This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words.
No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.
The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.
The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
Dent goes on to explain point by point, chunk by chunk, what must go into a marketable pulp story. I don’t know if this formula would still be effective today, but I suspect it could still be of some use to genre writers.
Thanks to Trevor for telling me about this a couple years ago, at one of the very first PDX0 meetups. I only just decided to find it today.
September 3, 2009 at 12:13 am
It’s a marvelous piece, glad you’ve found it. There are other plot generators out there but this one is a favorite. I certainly read my share of Doc Savage tales told by this engine.