Writing an Action/Adventure Novel: One of the Easiest to Write, but Hardest to Master

Action/adventure novels tend to be very straightforward, shoot-from-the-hip kind of stories, told in a straight linear fashion, with a clean, no-bull style. They rarely have many subplots and they are pure escape fantasies, which appeal to men in much the same way a romantic tale does to women. And 1 say this with no snideness. Just the facts, Jack.

If you want to write action/adventure, you'll be dealing with a hero who is a John Rambo type of guy, a rogue ex-special ops man, or a soldier-of-fortune, or maybe a paramilitary commander. Many times, the heroes of these novels are working under cover, just barely on the right side of the law, and have a very keen sense of justice They do the right thing-even when it may require violence ... a lot of violence.

The heroes battle (and vanquish) bad guys of every stripe-drug runners, street gangs, terrorists, extremists, rogue government dictators, and any other bad guy you can dream up. They whup-up on these types, and they do it with a lot of panache.

The plots are similar and, yeah, they follow a fairly recognizable formula. The hero is drawn to the problem either by association with a group or a friend, he vows revenge, and makes elaborate plans to defeat the enemy. Sometimes he goes solo; sometimes he gathers a "team'' and we have some fun meeting the variety of eccentric specialists'' he needs for the job. Usually, he engages the bad guy(s), suffers a few setbacks, then really overcomes heavy odds to be victorious.

A friend of mine pointed out the backbone of most action/adventure novels, which is that they are essentially a template of heroic myth, and I agree with him. lf you think about it, you'll see how it's a surefire storytelling model, which has built-in cultural appeal. And you have the added incentive and advantage of looking to the daily news and the vast stage of geopolitical maneuverings from which to draw events and scenarios, which you can project into stories that could happened lf you're drawn to this kind of novel, there's an additional benefit.

If you create a clever, adept, and popular hero-character, you and your editor can easily create a series, which is a string of novels based on your protagonist and his supporting characters. lf you sell the first one, make sure you tell your editor you envision a long line of novels in which the adventure continues from one exotic locale and tough situation to the next. A series provides nice steady income, and there's always the possibility of selling the elm rights.