Did your writing teachers set you up for failure?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on how we’re taught to write in school.

I took every creative writing courses that was offered in the schools I attended. I learned a ton, and got a lot of good practice in.

But I also learned a lot of things that I ended up having to unlearn later.

The Creative Writing track in most schools is a funnel to MFA degree programs, where students and professors write stories to try and impress each other.

The prose might be beautiful. The themes might be Important.

But the stories don’t sell. The only people that read them are other members of the clique, and those wanting to break in.

So, what if you don’t want to write for the clique?

What if you want to write for normal people?

PulpRev luminaries Kit Sun Cheah and Misha Burnett have assembled a team of practicioners who have one focus: writing fun stories for normal people.

They’ve just released their collaboration:

Pulp on Pulp.

From the blurb:

Write Fast. Write Well. Get Paid.

These were the watchwords of old-school pulp fiction: fun, fast-paced, and immensely popular with readers. The pulp era is coming back. Blending timeless lessons from the grandmasters of the pulp era with the genres, tastes and technologies of today, PulpRev forges boldly ahead into the future of fiction.

Hugo and Dragon Award nominated writer Kit Sun Cheah teams up with Misha Burnett to compile a selection of essays on the PulpRev aesthetic from some of the leading writers in the movement.

Pulp on Pulp covers:

• How to plot like a pulp grandmaster
• How to write 5000 words a day
• The secrets of writing fantastic fight scenes
• Worldbuilding and character creation tips
• And many more!

I’m please as punch to have been able to contribute an article to the collection, demonstrating the un-tapped power of Lester Dent’s celebrated Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot, including a use that I discovered in writing my own Salvage of Empire serial.

I’m excited to read the other essays in the collection now that it’s out. We must always be sharpening our saws.