Action/adventure stories are always popular, and the more realistic, the better. Readers of these stories often have experience in the military or law enforcement, and they're interested in weapons, martial arts, and paramilitary tactics as much as they are in the characters of their favorite stories. Settings for these stories can be exotic, but they must be authentic, and the foes are villains from real life — mobsters, terrorists, drug dealers, psychopaths. War and its aftermath are popular backdrops for the action/adventure story, but nearly any setting will work, as long as the danger is real and palpable.

Common Themes

The action/adventure novel almost always involves a heroic quest of some kind. It may be a quest to find a missing artifact or missing people, or to expose wrongdoing, or to bring the bad guy(s) to justice, or even to win a sporting contest. The protagonist is compelled to go on the quest, either willingly or unwillingly, and both people and nature contrive to place obstacles and dangers in his (or her) path. The odds are always stacked against the protagonist, and they mount steadily through the course of the story.

Although traditional action/adventure heroes and stories tend to have military, war, martial arts, or postapocalypse backdrops, these kinds of stories can take place anywhere, with almost any type of lead character. The Indiana Jones movies are an excellent example. Although war heightens the stakes, archeology is the main background for endless intrigue, danger, travel, and adventure, and a college professor becomes a reluctant hero in the quest to save the free world.

Woven through the quest theme are other, underlying themes that motivate the protagonist into following his course of action. Revenge, torn families, internal demons, and the search for redemption are common motivators in this genre; they can spur the hero to action, but, just as often, they can hinder his progress and even create more problems for him. The quest is the “what” of the action/adventure story. The underlying theme is the “why” that propels the hero into the quest.

Typical Characters

Action/adventure protagonists usually are male, although there are a growing number of books that feature female protagonists or two protagonists, one male and one female. Generally, action heroes and heroines must be quick thinking, self-sufficient, and brave, even recklessly so. They trust their gut instincts, and when they don't, they pay for it. They usually don't trust other people, certainly not strangers, and sometimes not even their nearest and dearest. Again, when they trust the wrong people, they pay for it.

The antagonist can be human, an animal, or even a force of nature. The protagonist may or may not know who or what his enemy is; sometimes the hero battles many of the villain's minions throughout the story but doesn't know until the climax just who is responsible for his travails. More often, however, both the reader and the protagonist know whom the bad guy is, and the emphasis is on how the protagonist will defeat the bad guy.

Characters, good and bad, have to be established through action, not through exposition. They must act logically according to how you've drawn them. A timid person won't react violently at the first provocation, for example, but a steady build-up of danger, frustration, and anxiety can realistically cause the most timorous of characters to lash out.

Plot and Pacing

Chases, rescues, showdowns, and cliffhanger scenes are staples of the action/adventure novel. Action sequences involve physical conflicts and usually physical danger to the hero or to the people around him. The hero must outwit, and sometimes outfight, the villain at nearly every turn.

The reader looks for risk, danger, and excitement; he wants to feel his pulse racing as he follows the hero through the story. But even these factors can become bland if they have the same flavor in each scene. The writer's responsibility is to vary the action scenes enough to surprise the reader, and to use language that puts the reader in the hero's place during each sequence. Excessive description of the setting, the problem, even the violence, can put fatal brakes on your story; if it slows down too much, the reader will give up on you and your hero.

Professional action/adventure authors often talk about “watching” the scenes in their stories before writing them down. They mentally choreograph the sequence over and over, watching it play out like a movie in their mind's eye. Only after they have a clear vision of how the scene should look do they sit down to translate it onto the page.

Pacing is an important part of keeping your action sequences effective. Because of the genre's emphasis on realism, remember that both your characters and your readers need time to catch their breath now and then. Your protagonists have needs. They get tired. They need to eat. They need to discuss strategy with their partners or talk out points that have confused them during their adventures. You can give them temporary safe harbor to do these things without sacrificing excitement or suspense. The key thing to remember is that digressions from the main plot should always help develop characters, explain a point, or build suspense.