On Facebook and Twitter, I published the final installment of my Early Departure "eThriller" short story, and I'm ecstatic about the e-mail I've received. (I'm glad so many liked it. Now, if they would just post a review at Amazon—hint, hint).
I've gotten a few notes asking, "What's next?"
Unfortunately, I've got to keep the secret until next week, but I promise you'll love it.
Thanks again for all of your support!
From Lester Dent, 1949…
This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. For me, it has worked on adventure, detective, western and war stories. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely what must happen in each successive thousand words. 
No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.
The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.
Here's how it starts:
One of these would be nice, two better, three swell. It may help if these are established before tackling the rest.
Let’s start with the unusual murder method. Thinking of shooting, knifing, hydrocyanic, garroting, poison needles, scorpions, a few others, and then listing them on paper gets them where they may suggest something—A listing for “scorpions and their poison bite” may cause the writer to consider mosquitoes or flies treated with deadly germs?
