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How to Write Action Adventure Novels (Genre Writing Series)

Newton addresses a topic he knows very well: action adventure/writing. Having authored more Executioner books than the series creator, he has had a fair share of success in the genre. That real world experience fills the content with excellent advice and suggestions.

The poor organization of the book, however, destroys much of its usefulness. The text hops from one topic to another so the book takes on the form of a writer’s stream-of-consciousness.

Weak arrangement choices dog the book everywhere. Even lists of information -- very useful if they had been enumerated as a set of bullet points -- are written out in long paragraph form. For example, chapter 7 contains a list of reference books for military information, intelligence, police procedure, etc. Not only is the catalog of books presented in two pages of dense paragraphs, it’s located in the chapter titled “Heroes and Heavies” -- hardly an obvious place for this reference information.

There are also irritating misattributions that should have been caught by his editor (e.g. the author repeatedly mentions the novel Firefox written by Clive Cussler -- although Craig Thomas is the true author). If you’re writing action/adventure novels, I would suggest you instead check out Newton’s “Armed and Dangerous: A Writer’s Guide to Weapons.” It describes all manner of weapons from knives to artillery and has proven very useful.

PS: This book is currently out of print, so if you can’t find a good copy to buy, check your local library. Both libraries I checked had many copies.