Ninja Heroes

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Readers love action adventure novels. They don't take a whole lot of brainpower to read and are a great way to fill in time while you're sitting on a long, otherwise boring flight somewhere. Writers like Clive Cussler has a very lucrative business writing action-adventure novels: there's nearly 100 million copies of Cussler's books in print.

Here's five tips to give you something to think about when you're writing your own action scenes.

Action Sequences Should Be Fast Paced

Good action sequences are never slow. They grab the reader by the throat and force them to hang on white-knuckled until you decide to let up. The best way to achieve this is to use short sentences, and often short paragraphs, utilizing as many action words as you can think of. Words like "zipped", "snapped", "whizzed" and "punched" are all great choices. In a fight scene, your hero shouldn't have time to think and any dialogue should be short, sharp and punchy, usually only a few words that could be yelled out across the room.

The only exception to this would be if you're trying to do a John Woo style slow motion sequence for a brief part of the scene. Here you can take much longer to describe the action in minute detail, like the way the bullet casing arcs up, twisting end over end as it passes through the smoke cloud. But don't overdo this and jump back to the rapid-fire action as quickly as you can.

Push the characters to their limits

Characters need to be tested in your action scenes. There's no point writing something that's easy for them to overcome, because it wont create the right level of tension in your story. Instead, your heroes need to pushed into situations where there's a real chance they might not come out intact. In fact, it's better if they often don't because it means that the stakes that they're playing for are real, and not just joke ones.

Don't be afraid to beat up or shoot your characters. Matthew Reilly, the Australian action author, believes that if a character slows down the action too much, they have to die. While that might be a little extreme for your story, killing off a character or two could well prove to your reader that you're serious about the stakes.

Make maximum use of the environment

Which is more exciting: a kung-fu fight in an empty apartment, or one in a crowded china shop? If you're anything like me, you'd rather see the action smashing the scenery up as the fists and feet go flying. When you're creating your action scenes, try to set things up so that they take place in an environment where it can add to the excitement of the scene, where one false move could make things a lot harder for your heroes.

So, it's better to have a fight on the rooftop of a skyscraper, or in the heat of a iron foundry, instead of in an empty warehouse, or out in the desert. The more you can stock your scene with usable props for your heroes to use, the more interesting your scenes are going to be.

Make the actions scenes relevant to the story

Action sequences shouldn't stop your plot from developing. Instead, they should be an integral to driving your storyline along. If you find that you're adding in an action sequence just to liven things up again, then you'll need to reexamine the stakes of the scene and find another way to help it link the scene to the ones that precede and follow it. The reason for having an action sequence in your story should make sense in terms of the flow of the story; if it's not, then you should rewrite it or take it out completely.

Write your action sequences as suspense scenes

Suspense in a scene is vital if you want your reader to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. Your action sequence should pose lots of questions for the hero, rather than just being a description of what happens. John Rogers -- in his Kung-Fu Monkey blog -- said, "Don't write action scenes. Write suspense scenes that require action to resolve." When working on the main question for your scene, don't ask "Will the hero beat the bad guy?" Instead, find a question that brings into play an issue your hero has that it's important for him to learn. If he learns it, then he can win the scene, otherwise, he should lose. In this way, the reader can see how the action sequence causes the character to grow and change, rather it than just being another gratuitous fight.

If you keep these points in mind when you're writing your action scenes, then your hero is going to be in for one heck of an exciting ride and your readers will be turning the pages as fast as they can to see what happens next.

And that's precisely what you want to have happen.

Geoff Skellams is a professional freelance author who has written for books, magazine and websites. You can find out more at http://geoffskellams.site.net.au/

Vox Populi Vox Dei - It's Werewolf Season

It's werewolf season. As the full moon rises, horrible beasts lurking in the dark cast away their human forms and roam the streets looking for prey. They know a thirst for blood that cannot be satisfied, and pursue their bloody agendas with a ruthless efficiency. These werewolves fear nothing - except for ninjas.

Vox Populi Vox Dei (a werewolf thriller), a game developed by Pablo Weremczuk, puts you in the role of a navy-blue ninja who must save a city overrun by vicious lycanthropes. Rather than use the standard ninja-arsenal of swords and shuriken, the tiny protagonist must rip his enemies limb-from-limb with his bare hands. Once the hero has tackled a monster, repeatedly tapping the spacebar will effectively tear it to shreds (amidst the sound of guttural, dog-like yelps.)

After a brief introductory cinematic scene in the game, you run through the city, dispatching the demon dogs that stand in your way. Each screen of the 2D action-platformer requires a certain strategy, and the tasks become more puzzle-like as you proceed.

Vox Populi Vox Dei sports a pixilated "retro" look, but contains no shortage of violence or blood. The challenge and the pixilated gore might be a little much for youngsters, but the graphical presentation lends a certain charm to the game that might not be as prevalent with a more realistic look. Although the game is fairly short, Vox Populi Vox Dei is a quality ride while it lasts - a great bite-sized treat of macabre Halloween fun.

About the Author

Jeff Mattas is a staff writer for Ponged.com, a flash game site with hundreds of titles. Ponged is home to Vox Populi Vox Dei - It's Werewolf Season and many, many other free flash games.

What are the Hidden Teams in Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2?

Team Kakashi
Naruto, Sasuke & Sakura
Team Guy
Lee, Neji & Tenten
Team Kurenai
Hinata, Kiba & Shino
Team Asuma
Ino, Shikamaru & Choji
The Legendary Sanin
Jiraiya, Tsunade & Orochimaru
Team Sharingan
Sasuke, Kakashi & Itachi
Team Genius
Sasuke, Neji & Shikamaru
Triple Trouble
Naruto, Kiba & Choji
Hard Workers United
Naruto, Lee & Hinata
Maidens in Love
Sakura, Ino & Hinata
Akatsuki
Itachi & Kisame
Master and Student
Jiraiya & Naruto
The Cursed
Orochimaru & Sasuke
Hot Blood Master & Student
Guy & Lee
Eternal Rivals
Kakashi & Guy
Team Byakugan
Hinata & Neji
Author & Fan
Jiraiya & Kakashi
Uchiha Clan
Sasuke & Itachi

Association of Ninja Thugs
Itachi, Kisame & Orochimaru
Those Who Know Loneliness
Naruto. Sasuke & Gaara
Custom Team
Tsunade & Sakura
The Determine Ones
Naruto & Sakura
The Guides
The Third Hokage & Tsunade
Shadows of Evil
Orochimaru & Kabuto
Cunning Master and Student
Tsunade & Sakura
Hokage and Assistant
Tsunade & Shizune
Leaf Jonin
Kakashi, Guy & Shizune
Dark Alliance
Orichimaru, Kabuto & Sasuke
The Leaf's Greatest
The Third Hokage, Jiraiya & Tsunade

Trafford Tanzi still resonates 30 years later
Very often, when a wrestling fan is asked by a non-wrestling fan about the appeal of the sport, a comparison is drawn between wrestling events and live theatre.

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