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By Heidi Vertrees  Many children love adventure stories, especially true ones, and so it’s natural they can also like writing true adventure stories. This post will show a real-life journey in Iceland, with tips along the way, to help you guide the children in your lives with writing their own true adventure stories. They can include elements of their faith as they record their recent travel experiences. Mission trip? Travels to relatives? Vacation in Florida? Exploring locally? Hiking? Fishing? Boating? These writing tips can help kids record these fun times, too.  …I yanked my warmest winter jacket, gloves, and ski cap from my luggage. As I scrambled to put them on, I stifled a groan. Winter clothes? It was early September! We stepped from the airport terminal into the frigid, morning air. Welcome to Iceland. After an overwatered cup of hot chocolate at the car rental, we headed north with Google Maps as our guide. About ten days prior a volcano had erupted nearby. Our spirits sunk when Google Maps told us the main road to Reykjavík was closed. We needed to detour through a lava bed. Well, our jeep could bust through the rough road, but where were we going? A few other guinea-pig tourists, also in rugged rental cars, joined us. Faint sunlight seeped through the grey, gloomy clouds. I prayed. After a mile or two, a vehicle approached us from the opposite direction. A man leaned out his window and yelled, “Go back! There’s a roadblock!” “Let’s see for ourselves!” declared my explorer-friend at the wheel.  Sure enough, lava rocks were piled across the road. No vehicle was getting through. We made a good tech decision and switched to Apple Maps. They reported the detour was not needed! We laughed—another good decision, and bounced back over the rugged road. I gawked at the moss-covered lava rocks spread all over the the fields. Being Iceland, we even saw a beautiful rainbow, while our wipers pushed away light drizzle. Ahead our hearts sang out when we saw the main highway again…The “Ring Road” would be our friend for eight days as we zoomed all around Iceland. We’d log over 1000 miles, including a diversion to a whaling community in the far north. TIPS FOR WRITERS HOW TO BEGIN Your young writers can each begin their adventure stories with an exciting scene and fill in enough details to make it interesting but also give some general information they want the readers to know from the start. In my case, I chose to answer the standard 5W’s and H (Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How/How much?). That included who was traveling and what we planned to do. Young writers should save some interesting aspects to weave into their stories for later. In the beginning, write only enough details so readers know where to put their feet, so to speak. But don’t get bogged down in details, nor interrupt the first exciting scene. I have not yet answered why we were on this wild trip, nor have I answered many how questions. Young writers can show the first scene with words that come alive for their readers. TIPS--
CLARIFY WHERE Early in the writing, help the readers picture the setting, even if it’s a nearby swimming hole. Describe the location and terrain in ways readers can enjoy imagining it. Afterall, they are ready to do “armchair traveling,” but they need to know where to start. Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, just south of the Arctic Circle. (A teensy bit even crosses into the Arctic Circle!) It’s 600 miles west of Norway and 178 miles southeast of Greenland. Iceland is on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which explains volcanic activity and interesting geothermal conditions there. WHY THIS ADVENTURE? The next good focus for the writers can be telling reasons why the adventure happened. To add depth to the retelling, challenge your writers to consider sharing specific struggles, too. An interesting story shows conflict, such as “man versus nature” as we had. Conflict can also be “man vs. man” or “man vs. self.” Before the trip, your group may want to choose a Bible verse as a "mission statement." More about this in a bit. The readers also want to know the writers’ motivations. What kept them going? What “lit their fires”? These are the why questions. Maybe your family planned a trip, but some were not eager to go. Did changes happen to motivate your travelers? That’s something to write about. They might want to write about their reluctance at first and then what changed their minds. What were they hoping or anticipating experiencing by going on the journey? How did that line up with what really happened on the family quest? (More about that last question later in this post.)  A while back I watched several YouTubes on Iceland and saw amazing waterfalls and icebergs. But I didn’t think I wanted a cold vacation even though I do dislike muggy, summer weather here in Maryland. Last July my life-long friend texted me that she was going to Iceland. I thought-- Have fun! Have fun without me, that is. However, did I say, lifelong friend? Was she really going to do this alone? No way! When my husband gave me a head nod, “Yes, you can go. I won’t mind if you join her…” I texted back—Would you like a buddy? DEEPEN THE STORY HOW DID IT GO?
Your young writers might want to share a Bible verse or Scripture words that cheered them along and became their personal “mission statements” to guide them through their trip. Before my travels, I embraced the keywords-- Be humble, be courageous, pray. Here are some Scripture verses to consider in planning the adventure:
Here is a link for Joshua 1:9 that’s quite a clever video from Hillsong Kids-- https://youtu.be/Iyp7WNusPDg?si=8vwXv67Li-zlFTXk
https://youtu.be/W3dEMcdHLVQ?si=66j4Gfag6IVpyQF6 Psalm 73:28 https://youtu.be/P6qO3b8TQMY?si=33NTS1-dDhsL_tz9 Proverbs 3:5-6 https://youtu.be/5SVcXXSCgI4?si=QTWolAitsp4qz2_d 1 John 4:14 The last one is particularly good if your young writers are eager to share the Gospel on their adventure, whether it’s an organized mission trip or a God-led, spontaneous journey for your travelers. These verses can become a heart chant or cheer throughout the journey and a focus to revisit when reflecting on the adventure. In their writing, they can share how the adventure impacted their faith. Did they sense God giving them courage at moments when they were afraid of the unknown? Did they remember to pray and also praise God for his love and protection? Did they seek God’s counsel during frustrating moments? Did they marvel at God for creating so much beauty in this world? Your young writers might want to answer these how’s as a daily, chronological journal of the adventure, or the writers might want to jump into the exciting parts. For instance, if alligators were spotted from the airboat in the Florida Everglades, your writer might want to skip describing the drive to the Everglades and instead focus here. BREATHERS FOR THE READERS However, you may want to caution your writers, that if they jump into all the exciting parts, it might be too much action all at once for their readers— What if I had leapt from the lava fields to when we were surrounded by remote mountains and sheep and our dashboard shouted—LOW GAS TANK! Instead, it may be good to give some general pleasant moments in between. Breathers for the readers, such as enjoying outdoor hot springs in the night while looking up at the stars. Iceland is an amazing geographic country with immense mountains, waterfalls, and rainbows, but few trees. I found it delicious to round every bend in the road to discover a new scene and see what wonder God had placed before us. I also prayed every day, not only would our trip go well, but that it would be a refreshment for my friend who had had tough challenges for a long while. It gave me joy to see her laugh and have fun, and we sure had some good belly laughs along the way.  PERSONAL REFLECTIONS MAKE A GOOD CLOSE Writers are wise to finish the recounting of their journeys with a wrap-up closing that helps readers settle into the ending. You can ask your young writers, perhaps while they look over trip photos…
They might begin with sentences such as… I’ll never forget… God's light shone when... I can still see… What most impressed me… For me, Bible keywords -- Be humble, be courageous, pray—carry me sweetly through trips. I marvel at the vastness of Iceland, miles and miles of dramatic yet stark, natural beauty, enormous mountain ranges, and incredible waterfalls. I see a God who created an island nation where inhabitants can dig into their earth to get amazing heat for homes and even greenhouses to produce food in an otherwise harsh land. I see a God who scatters spectacular, iridescent lights across the sky to bring cheer throughout long, northern winter nights.  ANOTHER SOURCE FOR ADVENTURE WRITING FOR YOUNG WRITERS Your family may want to read award-winning Victor Survives Being a Kid, to see how Victor, a boy in middle school, shares his exciting adventures with humor, courage, and faith. I wrote this contemporary fiction book as told through the eyes and voice of a boy in Colorado.
 Copyright 2025, newSong Press. Copies are permitted for teaching purposes.
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