Break down of the plot to “Perry Mason: The Case of the Sulky Girl”
A Wise Sloth fan E-mailed me recently and asked me to break down the plot of Perry Mason, Season 1-Episode 5, The Case of the Sulky Girl. So I did.
Click here to view the break down on Google Spreadsheets.
“Perry Mason” is a detective mystery/court drama book series written by Erle Stanley Gardner in the 1930’s-1940’s. In two decades, he wrote 82 books, which were so popular, they were adapted into a black and white television sitcom in the 1950s that lasted 271 episodes. He was able to write so quickly and eloquently by inventing and using handwritten plot wheels. You can find pictures pictures of his original handwritten wheels here. The words are hard to read, but you can find transcriptions here.
Gardner undoubtedly had more wheels and laddered-outlines, which you may be able to learn more about in the book, “Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: The Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner.” I haven’t read it. The reviews say it’s more biography than how-to, but it seems to be the only book that talks about Gardner’s writing method at all, and his life seems pretty interesting anyway.
You can write your own Perry Mason fan fiction by copying the contents of my spreadsheet into an Excel document and then using the “find and replace” function (Ctrl-F) to replace the variables. Once you’re familiar with how the pieces fit together, then you can move and change them to create more original stories. Over the next few months I’m going to break down a few more episodes and write an analysis that will help both of us understand Gardner’s formula better.
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