Slow Burn or Action Packed

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John J. Falco
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In coming to grips with one of my WIPs, I have been wondering what the best course of action is. There are two scenarios I am struggling with here. I can do a slow burn saga where I talk about the introduction of this new technology and how it slowly starts to affect the characters and how it matures and gradually changes the world around them.

-or-

I can make the world already established and have it be a self-contained conspiracy type thriller that only focuses on a few years in the lives of the characters and in the grand scope of things.

Seeing my particular predicament, what do you find is easier to write? As with my namesake, I tend to go for the action-packed blockbuster types.
 
Going purely on this information, I would choose the second option. The presence of action means that you can have exciting things going on while the characters are investigating the larger story, which is more likely to keep the reader involved. Also, with a more action-based plot, you are more likely to be describing the immediate actions of a smaller group of people, which I think is easier than talking convincingly about the movement of societies, corporations etc. Years ago I knew a guy who wrote a book about the leader of a new religion. The characters and events were strong, but he could never convincingly explain where this new religion had come from and why it was so powerful. That seemed to me to be a fatal flaw in the story.
 
where I talk about

That doesn't sound like a story, more like a preface. You don't need that.

You also don't need external action in terms of blazing guns and booming explosions - just a sense of something actually happening, and the characters driving themselves forward through the plot. Never underestimate the importance of internal action - ie, the conflict of an emotional development arc.

An example I've used before is that someone could write an amazing book about a man brushing their teeth. With no external action is sounds like it would be dull. But make it a guard at a Nazi concentration camp, or an inmate, and the internal action could become so alive with conflict you wouldn't need anything external.

2c.
 
That's not far off One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch, where small details of a man in a Russian prison camp become extremely important.

I think one of the most important things is to give characters something to do that isn't just explaining/uncovering the main plot, and that's much easier to do where there is action. A writer called Sandy Petersen once described his plotting as like an onion: a strange but minor event occurs, which hints at a larger threat, which in turn sends the characters to a new place/character/issue/etc, which in turn takes them closer and closer to the conclusion. With each event, another layer of the onion is removed and they get closer to the climax of the story.
 
I don't mind a good slow burn from time to time, but I do agree with the others here that the second option is probably the best course of action. (y)
Slow burn tales can be really satisfying once it all comes together, but unfortunately some readers might jump ship before it even gets the chance to get to that point. Since you mentioned that you yourself tend to go for the more action-packed blockbuster types you would probably enjoy writing that style more anyway. Either option you wind up choosing, best of luck to you! :)
 
I'd go for the second option everytime but I'm the gal who skipped the entire alien invasion in Inish Carraig and just got on with the devastated Earth part. :D

Jo - do a prequel! Please.
Lots of gore, blasters, brave but hopeless defenders getting slaughtered in droves.
VIP's trying for hidden shelters but getting caught and hung by collaborators etc.
I would buy a book like that
 
Your slow burn scenario sounds like a history book or maybe some overzealous world building. And this is something you may choose to draft and retain in your bookshelf somewhere as reference material. You could almost look at it as the stale version of back-story.

It's important for you, but the story unfolds with the lives of characters who live somewhere along the timeline of this history. The reader obtains the history vicariously through the inner narrative of the players; however it's good to have something solid to refer to in that history, as the author, to keep track of which parts of the characters references are accurate and which might be just a bit flawed so you can warn the reader.
 
How about you do both? Slow burning but action filled thriller. Thing is the saying goes don't event the wheel. So improve it. Challenge yourself. Just be careful with the style. If you have established way to write things, don't change it for no reason. Your voice is your voice.

When I write action, I write action. When I write sex, I don't try to make pr0n, I write in what makes sense to me, but sometimes I admit I go overboard. Write the story you want to read, because you have to read it first, before you share it with anyone. So, if slow burning is what you want, then do that, but don't forget to write in the action, because you'll be judged by it.

The most important rule with this business is that it needs to be believable. Like John Titor's story. It had just enough of action in it for the people to go nuts.
 
You should be writing the story to please yourself first. So if that's a slow-burn saga, or something more fast paced and action packed, as long as it scratches your own itch concerning what stories you enjoy that's all that matters. Worry about the market/potential audience when its done.
 
It seems much easier to lose a reader long before they get to the heart of the story if you chose the slow-burn route. Remember, we're living in a world of tweets and ten-second commercials. Keeping a reader's attention is much harder these days than it was even thirty years ago. Get the reader "hooked", and then give details.

Just one POV.
 
I wouldn't totally rule out the slow burn; depending how you define and use that slow burn.
This book Hunger by Jeremiah Knight::
Hunger (The Hunger Series Book 1) eBook: Jeremiah Knight: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
:: does something that might be what the original post is eluding to.
But it does it in a way that keeps the interest of some readers [maybe not all(however if we tried to please everyone [and that's just my opinion]we wouldn't get anything finished) but we likely will get the ones we are targeting] and though I wouldn't recommend it to everyone; I might recommend it to someone trying to decide if they want to do something like this.
 

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