Episode 107: Adventure stories (part 2)

This episode and the notes include affiliate links.

Fable and the Verbivore continue our focus on adventure storytelling with part two of our conversation, focusing on the stories we love and the things that make adventure stories so gripping and relatable.

In this episode, we touch on a significant number of our favorite adventure stories - both classic and modern: from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to The Goonies to The Count of Monte Cristo to Six of Crows - and many more!

We also dig into some additional elements of adventure stories that we didn’t touch on last week.

• Puzzles that need to be solved and clues to collect

• The MacGuffins or items/event/character/idea that drives the story

• The all is lost moment, and the moment after where the character gets back up

• Establishing danger and consequenes

• Showing what a character is willing to risk to reach their goal

• Throwing a character into an unfamiliar settings

We hope you enjoy this episode, we sure have enjoyed talking about our favorite adventure books and films! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

There are many resources that we used in preparation for this episode. Here are some of the most significant ones:

• “How to Write an Adventure Story” - MasterClass - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-an-adventure-story

• “100 Best Adventure Books of All Time” - Reedsy - https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-adventure-books

• “The Rules (Guidelines) of Adventure — The Pirates of the Caribbean” - Lessons from the Screenplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVLOtD6Mv8

• “5 Elements of Writing a Great Adventure Story” - Screencraft - https://screencraft.org/2021/04/30/5-elements-of-writing-a-good-adventure/

• “10 Tips of a Good Adventure Story”- The Urban Writers - https://theurbanwriters.com/blogs/publishing/10-tips-of-a-good-adventure-story

• “Writing 101: What is a Macguffin?” - MasterClass - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-a-macguffin-learn-about-macguffins-in-film-literature-and-popular-culture

• What Is A McGuffin? - Gotham Writers -https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/articles/what-is-a-mcguffin

The Verbivore mentions a moment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where there’s this riddle connected with a leap from the Lion’s head - which really turns into a leap of faith. Here is a YouTube link to that scene:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFntFdEGgws

The Vebivore misspoke about Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland involving checkers, but it’s true that Through the Looking Glass was set around a game of chess complete with a list of moves that mirror Alice’s movement in the book. - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-64-square-grid-design-of-through-the-looking-glass-24546391/

Books Mentioned:

• The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon) by Dan Brown

• The Lord of the Rings: One Volume by J. R. R. Tolkien

• The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien

• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

• Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

• Stardust (Graphic Novel), Written by Neil Gaiman and Illustrated by Charles Vess

• Stardust by Neil Gaiman

• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia Book 5) by C. S. Lewis

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

• The Martian by Andy Weir

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

• The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• Caraval by Stephanie Garber

• The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

• Cress: Book Three of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

• Elements of Fiction Writing - Conflict and Suspense by James Scott Bell

• Fable by Adrienne Young

Movies Mentioned:

• Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures (Raiders of the Lost Ark / Temple of Doom / Last Crusade / Kingdom of the Crystal Skull); Directed by Stephen Spielberg

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Directed by Gore Verbinski

• National Treasure; Directed by John Turteltaub

• The Goonies; Directed by Richard Donner

• The Princess Bride; Directed by Rob Reiner

• Star Wars: A New Hope; Directed by George Lucas

• Tomb Raider; Directed by Roar Uthaug

• Ready Player One; Directed by Stephen Spielberg

• Stardust; Directed by Matthew Vaughn

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Directed Garth Jennings

• The Martian; Directed by Ridley Scott

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

• Anastasia; Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

• The Secret Life of Walter; Directed by Ben Stiller

• Castaway; Directed by Robert Zemeckis

• Inside Out; Directed by Pete Doctor

• The Mummy; Directed by Stephen Sommers and Rob Cohen

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)