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WRITING POPULAR FICTIONBY DEAN R. KOONTZWRITER'S DIGEST CINCINNATI

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPodkayne of Mars is copyright 1963, by Robert A. Heinlein, and is published inhardcovers by G.P. Putnams Sons. The Puppet Masters is copyright 1951, by RobertA. Heinlein, and is published in hardcovers by Doubleday and Company, Inc. Thesections from these works appearing in this book are reprinted by permission ofthe author and his agent Lurton Blassingame. Quotations from Thorns, Nightwings,and The Masks of Time are copyright 1967, 1968, and 1969 by Robert Silver-berg,and are reprinted by permission of the author and his agent Scott MeredithLiterary Agency, Inc. Big Planet is copyright 1957 by Jack Vance and is quoted bypermission of the author. Don't Lie to Me is copyright 1972 by Tucker Coe,published in hardcovers by Random House, and is quoted by permission of the authorand his agent Henry Morrison. Legacy of Terror, Demon Child are copyright 1971 byDeanna Dwyer and are quoted by permission of the author. The Haunted Earth iscopyright 1973 by Dean R. Koontz. The appearance of the original sample chapterand outline, from which it was sold, is by permission of Lancer Books.Design: Fred LiebermanSecond printing, 1974.Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-92664ISBN 0-911654-21-6Writer's Digest 9933 Alliance Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio 45242Copyright 1972 by Dean R. Koontz. All rights reserved Printed in the United

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States of America ToLynne Ellinwood, whose suggestions made thisa much better book than it might have been,And toRobert Hoskins,who taught me mostof what I'm now teaching,with apologiesfor beating him to the punchwith this book A NOTE TO THE READERThis book can be valuable to the new writer. It provides insights into categoryfiction, offers suggestions not to be found elsewhere, and ought to save you timeand rejection slips on the way to a sound, professional writing career. I will bepleased to hear from anyone who, having read the book, feels he's gained from it.However, spare me letters that say:-"You forgot to mention theme!" I didn't forget. I neglected it on purpose. Thetheme, the "meaning" of a story, is not something you can sit down and plan outahead of time. Or, anyhow, it shouldn't be. Theme should grow from your charactersand your plot, naturally, almost subconsciously. If you sit down to deliver aGreat Message to the reader, above all else, then you are an essayist, not anovelist.-"Some of these writers whose books you recommend are not really that terriblygood." I know. For the most part, I've tried to point you to the best people ineach field. But, occasionally, a mediocre writer achieves such stunning successthat he must be mentioned in the discussion of his genre. If, out of the hundredsof books I recommend, I steer you to a couple of bums, please realize that you canlearn something from those bums, if only the taste of a large part of that genre'sreadership.

-"You list seven science fiction plot types, but I have found an eighth!" Okay.But it may be the only one of its kind; and with enough thought and enoughfamiliarity with the field-Western, suspense, science fiction or whatever-youprobably will find it fits into my list just fine.-"You don't show us how to make writing easy!" I know I don't. It's hard work, andit's frustrating, and it's lonely. I'm writing this to inform you, not deceiveyou. So set to work, and good luck!CONTENTS1 Hammer, Nails, and Wood <D:My eBooks" l >2 Science Fiction and Fantasy <D:My eBooks" l >3 Suspense <D:My eBooks" l >4 Mysteries <D:My eBooks" l >5 Gothic-Romance <D:My eBooks" l >6 Westerns <D:My eBooks" l >7 Erotica <D:My eBooks" l >8 The Most Important Chapter in This Book <D:My eBooks" l >9 Other Questions <D:My eBooks" l >10 Practicalities: Questions and Answers <D:My eBooks" l >11 Marketing Category Fiction: Questions and Answers <D:My eBooks" l > CHAPTER ONE Hammer, Nails, and WoodBasically, there are two general kinds of modern fiction: category and"mainstream." The first includes those stories we can easily apply labels to-science fiction, fantasy, mystery, suspense, Gothic, Western, erotica-and iscalled category fiction chiefly for the convenience of publishers, editors,reviewers, and booksellers, who must categorize novels to differentiate areas ofinterest for potential readers. The second, mainstream fiction, is anything whichdoes not comfortably fit into one of the above categories. Some mainstream writersinclude Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and, more recently, R. F.Delderfield (God Is an Englishman), Herman Wouk (The Winds of War), N. ScottMomaday (House Made of Dawn), and William Goldman (Boys and Girls Together,Soldier in the Rain).For the new writer who has not yet chosen a creative area in which to work,category fiction (also called genre fiction) may seem to hold little appeal. Fordecades, college literature courses-caught up in the Realism and Naturalism whichdominated American fiction until the early I960's-have ignored the best craftsmenof category fiction, often concentrating on mainstream authors with far lesstalent. The "better" critics in the many little literary magazines and the massmarket reviewers from Time and Newsweek also have traditionally looked down theirnoses at category fiction. Recently, of course, the New York Times Book Reviewsection of the Sunday New York Times has shown interest in genre writing, and manycolleges have introduced courses on science fiction. Still, for the main part,critics and educators seem to think that immortality lies only with the mainstreamnovel, while all else is ephemeral.This is not the case at all. Many writers who have gained some immortality, fromHomer to Poe to Twain, have been category writers, men who knew how to tell a goodstory. Homer wrote adventure fantasy. Edgar Allen Poe wrote fantasies andmysteries. Mark Twain put most of his efforts into adventure-suspense andoccasional fantasy. Undeniably, each of these men produced work that has more thana good story; but this only shows that there is no law that restricts meaning andrelevance to the mainstream author. Today, for every reader who knows themainstream author Henry James, a thousand know Twain and five thousand know Poe.The most-translated author of this century is Edgar Rice Burroughs. He is also thebest-selling worldwide. Most of us would say that his stories are not what wewould strive to create-too little characterization, too much melodrama-but we mustadmit that through Tarzan and John Carter and other characters, Burroughs hasachieved that conditional immortality which is every writer's hope.John D. MacDonald, Ross MacDonald, Daphne Du Maurier, Alistair MacLean, Robert

Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Raymond Chandler are a few category writers whoseworks have not only sold millions of copies, but who have at last begun to receivethe critics' praise. To be known and remembered, a writer's work must first beread, and it is a fact that the majority of readers will more willingly buy awell-told mystery, fast-paced suspense, or mind-boggling science fiction novelthan a slice-of-life view of the Average Man. And they will do this on acontinuing patronage basis. You can confirm this by looking at the best-sellerlist, which is nearly always 80% category fiction, or by studying Publisher'sWeekly's yearly compilation of published titles, wherein the totals for categoryfiction regularly outstrip those for uncategorizable novels.Since genre fiction is more widely read than mainstream, the writer's market forcategory work is larger than for mainstream. Publishers, like any businessmen,operate within the law of supply and demand.The inexpensive paperback book has become the most rewarding form of publicationfor the average category writer. Though paperback distribution is inefficient andthe major problem of the industry, good profits are possible because the totalproduction costs of any paperback book average between eight and ten cents a copy,leaving a comfortable mark-up for publisher, distributor, and retailer, despitereturns and inefficiency. Every year, for the past decade, the number of newpaperback titles has increased. Most paperback fiction is category work; and abouthalf are paperback originals, never before published in hard covers. This is,clearly, a rich field for the new writer.This is not to imply that category fiction has a difficult time in clothbound bookmarkets. Indeed, more than half the hardcover fiction published today is categoryfiction. While most mainstream novels do not break even, hardcover categorynovels-whether overtly labeled as genre fiction or labeled only by inference inthe jacket copy-usually show at least a marginal profit from the first edition.In the following chapters, we will examine the major categories of modern fiction.Once a writer has mastered a genre, he should be able to turn his hand to anothercategory with at least some success. Both Gothic and erotic novels have strictframes which are surprisingly alike. Writing a science fiction novel, once youunderstand the ground rules, is not that much different from writing mysterynovels. Adventure-suspense is, in many ways, quite similar to fantasy.Every writer has one or two kinds of stories he most e-n-joys reading and writing.I prefer suspense and science fiction, the first for its readability and no-nonsense prose, the second for its color and wealth of ideas. But there are timeswhen publishers-especially paperback publishers whose buying trends are influencedby an unusually finicky market-are overstocked in a particular category and arenot buying. Maybe Gothics are booming, and editors are buying heavily. Butmysteries have currently lost favor with readers, forcing publishers totemporarily cut back on their monthly mystery issues. It happens. All the time. Ofcourse, the Biggest Name Writers continue to sell their books despite an overallslump in their field, but the new or average writer can find himself locked out,with work he cannot sell. This is when you should be able to turn your energiesinto other fields and still earn enough to keep bread on the table.In other words, you should write so well, handle words so easily, that you cangenuinely be called a "professional."With that goal in mind, let's look, first, at what makes category fiction sodifferent from mainstream. Basically, genre stories require five elements whichdon't always appear in mainstream work:ONE: A STRONG PLOTIn category fiction, there is no substitute for the age-old story formula: thehero (or heroine) has a serious problem; he attempts to solve it but plungesdeeper into danger; his stumbling blocks, growing logically from his efforts tofind a solution, become increasingly monumental; at last, forced by the harshcircumstances to learn something about himself or the world around him, to learn aTruth of which he was previously unaware, he solves his problem-or losesmagnificently.