Writing popular fiction

HOLLYWOOD
    The author paints the "inside" story of moral corruption and sexual permissiveness among stars, starlets, producers, directors, screen writers, and other motion picture glamour types. Henry Sutton's
The Exhibitionist
and Jacqueline Susann's
Valley of the Dolls
are "classics" of the form. Harold Robbins'
The Inheritors
is another, interesting for the strength of its language which is harsher than in most Big Sexy Novels.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF A GLAMOROUS PROFESSION
    Here, the author takes the reader for an "inside" look at the moral corruption and sexual permissiveness in a profession the general public looks upon as exotic or secretive: publishing (Edmund Schiddel's
Good Time Coming)
, international finance
(The Richest Man in the World
by "J.P."), prize fighting
(Crown
by Francis Pollini), high fashion designing and modeling
(The Rag Dolls
by Simon Cooper), medicine, law, Madison Avenue advertising agencies and hotel management.

BEHIND THE SCENES IN ANYTOWN USA
    The author dissects life in a small town, giving the reader a "scorchingly honest" view of hidden moral corruption and sexual permissiveness. Grace Metalious'
Peyton Place
was the first major novel of this type.
    In the first four BigSN plot types, you must also attempt to carry off a
roman ŕ clef
[French for "novel with a key"], a story in which the characters all seem to be allusions to real people—preferably quite famous people—and to real events the reader may have read of in newspapers and magazines; this establishes a celebrity guessing game among readers and reviewers that strengthens the illusion that you are telling of genuine events and, not incidentally, increases the book's sales. ("Was Evelyn, in the novel, really Judy Garland?"
    "Was Blanche really Marilyn Monroe—or Jane Mansfield?"
    "Was Lew really Rock Hudson, or might he be Henry Fonda?") In actuality, the BigSN
bears only passing resemblance to the real lives of the personalities mentioned,
but the reader likes to feel that he is getting the whole, ugly story,
firsthand. (You research these stories the same way as you do stories in other categories: by reading books on the neighborhood, profession, or industry, and keeping current with social behavior and celebrities through magazines and newspapers.)
    In the fifth type of story, Anytown USA, you must not provide a
roman ŕ clef
, because the reader wants to do that himself, placing the novel in his own town. You thoughtfully provide sparsely characterized professional types—a town doctor cheating on his wife, a policeman cheating on his wife and taking bribes on the side, a school teacher who's really a nymphomaniac who can't keep her hands off the principal
or
her students—whom the reader can think of in terms of people he knows.
    The only taboos in BigSN, then, are too-explicit language that would irritate the sensibilities of Middle America, and "bad" sexual conduct that goes unpunished. The BigSN reader wants to see the sinners reformed or delivered unto retribution, preferably the former. The cheating husband or wife should either finally "see the light" and quit his or her adulterous activities, meet a violent end because he or she cannot see the light, or get a divorce so that everyone can be happier in the end. (Warning: Do not employ divorce as a solution to the BigSN problems unless you have no other reasonable course. Many of the women who read the Big Sexy Novel are terrified of divorce and, rather than seeing it as an answer to the problem, might find it a frightening and depressing non-conclusion. This might change, too, in coming years, as more and more women realize their value, as people, outside of the institution of marriage.)
    In the Rough Sexy Novel, however, you must be sure to use explicit language and rich detail in the sex scenes. The only taboo is a reverse of the BigSN requirement: No character shall be punished for his sexual conduct, and neither shall he be reformed. The entire point of the RoughSN, or the "porn" book, is that sex is healthy, exciting, and extremely desirable in almost any quantity or quality. No "perversion" can be criticized in the Rough Sexy Novel, unless it is one in which one of the sexual partners is hurt. Sadism and masochism, then, are usually unpopular topics for Rough Sexy Novels, while homosexuality, lesbianism, group sex, troilism, and most other bedroom activities are not only
permissible but encouraged.
    In the Big Sexy Novel, the character motivation