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On Writing Action-Adventure: A Plot To Remember

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Writing encompasses a multitude of elements, each of them necessary to create a completed project. You have characters, a world, and maybe even a theme ready and waiting to be transformed into a story. You’re still missing a key ingredient: the plot. But what is plot? Let’s take a closer look.

The plot is the backbone of the living, breathing creature that is your book. It’s the blueprint for your story, the map your journey will follow until it reaches the very last page and closes the covers. Many of us learned in English class that the plot follows a certain formula: introduction + character activity leading up to a climax + actual climax + some sort of resolution = all books ever written.

This isn’t necessarily true. While it is important to introduce your characters and imperative to have some sort of peak in the story line, how each element happens and where in your book it takes place is entirely up to you.

How are you going to start your story?

Some authors choose to dive straight into the action, opening with a battle or a chase scene or having their readers open the cover to a grisly murder. Other authors start out slowly, introducing the characters with a thought or with dialogue as to preface the action with an anticipatory breath. Another option is to start the book after something major has happened; your character could be reeling from the death of a loved one or gearing up for a war that has just been declared. Maybe your character is arriving on a new planet and the action starts as soon as he steps foot on previously unclaimed territory.

How you start is incredibly important – this is what hooks your readers and keeps them interested. Many readers may stop reading if nothing holds onto their attention within the first few pages. But it’s only the beginning of your plot.

How will you lead up to your story’s climax?

Think back to the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. How did they build up the suspense until that ultimate scene which made you jump and even scream? Many books give you a trail of breadcrumbs to follow; every few steps, you witness an event like an argument or a challenge that the characters have to get through to get to the next one. You can build up the suspense slowly and surely, or keep the pace fast from page one. Either way, you want to make sure to leave room for the climax to be more exciting than any other scene in the book. Otherwise, it’s not a peak in the action, as a climax should be.

How do you plan to resolve your story?

This is the final moment you’ll have with your readers. How do you want them to remember your story? Many choose to leave their stories with a happy ending, a sense that all will be well with the world. Readers also enjoy a surprise twist at the end, something that will keep them guessing. You may also choose to end on a complete cliffhanger—which frustrates readers in all the right ways if you do it well and keeps them wanting more. It opens you up to a sequel, if you so choose. However you end your book is up to you, but keep in mind that your ending will be the last thing your readers experience from you; and it may be what causes them to keep reading your books in the future or to avoid anything else you write.

The plot is a powerful tool at your disposal. When done right, it can elicit incredible emotional responses from your readers from fear to sorrow to complete joy and satisfaction, while producing a story they’ll want to read over and over again. So put that thinking cap on and outline a plot to remember!

By KLM


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