How to Write Pulp Fiction (Bell on Writing)

by James Scott Bell

Sentence one is character + vocation + current situation. Sentence two starts with “When” and is what I call the Doorway of No Return––the thing that pushes the Lead into the main plot. Sentence three begins with “Now” and the death (physical, professional, or psychological/spiritual) stakes.

basically brian cohens formula for his sizzling synopsis business.

Play the first-line game (one of my favorite exercises). Just write some great opening lines. You don’t have to know anything about the plot or the characters. Just make it a line that would absolutely grab the lapels of a reader and make them read the next line.

Fun!!

Lester Dent’s Master Fiction Plot One of the most successful of the pulp writers was Lester Dent (1904-1959). In his relatively short life he churned out at least 175 novels, most of them about the titular character Doc Savage