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|    Message 144,735 of 144,800    |
|    D B Davis to All    |
|    Lester Dent and the Master Fiction Plot    |
|    30 Jul 19 16:29:36    |
      From: g@crcomp.net              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/              ā®              Thank you,              --       Don        )\._.,--....,'``.       /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,.       `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'       My cat's telltale, tall tail tells tall tales.              --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05        * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)    |
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