How to Write Pulp Fiction
Title:: How to Write Pulp Fiction (Bell on Writing)
Year:: 2017
Author:: Bell, James Scott
Genre::
Rating:: 4
date finished:: 2018-08-08
Pulp is not a dirty word
Some pretty solid advice in here that I can definitely see myself using in my own writing. Will definitely have a play around with the guys generator.
Highlights
To aid in this, editor Jodie Renner suggests fifteen questions to give your betas:
- Did the story hold your interest from the very beginning? If not, why not?
- Did you get oriented fairly quickly at the beginning as to whose story it is, and where and when it’s taking place? If not, why not?
- Could you relate to the main character? Did you feel her/his pain or excitement?
- Did the setting interest you, and did the descriptions seem vivid and real to you?
- Was there a point at which you felt the story started to lag or you became less than excited about finding out what was going to happen next? Where, exactly?
- Were there any parts that confused you? Or even frustrated or annoyed you? Which parts, and why?
- Did you notice any discrepancies or inconsistencies in time sequences, places, character details, or other details?
- Were the characters believable? Are there any characters you think could be made more interesting or more likable?
- Did you get confused about who’s who in the characters? Were there too many characters to keep track of? Too few? Are any of the names or characters too similar?
- Did the dialogue keep your interest and sound natural to you? If not, whose dialogue did you think sounded artificial or not like that person would speak?
- Did you feel there was too much description or exposition? Not enough? Maybe too much dialogue in parts?
- Was there enough conflict, tension, and intrigue to keep your interest?
- Was the ending satisfying? Believable?
- Did you notice any obvious, repeating grammatical, spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors? Examples?
- Do you think the writing style suits the genre? If not, why not? — location: [228]
Start by creating what’s called an “elevator pitch.” That is, a three-sentence squib that gives you the basic, high-concept spine of your story. 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. — location: [291])
Now you decide which idea you want to develop into a plot. My own practice is to go through my lists periodically and sense which ones jump out at me. Get me wondering. Have me seeing a potential story. I put these into a file I call “Front Burner Concepts.” I’ll then spend half an hour typing a free-form document, talking to myself about the idea. I’ll put down potential plot twists, stakes, characters, motivations. A story will begin to take shape. — location: [436]
Style and Characterization — location: [583]
How to add voice to your writing
Choose a "hot spot" in your scene, such as between two actions by your character.
Open up a new document and spend some time free writing about the characters' emotional landscape at that moment in time. Don't worry about punctuation or sense or anything, just write down everything that your character could be thinking and feeling at that point.
Go have a cup of tea. Leave the writing alone for half an hour.
When you come back to it, pick a few sentences from your free writing to add to the manuscript at that point. Not everything will be gold, but it doesn't matter.
Pick two or three places in each scene to do this to add style and characterisation to the chapter.
The hot spot is like this: “There’s no easy way to put this,” Dirk said. “It’s Hank, isn’t it?” Dirk nodded. Jen put her hand on her mouth. Closed her eyes. A pitiful whimper sounded in her throat. Dirk said, “You need to sit down.” “Don’t tell me that!” Jen turned and ran upstairs. A door slammed. Dirk thought for a moment about going after her. But he decided to let it go. She needed time to be alone. He took a sip of coffee. It was bitter and lukewarm. Then he put the cup down and left through the front door. — location: [601]
Yeah, bitter and lukewarm, like my damn life, like it’s always been, and Pop told me that’s what I was, lukewarm and a coward, afraid to face anybody or anything, so when I left home for the first time at sixteen I made sure I screamed in his face How’s this for lukewarm! How’s this, Pop! I’m getting out for good! and all he could do was stare at me like I wasn’t even his son, like I was an alien or something, and here I am in the middle of this thing, this killing, and my damn soul is as cool as that damn coffee, because I don’t really care, I closed off caring, remember when you did that, pal, you were in San Antonio that time, that one time you found somebody who really cared about you, loved you in fact, that’s what she said, and you used her for a week then walked out on her and never looked back, so why don’t you for once follow up on something and go up there and tell this woman you’re not going to walk out on this, you’re going to find out who killed Hank, and if you do maybe you’ll connect with a person like a real human being is supposed to … — location: [612]^ref-4287