How to write short stories PDF book 1921 by Josephine Bridgart
Contents of the book:
Chapter I. Common Sense in Viewing One's Work, 1 Chapter II. The Necessary Mental Equipment 9 Chapter III. Finding Time and Material 16 Chapter IV. Hints for Equipping The Shop 27 Chapter V. Common Business Sense in Meeting the Market. ... 35 Chapter VI. The Great Art of Story Writing: Construction 48 Chapter VII. The Great Art of Story W^riting: Style 57 Chapter VIII. The Great Art of Story Writing: Adaption of Style to Material 63 Chapter IX. The Great Art of Story Writing: The Element of Suspense — Viewpoint 68 Chapter X. The Great Art of Story Writing: Characterization. 76 ^ Chapter XI. The Great Art of Story Writing: Plots 84 Chapter XII. Using Acquaintance as Material 93 Chapter XIII. The Author's Personal Responsibility 102 Chapter XIV. The Editors 108 Chapter XV. Criticism 118 Chapter XVI. Help from Other Writers 126 Chapter XVII. When You're Tempted to Shut Up Shop 131 Chapter XVIII. The Business of Writing — A Summing Up 138
WRITING for publication is a business. If the new writer will accept this fact he will have laid a foundation upon which, if he has the necessary natural ability, he can build success. If a young woman tells you that she intends to take up nursing, and later reveals that her chief reason for doing so is that the uniforms in a certain hospital have attracted her, or that she enjoys reading to the sick, -or dislikes the business life her father has suggested for her or has heard that nurses make a great deal of money, you immediately feel that her nursing will not be a great success. You reason that nursing involves some very hard and disagreeable duties., and that a girl who thinks only of the incidental pleasures or the monetary rewards is pretty sure to fail. It is not a common business sense to enter a profession without taking into consideration the requirements of that profession.
I have read this lack of common business sense between the lines of many a first story. Some of these stories tell how a young girl with no experience won a prize in a short story or novel contest; often the prize-winning story was written in an afternoon, or an evening, or in the dead of night as the result of an idea which came to the author after she had retired. Some of these stories are about attractive young women who sold an editor a manuscript because she was attractive, or because she was poor, or because she was sick or saucy. Such stories show plainly that the authors are depending upon personal charm or "an inspiration" or luck rather than upon hard work to win acceptance. They do not stop to reason that before they can hope to sell a manuscript they must learn how to produce a manuscript that some editor will want to buy.
One would naturally suppose that a person who intended to make a business of writing English would first see to it that his English was correct, pure, idiomatic, all that is meant by "good English." As a matter of fact, the necessity of reaching any standard, so far as his English goes, does not even occur to many an arrogant young writer. He may worry a little about construction and style and ask a few hurried questions about viewpoint and plot development, but the reviewing of his English grammar and rhetoric does not suggest itself to him.
His manuscript may be so full of slang that a cultured English, Scotch or Irish reader could not follow it; it may, again and again, lapse into foreign idioms or expressions that are markedly colloquial; it may even not be correct grammatically, but if the sentences make sense (or almost sense) the writer is content. He is sure he can sell his "swell article" or "darn good yarn" if only he can find an editor not dazzled by the "big names."
Author: Josephine Bridgart
Publication Date: 1921
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