What kind of plots are best suited to an action/adventure story?

Kindness · Nov 12, 2011

I've been writing and rewriting the first few chapters of my story for quite a while, mainly due to plot problems (dissatisfaction, holes and a few silly coincidences). I've gotten fed up with reworking it, and so I'm just going to ask for some general advice here. I want my story to be an action/adventure, but my main issue is that I don't know how to do this because my story is set in a city (err, London).

How can I make it a solid action/adventure and still set it in only one city? And what plots lend themselves to these stories? I want to include lots of action and secret magic but I'm twisting my brain into knots trying to find a template in which to set it up...!

jennontheisland · Nov 12, 2011

Are you seriously asking for a formula??

Do you have any idea how shrill and arm-flaily writers get when people say "formula"?

Good luck, dude. LOL

Kindness · Nov 12, 2011

I'm not asking for something as specific as a formula. More like a general guide/people's opinions on the matter. I don't think there's anything wrong with using a formula regardless

jennontheisland · Nov 12, 2011

General opinions on what matter?

You haven't presented a matter to offer an opinion on. You've asked for a template for a fantasy story.

Here's one: give a farm boy a sword, tell him he's the chosen one who has to save the world.

And I totally dare you to go into the romance forum and ask them what "formula" they use.

Polenth · Nov 12, 2011

The plots for a city are the same basic patterns as any other. They might be running from something, looking for something, protecting something... it's no different to an action-adventure set over a wider area (when it comes to the basic premise anyway).

Ian Isaro · Nov 13, 2011

Keep in mind the first half of your genre is "action." Aren't practically all action movies set in a single city?

I get the sense you're hung up on the "adventure" side of things and thinking only of certain types of stories. Ones based on traveling, most likely. Consider other genres and how they structure their plots. All of those can work for a fantasy story and plenty of them can provide either action or adventure.

Canotila · Nov 13, 2011

Step 1: Find out what your characters want more than anything in the world.

Step 2: Start dumping whatever you can think of on them that prevents them from obtaining it.

That's about it. You can choose to dump things that will steer your story in a more action type way. Say your character's dream is to be an opera singer. They want it so bad, they would do almost anything to achieve it. There's step 1. For step 2 you could turn it into an action thriller novel by having dead bodies show up around the theater now and then, and unless the mystery is solved the theater will shut down and ruin their dream. Tada!

Or, you could give them some magical form of laryngitis that can only be cured by obtaining The Mystical Oddments of Doom from the corners of the globe and uniting them under a lunar eclipse which is happening in exactly one week. Tada! Quest novel.

Or you could turn it into a romance by having them fall in love with the one person competing with them for a part in the opera.

In my limited experience, the most effective way to control your characters and story is to figure out what kinds of obstacles will elicit the reaction you need them to have. Want them to run screaming after a shadowy figure across the rooftops at midnight while flaming crossbow bolts are being shot at them from an airship? What do you need to inflict on them for that to happen? What would drive that person to take such a huge risk?

Edit: I apologize if most of this post is nonsense. Have an infant. Haven't slept in a couple of days.

Mr Flibble · Nov 13, 2011

And the answer would still be the same Jen - just because a book is 'genre X' doesn't mean they are all written the same/with a formula, and it's pretty insulting to be told that about what you write. Especially when it ain't true.

Op - seriously? Add action and adventure. Since there are about eleventy billion things that could constitute action or adventure, it's a pretty hard question to answer....

Step 1: Find out what your characters want more than anything in the world.

Step 2: Start dumping whatever you can think of on them that prevents them from obtaining it.

This is a good place to start for any kind of book.

Kindness · Nov 13, 2011

Canotila said:
Step 1: Find out what your characters want more than anything in the world.

Step 2: Start dumping whatever you can think of on them that prevents them from obtaining it.

That's about it. You can choose to dump things that will steer your story in a more action type way. Say your character's dream is to be an opera singer. They want it so bad, they would do almost anything to achieve it. There's step 1. For step 2 you could turn it into an action thriller novel by having dead bodies show up around the theater now and then, and unless the mystery is solved the theater will shut down and ruin their dream. Tada!

Or, you could give them some magical form of laryngitis that can only be cured by obtaining The Mystical Oddments of Doom from the corners of the globe and uniting them under a lunar eclipse which is happening in exactly one week. Tada! Quest novel.

Or you could turn it into a romance by having them fall in love with the one person competing with them for a part in the opera.

In my limited experience, the most effective way to control your characters and story is to figure out what kinds of obstacles will elicit the reaction you need them to have. Want them to run screaming after a shadowy figure across the rooftops at midnight while flaming crossbow bolts are being shot at them from an airship? What do you need to inflict on them for that to happen? What would drive that person to take such a huge risk?

Edit: I apologize if most of this post is nonsense. Have an infant. Haven't slept in a couple of days.

No, this was an excellent answer and exactly what I needed! And sorry for asking such a vague question guys, it seemed a lot more narrow in my head. I didn't mean plots so much as central conflicts (for example, a world-wide McGuffin hunt is good if you want to show off your world) but Canotila's answer actually solved my problem at the root. I've been going about this the wrong way. Thanks!

BigWords · Nov 13, 2011

Mr. Dent had this figured out. If you want a shortcut, then you are out of luck - there are tricks and mental exercises, but (aside from the widely-loathed Hero's Journey) there are no real "add x to y for bestseller" workarounds.

Kindness · Nov 13, 2011

Thanks

I'm not actually looking for a formula lol. I just knew that I wanted lots of action/adventure but I didn't know the type of plot that I'd need to use to do it (rather than the actual plot itself). I was coming at it from the wrong angle, so I've just changed up my characters' motivations to put them in positions where the stuff I want happens (Canotila's advice). Whatever happens as a result will be my plot

lbender · Nov 13, 2011

The formula:

Great characters + interesting plot + mean villain + great writing = eminently readable and interesting novel.

sunandshadow · Nov 13, 2011

I'll add a bit to that formula - for an action adventure, pick two interesting setting inside a city. For example a zoo, museum, rooftop garden, sculpture park, etc. At one, have people search for something lost or hidden, and at the other have people chase each other through it, or be chased by something other than people.

Honestly I have no problem at all with the concept of formulas for fiction. A formula is just a starting point, nothing preventing you from adding and changing anything you want.

Zokk · Nov 14, 2011

Kindness said:
How can I make it a solid action/adventure and still set it in only one city? And what plots lend themselves to these stories? I want to include lots of action and secret magic but I'm twisting my brain into knots trying to find a template in which to set it up...!

Well, I'm currently writing an action-y science-fantasy story set mostly in and around a single major city; kind of similar to what you're trying to do.

The first thing I did was establish that humans share the world the story is set in with two other extra-dimensional races. This opens up a long history of racial tension, prejudice and violence, among other things. It also plays into the social and political climate of the story, including significant past events, such as social and political rights movements, wars, terrorist attacks, and other stuff.

The characters in the story, all rather diverse, come from rather distinct sides of the world's current and past conflicts and end up being drawn into a new one, at the center of which is a major corporation, the government, and a self-fulfilling prophecy unknowingly set in motion by one of the main characters hundreds of years before the story takes place.

I don't know if that helped any, but that's a very vague and very simple description of what's swirling around in my head.

DragonBlaze · Nov 14, 2011

I cannot think of really any specific formula. What works for me is that I develop characters first and create their diverse backgrounds that include strengths and faults. Once these deep character models are created, I simply start to get them together and imagine the interaction. How might a character's dark, sordid past come into affect their newly acquired friends and what kind of adventure could these consequences spring into to resolve it? May not work for everyone, but I hope this helps.

zornhau · Nov 15, 2011

Kindness said:
I've been writing and rewriting the first few chapters of my story for quite a while, mainly due to plot problems (dissatisfaction, holes and a few silly coincidences). I've gotten fed up with reworking it, and so I'm just going to ask for some general advice here. I want my story to be an action/adventure, but my main issue is that I don't know how to do this because my story is set in a city (err, London).

How can I make it a solid action/adventure and still set it in only one city? And what plots lend themselves to these stories? I want to include lots of action and secret magic but I'm twisting my brain into knots trying to find a template in which to set it up...!

I think I understand what you're asking. As somebody whose agent is currently shopping an adventure yarn, perhaps I can help....

Work backwards from the cool stuff.

Get some cards. On each, write a cool things you imagine that fits your setting.

Shuffle them, stare at them one by one, lay them out in different sequences. Try to find an order in which they naturally flow, with the consequences of one triggering the next.

You should end up with a breathless narrative with lots of instances of "but..." and "now...".

Write it down, then imagine what kind of goal the protagonist would need to have in order to make them fight through this hellish obstacle course.

From the goal, arrive at the protagonist and antagonist and what their central conflict is.

Now write a better version of the story, in present tense, as if telling it to a mate in the pub.

"There's this girl living in London and she's lonely. All she wants is to settle down with the right man. One day she meets this nice guy, but zombies immediately snatch him. She runs after them, but..."

Using that as a guide, write your novel.

(Alternatively, by a copy of Harold Lamb's "Swords from the West". It's old, superior quality Pulp with stories sufficiently compressed that you can see how they work.)

Architectus · Nov 20, 2011

It's actually a good question. There are set standards for genre in novels. Editors know them well. Breaking from these standards can make it much harder to publish your novel.

Action/adventure has standards.
Sci-fi is one of the most flexable genres.
Mystery has specific standards that pretty much must be met, depending on the type of mystery, like an detective model.

Screenplays are even less forgiving.

The best thing to do is read many novels in the genre you wish to write. Exotic interesting locals is a standard of adventures.

It sounds more like you are trying to write an urban fantasy with lots of action.

What kind of plots are best suited to an action/adventure story?

Kindness

Back From My Self-Imposed Exile

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Kindness

Back From My Self-Imposed Exile

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Polenth

Mushroom

Ian Isaro

New Member

Canotila

Sever your leg please.

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Kindness

Back From My Self-Imposed Exile

BigWords

Geekzilla

Kindness

Back From My Self-Imposed Exile

lbender

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Zokk

DragonBlaze

zornhau

Swordsman

Architectus