Here's the Gruber recipe for surefire mystery story sales, as presented in his memoir "The Life and Times of the Pulp Story." That piece appeared in Brass Knuckles: The Oliver Quade Human Encyclopedia Stories (1966), reviewed here yesterday. I suspect the same formula appeared in his 1967 book The Pulp Jungle, but I can't lay hands on any of my three copies at this moment to check.
Enough from me. Take it away, Mr. G . . .
I used to analyze stories. What elements were required? After a period of time I evolved a formula for mystery short stories. It consisted of eleven elements. With those eleven elements in a mystery plot, I could not miss. I used to work out each element at a time, concentrating on one until I had it licked, the going on to the next. Most writers of mysteries inject the eleven elements into their stories anyway, but by putting them down one at a time I became conscious of them. Once I had worked out these eleven elements, the job of coming up with plots for mystery stories was greatly simplified.
I did not create this 11-point formula at one time. I evolved it over a period of about two years beginning back in 1934. I had perfected it by about the middle of 1936.
To this day I claim that this plot formula is foolproof. You can write a perfectly salable mystery story with perhaps only seven or eight of these elements, but get them all into a story and you cannot miss. Here are the eleven elements:
1. THE HERO. A hero must be colorful. He must have an occupation that is colorful or he must be a colorful person. In general, I have followed the theory that a regular policeman or detective is not colorful. Just think a moment about the greatest detective in all detective fiction - Sherlock Holmes - and you will quickly grasp what I mean by colorful.
2. THEME. This, to me, is the most important element of any mystery story plot. By theme I mean subject matter, what the story is about in addition to, over and above, the ACTUAL MURDER plot. To illustrate:
"Death and the Main" is about fighting cocks. I give a reasonably inside account of how gamecocks are raised, how they are fought, etc. This is knowledge not possessed by the average reader and believe me, I did not know it until I read up on the subject, for the purpose of this story.
My book, The Lock & the Key was about locksmiths. A liberal education in making locks and keys was thrown into the murder plot. I knew absolutely nothing about locks and keys until I did research on the subject. I know no more than is in the book.
If you have ever read Dorothy Sayres’ excellent English mysteries, you will find that THEME figures superbly. In The Nine Tailors, the reader earns all about church bells, the art of bell-ringing, etc. In Murder Must Advertise, Miss Sayres discusses advertising in all its phases.
HOWEVER . . . knowledge of a subject should be used sparingly. The mystery reader may not be as interested in the subject as you are.
3. VILLAIN. Let’s face it, the hero of detective fiction is a Superman. The villain must therefore be a super-Superman or have plenty of assistants. The odds must ALWAYS be against the hero.
4. BACKGROUND. The story must be played against a colorful or unusual background. The streets of a big city are not necessarily colorful. If they’re not, make them so.
5. MURDER METHOD. Here again, the “unusual” should be considered. Shooting, stabbing, etc. are acceptable, but the circumstances surrounding them should be “unusual.”
6. MOTIVE. Actually, there are only two reasons for murder - hate and greed, but there are many subdivisions of these and the “motive” should be as unusual as possible.
7. CLUE. Somewhere in the story, there must be a clue for the alert reader. Sure, try to fool the reader, but the clue must be there if the reader should want to check back on you, after the story is over.
8. TRICK. In the grand finale, when all seems lost, when the hero cannot possibly win out, he must snatch victory from apparent defeat. By a trick . . . and here the word “unusual” applies.
9. ACTION. The story must have pace and movement. It must not consist of talk, talk, talk, about the missing button, etc.
10. CLIMAX. A grand, smashing climax is necessary. Unusual.
11. EMOTION. The hero should be personally involved in some manner. He should be doing this, over and beyond the call of duty. Or, beyond the money paid him for doing it.
Tomorrow: A look at Death of a Champion, the 1939 movie based on Gruber's Human Encyclopedia story "Dog Show Murder."
8 comments:
Gruber just about ignores a very important element: characterization. He does mention that the hero and villain should be interesting but it's very important that all the characters be well developed.
Years ago I read BRASS KNUCKLES. Looking at his points, I find myself thinking,
Yeah, he did that.
I remember how that worked.
Oh yeah, that was there.
Now if I could find a copy of it to read again.
As to Mr. Martin's comment. I found the side characters were developed enough. In a short story, you don't have time for the unnecessary details.
Don't forget cats and recipes.
See this is what leads us down some bad paths-writing to formula. Not that you can't take away some good points, but the books I remember most are ones that deviate from such a blueprint.
I had heard of the 7-point method before, but not 11. Thanks! :)
Gruber wrote a "biography" of Zane Grey, that had all the depth of a Sunday supplement. I wouldn't expect much of his fiction.
You're right, Walker, about characterization. All the Gruber heroes I've encountered are two-dimensional - even Simon Lash - who seems better developed than most.
And I agree with you too, Patti. This particular method, though, is just a list of ingredients, and says nothing about plotting. It would be interesting to combine with Lester Dent's master story plot. The value here for me is as a jump-off point for brainstorming, or as a reminder - once a story is plotted - of ways it might be improved.
Didn't know about that Grey bio, Ron. The only nonfiction I've seen from Gruber is Brass Knuckles and The Pulp Jungle.
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