From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.composition

A recent rec.arts.sf.written post made me curious about Doc Savage.
Lester Dent reportedly wrote formulaic stories.
The promise of a guaranteed successful story motivated a lifelong,
low level, quest within me to discover the exact nature of this storied, almighty formula.
At first it was ?erroneously? presumed that one universal formula
ruled them all, in this case "them" being successful formulaic authors.
Lately it seems that the formula varies by author. Here's an excerpt of
Lester Dent's formula. (Follow the link for the unabridged version.)

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6,000 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.

(excerpt)

https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

ry<

Thank you,
--
Don
)\._.,--....,'``.
/, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,.
`._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
My cat's telltale, tall tail tells tall tales.


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.composition

Archived link prepended.

A recent rec.arts.sf.written post made me curious about Doc Savage.
Lester Dent reportedly wrote formulaic stories.
The promise of a guaranteed successful story motivated a lifelong,
low level, quest within me to discover the exact nature of this storied, almighty formula.
At first it was ?erroneously? presumed that one universal formula
ruled them all, in this case "them" being successful formulaic authors.
Lately it seems that the formula varies by author. Here's an excerpt of
Lester Dent's formula. (Follow the link for the unabridged version.)

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6,000 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.

(excerpt)

https://web.archive.org/web/20160121204339/https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

ry<

Thank you,
--
Don
)\._.,--....,'``.
/, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,.
`._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
My cat's telltale, tall tail tells tall tales.


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.composition

In article <20190730ba@crcomp.net>, D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> wrote:

Archived link prepended.

A recent rec.arts.sf.written post made me curious about Doc Savage.
Lester Dent reportedly wrote formulaic stories.
The promise of a guaranteed successful story motivated a lifelong,
low level, quest within me to discover the exact nature of this storied, >almighty formula.
At first it was ?erroneously? presumed that one universal formula
ruled them all, in this case "them" being successful formulaic authors. >Lately it seems that the formula varies by author. Here's an excerpt of >Lester Dent's formula. (Follow the link for the unabridged version.)

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6,000 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.

(excerpt)


https://web.archive.org/web/20160121204339/https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

Thanks; I shall read this when I get over seething over all my
copies of Graydon's novels having disappeared.
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.composition

D B Davis wrote:

Archived link prepended.

A recent rec.arts.sf.written post made me curious about Doc Savage.
Lester Dent reportedly wrote formulaic stories.
The promise of a guaranteed successful story motivated a lifelong,
low level, quest within me to discover the exact nature of this storied, almighty formula.
At first it was ?erroneously? presumed that one universal formula
ruled them all, in this case "them" being successful formulaic authors. Lately it seems that the formula varies by author. Here's an excerpt of Lester Dent's formula. (Follow the link for the unabridged version.)

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6,000 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.

(excerpt)

https://web.archive.org/web/20160121204339/https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

https://www.altuspress.com/lester-dent-and-the-master-fiction-plot/

ry<

Thank you,

Michael Moorcock is also someone who had a formulaic system for
a time. It was back when he was a struggling writer and needed
to pump out a lot of books to make rent. After his career took
off, he abandoned the system and started using more
sophisticated story structures.

Here's a link: https://thepulparchvist.blogspot.com/2016/11/michael-moorcocks-three-day-novel.html

and a link to some more story structures for formula writing: https://othernetwork.com/2014/11/16/6-formulas-for-formula-fiction-by-jim-denney-via-michael-moorcock/

Perhaps it's a statement that formulaic writing does so well
in the marketplace. Everyone wants to make something
groundbreaking, but it is often pragmatic to go with the
tried-and-true
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