Talking to people who lead an interesting or action-filled life, day dreaming or simply reading a lot of action stories can help an aspiring writer generate story ideas. Once you know what your story will be about, you can move to the various aspects of story building, such as characters, plot, conflict and background.
The characters of an action story should be believable and vivid. An aspiring writer should pay particular attention to how she portrays them. They need to be palpable and must have a realistic motivation for their action, such as greed, revenge, love or curiosity. They need to be plunged into the middle of the action right away. The dialogue must be convincing and reflect the characters' personalities.
Since the action in an adventure story is very quick, the plot has to be believable. The writer has to painstakingly weave it for the readers to be completely submerged in the story. The reader cannot have any doubt that the characters are exactly in the right place at the right moment. Nothing in the plot can feel superficial.
The action should be set in a dangerous, exotic or foreign place where nothing is ordinary and safe. Less important characters do not need to be decent or commonplace, but can be mean or suspicious.