Reading: The Smart Set
Music: Tom Waits "Used Songs"
Link o' the Day: The Lester Dent Pulp Master Fiction Plot

So over at the SFWA newsgroups, there has been a discussion about the Ten Ideas of SF. It was determined that what the original poster was looking for was the Three Ideas according to Heinlein (If This Goes On..., The Little Tailor, and Boy Meets Girl).

Nick Pollata came up with seven which he presented as:

#1 - A stranger comes into town.
#2 - Find the treasure.
#3 - Kill the dragon.
#4 - Romeo and Juliet
#5 - An incredible journey.
#6 - A struggle to survive.
#7 - An amazing discovery

So in going through this topic, I have ten total basic SF-relatable plots (although Boy Meets Girl and Romeo & Juliet insersect at places). I got curious to see how some of my stories fit in. Let's see now...

"Dragonscaling for Beginners" - An Incredible Journey with a mix of Find the Treasure and Amazing Discovery

"Hypnosis In Five Scenes" - Amazing Discovery with some If This Goes On

"A Small Goddess" - Amazing Discovery and Boy Meets Girl (kinda.. the "boy" is a cat)

"Digger Don't Take No Requests" - Struggle to Survive/Incredible Journey with a dash of Stranger Comes To Town

"Interworld Truck Kings Artists Collective - Kill the (spiritual) Dragon/Struggle to Survive with a touch of Find the Treasure and Romeo & Juliet

"The Other Side of Tecumseh" - Incredible Journey/Kill the Dragon (maybe) and Amazing Discovery

"Dignity" - Struggle to Survive and Boy Meets Girl (one is an alien, however)

"Rolf at Ragnarok" - Stranger Comes to Town/Incredible Journey/Kill the Dragon/

"Will of the Whisps" - Stranger Comes to Town/Amazing Discovery

"Fulton's Monster" - Amazing Discovery

"Walter Gibson's Mechanical Cat" - The Little Tailor/Amazing Discovery

All right, I'm not going to list everything, but just in typing out this little list I can see that Amazing Discovery leads the pack. I suppose that makes sense considering most of what I write is SFnal. In most of the examples above, the Amazing Discovery schtick involves the story's plot twist. This seems to run true of many of the short stories I enjoy--and when I think about it more, I have a certain fondness (read: preference) for older shorts from the 50s and 60s. I've been acused of writing in a Golden Age style more than once.

So now I'll need to cogitate on what this all means and how (if at all) it will improve my writing overall.

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In other news, I will most likely not be making a post tomorrow night as Pretty Maggie is only about twenty minutes now from my house for a nice quiet/noisy weekend together. (Yay, me!) I'll probably have something for Sunday night, however.

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And today's link-o-the-day leads to The Lester Dent Pulp Master Fiction Plot. It's an interesting little page and anyone out there who reads old pulp fiction will probably begin nodding to themself about halfway through the page. The danger, of course, for writers today is that it's _not_ a very successful model any longer. Most editors look for more sophistication in storytelling.

Still, it's not a bad basic plot example to look at if stuck for ideas or direction. You can always refine it later.

Cheers!

--John Teehan