Short Story Writing Part 4

-- 12.

He is as yet unknown.

-- 13, 14.

He is sensible of the ludicrous side of his ambition.

-- 15.

The daughter is not ambitious.

-- 16-19.

The father's ambition is to own a good farm, to be sent to General Court, and to die peacefully.

-- 20-23.

The children wish for the most ridiculous things.

-- 24-27.

A wagon stops before the inn, but drives on when the landlord does not immediately appear.

-- 28-31.

The daughter is not really content.

-- 32.

The family picture.

-- 33-37.

The grandmother tells of having prepared her grave-clothes.

Fears if they are not put on smoothly she will not rest easily.

-- 38, 39.

She wishes to see herself in her coffin.

-- 40, 41.

They hear the landslide coming.

-- 42.

All rush from the house and are instantly destroyed.

The house is unharmed.

The bodies are never found.

-- 43, 44.

Even the death of the ambitious guest is in doubt.

You will notice that this working plot omits many little details which are too trivial to set down, or which probably would not occur to one until the actual writing; and all the artistic touches that make the story literature are ruthlessly shorn away, for they are part of the treatment, not of the plot.

This method of permitting you to study your crude material in the concrete will prove of value to you. It enables you to crystalize into ideas what were mere phantasms of the brain, to arrange your thoughts in their proper order, and to condense or expand details with a ready comprehension of the effect of such alterations upon the general proportions of the story. It makes your purposed work objective enough so that you can consider it with a coolness and impartiality which were impossible while it was still in embryo in your brain; and it often reveals the absurdity or impossibility of a plan which had seemed to you most happy. I believe that the novice can do no better than to put his every story to this practical test.

The use of this skeleton in the further development of the story depends upon the methods of the writer, or the matter in hand. Many short story writers waste no time in preparations, but at once set down the story complete; and to my mind that is the ideal method, for it is more apt to make the tale spontaneous and technically correct. But if the story is not well defined in your mind, or if it requires some complexity of plot, like the _Detective Story_, this plan can be followed to advantage in the completion of the work. It may be used as a regular skeleton, upon which the narrative is built by a process of elaboration and expansion of the lines into paragraphs; or it may be used merely as a reference to keep in mind the logical order of events. Usually you will forget the scheme in the absorption of composition; but the fact of having properly arranged your ideas will a.s.sist you materially, if unconsciously, in the elaboration.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: "The Ambitious Guest," because of its technical perfection and its apt ill.u.s.tration of the principles discussed, will be used throughout as a paradigm. It can be found in full in the Appendix.--THE AUTHOR.]

[Footnote 12: "Have the Plots Been Exhausted?" Editorial Comment.

_Current Literature._ June, '96.]

[Footnote 13: "Have the Plots Been Exhausted?" Editorial Comment.

_Current Literature._ June, '96.]

[Footnote 14: "Rudimentary Suggestions for Beginners in Story Writing,"

by E. F. Andrews. _Cosmopolitan._ Feb., '97.]

[Footnote 15: For a complete discussion of the proper use of facts in fiction see Chapter V.--THE AUTHOR.]

[Footnote 16: "Rudimentary Suggestions for Beginners in Story Writing,"

by E. F. Andrews. _Cosmopolitan._ Feb., '97.]

[Footnote 17: "Magazine Fiction and How Not to Write It," by Frederick M. Bird. _Lippincott's._ Nov., '94.]

IV

t.i.tLES GOOD AND BAD

Too often the novice considers the t.i.tle of his story a matter of no import. He looks upon it as a mere handle, the result of some happy afterthought, affixed to the completed story for convenience or reference, just as numbers are placed on the books in a library. The t.i.tle is really a fair test of what it introduces, and many a MS. has been justly condemned by its t.i.tle alone; for the editor knows that a poor t.i.tle usually means a poor story. Think, too, how often you yourself pa.s.s a story by with but a casual glance, because its t.i.tle does not interest you: experience has shown you that you seldom enjoy reading a story which bears an unattractive t.i.tle.

"A book's name often has an astonis.h.i.+ng influence on its first sale. A t.i.tle that piques curiosity or suggests excitement or emotion will draw a crowd of readers the moment it appears, while a book soberly named must force its merits on the public. The former has all the advantage of a pretty girl over a plain one; it is given an instantaneous chance to prove itself worth while. A middle aged, unalluring t.i.tle ('In Search of Quiet,' for instance) may frighten people away from what proves to be a mine of wit and human interest. A book headed by a man's name unmodified and uncommented upon--such as 'Horace Chase'--is apt to have a dreary, unprepossessing air, unless the name is an incisive one that suggests an interesting personality. Fragments of proverbs and poems are always attractive, as well as Biblical phrases and colloquial expressions, but the magic t.i.tle is the one that excites and baffles curiosity. The publishers of a recent 'Primer of Evolution' received a sudden flood of orders for the book simply on account of a review which had spoken of it under the sobriquet, 'From Gas to Genius.' Many copies were indignantly returned when the true t.i.tle was revealed."[18] "In 1850 Dr. O. M.

Mitch.e.l.l, Director of the Astronomical Observatory in Cincinnati, gave to the press a volume ent.i.tled 'The Planetary and Stellar Worlds.' The book fell dead from the press. The publisher complained bitterly of this to a friend, saying, 'I have not sold a single copy.' 'Well,' was the reply, 'you have killed the book by its t.i.tle. Why not call it "The Orbs of Heaven"?' The hint was accepted and acted upon, and 6,000 copies were sold in a month."[19]

The t.i.tle might almost be called the "text" of the story; it should be logically deduced from the plot; so a poor t.i.tle usually indicates a poor plot and a poor story. This name line should grow out of the phase of the plot, rather than the basic theme, else it will be too abstract and general. It is so closely allied to the plot that they should be born synchronously--or if anything the t.i.tle should precede the plot; for the story is built up around the central thought that the t.i.tle expresses, much as Poe said he wrote "The Raven" about the word "nevermore." At least, the t.i.tle should be definitely fixed long before the story is completed, and often before it has taken definite form in the writer's mind. That this is the practice of professional writers may be proved by a glance at the literary column of any periodical, where coming books are announced by t.i.tle when scarcely a word of them has been written. So if you have difficulty in finding an appropriate t.i.tle for your story, first examine your plot, and make sure that the cause does not lie there. In case you are unable to decide among a number of possible t.i.tles, any one of which might do, you may find that your plot lacks the definiteness of impression required by the short story; but a fertile intellect may suggest a number of good t.i.tles, from which your only difficulty is to select the best.

A good story may be given a bad t.i.tle by its author, and so started toward failure. Novices are peculiarly liable to this fault, usually through allowing themselves to be too easily satisfied. They go to infinite pains to make the story itself fresh and individual, and then cap it with a commonplace phrase that is worse than no t.i.tle at all. A good t.i.tle is apt, specific, attractive, new, and short.