He looks in the book, finds the Egyptian for palm trees, and uses that. The writer learns they have palm trees in Egypt. But it's a doubtful move to stop and tell the reader in so many words the English Text will tell this, or someone can repeat it in English. Khabar, eyh?" To keep the reader from getting dizzy, it's perhaps wise to make it clear in some fashion, just what that means. He wants a character to ask in Egyptian, "What's the matter?" He looks in the book and finds, "El For a story laid in Egypt, say, author finds a book titled "Conversational Egyptian Easily Here's a nifty much used in faking local color. Much about the locale as the editor, or enough to fool him. It sometimes saves embarrassment to know nearly as Selecting one that fits in with the murder method and the treasure-thing that villain wants-makes it simpler, and it'sĪlso nice to use a familiar one, a place where you've lived or worked. The different thing for the villain to be after might be something other than jewels, the stolen bank loot, the pearls, or some other old ones. Probably it won't do a lot of good to be too odd, fanciful or grotesque with murder methods. Scribes who have their villain's victims found with butterflies, spiders or bats stamped on them could conceivably be flirting with this gag. If the victims are killed by ordinary methods, but found under strange and identical circumstances each time, it might serve, the reader of course not knowing until the end, that the method of murder is Thinking of shooting, knifing, hydrocyanic, garroting, poison needles, scorpions, a few others,Īnd writing them on paper gets them where they may suggest something. Scorpions and their poison bite? Maybe mosquitos or flies treated with deadly germs?
It may help if they are fully in mind before tackling the rest.Ī different murder method could be-different. One of these DIFFERENT things would be nice, two better, three swell. A MENACE WHICH IS TO HANG LIKE A CLOUD OVER HERO A DIFFERENT THING FOR VILLAIN TO BE SEEKINGĤ. A DIFFERENT MURDER METHOD FOR VILLAIN TO USEĢ. The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.ġ. No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words. It tells exactly where to put everything. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story.