Lester Dent wrote all his Doc Savage stories according to a master plot he had worked out:
The Lester Dent Pulp
Paper Master Fiction Plot
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.
Here's how it starts:
1. A
DIFFERENT MURDER METHOD FOR VILLAIN TO USE
2. A DIFFERENT THING FOR VILLAIN
TO BE SEEKING
3. A DIFFERENT LOCALE
4. A MENACE WHICH IS TO HANG LIKE A
CLOUD OVER HERO
One of these DIFFERENT things would be nice, two better,
three swell. It may help if they are fully in mind before tackling the
rest.
A different murder method could be--different. Thinking of
shooting, knifing, hydrocyanic, garroting, poison needles, scorpions, a few
others, and writing them on paper gets them where they may suggest
something. Scorpions and their poison bite? Maybe mosquitos or flies treated
with deadly germs?
If the victims are killed
by ordinary methods, but found under strange and identical circumstances each
time, it might serve, the reader of course not knowing until the end, that the
method of murder is ordinary.
Scribes who have their villain's victims
found with butterflies, spiders or bats stamped on them could conceivably be
flirting with this gag.
Probably it won't do a lot of good to be too odd,
fanciful or grotesque with murder methods.
The different thing for the
villain to be after might be something other than jewels, the stolen bank loot,
the pearls, or some other old ones.
Here, again one might get too
bizarre.
Unique locale? Easy. Selecting one that fits in with the murder
method and the treasure--thing that villain wants--makes it simpler, and
it's
also nice to use a familiar one, a place where you've lived or worked.
So many pulpateers don't. It sometimes saves embarrassment to know nearly as
much about the locale as the editor, or enough to fool him.
Here's a
nifty much used in faking local color. For a story laid in Egypt, say, author
finds a book titled "Conversational Egyptian Easily Learned," or something like
that. He wants a character to ask in Egyptian, "What's the matter?" He looks in
the book and finds, "El khabar, eyh?" To keep the reader from getting dizzy,
it's perhaps wise to make it clear in some fashion, just what that means.
Occasionally the text will tell this, or someone can repeat it in English. But
it's a doubtful move to stop and tell the reader in so many words the English
translation.
The writer learns they have palm
trees in Egypt. He looks in the book, finds the Egyptian for palm trees, and
uses that. This kids editors and readers into thinking he knows something about
Egypt.
Here's the second installment
of the master plot.
Divide the 6000 word yarn into four 1500 word parts.
In each 1500 word part, put the following:
FIRST 1500
WORDS
1--First line, or as near thereto as possible, introduce the
hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble. Hint at a mystery, a menace or a
problem to be solved--something the hero has to cope with.
2--The hero
pitches in to cope with his fistful of trouble. (He tries to fathom the mystery,
defeat the menace, or solve the problem.)
3--Introduce ALL the other
characters as soon as possible. Bring them on in action.
4--Hero's
endevours land him in an actual physical conflict near the end of the first 1500
words.
5--Near the end of first 1500 words, there is a complete surprise
twist in the plot development.
SO FAR: Does it have SUSPENSE?
Is
there a MENACE to the hero?
Does everything happen
logically?
At this point, it might help to
recall that action should do something besides advance the hero over the
scenery. Suppose the hero has learned the dastards of villains have seized
somebody named Eloise, who can explain the secret of what is behind all these
sinister events. The hero corners villains, they fight, and villains get away.
Not so hot.
Hero should accomplish
something with his tearing around, if only to rescue Eloise, and surprise!
Eloise is a ring-tailed monkey. The hero counts the rings on Eloise's tail, if
nothing better comes to mind.
They're not real. The rings are painted there.
Why?
SECOND 1500 WORDS
1--Shovel more grief onto the
hero.
2--Hero, being heroic, struggles, and his struggles lead up
to:
3--Another physical conflict.
4--A surprising plot twist to
end the 1500 words.
NOW: Does second part have SUSPENSE?
Does the
MENACE grow like a black cloud?
Is the hero getting it in the neck?
Is the
second part logical?
DON'T TELL ABOUT IT***Show how the thing looked.
This is one of the secrets of writing; never tell the reader--show him. (He
trembles, roving eyes, slackened jaw, and such.) MAKE THE READER SEE
HIM.
When writing, it helps to get at least one minor surprise to the
printed page. It is reasonable to to expect these minor surprises to sort of
inveigle the reader into keeping on. They need not be such profound efforts. One
method of accomplishing one now and then is to be gently misleading. Hero is
examining the murder room. The door behind him begins slowly to open. He does
not see it. He conducts his examination blissfully. Door eases open, wider and
wider, until--surprise! The glass pane falls out of the big window across the
room. It must have fallen slowly, and air blowing into the room caused the door
to open. Then what the heck made the pane fall so slowly? More
mystery.
Characterizing a story actor consists of giving him some things
which make him stick in the reader's mind. TAG HIM.
BUILD YOUR PLOTS SO
THAT ACTION CAN BE CONTINUOUS.
THIRD 1500
WORDS
1--Shovel the grief onto the hero.
2--Hero makes some
headway, and corners the villain or somebody in:
3--A physical
conflict.
4--A surprising plot twist, in which the hero preferably gets
it in the neck bad, to end the 1500 words.
DOES: It still have
SUSPENSE?
The MENACE getting blacker?
The hero finds himself in a hell of
a fix?
It all happens logically?
These outlines or master formulas are
only something to make you certain of inserting some physical conflict, and some
genuine plot twists, with a little suspense and menace thrown in. Without them,
there is no pulp story.
These physical conflicts in each part might be
DIFFERENT, too. If one fight is with fists, that can take care of the pugilism
until next the next yarn. Same for poison gas and swords. There may, naturally,
be exceptions. A hero with a peculiar punch, or a quick draw, might use it more
than once.
The idea is to avoid monotony.
ACTION:
Vivid, swift,
no words wasted. Create suspense, make the reader see and feel the
action.
ATMOSPHERE:
Hear, smell, see, feel and
taste.
DESCRIPTION:
Trees, wind, scenery and water.
THE SECRET
OF ALL WRITING IS TO MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT.
FOURTH 1500 WORDS
1--Shovel the difficulties more
thickly upon the hero.
2--Get the hero almost buried in his troubles.
(Figuratively, the villain has him prisoner and has him framed for a murder rap;
the girl is presumably dead, everything is lost, and the DIFFERENT murder method
is about to dispose of the suffering protagonist.)
3--The hero extricates
himself using HIS OWN SKILL, training or brawn.
4--The mysteries
remaining--one big one held over to this point will help grip interest--are
cleared up in course of final conflict as hero takes
the situation in
hand.
5--Final twist, a big surprise, (This can be the villain turning
out to be the unexpected person, having the "Treasure" be a dud,
etc.)
6--The snapper, the punch line to end it.
HAS: The SUSPENSE
held out to the last line?
The MENACE held out to the last?
Everything
been explained?
It all happen logically?
Is the Punch Line enough to leave
the reader with that WARM FEELING?
Did God kill the villain? Or the
hero?
* * *
Doc Savage stories actually tended to end up with the main villian dying as a result of an attempt to kill Doc Savage backfiring on them. But at any rate this "master plot" served Lester Dent well on his long stint on the series. He wrote all but twenty of the original stories.
You don't ordinarily find Lester Dent's name on Doc Savage magazines as they ordinarily used the house name "Kenneth Robeson" which has been used ever since on later reprints. The only time Dent's name appeared in the credits was when the March 1944 issue, "The Derelict of Skull Shoal", was accidentally credited to Lester Dent.
