“It's a damn good story. If you have any comments, write them on the
back of a check.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, 1889-1970
― Erle Stanley Gardner, 1889-1970
I’ve hit a stage in my life where writing time is at an all-time
minimal; I also find myself getting bogged down in research and plotting. Erle
Stanley Gardner was a practicing trial attorney who set out to make a living
writing and succeeded. How did he do it? After initially receiving a slew of rejections, he turned his mind into a plotting
machine.
He broke down the components of the genre he wrote, created
a very successful structure and set minimal word count goals for himself. Mr. Gardner wrote 4000-5000 words a day, 100,000
words a month and a million words a year for nearly 10 years. Now at the time
he got his start, it was the height of the pulp fiction market, and product was
key to making a living. Does this sound familiar in this age of
self-publishing? Product is everything.
As part of his process of learning how to plot, Gardner turned to
plotting wheels. He purportedly had nine wheels for each story question, but
the Harry Ransom Center of The University of Texas at Austin only has
displayed four that I’ve been able to locate on line: “Solution,” “Wheel of
Complicating Circumstances,” “Wheel of hostile minor characters who function in
making complications for hero,” and “Wheel of blind trails by which the hero is
mislead (sic) or confused.”
Gardner’s speed was
such that he wrote several books at a time; he would Theory
of Plotting. The beauty of the system is the writer doesn’t latch on to the
same old tired sequence in their writing.
For those who write romantic suspense, I think Gardner’s
wheels can be adapted. I’m creating one for weapons and legalities for my legal
thrillers. For other genres, it’s a
matter of listing the components of that genre. Writing a contemporary romance?
The hostile minor characters could be a boss, a family member, an
ex-boyfriend/girlfriend, a best friend and so forth. And what about the 12
Steps to Intimacy placed on a wheel? That can really shake things up.
Writing is writing, and I know I can learn from an old
master who created the iconic character Perry Mason who was featured in 82
novels, on radio, TV and now is being brought to the big screen by Robert
Downey Jr. After all, in a career that spanned five decades, Erle Stanley
Gardner, 1889-1970, sold more than seven hundred fictional works, including 127
novels. Adding in four hundred articles and more than a dozen travel tomes, his
overall creative total climbed past eleven hundred, embracing 155 published
books in thirty- seven languages around the world.
Are you looking forward to Robert Downey Jr. taking on the
iconic Perry Mason or did Raymond Burr put an indelible stamp on the character?
Carol Stephenson, writing as C.J. StevensWebsite
7 comments:
Love the quote. Here's another: "You can't quarrel with success."
Oh, he created Perry Mason?! I love him already. And I love the idea of plot wheels - have never seen those! Thanks for the info. :)
Write your comments on the back of a check? Perfect.
Any links to these plot wheels Gardner used? I write mysteries and plotting is so important, the wheels sound like a clever device I'd find useful.
Plot wheels? Zowie. Very Interesting. Thanks for sharing
Plot wheels sound like fun, Carol -- I'd love to know more about them. Those old pulp writers sure knew what they were doing. Anyone heard of Lester Dent? He wrote many of the Doc Savage novels, and created the Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot (http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html), which still works.
Jean, here's the link to the images of the wheels:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/teachingthetwenties/zoom.php?urn=urn:utlol:american.txu-hrc-0209b&theme=modern§ion=murder&pageq=2
Yes! Carol, can you do an "I Spy" for us on Plot Wheels? That would be awesome!
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