See Chapter 34 in The Story Grid book, or The Big Takeaway. When in doubt about where your story should go next, review your controlling idea. The important thing is that you have a guide for your story. If your Action story is negative (a cautionary tale), your controlling idea will be something like Death results when the protagonist fails to overpower or outwit their antagonist.Įditor Tip: Don’t worry if the controlling idea of your story is generic as well. If your Action story is positive (a prescriptive tale), your controlling idea will be something like: Life is preserved when the protagonist overpowers or outwits their antagonist. You can state a controlling idea in a single sentence that distills the argument your story attempts to make. It’s the lesson you want your reader to come away with, usually subconsciously. What is a Controlling Idea in the Action Genre?Ī controlling idea, also known as a theme, is a simple statement that combines the story value at stake with the cause of moving it from one state to another, often its opposite. In the Action story, the protagonist’s arc moves along the values of life, unconsciousness, death, and damnation.
The global value at stake describes the protagonist’s primary change from the beginning of the story to the end. You must carefully construct time sequences ordered in cause and effect actions. And, in common with almost all stories in the external genres, by definition can’t be an anti-plot or stream of consciousness narrative.Įditor Tip: Organizing the narrative structure doesn’t require a linear story, though that works well for the Action Genre. Contemporary action stories, most often, follow the Hero’s Journey. The narrative structure of an Action story follows an ordered cause and effect trajectory. They tend to feature a resourceful protagonist fighting an antagonist (at incredible odds) in life-threatening situations.
HARRY POTTER ACTION STRINGS SERIES
In the Action Genre, physical action takes storytelling precedence that thrust the protagonist into a series of challenges, including multiple fight scenes, daring physical feats, tense chases, and violence such as shoot-outs.
It is an arch-plot (single protagonist) or mini-plot (multiple characters) external genre that turns on the values of life and death. It concerns survival and securing our must-have physiological requirements. Need to get familiar with the Story Grid’s categorization of genres first? A refresher is here.Īccording to Shawn Coyne, the Action story is our most primal tale. The Action Genre has many story possibilities, so let’s break this down first by the overall genre and then by subgenre. Let’s get to the epicenter of the stories that thrust protagonists into significant events that build and spiral to surprising yet inevitable conclusions.
HARRY POTTER ACTION STRINGS HOW TO
Secrets of the Action Genre: How to Write an Exciting Storyĭo you want to write a Hollywood mega-blockbuster or novel thriving on excitement and action? Does the idea of creating a story with high-speed chases, last-second escapes, feverish plans, and desperate circumstances riding on life and death stakes rouse your imagination? Then come with me on a journey into learning about the many variations of the Action Genre.