  Action/Adventure
This week: Edited by: Vivian  
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This issue I'll discuss the need of suspense in action/adventure works and how to develop it.
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Suspense in Action Adventure
I discovered a website created to help teachers teach creative writing. Two sections deal with writing suspenseful action-oriented passages. Suspense in action/adventure? Yes, suspense in needed in action and adventure stories and novels.
According to Creative Writing Solutions.com, more than one type of suspense is needed in action scenes: physical fighting scenes, verbal fighting, emotional suspense, fast-paced chase scenes. The opportunity and need for suspense is endless in action/adventure writing.
The first place to build suspense needed in any writing is the first few sentences. According to Bill Reynolds, The Writer, August 2005, page 7, “A proper opening picks the reader up by his collar and throws him into the story.”
The art of suspense means giving the reader something to worry about. In Latin suspendere means to hang, thus suspense, which avoids boredom and losing readers. The reader is compelled to turn pages, the cure for boredom.
Suspense (uncertainly, doubt, anxiety) is a must for all fiction. It should start from the very beginning of a story or novel, should be built into the premise and structure of any fiction writings.
According to William G. Tapply, The Writer, August 2005, the essential elements for suspense are as follows:
1. State story’s plot as a question (not in the story itself), one that can be answered yes or no. Make a list of all the possible reasons why the answer could be “no.” Those “no” answers become the focus of problems and obstacles - suspense.
2. Create a likable and competent - but flawed - protagonist. (Protagonist = hero, good guy/gal) If the reader doesn’t care about the protagonist, then suspense is meaningless. The flaw or flaws will help create needed suspense because the outcome will be in doubt.
3. Give the protagonist a powerful motivation. He/she must have strong desires, needs, wants. The basic and powerful human needs and drives are essential: Love, ambition, greed, survival are examples. Something vitally important must be at stake or readers can’t believe the protagonist would never abandon the quest.
4. Give your protagonist highly motivated antagonists (opponents, villains). “All stories need strong villains. Suspense rests on the possibility – even the likelihood – that the villain will defeat the hero.”
5. Keep raising the stakes and creating disasters. The formula for building suspense is a bad start that gets worse. Suspense is about problems and obstacles, disasters and failures, small triumphs and big reversals. As Tapply says, “Never make things easy for your protagonist.”
6. Choose your story’s point of view to maximize suspense. The objective POV allows the attention of the reader to shift from character to character. We, as readers, are allowed to interpret and imagine, to wonder and worry. We are drawn into the story by the changing of point of views from one character to another. The single POV limits only to one character’s experiences and thoughts. Anything else is speculation, imagination, and worry.
7. Wind up the ticking clock. Tapply’s words express this point best.
Suspense depends on urgency. Build a zero hour into your story’s arc:
Antagonists of all kinds – kidnappers, terrorists and assassins, of course
but also teachers and parents and editors, not to mention tides and storms
and seasons – create time pressures and constraints.
Your story’s momentum might build gradually at first, but soon it
becomes a race against the clock, and it accelerates as it rushes towards
its fateful climax.
Let's look at Creative Writing Solutions suggestions for suspense in fight scenes.
1. Keep sentences short. "...keeping your sentences short and direct will add to the feel of the piece immensely."
2. Pare the description down to basics. "When a character is fighting for his life, his entire life shrinks down to that survival instinct."
3. Know how characters move in a physical scene. "Planning out the movements of our characters for a fight scene is very important if we don't want to have to do a lot of rewrites."
The result of the use of suspense in any action/adventure story is a riveting story that the reader cannot put down until finished. |
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Words from Our Readers
Last month's issue addressed the use of profanity in action/adventure. The following are comments by readers:
StephBee - House Targaryen 
Great look at profanity. I share your thoughts, still I see too much of it in a lot of writing.
333rd Legend 
I just joined Writing.com this week and although I am new to this site, I have been writing for many years, and reading avidly for much longer. Because of this, I have seen, and written, my share of profane over-usage of profanity. I do agree that unless used artistically.
Welcome to W.Com. I hope you enjoy the site completely.
Little Scribbler
I agree with you about swearing - it should be used sparingly. My own novel does contain swearing, although I am careful to use it only when it is needed.
I have found some writers swear a lot (eg. Matthew Reilly). Although he is a good writer and I love his novels, I think there is too much profanity in his works, and it does turn me off.
Douglas returning
THANK YOU! It's so good to hear that other writers feel the same way about the topic of character cussing. If I find a book where there is gratuitous cussing, I tend to put it back on the store shelf and look for something else.
In the same vein, I'm careful with my characters' use of profanity. More often than not, I try to find interesting variants to typical cuss words for my characters for more of the 'everyday' type talking and only use the stronger words to show a certain heightened level of excitement, shock or startlement.
Thank you for bringing this topic to light.
T. Elizia
WOW! I was just wondering about this recently and had trouble finding someone with advice on it. I'm also not so fond of profanity, but what if there's this one special character that is extremely vulgar? I have a problem using so many swear words, I don't want to do that for various reasons, some that you mentioned, but it's in the character's nature. So my question is how can I go about that without ruining my dialogue and still portraying that personality?
Your article was indeed insightful, and thanks for the time! =]
Arwen9
I wanted to say thanks for talking about a subject that is a pet peeve of mine. I detest people overusing profanity too, especially in fantasy stories as the words like H--ll would not apply in a world that worships something else. Thanks for a good newsletter Smile
NanoWriMo2018 Into the Earth 
I loved this!
Coolhand
Vivian,
The information on the use of vulgar language given by you and your three guest authors was excellent advice for fiction writers. There are numerous ways to capture a character's crudeness, other than excessive cursing.
Coolhand
faithjourney
Welcome to the Action/Adventure newsletter! There is another issue with the use of profanity in writing - it's much easier to get published if you leave it out. Yes, real people do swear and I understand that. But editors seem to back away from it in most markets and you might have a better chance of getting read and published if you scale back or leave it out. Thanks for the great newsletter!
billwilcox
Welcome aboard, Viv! There is nothing better than having you around.
Thanks for the warm welcome and for all the comments. I hope you enjoyed this issue, too.
Until next month, may you find action and adventure, especially in your reading and writing.
Viv |
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Action/Adventure: October 29, 2008 Issue [#2686]
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