This may sound strange, but I've had an idea for the longest time to create a story about a young boy who finds out about a person who had been kidnapping children and turning them into, for lack of a better word, cyborgs. So like any child protagonist, he decides to find and stop them. With the help of his friends of course. However, things don't quite meet his expectations. He has no idea who or where the "villain" is. There are no "minions" for him to fight. Also, unlike the comics and cartoons he's seen, children traveling to far away places alone is a bit more strenuous than he thought. All in all, this story is a more "realistic" take on what would happen if some children decided to be heroes and save the day. I actually plan on telling the second and third half of the story from the point of view of the two other kids he was traveling with. The second half set in the "villain's lair" and being told from the female characters view. The third and last part being told from the view of the main character's best friend's point of view in which he particularly highlights the main character's naive obliviousness of how the world works. My problem is that most people enjoy something more action packed when they read adventures and I'm not sure how much people would actually be interested in this. Does anyone have any tips on how to make a generally actionless story a bit more interesting?
It depends on what you mean by actionless. Mainly observation, dialogue, and exposition? There are various examples of literary novels that don't have much action, but what you're describing wouldn't fit into that genre. If the children are struggling to save the day, those obstacles that impede their effort, wouldn't that involve some action? Big explosions and high death count isn't necessary for an action-adventure story.
It could be a more emotional, spiritual journey as to why the mc wants to be a hero. And a commentary on why the label hero is so alluring to people.
Despite what modern media might tell you, action is not a direct synonym to violence/explosions/adrenaline-inducing scenes. An adventure can simply be someone going out into the woods by their back yard and finding random animals/rocks. Or maybe a group of fans decide to follow around the tour of their favorite band. A story doesn't need to kill people to be entertaining, it just needs emotional attachment, some degree of build-up/climax, and a satisfying resolution for the reader to be happy. Specific to your story, I would HIGHLY recommend you read into (or better-yet play through) "The Longest Voyage" and "Dreamfall". They are two games (Dreamfall being the sequel) from 2000/2006, and are two of the greatest point-and-click/almost combat-less/storytelling adventure games ever. I'm not a huge gamer, and I've played through both of them at least 5 times each, simply because of the phenomenal writing involved! These are the perfect examples of how to make a story exciting/memorable without having the characters smack each other all over the place.
Wow, all these suggestions are really helping a lot. I'll also be sure to check those games out, Cynglen.
If by actionless you mean no fighting, then yes, I'd be fine with that. What I enjoy in adventure writing are the events and settings the main character comes across. Fighting has its place, but it doesn't need to be in every adventure.
