Tips on Making Your Adventure Story Convincing

Today’s guest post is by Zarrah Felton.

Do you love stories that can both spark your imagination and leave you on the edge of your seat? If yes, then adventures stories are the perfect kind of stories for you!

In essence, adventure is a genre of literary fiction that features nerve-racking and adrenaline-pumping storylines, such as tough quests, escape journeys, voyages of discovery, and so on.

Adventure stories have always been popular all throughout history. In fact, one of the oldest and most famous works of literary fiction in English is an adventure story written during the medieval period: Beowulf. Since time immemorial, numerous different kinds of adventure stories—from Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby Dick to Jack London’s short story, To Build a Fire—have been gaining ground in the literary world.

Writing an adventure story can be just as fun as reading it. However, it is not as easy as it seems.

To write a convincing adventure story, you need to be both imaginative and proficient in creative writing. There are certain elements and considerations that you need to keep in mind to be able to engage the readers and create maximum excitement in your story.

Make your Plot Active and Coherent

Plot is an important element in writing an adventure story. In creating and structuring your plot, always pay close attention to pacing. The pacing of your story must be brisk. It should be quick and active to avoid boring the readers and losing their interest.

Do not be too descriptive. Avoid writing too much exposition and setup, as it can usually make your story drag. Adventure stories are generally made to entertain and excite the readers. By writing too much exposition and unnecessary details, you are running the risk of dampening the elements of entertainment and excitement.

In addition to being active, your plot should also be coherent. This means that the shorter plots with sub-conclusions that drive your story forward should all be consistent to your overarching plot. When your plot is incoherent, there is a great possibility that the readers will find your adventure story confusing and pointless to some extent.

Create Compelling Characters

Characters are also an important element in an adventure story. They drive the story as a whole, and they create different types of conflicts, tensions, and resolutions. Without the characters, there would be no adventure in a story.

To write a good adventure story, you need to make your characters as compelling as possible. Your protagonist, particularly, should be likeable and relatable. They should possess great characteristics such as courage and determination, but they should also have some flaws that can increase their internal conflict. Ultimately, your protagonist should be someone that the readers can root for.

Aside from the protagonist, you should also take some time in inventing your antagonist. Your antagonist is just as important as your protagonist. Make them recognizable and also likeable to some extent. Give them a sense of complexity and authenticity. It is important for your antagonist to have some fascinating characteristics so they can make the adventure story more interesting.

Find a Setting That Will Intensify the Story

Adventure stories usually take their characters from a familiar environment to a new setting to create more conflicts and tensions. This new setting should further intensify the story. It should increase the risk for the protagonist, and it should help in driving the story toward the climax.

If your character lives in the city, for example, send them to a deserted island without a map. Make your character experience different kinds of challenges while in this new setting.

Include Many Risks and Twists

Adventure stories are generally exciting and mind-blowing. They usually entertain the readers and leave them on the edge of their seats. To write an adventure story that lives up to its genre, you need to make your story as intense as possible. It should be full of risks and twists that can pump the adrenaline of the readers and make their minds boggle.

These risks and twists should be unpredictable and surprising to an extent, but they should also be consistent to the overarching plot.

Always Consider Authenticity in Writing

The ultimate key to a convincing adventure story lies in its authenticity. Authenticity does not necessarily mean realism but rather how close a story is to the truth.

To write a convincing adventure story, your storytelling should be real within the context of its own world, and the words and actions of your characters should be true to themselves.

Both of these things should also be true to life. They should ultimately reflect the reality without having to rely on it heavily at the expense of the imagination.

Indeed, writing an adventure story is not as easy as it seems. It takes a great amount of creativity, imagination, and proficiency in literature to produce a good adventure story that the readers of the genre will surely patronize. Nevertheless, with enough learning and practice, you can certainly create your very own convincing adventure story someday.

Hopefully, the pieces of advice given in this article will help you navigate your way through this literary endeavor. Good luck on your adventure-filled writing journey!

Zarrah Felton worked as a freelance copywriter and a book editor for a self-publishing company for over eight years. She is currently working on a YA adventure and also writes short stories. Connect with Zarrah on Twitter.

Featured Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash