Writing popular fiction

he cherishes power and money himself, not because, as he always pretended, he thought his friends were tamer wolves than others that might replace them. Facing this in himself, he is able to act more ruthlessly than before; he becomes a less admirable man, but a more honest one and a more formidable one.
    Because it does require a formula, many writers mistakenly assume that category fiction is limited in scope and artistic merit. Not so. This same plot formula can be applied to any number of respected mainstream works, like Hemingway's
The Old Man and the Sea
. Generally speaking, the plot in a category novel must contain fewer muted, psychological story developments of the Hemingway sort-that is, developments which, for pages and pages, deal solely with a character's changing attitudes—and more overt, physical action. But the latitude for individual creativity is broad indeed.

TWO: A HERO OR HEROINE
    The anti-hero has a place in category fiction—but only if he is presented as being admirable. His moral values may be the opposite of what we think of as "right," so long as he is true to the values he has set for himself and so long as we can sympathize with him as a character. There is no room, however, for the loser, the weak-kneed or spineless hero. The name of the game is Escape. Your average reader wants to pick up your novel and be carried away from nagging spouse, overdue mortgage, and the morbid things he has seen on the television news that night. He wants to be entertained and to participate in somebody's triumphs for a few brief hours. He does not especially want to share someone's failures; there are enough failures in his
    Hammer, Nails, and
Wood own daily life. A category novel, therefore, centers around a very colorful, strong central character, usually male but not necessarily so, usually a "good guy" but not necessarily so. The hero is permitted character flaws to give him a depth of personality, but he should eventually triumph over these. Several good examples of flawed heroes who learn the nature of their flaws and come to terms with them are Ben Chase in my own novel
Chase
(under the pseudonym K. R. Dwyer); John Graves in
Binary
by John Lange; and Hell Tanner in Roger Zelazny's
Damnation Alley
.

THREE: CLEAR, BELIEVABLE MOTIVATION
    The hero and the villain must have obvious objectives and goals: the winning of love or wealth, the preservation of life, etc. Of course, motivation is also essential in mainstream fiction, but it is often deep psychological motivation which the reader only sees through a distorted lens and must fathom for himself. Category fiction must never leave the reader in doubt about a character's motivations.
Good
characterization is a requirement, but the story is not to be sacrificed for the sake of a character study that runs for pages at a time.
    Any set of character motivations, when examined, fits into one of seven slots: love, curiosity, self-preservation, greed, self-discovery, duty, revenge. Before going on to the fourth requirement of genre fiction, let's take a look at the uses and pitfalls of each of these motivations.
    Love
. Such a universal emotion is adaptable to any genre, though a writer must be careful not to let
cliché situations lead him into unbelievable character conflicts. For instance, it is generally too much to accept that a hero would die for love. Orwell's
1984
is good for a point here. Though Winston loves Julia, he is prey to the "thought police" in their campaign to make him deny her. They find his own weakness: rats. When Winston is faced with being bitten by starving rodents, he shouts, "Do it to her!" They have broken him. A hero might risk his life and sanity for love, but only with a high chance for success; otherwise, the risk seems foolhardy.
    Love is a primary motivation in my own novel
Dark of the Woods
(science fiction); in Gerald A. Browne's best-selling
11 Harrowhouse
(suspense); in Brian Garfield's
Gun Down
(Western); in
Dance with the Devil
by Deanna Dwyer (Gothic.)
    Curiosity
. Curiosity is often used as a character motivation in the mystery story, science fiction, fantasy, and the Gothic romance. We humans are curious creatures. Without curiosity, we might still be sitting in caves, scratching our fleas and eating raw meat. Curiosity is responsible for every discovery since man tamed fire, yet, as with love, it is not motive enough to sustain a character for a full novel. There is a point at which—after he has been beaten