Friday, May 28, 2010

Writing is Hard: The Master Fiction Plot



Even though it's been around longer than I've been alive, I don't think I've read Lester Dent's (Doc Savage) essay on how to write successful Pulp fiction before now. I'm much less fond of writing-formulas and templates than I used to be, but Dent obviously had a lot of luck with it. So while I can't see myself using it a lot, I do think it would be a fun exercise to at least try it out on an appropriate story.

2 comments:

Café Lopez said...

I say take your favorite pulp fiction, identify what you love most about them, and then emulate until you find your own voice. Screw formulas man. And I don't ever get a 'real' headshot. Yours is perfect.

Michael May said...

Ha! Thanks for that about the headshot. :)

And I totally agree with you about the proper way to be influenced. I think it would be fun to try out Dent's formula for a story, but I could never make a habit of it. I'd get bored.

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