' families are in a special box. A young woman has turned her back on the field, and has her head bowed, her lips moving in fervent prayer. |
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I'm not a football fan. To make a confession, I had to check that I was using the term 'penalty shootout' correctly. Yet, I remember that scenario. I'd chanced on it while surfing channels on TV years ago.
Why did that scene stick in my mind? It's because the camera-person dared to do something different - moving away from the main action.
The young woman prays.
Around her, the stadium erupts in cheers. Another player's wife leans over and gives her a joyful hug. She turns, rises to her feet, and joins in the cheering.
In the slow-motion replay, we see her husband scoring to win the match for his team.
I don't recall the teams or the tournament. I can't remember who the player was. What I do recall vividly is one young woman's intense prayer and sheer joy at her husband's victory.
So - my question to you - had the camera-person moved away from the main action, or, in fact, towards it?
It seems to me the drama was highlighted by the shift from the field to the stands. Our pulse quickened as we (along with the young woman) turned our backs on the action, because we were too nervous to watch, because we were pleading with a higher power. We cheered with her as the slow-motion replay showed us the result.
What does this teach the writer of an adventure story?
1. A sense of being 'real' spectators
In life, we can't always see action as it occurs, on a screen. Sometimes we are away, and we hear of it or see it later, through others' accounts or a 'replay', as it were. As the camera moved toward the young woman, we were suddenly in her shoes. I wonder if, for those few seconds, even the rival team's fans secretly wanted her prayer to be answered! Shifting focus away from 'action' to 'human experience' actually heightens the sense of reality, of being there through not being there! Take the scene in "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" in which Harry, the captain of the Quidditch team, has detention during the final match. He walks the empty corridors, back to the Gryffindor common room, after the conclusion of the match. We wait with him, to find out the result of the match (a victory for Gryffindor, of course!)
2. Postponing the moment of revelation
Action is usually enhanced by a few moments of suspense. In the football match I chanced upon, after the stadium became a babble of sound, I waited to watch the action replay. I knew the goal had been scored, but was suddenly eager to find out exactly how. Though I'm not a real fan of the game, I was glued to the screen at that point. Had I been shown the penalty kicks without the interim shot of the young woman praying, chances are I wouldn't have been interested in the goal.
3. Giving a bit of breathing space
Too much action taking place without a break leads to too many adrenaline rushes, leaving the reader tired. This means the reader is unable to absorb what is going on. A friend and I were discussing a book once and she said, "I couldn't get past the first chapter, it was too busy." Moving away from the main action gives the reader a bit of space, to be able to peak again when the action demands it.
4. Creative or unusual view
A penalty kick is a penalty kick. I know it was important for the score, but there have been penalty kicks before, and there will be again.
The camera-person chose something unusual to focus on for a brief space of time. Sometimes, going away from the main action gives a perspective that would not have otherwise been possible.
Also, if the action is too 'painful' in itself, shifting away helps. Remember all the Laurel and Hardy movies in which one falls down the stairs, but the camera focusses on the other, closing eyes and ears? It helps leave something to the audience's (reader's) imagination, to not show the literal incident.
The shift of the action has partly to do with Point of View, of course (the Harry Potter books are universally told from Harry's point of view) but it can go a step further, and even the narrator, with an omniscient Point of View, can choose to shift from action to human experience when it suits the purposes of the story.
So what you waiting for? Giving me an extra moment of suspense before you rush off to pen your adventure story? 
- Sonali
PS: Happy Writing! |
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 A big thank you to those who responded to "Action/Adventure Newsletter (May 20, 2009)" ! 
bobneH .. aka.. just bob 
Thanks a bunch Sonali.
This issue is.. (for me).. a keeper.
just bob
sarahreed
Thanks for the great advice on how small actions can lead to big adventures. I know I'm dialogue heavy in my writing and I need to work on using action more to show than spoken words to tell. Your newsletter will help me a lot.
Doug Rainbow
It's true that "the Devil is in the details." Getting it right depends on the author's selectivity -- the ability to select just the right details to include and to delete the vast majority. |
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Action/Adventure: October 28, 2009 Issue [#3327]
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