Three Great Writing Techniques From the Lester Dent, Robert Heinlein and Dan Harmon

I’m a procrastinator by design, I don’t mean to be but it’s hard for me to break. This mean’s that when I sat down to write I like to try to look up different writing methods that can help me get the most out of my writing time.

One of my all time favorite writing methods which I’ve used for many of my projects is the Lester Dent Pulp Fiction Writing Method which is all about putting the most action in a short piece as possible. With a little messing around you can make it work for novels and longer pieces as well.

I think it’s a great tool to help with pacing and rising and falling action in stories. You can find it here: https://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html

Next up, is Robert Heinlein’s 5 Rules for writers, which while it isn’t a method on writing it is a great structure for how to make a career in the writing industry. At the time it was definitely more for short story writers trying to break into different publications.

But, I think that his rules are still relevant today. Like rules 4 and 5 which I have the most problem following myself and are ones that are very relevant to self-publishers. As people can’t buy your books if they aren’t for sale and you can’t gain a following if your books don’t remain up for sale.

You can find Heinlein’s rules for writing here: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/robert-a-heinleins-5-rules-for-writers/

Last up I have a video done by Dan Harmon for his Story Circle Method, which while it’s aimed at TV writers I think works for writers of all types especially when it comes to character development.