Book­A­Day Kindle Short Reads

By Mike Nielsen

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Disclaimer Why Write Kindle Short Reads? How and Why This Book Came About and What it Means to You Short Reads Are Where It’s At Time to Market is Everything Learning From the Masters of the Pulp Era What Are Kindle Short Reads? Even The Most Obvious Truth is Sometimes Worth Mentioning...Again What is Pulp? What is a Modern Day Short Read? What Can I Expect How Do You Write Kindle Short Reads? Planning Your Kindle Short Reads Book(s) A Stand Alone Book A Book Series Learn From Lester Do It Like Dent How to Apply the Lester Dent Master Fiction Plot to Romance Sample Plot Loosely Based on “Desperado” Murder and Death Conflict How To Plot Your Kindle Short Read How To Write Your Kindle Short Read How To Edit Your Kindle Short Read How to do it All in One Day...or so

2 What If You Master Kindle Short Reads? Money Loves Speed Sense of Satisfaction Resources

3 Disclaimer

The contents are based on the author’s personal experience and research. Your results ​ ​ may vary, and will be based on your individual situation and motivation. There are no ​ ​ guarantees concerning the level of success you may experience. Each individual’s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation.

NOTE: Some of the recommendations in this report might contain affiliate links. If you click on the link(s) and purchase such a product based on my review and/or ​ ​ recommendation, I will receive a referral commission. Whether I receive a commission or not will not have any effect on the purchase price of the product. Additionally I am ​ ​ ​ ​ sometimes offered a complimentary product to review. My decision to promote these products is based on my satisfaction with the products. I do not recommend crap, and ​ ​ any review I make will be based on my own experiences, which are not typical. You ​ ​ could do better, you could do worse, you could do nothing at all, and that is totally out of ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ my control.

I make every effort to ensure I accurately represent my products and services. There is ​ ​ ​ ​ no guarantee your results will match examples published in this report. ​ ​

Some links may change or even not work for many reasons beyond the control of the ​ author and distributors. They cannot guarantee or otherwise be responsible for what ​ ​ you might find when you click through to sites not under the control of the publisher of ​ ​ this report. ​

4 Why Write Kindle Short Reads?

How and Why This Book Came About and What it Means to You

In the late spring of 2016 I had released two products called “KD Hotspots” and “Book­A­Day Children’s Nonfiction.” Both had been pretty successful. The results were very encouraging and I got a lot of great feedback. Both were centered on research of Kindle genres. Something I noticed other Kindle teachers had a lot of success with. I was planning a new product along those lines tentatively called “KD Watchlist.” This one was centered around Children’s Intermediate readers books. I’d actually finished a lot of the material, but something was missing. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but I just couldn’t get past the finishing line. My productivity in general was hurting as a result.

A friend advised me to start every day, no matter what, with 30­60 minutes worth of fiction writing. It was supposed to revitalize my energy levels and really get me pumping. I, personally, figured this was a load of BS. You know the kind of new­agy drivel people throw at you from time to time. However, I also knew from experience that I shouldn’t dismiss this person’s advice. Her advice had helped me more than once in the past. I started the week doing this. Within a day I had finished the Kindle Short Read Children’s book I was writing. I had been stuck on this for weeks, so it felt really good. I also plotted the next one and started the next day writing it. I got halfway through it when I decided I needed to work on my training material. Not because I couldn’t write any more fiction that day, on the contrary, but because I had this deadline looming.

5 On Wednesday I had an out­of­town meeting for the day so I didn’t get much of anything done.

Thursday, today, I was back at it. However, I put fiction on the backburner because I had that looming deadline for that other product (as it has now been named). Productivity flatlined completely. Not more than 30 minutes ago I decided to go for a walk to revitalize myself and give myself a shot at hitting the zone. On that walk I admitted the realization I had some time ago. “KD Watchlist” wasn’t the product I was supposed to publish right now. It wasn’t the right next step to take. Not for me, and more importantly, not for my students. Don’t get me wrong, the concept of “KD Watchlist” was sound, but it wasn’t what needed to get out there right now.

Of course, the friend I mentioned earlier would kill me if she knew I abandoned that project so haphazardly. So, I’d really appreciate it if you don’t tell her.

Now, what does that mean for you? That was the other part of this subheadline, and admittedly the most important part.

The lure of the “Book­A­Day” training was that you could get great children’s nonfiction books on the market really fast. Instinctively you know that speed is important. Speed is something I will talk a lot about during this training.

What worked well with “KD Hotspots” and to a great degree “Book­A­Day” was that they provided you with information that would give you a fighting chance in some great genres.

Why would I abandon that?

6 Information is great. Information is power.

The problem with the concept of “KD Watchlist” is that it doesn’t really give you much more than that. If I published it I know I’d get people saying they could figure this out on their own. They could. They wouldn’t, but they certainly could.

“KD Short Reads Mastery” has a different purpose. It is intended to help you get books on the market fast. It doesn’t really care what genre you decide to do this in, it cares about helping you get more books on the market faster.

Why is that important?

It’s important because Kindle is a numbers game. Sure you can have a big hit and become the next J.K. Rowling. You also have a shot at winning the powerball if you buy

7 a ticket, but you know the likelihood of that happening is slim at best.

So, unless you’re banking on a lottery ticket you need to speed up your publishing speed. To do that you need to take a look back in history. You need to learn from the old masters of Pulp fiction (not the movie) and apply that to a modern day setting.

What about the art?

It’s a fair question. The art of writing is important, but here’s the blunt truth. If you’re not already an established author the art is not going to feed you. Not unless you get really lucky. The kind of lucky regular people like you and me rarely get.

8 “Book­A­Day Kindle Short Reads” is for you if you’re ready to create your own luck. The journey ahead of you will be filled with work (unless you decide to outsource it), but it will also be a path full of satisfaction. Nothing in the world beats seeing your book online on Amazon. Well, some things might, but it’s one of my personal favorite feelings in the world. I think you’re like me in that regard.

Short Reads Are Where It’s At

Why Kindle Short Reads?

Because it’s the easiest way to succeed.

That could be all I said in this section. It won’t be, but it could be.

Kindle Short Reads are books ranging from 1 to 100 pages. The point is that you have to be able to read them in 2 hours or less. Now, there are many different assumptions to what constitutes a page on Kindle. To make things easier I tend to go with the assumption that we’re talking about 250 words per page. For a 100 page book that means 25.000 words. There are assumptions ranging from 215 words per page to 300+ words per page. 250 words makes the math easier though.

The books you’ll learn to write in this training will be anywhere between 6k and 10k long. That’s 24 to 40 pages. Is that really long enough?

Absolutely, the books you’re writing will fall in the “45­Minute Short Reads” category. Now, It’s no coincidence that some of my previous material has been collecting research. Let’s get some facts on the table about the “45­Minute Short Reads.”

● The top 5 books all rank below 1.000 on the overall Kindle chart.

9 ● All top 20 books rank below 5.0000 on the overall chart. ● The avg. sale price is $2.39 for the top 20. ● The avg. Monthly revenue for the top 20 is $3.286.

I would never recommend this genre as a stand­alone genre because the competition is fierce. However, this isn’t a stand­alone genre. You write for genres like romance, sci­fi, children’s books or whatever other genre you intend to write for. You just happen to write books that are also applicable to the “45­Minute Short Reads” genre.

However, writing a romance story is a very different discipline than writing non­romance. That’s why I’ll talk about both types of books separately throughout this training.

Why?

Because romance is the most popular overall genre in terms of book sales. Using the old pulp formula by Dent, as I’ll talk about extensively in this training, can on the surface seem a bit difficult. After all, Dent was know for mainly writing one protagonist stories and romance stories generally have two protagonists. I’ll show you a way around that issue. That’s why romance needs to be split from non­romance.

Romance short reads will be a lot like the romance stories you get in magazines.

On the other hand, it would be wrong of me to neglect non­romance. Especially, since the methods in this training are literally made for those kinds of books. What you learn here was originally created to write thrillers, action adventure stories, war stories and stuff like that. Those stories are all kinds of fun to write and many of the genres are hugely popular as well.

10 Time to Market is Everything

Time, specifically the time it takes to write and publish your book, is the essence of why you want to get into short reads. In market there is a saying that “time to market is everything.” That basically means you want to be able to react to trends on the market as fast as possible. If something becomes popular you don’t want to have to spend years developing your concept before you have your own product on the market.

As a publisher your product is your book. In traditional publishing time is one of those things you can’t get past. Your story has to get through editors and marketing folks before you get to see it in the stores. Ebooks, Amazon Kindle in particular, changed the way publishing works. Now you don’t have to depend on the schedules and good will of other people. If you have a story in mind you can write it, edit it and publish it at your own pace.

Traditionally you would want to get a novel on the market and make a ton of sales. The problem with this approach is that you have to invest a lot of time before you hit the market. This isn’t only the case with traditional publishing. If you write a novel you’d probably have to write at least 50.000 words, at least that’s the minimum requirement NaNoWrimo uses so I figure that works well as a reference point.

11 The books we’re writing range from 6.000 to 10.000 words. Remember anything over 100 pages isn’t a short read. It stands to reason that writing a 10.000 word book is a lot faster than writing a 50.000 word book. By my calculation it should be about 5 times as fast.

That means in the time you’ve written and published one novel you could have published 5 short reads books. Either to test 5 different genres or to write a series of books in one genre. Since short reads are incredibly popular you could quite feasibly be making 5 times as many sales with short reads. Sure, you’ll probably price the novel a bit higher, but 5 times higher? I think that’s pretty unlikely.

As an added bonus short reads are perfect for boxed sets. That’s something which is also significantly harder to do with novels.

Learning From the Masters of the Pulp Era

I’m a huge admirer of writers of pulp fiction. Not the movie, but the short stories that were published and sold for pennies in the 40s and 50s. One of the masters of that era was Lester Dent. During his career he published a huge number of Doc Savage novels under the pen name Ken Robeson. Actually that was the publishing house’s pen name, but that’s another story.

Lester Dent put a formula together he called the “Master Fiction Formula.” The formula was designed to put a 6k words pulp story together really fast. He claimed it worked in many different pulp story genres.

It will work in many other genres as well.

In this training I’m going to show you how you can adapt it to make it work for romance stories as well. I have to warn you. We’re not talking about a direct adaption. There will

12 be some things we need to change around to make it work. Lester Dent’s books always had one protagonist and that rarely works well in romance stories. I’ll be showing you examples of how I tried to put a one protagonist story together later and why it didn’t work. I’ll also show you how I adapted it and made it work.

With romance the goal is stories of less than 10K words. Slightly more than the “45­Minute Short Reads” section on Amazon, but still short enough to be easy to and fast to write and publish.

Learning from the past is critical if you want to succeed with Kindle publishing. Things that works and worked in traditional publishing will often work just as well in Kindle publishing.

Disregarding the lessons learned by traditional publishing houses is a big mistake, and one you’re not going to make.

13 What Are Kindle Short Reads?

Even The Most Obvious Truth is Sometimes Worth Mentioning...Again

I’ll be the first to admit the question headlining this section of this book is a bit stupid. I mean, it ought to be pretty obvious what a short read is. It’s after all a short book that you can read.

When it comes to Kindle we have some clearly defined borders. It has to be at least one page long and at most 100 pages.

Going by the previous page definition of 250 words, which frankly is a bit much, that would be a maximum of 25.000 words. Having said that, I would be wary of going above 20k words in any book intended for the short reads section.

20k falls firmly in the novella category of books. That is, books that aren’t quite novels, but aren’t really short stories either.

For this training I’m aiming for books that fall into the 5k to 10k mark. The reason, as stated earlier, is that it’s superfast to write these books.

You can write five 10k books in the same time as you can write a 50k novel. The promotional benefits alone makes this worth it. Then there is the other fact that a lot of people these days are looking to get their entertainment in quick fixes. This isn’t just in literature, but also in terms of TV and movies. Streaming services such as Netflix and HBO are dominating the award shows. This is because they allow people to get their

14 entertainment when they want it. With these services you can get your dose of entertainment whenever you have 30 minutes or an hour to spare.

What does that have to do with Kindle Short Reads?

With Kindle short reads you give readers the opportunity to enjoy 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour of entertainment at their leisure. Reading a novel seems like a project. Reading a short story or a novella much less so. Most people think twice, at least, before the start a project.

To sum it all up. Kindle short reads are obviously shorter stories, but it’s also an opportunity to cater to readers who aren’t quite ready to devote the time needed to read an entire novel.

What is Pulp?

Where do I start?

15 No, let me rephrase that. Where do I end? A few years ago I didn’t know too much about pulp fiction. Sure I’d watched the movie and somehow related the fiction genre to that movie. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I started learning more about it and reading more of the books my admiration for the writers who made their living, and in some cases their names, writing pulp fiction grew.

At this point I have to admit a lot of these people stand as the pinnacle of fiction craftsmen in my mind. Not all of it was great art. A lot of it wasn’t even good craftsmanship. But oh boy, could these guys and gals churn out fiction!

These days writers whine and complain about how hard it is to write one novel a year. Lester Dent was the main author of the “Doc Savage” series. 159 novels were published in that series over a period of 16 years. That’s just shy of 10 novels a year!

Most writers these days would die of shock if they were faced by those demands.

The term “Pulp” comes from magazines published from 1896 through to the 1950s. These were magazines with typically 128 pages printed on wood pulp paper. They typically contained several stories, sometimes illustrated, and during the first few decades would cost no more than 10 cents. Magazines printed on slick glossy paper would typically cost 25 cents during that era. That made the pulp magazines highly competitive even if the literature was often of as poor quality as the paper it was printed on.

Having said that, many famous writers started their careers in pulp magazines. Some of the more notable names who wrote for pulp magazines were Isaac Asimov, Raymond Chandler, Lester Dent, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett, Rudyard Kipling, Margery Lawrence and many, many more.

16 Many of the characters introduced in pulp magazines are household names even today. Doc Savage, The Avenger, Tarzan, Zorro and Flash Gordon are just a few of the characters who started their careers in pulp magazines. Some continue to be published today while others faded with the end of the pulp era.

One thing the literature has always been criticised for is the poor quality of the writing. While that was often true there was also a lot of great writing introduced in pulp magazines. The good pulp writers were professionals who knew their craft. Writers you could do worse than to learn from.

I certainly make no secret of my admiration of writers from the pulp era. Their writing style was fast and furious. Sometimes their writing could have done with better plots, editing and so on, but they got the job done and many carved out a decent living writing pulp magazine stories. The best earned immortality.

What is a Modern Day Short Read?

With all due respect to pulp era authors it seems demands are somewhat different today than they were back then....or are they.

One of the books that made the biggest splash in recent history is “50 Shades of Gray.” The biggest criticism levelled at that book was the poor editing standards and a plot that could have been better. Yet, it went on to sell thousands and thousands of copies.

17 That’s astounding. This was an erotica book that made a splash even among mainstream readers. It helped make reading erotica legit. Amazing!

However, you can hardly classify “50 Shades of Gray” as a short read. So, what’s expected of a short read today?

You need a story that entertains.

Some would say that you need a good plot and good editing as well, and that certainly won’t hurt you. What you need is to be able to churn out short reads at exhilarating speeds. You see, the demand for entertainment is neverending. If you write a book that entertains your readers are not going to be happy to have to wait for weeks or months before they can be entertained again. They will move on to other authors who can deliver their fix of entertainment day in day out. You need to be able to do that.

To do that you need a formula. That’s what the good pulp authors had. They had a great formula which they continued to improve and perfect.

The Lester Dent Master Fiction Formula is a great place to start in many genres. ​ However, with romance it is greatly lacking. As I explained earlier Dent’s formula is based on single protagonist stories and most romance stories need two to work. They don’t say “it takes two to tango” for no reason.

Later I’ll show you a quick romance plot I put together using his formula “as is.” The problems with that approach will be pretty obvious and we’ll look to address those issues.

18 What Can I Expect

If you follow the formulas of the old pulp masters there are some very specific outcomes you can expect. First of all, you will see your library of books on kindle increase at an explosive rate. That means there will be increasing chances of people picking up your books. That in turn means better chance of earning royalties.

We talked about “time to market” earlier in this book. The truth is this is one of the most important things about publishing that YOU can control. The faster you get new books on the shelves the better chance you have of getting those books picked up by readers. More importantly, how fast you do get books on the market is completely under your control.

It just depends on how fast you can write them.

No biggie...right?

19 How Do You Write Kindle Short Reads?

It’s meat and potatoes time. Unless you’re trying to dodge those carbs, then you ought to stick to the meat.

In this section of the training you’ll see how you can go about writing Kindle short reads books at tantalizing pace. Now, if you’re a hard­core plotter you’ll not like what I have to say. To do this you’re going to have to locate your inner pantser.

If you do insist on going by more than an outline you can absolutely do that, but it will increase the time needed to write your Kindle short read significantly.

What is it with this plotter vs. pantser thing anyway?

It sometimes seems like two factions sitting in their own separate trench throwing mud at one another. While a good mud fight is always fun, it does get tiresome after a while. I see myself as someone who’s somewhere in­between a plotter and a pantser. Someone coined the term “Plantser” and a lot of people cringed. I found it hilarious and

20 will at this point proudly state that I consider myself a dedicated Plantser.

I like going by an outline. I like to have a general idea of where my story is heading. However, I know that if I start digging too deep into the outline. Flesh it out too much. Plan too many of the details. It’s going to stop me in my tracks. I’m not going to get any writing done.

In Steven Pressfields wonderful “Do The Work” he cites one of his mentors as having ​ ​ said.

“God made a single sheet of yellow foolscap exactly the right length to hold the outline of an entire novel.”

Somehow this quote resonated with me on a very deep level.

21

When it comes to short reads I’m going to go one further and say that:

“God made a single index card exactly the right length to hold the outline of an entire short story.”

You can quote me on that.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study what others have to say about the craft of plotting, outlining and writing. By no means. I read more of that kind of books than any other types combined.

Even though I’m not a plotter I know that I can still pick up things that will help me from those who excel at plotting. I might not structure it the same way they do, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to me.

Planning Your Kindle Short Reads Book(s)

The next step is to take a step back and decide what kind of book you’re going to write. Are you going to write a standalone book or will you be writing a series? The latter has lots of advantages, but the former can work well too. You just have to make sure your books are connected somehow. One way to keep books connected is to use the same pen name.

22 There are also instances where you don’t want to keep books connected like that. I write books in many different genres and I prefer to keep each genre separated from the others through the use of pen names. The main reason for doing it this way is simply to avoid confusing readers. Ultimately, that’s a decision you have to make for yourself.

A Stand Alone Book

The stand alone book doesn’t really have a strong connection with other books you’re writing. However, as I said I do recommend that you make it somehow connected to other books you have on the market.

Whenever I start a new genre I carefully select a pen name I’m going to use for that genre. That way I know exactly what genre books by that author belong to. More importantly readers will know that picking up books by said author will give them the experience they’re expecting.

Readers become fans of certain authors and will pick up anything they’re writing. However, if that author suddenly writes something that’s not at all like what they usually write it’s going to piss that authors regular readers off.

Since Amazon has no limit on the number of pen names you can associate to your account there’s really no reason not to use a new pen name for each genre you’re in.

I know a lot of people are even creating new pen names for different sub­genres. So, if you’re writing regency romance and christian romance you might want to have different pen names for those genres as well. For me it depends on how closely the sub­genres are related. If I feel they’re not (related) I will create a new pen name for a genre.

23 Stand alone books typically contain one self­contained story. That means your book has the beginning, middle and end of the story. No loose ends are allowed to remain loose when the last page has been turned.

A Book Series

A book series has so much potential. When I get ideas for new books I almost always start to think about how I can turn it into a series.

If the first book in the series catches a readers attention it is highly likely that reader will pick up other books in the series too. In terms of short reads it is also a great way to tell a longer story to your readers. Just beware. If you put cliffhangers into your books make sure the next one is out ASAP or you will get angry readers.

A lot of people just hate having to wait to continue the story. Most people will accept a delay of one or two weeks, but if you keep it much longer than that you’re going to be in trouble.

How do you create a series?

First thing I’ll do is recommend that you pick up Lynn Johnstons amazing “How To ​ Plot A Series That Rocks” ​ training. This is by far the most comprehensive training about writing a series that I’ve ever had the privilidge of going through. Everything you’ll ever need to know about putting a series together is readily available in that training.

24 With romance things do get slightly complicated though.

I’ve often been wondering how to work with series in romance. I mean, most romance stories start with a spark of interest in another person. Then the lovers to be go through a lot of trouble. Finally, at the end they get together and live happily ever after. How does that work in a series?

If I were to write a romance series about two people falling in love I would probably start by clearly defining how many books it’s going to span. This, at least in my opinion, should not be a continuous series. People will want that HEA (happily ever after) moment and if the story goes on forever and ever that’s not going to happen.

I’d say a short series of 3­5 books would be a pretty decent length.

Another way to do romance series is to have the books be loosely connected.

The books can simply be connected by genre. You can also make the location of the series be the connection. Then you’ll have stuff that crosses over from each book. You could have a coffee shop that’s at the center of all the stories.

This type of storytelling has become popular with movies like “Valentine’s Day,” “He’s Just Not That Into You,” “Love Actually,” and “Mother’s Day.” Personally, I’m starting to tire of movies like that, but my wife loves them so I’ll probably end up watching a few more of them.

The feeling I get watching those movies is that the individual stories alone just aren’t strong enough to carry an entire movie, but put together you get a compelling’ish story.

25 It’s quite feasible that you could write a series like that. Each book would focus on one story and tell parts of an overarching story. More importantly the books share a common theme. There are definitely lots of options in terms of storytelling.

Learn From Lester

Everything I’ve read about Lester Dent indicates that he was one of the honest hard working craftsmen of the Pulp era. He will probably never end up on the “Classics” shelves at the local library, but he found a formula to write solid entertaining stories that readers liked to read.

From my perspective that’s not a bad accomplishment.

The Lester Dent Master ​ Fiction Formula is a ​ great place to start for anyone who finds it difficult to get stories on the shelves as frequently as they would like. When you read it you will notice that it’s ideally suited for action adventure stories where you have to find and stop a killer. The hero will get in trouble...deep trouble and at the end of the story he will somehow manage to overcome his troubles.

It is a very formulaic approach to writing.

26 The main argument against formulas like this one is that the stories become stale and...well...formulaic.

Admittedly there is some truth to that. Here’s the thing though. Formulas become formulas because they work. Just about every piece of fiction literature will follow a formula anyway. That formula is known as the three­act structure. Even when writers try to avoid using it, they end up doing it any way. After all, every story has to have a beginning, a middle and and end.

The Lester Dent formula is just a distilled version of the three­act formula. His focus is on the conflict and the action. He takes the “A good story is life with the dull parts removed” to its extreme limit. Something that’s probably not a great idea for longer stories. In longer stories you do want to give people room to breathe. That doesn’t mean longer stories need dull parts, just that you slow down the pace a little bit in some places.

Not Lester though. He piles on the action. Throws his heroes in thick. And ramps up the conflict to extreme levels.

Sound like a bad match for romance? I beg to differ. Starting a new relationship is the most emotionally action packed part of living. Sure, there will in most cases not be many blazing guns, but love is life’s emotional roller coaster.

Do It Like Dent

First I’ll throw in a distilled version of Dent’s formula right here. ​ ​

1. A DIFFERENT THREAT FOR THE VILLAIN TO POSE

27 2. A DIFFERENT THING FOR VILLAIN TO BE SEEKING 3. A DIFFERENT LOCALE 4. A MENACE THAT HANGS LIKE A CLOUD OVER THE HERO

First 1500 1. Hero and problem(s) introduced. Hero tries to deal with problem (Understand the problem, defeat the villain, solve the problem), but fails. 2. The other characters are introduced and takes part in the action. The hero ends up in the middle of a conflict. At which point a surprising plot development occurs.

Second 1500 3. The hero's troubles get even worse. The lead heroically struggles against the problems facing him. 4. Lead ends up in another conflict. Another plot twist.

Third 1500 5. Even more trouble for the hero. Hero makes progress and corners the villain/problem. 6. Another conflict. A plot twist that turns the hero's apparent progress upside down.

Fourth 1500 7. Just as things started to look really bad the hero faces even more trouble. The troubles the villain has put the hero in become almost impossible to get out of. 8. The hero gets out of trouble using HIS OWN SKILL, training or brawn. The mysteries remaining­­one big one held over to this point will help grip interest­­are cleared up in course of final conflict as hero takes the situation in hand. 9. Final twist, a big surprise, (This can be the villain turning out to be the unexpected person, having the "Treasure" be a dud, etc.). The snapper, the punch line to end it.

28 That’s pretty much the formula as it is showed in the original. Just with some of the extra description removed. If you look at the original Lester Dent Master Fomula you’ll ​ ​ notice that I added some numbers.

I use those to define 750 to 1000 word chunks. Some people would call those chunks scenes. Since there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel let’s just go with that. This gives us a story that falls firmly in the 6k to 10k range in terms of word count.

What I’ll do is typically open a template containing the above and then replace the original text with what I want to happen in my story. When I’ve done that I’ll set a timer for 25 minutes and write 750+ words for each section.

I’ll talk about why I set it for 25 minutes a little later, but it’s due to something called the pomodoro method.

How to Apply the Lester Dent Master Fiction Plot to Romance

One thing you’ll notice above is how the structure is focused on a single protagonist. As I’ve mentioned earlier that doesn’t sit well with romance stories. Let’s look at a sample plot I put together for a romance story using the above. And then let’s see how we can fix the glaring weaknesses of the plot.

Sample Plot Loosely Based on “Desperado”

I love using songs as inspiration for stories. In my experience great songs have at least one awesome story in them. One song that’s been on my mind lately is the Eagles song “Desperado.” There’s a great western romance story in there. Several actually. So, I decided to plot a story based on the song. This is what I came up with.

29 A Different Murder Method for the Villain to Use The villain tries to hook up with every wealthy or seemingly wealthy woman that comes close to him.

It might seem odd to talk about murder in a romance story. However, you have to see it not as killing a person in the story, but killing the love between the main characters.

A different thing for the villain to be seeking The Villain seeks wealth and freedom.

In this instance the “Villain” wants to be free of earthly and worldly concerns. He doesn’t want to worry about money.

A Different locale A bar in a rural town in the west. ​

There isn’t much out of the ordinary with this setting, but you don’t have to make all aspects different.

A menace which hangs like a cloud over the hero Loneliness, despair, hopelessness.

30 Of the four starting points I think this is the one I nailed. That should be the absolute core of the story

1. The hero works at the local bar when the villain hits on a wealthy friend of hers from out of town. She tries to deal with the problem by asking her friend to not get involved. 2. Her friend and the villain get involved. She and her friend get into a huge fight. Her friend tells her it’s revenge because the hero dated her brother once. 3. The villain proposes to the hero’s friend and she accepts to spite the hero. The hero is told by her boss to let it go and move on. She’s better than the both of them. 4. In the evening she sees her friend cheating on the Villain. She confronts her about it and demands she tell the villain. Her friend tells the hero the villain actually loves the hero, but needs the money badly. 5. The hero learns the reason the villain is so focused on money. He’s built up a huge gambling debt. She confronts him about it and asks if he’s prepared for a life in loneliness just to settle his debts. 6. Her boss, the one the villain owns the bulk of his debt to, tells her to stay out of it. If the villain doesn’t pay up soon her boss has no choice but to take his ranch. He hopes the villain chooses the hero’s friend. 7. In the evening she sees the villain gambling, and losing, again. She tells him to stop it, and he tells her to get lost. She runs away in tears. 8. The hero buys­in to the game. She wipes the floor with all the other players. At the end only her, the villain and her boss are left in the game. She has a stand­off against her boss and demands that if she beats him the villains debts are cleared. 9. The villain is upset that the hero saved him. The hero’s friend convinces him to marry her.

31 I’m not saying this is terrible, but there are some glaring issues with it. Seeing it only from the point of view of the young woman means the male character comes off as an unsympathetic, weak character. There’s very little convincing us why she would be in love with this man. It’s perfectly alright to focus on one of the characters in a romance story, but you have to give the other character some facetime as well. Some time to shine and to show why your primary character would want to be with that character. When you’re reading romance you’re fantasizing. You’re looking for an escape from your otherwise dull/stressful/ordinary life. You want to fall in love with the characters as well. While the male character could certainly start out as an unsympathetic character he needs to, at the very least, show some transformation towards someone you could genuinely fall in love with.

My decision to have one of the lovers­to­be stand in for the villain backfired. He comes off as a bad choice of man at best. Also using her friend as a vessel to turn him around is a bad idea.

Going back to the four starting points I think it’s fair to say i should align them with the 4th point about loneliness, despair and hopelessness. I also need to do something to make the second main character more attractive and sympathetic to the reader. Notice I steered clear of the word “Villain” in the last sentence. While romance stories can definitely have villains I’d say it’s critical that you don’t use that term to define either of the two lovers­to­be.

Let’s try to see what we can do about it.

A Different “Murder” Method for the Villain to Use The villain (a new character) tries to coerce the heroine into marrying him by threatening to ruin her father if she doesn’t.

32 I’m still looking for a different phrase than “Murder Method” but you have to remember that this is about killing the love, not the characters. Introducing a new character as a villain works better in my opinion.

A different thing for the villain to be seeking The Villain wants the heroine as his trophy wife. Additionally, it would seal his victory over his lifelong rival, the hero.

The villain is looking to settle old scores. The heroine has has long been pursued by both the hero and the villain of the story, but the villain seems to have the upper hand.

A Different locale A saloon in a rural town in the west. ​

This still works well. In fact, I’ve decided the heroine works in the bar because her father is the owner.

A menace which hangs like a cloud over the hero Loneliness, despair, hopelessness.

As I said I believe I nailed this one the first time around. For the hero losing will mean loneliness, despair and hopelessness. For the heroine it’s much the same with the added bonus of being trapped in a marriage she doesn’t want to be in. Those are fairly high stakes if you ask me.

33 1. The heroine works at her father’s bar. The villain makes attempts at her claiming she’ll be his. She tries to fight him off and he leaves cursing and swearing. 2. The villain returns with his posse and demands satisfaction. He demands the heroine marry him or he will take the bar from her father. He can back up the threat because his father owns the local bank and her father has huge debts. The hero intervenes and throws the villain and his possé out of the bar. 3. The heroine scolds the hero for getting involved in her family’s business. He asks if she really wanted to be with the villain. She says “off course not, but some of us have obligations.” The hero turns his back and rides off in the sunset. 4. The heroine pleads with the villain to let her and her family be. The villain publically humiliates her. She’s told the only way her father will keep the bar is if she agrees to marry him. 5. The hero seeks out the villain in an attempt to settle their rivalry without involving innocent people. When the villain reveals the bar will be seized the next day if the heroine doesn’t agree to marry him an epic brawl starts. 6. The fight attracts the attention of the villain’s possé and they firmly beat up the hero. The heroine comes to the rescue and agrees to marry the villain. 7. While the heroine is tending the hero’s wounds at the hero’s ranch. A messenger arrives from the villain demanding the wedding takes place tomorrow. 8. The hero rides the heroine home from his ranch. Along the way they watch the sunset and he talks about the magnificent times he’s had at the farm. 9. The wedding is to take place at noon. When the preacher asks if anybody has any objections to the marriage the hero barges in. He tells her she doesn’t have to marry the villain. He’s sold the ranch and bought the mortgage for the bar from the bank. The villain storms out of the church holding a gun to the heroine’s head threatening to kill her. She steps back and throws him to the ground. The hero and the villain engage in another brawl. A shot is fired. Silence. After a while the hero gets up. The bullet hit the villain.

34 I like this a lot more. Sure there’s a lot missing and if you’re a plotter you’ll be going “w000t?! You call that a plot?” Not really, as a plantser all I need is an outline, and this gives me just that. It gives me all the points I need to write towards during the writing.

If you are a plotter and you want to dig deeper, by all means do it, just realize that it’s going to require a lot more time. If you’re a hardcore pantser and think it’s too much just use the four points at the beginning as your starting point and go from there.

The key point in this section, however, is that you can in fact use the Lester Dent formula for writing romance. You just have to think about some of the terms and phrases differently.

Murder and Death

Murder isn’t necessarily physical murder, although this plot has a few fisticuff scenes. However, that’s mainly because the Western genre sort of invites that. The key is that you make sure you portray the two main characters as strong individuals with problems they have to overcome, but overall they have to be sympathetic individuals.

At this point I want to take a moment to discuss murder and death. I’m a big fan of books on the craft of writing and my absolute favorite author of those kinds of books is James Scott Bell. In just about every writing craft book of his he devotes a section to death. He works with 3 kinds of death. Physical, professional and psychological/emotional death. The point he is making is that every book should have high stakes. In other words, the lead character(s) should be at risk of dying in one of those three ways.

In a detective story you would usually have physical and/or professional death at stake. If the detective fails to solve the case in front of him he is at risk of dying physically

35 because a bad guy kills him. He can also die professionally if he fails to solve the case. Either he won’t be able to attract new clients or he won’t be able to overcome the fact that he couldn’t solve the case.

In a romance story physical death is rare. The probably “death risk” in a romance story will usually be the psychological/emotional death. If the two lovers to be don’t get together they die inside emotionally. Their lives will become stale and lonely.

Even though your story isn’t about physical death it’s important that you make it clear in your story that some kind of death is at stake. The risks have to be as great as the rewards. The story will simply have more meaning if the stakes are as high as possibly. What stake is higher than death?

At the back of this book I’ll put some links to my favorite James Scott Bell books on writing. I’ll also put links to some of my other favorite writing books and resources. Never stop studying your craft. Even if you’re a hardcore pantser.

Conflict

The second thing is that you need to think in terms of conflict. All great stories have conflicts in them. At the end of the day conflict is what drives a story. A conflict doesn’t

36 necessarily have to be a physical conflict. It can be a verbal argument, a firm deadline that has to be made, or something else entirely.

Whatever kind of conflict your story has it has to be there. Alfred Hitchcock said:

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.”

Without conflict readers will put down your book. Should every scene have conflict? Even the slow scenes? Yes. Even when you bring down the pace to let the reader breathe you should have conflict in the scene. While the reader will recognize that you’re allowing her to catch her breath she should still be worrying about what’s happening to the characters.

However, there are no slow bits in Lester Dent stories. These stories are like a roller coaster stuck in a 90 degree drop with twists and turns that will make even the most hardened stomach squirm in agony. I think that’s about as visual as I’ll make that image.

How To Plot Your Kindle Short Read

Plotting your Kindle short read, at least using the Lester Dent formula, should be a fast and furious process. The word process might even be overdoing it a little bit. What you end up with is an outline. The plotters in the audience will scoff at using the term plot, but right now we’re deliberately ignoring them. If they want to dig deeper they’re free to do so. The rest of us will go with the outline and see where it takes us.

My recommendation is that you devote no more than 25 minutes to the actual plotting. I know that’s a ridiculously low number, but that’s what I’m giving you. You might also be wondering why I’m going with 25 minutes. That’s because I recommend you use a technique called the “Pomodoro Technique” to manage your workflow. I’ll dig deeper ​ ​ into that in the final part of this section.

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If you have another way of working that works for you, I’m not going to dictate that you switch to the pomodoro technique, but do take a look at it.

Back to plotting. Start by writing your general story idea in one paragraph. This is not quite a story premise, but the start of a premise. All you need is a concept.

Then you fill out the first four points. Lester Dent likes to emphasize the need for the points to be different. However, he also states that not all of the four points have to be different. At least one of them should be slightly different. Two or three is better. Which brings me to an important question. What is different?

I think Dent means that you shouldn’t go with the first and most obvious option that springs to mind. That option will most likely have been done to death. In the sample plot I don’t go out of my way to be different. In fact, most of the elements could have been done in a different way. What if the heroine’s father hadn’t been a saloon owner but an undertaker instead. That would most likely have had an impact on the location. How do you play out a story like that. Would the cemetery have been an adequate location? Or how about the local courthouse? These could all have made for a very different story. I’m not going to change it though. I happen to like the story the way it is. Yes, I’m stubborn like that.

After you’ve got your four points you need to fill out the 9 sub­points for the 4 sections of the story. Dent goes by 1500 words per section. My estimate is around 750 to 1000 words per sub­point. That leaves the story somewhere between 6.750 and 9.000 words.

I use the 9 individual sub­points as individual scenes. That means my short reads have 9 scenes. No more and no less.

38 When you do the 9 individual points be sure to make room for both main characters to shine if you’re plotting a romance story. Show off their strengths and weaknesses. Let the reader know that these are characters to sympathize with for various different ways.

When you’ve done all that, in 25 minutes no less, you’ve got your plot. And it’s ok if you plotters moping over there in the corner just call it an outline and decide to spend more time working on it. I won’t get cross :­)

How To Write Your Kindle Short Read

You have your plot. Now it’s time to create your story. The masters of Pulp did it at great pace, but they too struggled at times. I read somewhere that Ray Bradbury was struggling to finish a short story for a magazine. He couldn’t. Then he went to a library where you had to rent the typewriter you used. He loaded up with coins and started writing. Because each and every minute suddenly counted he finished it in record time. It turned into the short story “The Fireman” which would later go on to become “Fahrenheit 451” a book you’ve probably heard off. If not you’re entitled to have stern words with your English teacher.

The key to writing fast is to have something on the line. I like to challenge myself. I like to put something on the line. I set a deadline and then I decide what kind of consequence I will face if I don’t make the deadline. The consequence can be as simple as having to eat a dish I don’t like, it can be a chore

39 I’ve been putting off because I loathe it. There are plenty of options that make good consequences.

Now you write each of the 9 points one at a time. Your job isn’t to write an entire story. Your job is to write that single part of the story. While you do it you keep the four original points in mind. Write the points down on an index card or a post­it note and have it in front of you at all times. You keep your characters close to your heart. You make sure there is conflict.

Now, you spend 25 minutes writing each part of the story. If you’re not done after 25 minutes you pick up where you left off. However, your goal is to finish each part in just 25 minutes.

I know a lot of people will object right now. 750 words in 25 minutes? I can’t type that fast I hear a lot of people say. Let’s do the math here. 750 words in 25 minutes equals 30 words a minutes. That’s a writing speed I would claim most people can make with practice. It’s not excessively fast, but not exactly slow either. I consider myself a decently paced typer and I average 40­45 words a minute. I know a lot of people who will scoff at that with claims that they type 80 or even 100 words a minute.

Let me tell you right now. Writing speed doesn’t depend on how fast you type. It depends on how good you are at shutting down your brain when you write. The most important thing when you want to write at pace is that you manage to turn off your inner critic. The inner critic will stop progress in its tracks if you allow it to. It will turn the fastest typer in the world into a slithering drivelling snail who can’t get more than a hundred words done in a day. Before you write the first section of your story stretch your brain. Do some freewriting for five minutes where you just type what pops up in your head. It doesn’t matter what it is and if all you can think about is that you can’t think about what you’re going to write then

40 type that. When you’ve done that look at the short paragraphs you typed up for the section you’re about to write. Read it a couple of times to take it in. Then set your timer and start writing. Don’t let the critic do anything. Don’t delete anything you type. Just type.

Actual typing speed can off course be something you want to improve. And it can help your writing speed, but of all the factors involved in writing books I consider it the least significant aspect in terms of speed. Telling your inner critic to get lost is far more important. If all else fails, offer to buy her and her friends lunch...far away from home.

How To Edit Your Kindle Short Read

How much you want to edit your story is in many ways up to you. If you’re a hardcore pantser you’re probably going to need a bit more editing. If you’re a hardcore plotter you probably can’t stop editing anyway.

At some point it’s a good idea to consider getting a professional editor to do the job for you. However, if you don’t want to do that you should at the very least let your story rest for a few days. Distance is a good thing when you’re editing. Editing right after you’ve written the story means you’re probably too close to the story at that point in time.

I like to use tools such as ProWriting Aid to help me with all the grammar. I’m not a ​ ​ native English speaker so it’s pretty important for me to use external tools to do that.

In terms of plot holes it’s a good idea to get someone else that you trust to read it. If you can find a group of beta readers you can participate in that’s awesome. There are groups online where people help each other out by reading and critiquing each other’s stories. This is helpful for everybody involved.

41 You can also let friends and relatives read the story and have them point out things, but you should keep in mind that these are people who are close to you who might not want to hurt your feelings. That’s the main reason I recommend getting a few beta readers on board if you can.

How much time for editing?

You obviously can’t edit your entire story in just 25 minutes, but I would say that for these kinds of books you shouldn’t spend more time editing the story than you did writing it. If you go into full editing mode and aim for perfection your book will never be published. It’s perfectly alright to let your inner critic have a field day (she should be back from lunch by now), but then you need to get her back into that cell of hers. And seal it off carefully!

A final note on editing. Never edit during your most creative hours. Your creative hours are the times of day you know you get the most of your good work done. I’ve learned that I’m far better of writing creative work in the morning and in the late evening. I can’t do any work that requires creative thinking around lunch. My brain simply goes into zombie mode. This may not be the case for you, but it’s important that you learn when your creative hours are. To do that start taking notes of when you write and how much work you get done during those hours. For now, however, it’s important for you to know that your creative hours are for writing and plotting only. With a strong emphasis on the actual writing. After all, that’s what’s going to pay your bills.

42 How to do it All in One Day...or so

I mentioned the “Pomodoro Technique” earlier. I try to live by it. I often fail, but I do my ​ ​ best to follow the method. What is the “Pomodoro Technique?” Firstly, go read the Pomodoro website. On the website you can get detailed information about the technique. However, if you don’t feel like going to the website here’s a short explanation. Basically, you divide everything you do into 25 minute tasks. You then spend 25 minutes doing that task and then you get to have a 5 minute break. After four 25 minute cycles you get to have a 25 minute break. Writing a book like the one we’re talking about in this training would look something like this if you plotted it into the Pomodoro pattern.

● 25 minute plotting session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 25 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break.

43 ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 25 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session. ● 5 minute break. ● 25 minute writing session.

That’s 335 minutes in total. 335 minutes works out to 5 hours and 35 minutes. This includes plotting your story. You could argue that you still need to edit the story and you’re right. You should definitely edit the story, and do it well. I would say you would probably have to spend about the same amount of time on editing. However, after 5 hours and 35 minutes you will have gone from nothing to having a finished first draft.

That’s not bad.

Do I do all that in one day?

I talked about creative hours and if I start doing this first thing in the morning as I should I would hit the noon hours toward the end of the middle of the book. For that reason I tend to not write an entire book in one day. I divide it into two sections and either write those in the morning and in the evening, or split it into two days. I like leaving the evening for plotting and editing. I feel that works best for me. However, in terms of actual time needed you can do it in a workday...with time to spare.

What If You Master Kindle Short Reads?

I’ve shown you that you can plot and write a Kindle short reads romance book in less than a day, but what difference is that going to make for your business and in your life?

44 That’s what this section of the training is about. I want to make sure you’re motivated to take action when you close down this PDF. I want you to start churning out Kindle Romance short reads that will increase your royalties and your Kindle portfolio.

Money Loves Speed

The point of writing short reads instead of novels is that you can do it a lot faster. There’s an old phrase that “money loves speed.” It’s absolutely true. Someone once told me that my income would grow with the number of “buy buttons” I placed online. Each book you publish on Kindle is another buy button. It is another chance for readers to discover you and start buying your books.

When you do get readers who buy your books you want them to keep buying your books. That’s pretty difficult if you only have one book on the market and don’t expect to get another one out there this year. That often happens with novelists. People have to wait for a long time before they can get another fix. That’s ok if your name is J.K. Rowling or George R. R. Martin, but I’m taking a chance and guessing that’s not the case. (If you are would you please let me know? My marketing department would have a field day!)

Since you’re building your name you need to get books on the market to do that. You need to keep your readers attention. When I buy a book from an unknown author and I like it I look for other books for that author. She has my intention and I want more. If I can’t find anything I move on. I do check occassionally if there are new books on the market, but after a while I forget about her. If she has more books readily available I’m highly likely to buy them. If she can keep them coming I’m probably going to get her next book as well.

That is why you want to publish books frequently. Because you want to remain fresh in the memory of the reader.

45 Sense of Satisfaction

There is nothing quite like the sense of satisfaction you get from finishing a book. It boosts your confidence. You are probably eager to start writing the next one right away. Do it! Use the energy to increase your Kindle library of books.

The beauty of this method is that you can use it for any genre. I’m well aware the title of this training puts a romance spin on things. I’ve also used romance as the example throughout the book. However, Dent didn’t write romance and what I’ve described within these pages can easily be applied to other genres.

What you will hear people say about your books and this way of writing shouldn’t deter you. Let’s be honest with each other. Books written using this method won’t be great art. There’s no reason to deny that. There’s also no reason to be ashamed of that. The pulp era writers were great craftsmen. Some of their books went on to become great American classics, but for the most part they were not great artists. They wrote to make a living and to entertain. In that order.

Personally, I aim to write books that are as good as I can make them. However, I also make a point of knowing when it’s good enough. My main objective isn’t to write great literature that will go on to become classics. The aim is simply to create books that help me make some money and hopefully entertain a bunch of people. In that order.

The plus side of writing using these methods is that you can churn out books at breathtaking pace. I’m not lying to you when I tell you it can be done in a day. I’m also not going to tell you that’s going to happen tomorrow. It requires practice, hard work and planning.

46 Most of the time I won’t recommend you do that. We all have times of day where our creativity is operating at higher levels than others. Those are the hours you need to use to write your books. When you hit your less creative and less productive hours you need to focus on other tasks. Tasks like editing, marketing and other publishing tasks. So what if you need to spend two or three days to write a book? Over those three days you’ll have managed to get outlines ready for your next books. That means you’re ready to start writing the next book on day 4. Win!

By using the energy you when you finish a book, by planning your writing correctly and by never stopping you will be able to publish books faster than you could have ever imagined. This will be the most satisfactory feeling in your publishing career and your confidence will be a wave you can ride on to ensure you get more and more books on the market.

47 Resources

How to Plot a Series That Rocks Lynn Johnston is one of the best plotters I know. Her “How to Plot a Series That Rocks” is everything you’ll ever need to know about plotting a series. Even if you’re a diehard pantser you’re going to find lots of great information in here. It’s worth every penny and more.

From Plot to Premise Have an idea, but don’t know how to go from that to a fully fledged story? Lynn is there to help you again. This is the definitive training on how to turn your story premise into a plot.

Fish out of Water Romance Britt excels at coming up with alternative way to create stories. She thinks outside the box and in this training she gives you a great angle for coming up with those romance stories.

Socrates Plotting Another weirdly phenomenal plotting training from Britt Malka. In this training she goes all the way back to Socrates. What’s not to love about that? It is a great way to turn slivers of ideas into great stories.

Plot and Structure Probably the most important book on the writing craft you will ever buy. In this book James Scott Bell tells you everything you need to know about structuring and plotting a novel. The lessons you’ll learn here will be invaluable throughout your writing career.

48 How to Write Dazzling Dialogue Another James Scott Bell resource. Dialogue is one of those things a lot of us struggle with. It’s not as hard as it seems. James will show you exactly how to do it and improve your storytelling.

Write Your Novel From The Middle This is the book that got me hooked on JSB’s books on writing. It is a very different approach. Ever since reading this book I’ve found myself flipping books to the middle and stopping moves halfway through to see if he’s right. He usually is. If you’re a pantser and don’t want to get too much into all this plotting malarkey you’re going to love this approach.

Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict and Suspense I told you earlier that conflict should be at the heart of everything you write. Well, I didn’t come up with that. Neither did James, but he just happens to explain it better than anyone I know. After reading this book and applying the lessons inside you will be able to greatly improve your stories.

Lester Dent Master Fiction Formula Well, I’ve sprinkled links to this page throughout the book, but this section would be incomplete without a link to it. This is one of my favorite webpages on the WWW :­D

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