The Mechanics of the Short Story

To separate a few people from the whole world, confine them without any past or future to a locality, and relate a detached experience there, is the task of the short-story writer.

The name by which such a narrative is introduced is of the utmost importance. It may give the story prestige or consign it to oblivion. A quotation or proverb which suggests the character of what follows makes a very good title. Sometimes a new turn can be given a well-known phrase that will make it spicy and alluring.

"Far from the Maddening Girls" is such a title used by one author. "Blind-Man's Bluff" is another. Anything original which is apt and suggestive is just as desirable. But commonplace titles hint at commonplace treatment and are to be strictly avoided.

It should be remembered that the mission of the short-story is to amuse and divert the mind of the reader. No matter if the pessimist and cynic speak slightingly of the tale that ends happily, forty-nine people out of fifty prefer it to any other. One of the chief requisites of the writer is that he take an optimistic view of life himself. Then the tone of his work will be cheerful and healthful, and the tired people who peruse it will feel refreshed.

Not every author can write a story of such excellence as to be classed with the best twelve American short-stories, like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "The Man Without a Country," "Marjorie Daw," and the rest. But his narratives can create an atmosphere of such strength and sweetness that they will be welcomed wherever they go. This is not to be accomplished by moralizing on the part of the writer. Advice and philosophy are out of place in short fiction. The limitations will not admit of anything aside from the straight course of the experience related.

It is a wise plan to jot down in a note-book any good idea of which you happen to think; a scrap of bright conversation or simply a clever sentence, a plan for a plot, or a good title.

Then when you write out of the many notes you have, you may find a few of value for the task in hand.

Try to get a vivid picture of your characters in your mind before you undertake to tell the story in writing. Live with them a week, two weeks—the longer the better. Make a special note of every act or bit of dialogue that occurs to you and that seems to fit your imaginary people. Love them and then write of them so the reader will love them too. But it is a mistake to grow so fond of them that you depict them as too ideal. Fiction people should be realistic enough to be recognized as types from life. This is art.

Allow them their mead of failings and imperfections to make them human, and they will be the more delightful. The music which we enjoy the most is that with which we are most familiar. Believe in your heroes and heroines yourself, else your story will not ring true.

The introduction to a short tale should be as brief as possible—the shorter the better. In it may be subtly interwoven the name of the hero (or heroine) and his station in life, together with some thought or act on his part to whet the appetite. Do not try to tell everything in it. Many points which seem of importance to the novice may with profit be omitted. Something should be left to the imagination of the reader. As you proceed with the narrative make the characters supply, in conversation, the little information that is actually necessary.

This part should not be handled clumsily or it will make dull reading. A word here, a clever sentence there, and the thing is done without interrupting the interest. The exact age of the heroine, her salary if she is in the business world, the number of sisters and brothers she has, are not of vital importance and are among the items better omitted. Every word should carry the story forward up to the climax, and there it should end. Even one paragraph of explanation after this may make flat an otherwise spicy piece of work.

Study the fiction of the best magazines to get a correct idea of what is good. Note the different methods of beginning, the treatment of the plot and its ending. The most difficult subjects, the most complicated situations, are handled in a manner that makes easy reading. No one enjoys perusing whole paragraphs several times to get the gist of them. When your own work has grown so old that you can read it impartially, give it your most careful consideration. Some of it will probably disgust you, but, try to find out what you do the best: character sketches, stories of action, or conversation.

When you decide, bend all your energies toward perfection along that line. Read that kind of stories, take notes for that kind and write that kind. Leave the matter of being an all-round writer to others until you have mastered your specialty.

It was Marion Crawford who said that "to be an author one must be content to sit long in one place." This is undoubtedly true, but you must remember that all is grist that comes to the writers' mill; and if no new experiences come to you, bestir yourself and go after them. You may think human nature is the same the world over, and so it is. And the quiet life of the student is the one best suited to the author. But there is nothing like new scenes and faces occasionally to furbish the wits till they scintillate like diamonds.

No matter how well equipped you are for the trade of authorship, it will keep you out of the ruts to take a good literary magazine devoted to your interests. You are sure to find something of benefit to you in every issue.