Adventure stories

[Diviner]

I tend to write adventure stories. Characterization is important but dialogue and action move the stories along. I don't create true villains because the day to day living is enough of a challenge, IMHO. I notice that among the genre listings, the adventure story is not included. My stories are not thrillers or mysteries, and the fantasies have no magic or extraterrestrials. When I am pitching my novels, how should I lable them? The one I am querying now is historical fiction, so that is fairly easy to label, but I wonder if describing it as an adventure story is in my best interest.

Is there a market for adventure stories?

[Linda Adams]

Action-adventure is a subgenre of Thriller (which is a very diverse genre). However, there aren't a lot of action-adventure books out there because they're harder to write than other thrillers. Action-adventure authors include Clive Cussler and Lincoln Child/Douglas Preston. Jaws, in fact, was an action-adventure thriller.

[Cathy C]

Well, I guess I'd have to ask whether there's a goal of the book. Adventure generally means two things: defeating the villain or reaching the prize (whatever that prize might be - treasure or fame or love.) But if your books are only journeys, without reaching an end goal, then I think you're going to have a difficult time selling it. The genre definition of an adventure story that I've used in my workshops, BTW, is:



The plot must contain: travel to distant, sometimes exotic locales, physical hazards to the Hero/heroine, a threat of danger or death to third parties AND to the H/h, plus the stated goal, or an undiscovered secondary goal, must be achieved. Raiders of the Lost Ark is an example of an adventure.



Based on this, do you think you have an adventure?

[Christine Lorang]

Why not just call them mainstream fiction? There's plenty of room for gripping stories outside of genre fiction.

[Diviner]

Well, I guess I'd have to ask whether there's a goal of the book. Adventure generally means two things: defeating the villain or reaching the prize (whatever that prize might be - treasure or fame or love.) But if your books are only journeys, without reaching an end goal, then I think you're going to have a difficult time selling it. The genre definition of an adventure story that I've used in my workshops, BTW, is:

The plot must contain: travel to distant, sometimes exotic locales, physical hazards to the Hero/heroine, a threat of danger or death to third parties AND to the H/h, plus the stated goal, or an undiscovered secondary goal, must be achieved. Raiders of the Lost Ark is an example of an adventure.


Based on this, do you think you have an adventure?

Roughly, yes. The "fantasy" stories a definite yes to all elements listed. The historical fiction, some travel but not a lot; but it has all the other elements in spades. By the end of the books, which have sequels, the main characters are happy just to have survived. By the end of the sequels, they have triumphed.

[Diviner]

Why not just call them mainstream fiction? There's plenty of room for gripping stories outside of genre fiction.

They are more mainstream than not, but action rather than subtlety pushes the stories along, plus the "fantasy" stories are more alternate geography-alternate history than not. The series is a heroic adventure in this alternate world.

[Cathy C]

Well, fantasy is fantasy. There's no need to call it anything else. Likewise you have the historical fiction figured out. Action can be part of either one, but once you introduce fantastic elements (magic, talking animals, creatures of legend and the like) then you're pretty much in the fantasy genre.


But, you do say that there's no magic, so what leads you to believe it's "fantasy?" You indicated that there's alternate history involved, which is fine, but have you built upon that alternate world so that the rules of this world and this time no longer apply? In that case, you could be in "alternate reality" which is a genre that's part of contempory or mainstream fiction. Are there any other elements of the fantastic or is it just a different timestream, but like ours?

[Diviner]

[QUOTE=Cathy C]Well, fantasy is fantasy. There's no need to call it anything else. Likewise you have the historical fiction figured out. Action can be part of either one, but once you introduce fantastic elements (magic, talking animals, creatures of legend and the like) then you're pretty much in the fantasy genre.


But, you do say that there's no magic, so what leads you to believe it's "fantasy?" You indicated that there's alternate history involved, which is fine, but have you built upon that alternate world so that the rules of this world and this time no longer apply? In that case, you could be in "alternate reality" which is a genre that's part of contempory or mainstream fiction. Are there any other elements of the fantastic or is it just a different timestream, but like ours
QUOTE]

The world is similar to a hodge-podge of European cultures. The people act much llike pople do, given the parameters of their belief systems, ambitions, and values. I was told that because it never happened that it was fantasy, but it seemed just to be fiction to me as I was writing it.