Pulp Era Writing Tips by Bryce Beattie

Author:Bryce Beattie
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-05-23T05:00:00+00:00

This analysis is fairly broad, and as the material offered seems to call for a plot of a more leisurely type than the one we last evolved, it might be well for us to open our working plot with the inciting motive. This, it appears to us, is found in the surgeon’s decision to operate on the afflicted soldier. Very good. The crisis? The operation itself. The crucial situation? When the soldier regains consciousness in the character that was his before his mind became affected. The climax, of course, is when the girl renews the pressure of that part of the unfortunate man’s brain upon which the surgeon operated.

We now draw a working plot:

(Inciting motive): Soldier is informed by his sweet heart-nurse that he is to be operated on within the hour. (First incident of plot development): They discuss the matter and its many possibilities. (First moment of suspense): Surgeon says operation may fail. (Second incident of plot development): Questions soldier, bringing to light his unique record back to the time of his injury. (Cause of crisis): He is wheeled to operating room. (Crisis): Operation, the nurse assisting. (Second moment of suspense): He is brought back to his room, still under the influence of ether. (Crucial situation): He regains consciousness in his true character and, not knowing the girl, upbraids her in harsh language, and blurts out that he is a famous highwayman, of whom she has heard. (Cause of climax): The girl decides there is but one thing for her to do: the operation must be a failure. (Climax): Girl lightly presses “danger” spot on sleeping soldier’s head. (Denouement and conclusion): He regains consciousness and, the operation failing because of the pressure the girl applied to his head, proves to be the tender lover she has always known.

There are great possibilities in the above plot, especially if the writer is equipped to deal authoritatively with the dual personality angle; but the author who knows little about the mechanism of the human mind would do well to side-step the psychological lead and follow some other line of reasoning in working up the plot. He would find the experiment not only interesting but instructive, and if he has his proper share of creative ability, he should be able to work out a plot which, when compared with the one we have just unfolded, would show no signs of having sprung from the same basic idea.

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