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By Online Authors
Action/Adventure: April 04, 2012 Issue [#4975]


Action/Adventure


 This week: Transportation
  Edited by: Legerdemain
                             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



The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for authors. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.

This week's Action / Adventure Editor
Legerdemain











Time to Make a Getaway


Most plots need to move characters from one location to another. The author has choices on what transportation their character will use. Think about the purpose of moving your character and what mode of transport would work best. Is the character following someone? Perhaps a train would work, your detective would have other people to mingle with. Need a quick departure? If speed is crucial, perhaps a Suzuki Hayabusa. No road? Overland with a KTM mid-size motocross bike would get your character to his destination.

Futuristic? Remember the "Back to the Future" and the hoverboard? Air-driven people transport could replace slow, antiquated elevators. Airborne car-craft might deliver your protagonist. Molecular movement? It's possible to fit it into your plot. Perhaps you're going back in time with historical writing. Your character could go horseback, or take a stage coach or wagon. Do you want your character to arrive quickly or a little too late to alter your plot events?

When preparing to write, think about your setting and what transportation would best fit the movement of your characters and plot. Decide if your movement needs detailed description or if you want to use it as a plot-jump to start a new scene. Does your reader need all the details of boarding an aircraft or do you merely need the character to disembark to show the reader you're in a new place? Details in a story like these can be 'invisible' to a reader but still have to make sense to the story.
Now excuse my character as she boards the Crazy Train, and as always, write on!

This month's question: What kind of transport do you like to give your characters?

Send in your reply below! *Down* Editors love feedback!



ID: 1730650   (Rated: 13+)
Spirit Travellers 
Given a second chance at life, six soldiers have a new agenda
by Give Me A Break (Suu)

Excerpt: Blade Connors let himself relax and his mind open as the helicopter pilot followed his hand signals. Blade found what he needed. Settling himself physically and mentally, he signalled the pilot to go lower and to hover.

ID: 1831430   (Rated: 13+)
Smoke and Mirrors 
A young couple's strained reunion after a short vacation reveals some inner truth.
by R., Sequinn

Excerpt: Her coming was like a butterfly's harsh landing on a flower petal, and with her landing, the few drops of him clinging to the frictionless surface were projected into upward motion, dropped into the dirt below, and absorbed into nothing it was before, transformed by the cyclical nature of life.

ID: 1163985   (Rated: E)
The Oriole 
Floyd, the bully, disappeared bicycle and all.
by Doremi

Excerpt: Of course there is always a fly in the ointment so to speak and in our case it was Floyd Thripp.

ID: 1212820   (Rated: E)
The Bicycle 
"It wasn't until the bus had vanished around the corner that..."
by silverfeathers

Excerpt: It wasn't until the bus had vanished around the corner that Mary Alice realized that she had left her purse in the seat beside her. Her wallet with her license and credit cards and cash, her keys, her cell phone -- all en route to California while she stood on a platform in -- she squinted at the sign in the gathering gloom - in Penfield, Illinois, with nothing more to her name than a t-shirt, a faded pair of jeans, and a light jacket that was quickly becoming inadequate in the chill evening air.

ID: 1820591
Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
by Not Available.

Excerpt: "This, story, you didn't just--pull this out of your rear end, did you?"

"No," replied Adrian while rocking his head this way and that and placing his hands in his pockets, his face contorting into a grimace, frustration showing, despite expecting as much from Coleman. "It's all true."


ID: 1705914   (Rated: E)
Price of a Toy Plane 
A poor Russian boy wants, more than anything, a toy aeroplane.
by Christopher P. Kohls

Excerpt: In the summer of 1929 young Vlasili Kismenko was playing the backyard of his little home in the countryside of Russia. Vlasili wrapped his nine year old fingers around his rusted tin aeroplane and ran to his tree. He'd had the plane since he could remember and though he played often with his whittling knife and his stuffed bear, that plane was his favorite thing in the world. He'd thrown it out of his tree countless times. The great oak was Vlasili's own personal place.

ID: 1767160   (Rated: E)
A Gambler's Tradition 
Joshua had been trained by the best but there was one final lesson to be learned.
by HuntersMoon

Excerpt: "Mr. Wright." The nasal tone of the coroner pulled him back to the present. He turned to the short, misshapen man, noting that he was an Altarian. His short but well muscled frame spoke of being raised on a planet with strong gravity. "Are you sure you want to do this? We have many ways of identifying ... last remains."
 
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This month's question: What kind of transport do you like to give your characters?
Send in your reply below!

Last month's question: How do you create accurate descriptive passages?

Billmania replied: I try to give just enough detail so that the reader can fill in the rest. No need to give a laundry list of details.

MoJo answered: Excellent newsletter! Description has always been a struggle for me but reading, reading and reading even more has helped the most, in my opinion. I pick up so much from reading how other authors write and use description to paint a picture. And I just learned even more reading your informative newsletter. Thanks!

W.D.Wilcox suggested: Descriptive writing helps make a mangled, pus-ridden body more frightening than just saying it is dead. *Rolleyes*

lochinver sent: Hey I enjoyed reading your newsletter...While every writing tip that I've read emphasizes the importance of description,it is a little tricky to give that perfect description that flows well with the story and brings the scene alive...I try to imagine all the details in mind while writing and then read it to see if it blends with the story and helps me picture exactly what I'm trying to convey...

Brooke - Playing Catch Up! commented: Great topic with excellent suggestions. I try and create descriptive passages by making sure the narrator uses all of their senses to describe the scene. I believe it makes the scene seem more real. *Smile*
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