Tips

WRITING ADVENTURE STORIES

Where do I begin?

Before you start writing you need to decide on the setting for your story. Why not start your adventure at your favourite holiday destination or maybe somewhere you have visited that seemed really exciting or  mysterious.

Who is up for an adventure?

Next, decide which characters are going to be in your story. A good person to start with is you. Add a best friend to keep you company and maybe an accident-prone little brother to bring some humour to the story.

What could go wrong?

Every adventure needs some misadventure.  Maybe you’re on a fishing trip and the boat capsizes , tossing everyone into the water. Maybe you’re hit by a storm or even a whale or attacked by pirates. Now you have a problem and now you also have an adventure story.  Your story will unfold as your characters work out how they are going to overcome the problem. When you start writing your story, make sure you begin when things start to go wrong. That way you will get your readers hooked straight away.

Keep up the excitement.

Details make your story exciting.  

Use all of your senses to describe the exciting parts of your story – what you can see, hear, smell, taste, touch and how it makes you feel. This will draw your readers in. 

Instead of writing there's a snake in the grass, I would say: I'm thinking of money, not dangerous animals. That's why I put my foot in the long grass without thinking at all. There's a rustle just in front of my foot. I hear it before I see it. I scramble backwards. A long black body slithers out of the grass. It's right in front of me. A tongue flickers. Then there's a flash of red. 'SNAKE!' I scream. 'Red-belly black snake!' (P.24 Blood Money)

Don't forget to answer the questions who, when, where, why, how. This will help you add detail to the story.

Detail should be specific, relevant, consistent and part of the action.

Give specific details. Instead of writing: I saw a guy with a scary face, here's another way to write it: An ugly thing with a human body, ears like a rabbit and a face so grotesque it would make gladiators wet their pants, leaps off the roof of the houseboat. (P.19 Snake Surprise)

Use details that are relevant to the story. That means the detail has to be useful to readers. You probably don't need to tell the readers that you have blue eyes, but if you have purple eyes and people with purple eyes have supersonic vision, then eye colour is a relevant detail. Make sure all the relevant detail comes out early in the story. Don't surprise the reader in the climax with your supersonic vision. The reader will feel cheated.

This is an example of relevant detail at the beginning of Shark Frenzy. I made a deal with sharks. I don't swim near them and they don't play cricket. It may be a little unfair. I can swim, whereas they haven't got a hope of hitting a six. (P.1 Shark Frenzy) 

Be consistent. If your best friend has a broken leg at the beginning of the story, he won't be playing rugby in the second paragraph.

Make sure your descriptions are part of the action. Good detail advances the story, it doesn't slow it down. 

Something wet hits me in the face. Cold, slimy fingers grab at my neck. I can feel them, even through the balaclava. Sharp talons scratch at my cheeks. I fight to get free. But I get more tangled. I gasp for breath. I'm going to be choked to death. (P.51 Tiger Terror)

Happy writing.  J.E. FISON 

OTHER IDEAS

Keep a journal.

Write down all of your great ideas. They might come in handy some day. Keep snippets from the newspaper that interest you. Even holiday souvenirs might inspire an exciting story.

Read for fun and to improve your work.

As a writer you need to write a lot and read a lot. Pay attention to how good authors write. But don't forget to get out and have fun as well. There are plenty of stories in the playground, at the beach ... anywhere you look - all waiting to be written.

Ways to keep things consistent.

Collect photographs of people, animals, beasts, places or anything that you might want to include in your story. If you haven't got a picture, draw a rough sketch. Make some notes on the main characters' features - their strengths and their weaknesses. This way you'll have a very clear idea of who's involved in your story - what they look like and how they will react when faced with a problem.