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Lester Dent Pulp Master Fiction Plot
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Cyn
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May 20, 2014 07:46AM
Has anyone tried using the Lester Dent Pulp Master Fiction Plot? When I am writing fantasy, I am usually a panster; however, in other genres (working on a cozy) I found that I needed a basic plot to get the form in my head. I am using a modified form of this plot plan. Anyone else use it? and, how successful were you?
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Mod
Okay-- then are you considered an extreme plotter? I am on the extreme panster end and don't usually use even an overarching plot. It has been helping though with the mystery. Maybe. I found extreme plotting (chapter by chapter, scene by scene) stops my stories cold.
Mod
Me, I have to pants through the outline. I head, like Terry Pratchett, into the Valley Full of Clouds:
I certainly don't sit down and plan a book out before I write it. There's a phrase I use called "The Valley Full of Clouds." Writing a novel is as if you are going off on a journey across a valley. The valley is full of mist, but you can see the top of a tree here and the top of another tree over there. And with any luck you can see the other side of the valley. But you cannot see down into the mist. Nevertheless, you head for the first tree.
The thing is, I am blazing the path, not yet building the full thing with the necessary drainage and bridges. Yet. I still have to go tree to tree to find the way.
So we probably write similarly -- I get the idea, start writing, and when I stop I either continue on the same track, or realize I have to jump tracks. Then I decide that maybe I need to add something exciting. I come from a storytelling family so it is hard to write scenes unless they connect. ;-) Writing scenes out of context-- not my thing. I find it interesting though.
Mod
Mary wrote: "Nah, extreme plotters start from the top and go down.Me, I have to pants through the outline. I head, like Terry Pratchett, into the Valley Full of Clouds:
I certainly don't sit down and plan a..."
I probably wander around in this valley. It works best when I know the ending and how it starts. Then it doesn't matter that I don't know what the heck happens in the middle. A certain amount of logic can carry you some part of the way. Then you need a cool sub-idea.
I've read it once or twice and thought "that fantasy idea about looking for Amazons" might fit but never sat down and tried it.Apparently Moorcock used it for a lot of his early stuff.
Mod
Oh, yes.
"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." -- Yogi Berra
Though in my experience, it's the middle of nowhere if I don't know. But how vague the destination is doesn't matter.
Mary wrote: "Nah, extreme plotters start from the top and go down.Me, I have to pants through the outline. I head, like Terry Pratchett, into the Valley Full of Clouds:
I certainly don't sit down and plan a..."
I have to admit, setting out each scene in advance sounds like extreme plotting to me. What does it mean "starting from the top and going down"? You wrote this a while ago, so if you don't recall, we will understand.
Mod
Like this:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com...
And I do not set out each scheme in advance; I do it when I come to it. Which is how it is done in a first draft, too.
Mary wrote: "I have actually read people who start with a one line summary of the book. Then they expand it to four lines. Then they expand it. . . .Like this:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com......"
Ah, hah. Now I understand.
Mary wrote: "I have actually read people who start with a one line summary of the book. Then they expand it to four lines. Then they expand it. . . .Like this:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com......"
I was thinking you did all the scenes. I think Elizabeth George does all the scenes.
I am this time...combined with plotting what scenes I need (at least enough to anchor 0, 1500, 3000, 4500, 6000).
