: "just telling the tale" - does this work? I know (I think) many stories that have a point they want to present to the audience. However, I wanted to focus on the excitement of the adventure

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"Just telling the tale" doesn't work. It's not enough to "show what." The more interesting task is to show why.

Take the children's tale of "The Tortoise and the Hare." A tortoise challenged a hare to a footrace. All the other animals came to see the "lopsided" race. The hare got off to a good start, took a large early lead, and then went to sleep halfway through the course. The tortoise persisted, overtook the hare, built a lead, and got to the finish line first, despite a late burst by the hare. That's a "show what" story that is suitable only for children.

Most adults would be interested in the "show whys." Why did the tortoise challenge the hare to a race at long odds? Was s/he tired of the hare's boasting. Did the tortoise feel that the hare would be overconfident and not take the race seriously, or perhaps had earlier observed the hare's tendency to procrastinate? Was the hare "hung over" on the day of the race, and did s/he have a drinking problem? Any of these factors would "shorten" the odds, and make the challenge less improbable.

Let's look afterward. Would the hare challenge the tortoise, the new "champion" to a rematch. Would the tortoise dare to accept? Or would the tortoise "retire" from the field, having made a point.

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What do you want to achieve? In the 'free market economy' bad news doesn't sell. Good must always overcome evil, wrongs must be avenged. "How I got away with killing the neighbour's puppy" isn't going to sell - however well it is written.

The "dry style" is probably unrelated to whether or not your story has a moral. Writing a novel requires a different style and skill-set than other disciplines. Most people would loathe to read a 100,000 word newspaper article.

Hopefully you will discover how to make your work more suspenseful and intriguing. But a linear tale of 'things that happened' is extremely hard to pull off. Readers need a reason to turn the page.

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