How to Write Action Adventure Novels by Michael Newton

Author:Michael Newton
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: plotting, fiction writing, character development, scene, creating tension, writing your novel, plot, point of view, dialogue, writing dialogue, writing, Fiction, how to write a novel, story development, how to write fiction, novel writing, long form fiction
ISBN: 9781618090003
Publisher: The Write Thought
Published: 2011-06-16T04:00:00+00:00

7. Heroes and Heavies

Picture a deserted city. Streets are empty, shops and houses uninhabited. There is no sign of life, no sound. The very atmosphere is dusty, dead. You have to concentrate on breathing, and you get the feeling that a spoken word will shrivel up and die of loneliness before it leaves your lips.

A ghost town makes the perfect introduction for a mystery … but let’s suppose the streets remain deserted, silent. No one ever comes on stage. From an intriguing hook, you’ve plummeted to instant tedium. You’re looking at an Andy Warhol snoozer, guaranteed.

In short, until you populate the scenery, you’ve got no story. How you populate your fiction may determine whether you succeed as a professional or simply fade away with all the other hapless “wanna-bees.” Your characters can make or break a novel at the outset. Bring them vividly to life, for good or evil, and the best (or worst) of them can help you elevate a mediocre plot above its origins. Conversely, if you try to muddle through with cardboard characters, the greatest story in the world may come off sounding like a retread of the Hardy Boys.

Okay, I grant you, everybody knows you’re dreaming up these characters, but they should still seem real, imbued with spirit, individuality, and style. Your readers want them to be real—or realistic, anyway—and it’s your job, as author and creator, to fulfill that wish. Before we’re finished, you should have a handle on the process of creating “life” on paper, and from there, it’s up to you.

If you’ve been faithful with your homework, namely reading anything and everything that you can get your hands on, you will recognize the fact that some professionals possess more skill than others when it comes to the creation of their characters. A few are gifted artists, sketching characters in bold, imaginative strokes, injecting subtle colors to complete the portrait, bringing it to life. The rank and file are capable enough, like good mechanics; everything they put together works all right, but sometimes we can still see nuts and bolts exposed. Too many labor on like cut-rate Frankensteins, well-meaning but inept, producing clumsy monsters that inevitably turn upon their masters, trashing their careers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.