A Handbook on Story Writing by Blanche Colton Williams (1917). I DEFINITIONS AND CHARACTERISATIONS. II THE INCEPTION OF THE STORY. III PLOT: PRELIMINARIES. IV PLOT: STRUGGLE AND COMPLICATION. V PLOT: COMPOSITION 82rnVI PLOT: STORY TYPES DEPENDENT ON PLOT. VII THE POINT OF VIEW. VIII THE SCENARIO. IX CHARACTERISATION. X CHARACTERISATION, continued. XI DIALOGUE. XII THE EMOTIONAL ELEMENT. XIII LOCAL COLOUR AND ATMOSPHERE. XIV PROBLEMS OF COMPOSITION: BEGINNING, BODY, AND END. XV A SHORT-STORY TYPE: THE GHOST STORY. XVI POPULARITY AND LONGEVITY
Hints on Writing Short Stories
Hints on Writing Short Stories by
Charles Joseph Finger (1922). In the first place, there must be
Sincerity. Without that nothing can be done. Sincere work will be good
work, and sincere work will be original work. With sincerity, you will
have honesty and simplicity, both of which are cardinal virtues in the
literary man. Also, with sincerity there will be courage. You know, as
well as I know, that when you meet an in- sincere man, you detect him at
once. Were you ever deceived, for instance, by the rounded periods of
some political rhetorician? Perhaps for a moment you may have been
carried away in spite of your better sense, but, certainly, the effect
was not lasting. Examining yourself, you will certainly remember that
before you could persuade others, you had to be thoroughly convinced of
the essential right of the thing itself. In the same fashion then, you
must be persuaded of the truth of that which you wish to be accepted
when writing. I do not speak of controversial matters. I write of
fiction. You must have so thoroughly identified yourself with your
characters that they are as living creatures to you. Then only shall
they be living characters to your readers. If you have read the Pickwick
Papers and have learned to know and love Samuel Pickwick, you will know
exactly what I mean. In that character, the young Charles Dickens lost
himself. In creating Mr. Pickwick he was entirely sincere. He watched
the character grow from a somewhat simple-minded old gentleman to a
lovable, jolly fellow to meet whom you would walk half round the world.
Pick- wick was real to Dickens; therefore he is real to us. Observe this
too; he had his faults. Mr. Pickwick would not have been considered rna
good or a moral character to many of the “unco guid” of today. He often
drank too much. Had there been nation wide prohibition in England in
his day, he would certainly have drunk home brew with Ben Allen and Bob
Sawyer exactly as he went to prison for conscience sake. He and his
companions enjoyed the pleasures of the table too well for latter day
tastes. He was obstinate on occasion, just as I am obstinate. Had
Dickens been insincere, he might have been tempted to sponge out the bad
spots in his character. But then he would have given us something that
was not a man. The truth is that we want something of the sensuous and
the gross in those about us. None of us want to live with angels and
saints. So we reject instinctively as impossible and unpleasant, those
perfect, etherealized creations some times found in stories — those
returns all compounded of nobility, courage, beauty, generosity and
wisdom which insincere writers try to foist upon us. They do not ring
true. We detect their hollowness just as we detect the hollowness of the
flamboyant boastings of the political orator.
The Elements of the Short Story
The Elements of the Short Story
The Elements of the Short Story by
Edward Everett Hale and Fredrick Thomas Dawson, (1915). The legend of
Sleepy Hollow, by W. Irving.--Rip Van Winkle, by W. Irving.--Irving as a
story writer.--The great stone face, by N. Hawthorne.--Ethan Brand, by
N. Hawthorne.--Hawthorne as a story writer.--The fall of the house of
Usher, by E. A. Poe.--The murders in the Rue Morgue, by E. A. Poe.--Poe
as a story writer.--The diamond lens, by F.-J. O'Brien.--The man without
a country, by E. E. Hale.--The outcasts of Poker Flat, by F. B.
Harte.--Some recent stories. I. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. .
.Washington Irving - II. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving - III. Irving
as a Story Writer - IV. The Great Stone Face. . .Nathaniel Hawthorne V.
Ethan Brand . . .Nathaniel Hawthorne - VI. Hawthorne as a Story Writer -
VII. The Fall oe the House of Usher .Edgar Allan Poe - VIII. The
Murders in the Rue Morgue. Edgar Allan Poe - IX. Poe as a Story Writer -
X. The Diamond Lens - Fitz-James O'Brien - XI. The Man Without A
Country . . . Edward Everett Hale - XII. The Outcasts of Poker Flat. .
.Francis Bret Harte. - XIII. Some Recent Stories
The Short Story by William Patterson
Atkinson, (1916). Bibliography: p. xxv. Contains references. Washington
Irving: Rip Van Winkle.--Edgar Allan Poe: The gold bug, The purloined
letter.--Nathaniel Hawthorne: Howe's masquerade, The birthmark.--Francis
Bret Harte: The outcasts of Poker Flat.--Robert Louis Stevenson: The
Sire de Malétroit's door, Markheim.--Rudyard Kipling: Wee Willie
Winkie. I. Definition and Development rnII. Forms - III. The Short-story
as Narration - IV. Representative Short-stories
The Modern Short Story: a study of
the form: its plot, structure, development and other requirements. By
Lucy Lilian Notestein, (1914). The object of this book is to state as
clearly as may be, just what the modern Short-story is, and to enumerate
and expound the principles underlying the most typical examples of this
distinctive kind of fiction. An experience of several years as a
teacher of college classes in Short-story writing convinced me that in
the case of my own students I could secure better results by the use of a
text- book different in type from any of those available. Some of the
existing works on the subject treat in a borate detail the development
of the Short-story from the time of the narratives of the Egyptian
papyri; others confuse the student by discussing at too great length
many related forms of merely short fiction. In regard to other more or
less admirable texts, I have only to say that my method differs from
that laid down in any of them. In teaching the writing of the
Short-story, I have thought it best to hold to the strictly* modern
form, and to leave the history of its evolution as matter for a separate
and distinct course of study. I soon became convinced that I should
have to make a restatement of what is known about the Short-story in the
order which experience taught me was most serviceable from the
teacher's point of view.
Short Story: its Principles and
Structure by Evelyn May Albright, (1907). The aim of this book is not to
trace the origin or the development of the short-story, but to set
forth some standards of appreciation of what is good in storywriting,
illustrating by the practice of the masters as contrasted with
amateurish failures : this with the view of rousing the student to a
more lively interest in his eading, and of awakening such a wholesome
spirit of self-criticism as shall enable him to improve his own
workmanship, should he feel called to write. It is expected that one who
undertakes to study or to write short-stories will become acquainted at
first hand with the masterpieces of this art. With this in view, a
reading-list has been appended, roughly classified in parallel
arrangement with the topics studied in the text. The list includes,
besides a number of stories generally recognized as great, a fairly
representative selection from recent magazines. It is the author's
belief that not only the masterpiece but the story which is moderately
good can be made a profitable study in construction for the beginner.
But it has been the aim to lay due stress, within the text, on those
elements of greatness which distinguish the masterpiece from the average
short-story. I. Introductory - II. Gathering Material - III. The Motive
as the Source op Plot - IV. Plot - V. Mechanism - VI. Unity of
Impression - VII. The Title - VIII. Characterization - IX. Dialogue - X.
The Setting - XI. The Realistic Movement - XII. The Element of Fantasy -
XIII. The Emotional Element - XIV. The Spirit of the Author
The Short Story a Technical and
Literary Study by E. A. Cross, (Ethan Allen), (1914). The Short Story is
a literary form as distinct as the novel or epic poem and almost as
uniformly true to its technical type as the ballade or sonnet. This book
is written for the numerous readers who enjoy the best short stories in
the magazines, in the hope that it may be an aid to them in getting at
the meaning of these stories through an understanding of their
construction. One who occasionally reads poetry may get some pleasure
from the reading of a poem composed in one of the standard poetic forms
without knowing anything about the kinds of lyrics, but the reader who
understands the technic of the sonnet or ballade derives an added
pleasure from reading poems in these forms when he is aware that the
author's meaning, his theme, has been embodied skillfully in an
exquisite fixed form. An observer who is acquainted with the details of
architecture delights in looking upon a finished structure, beautiful,
stately, well adapted to its intended use, in which he recognizes a
conformity to the laws of construction, an embodiment of historic lines
in the decoration and total effect, and the successful conquest of
difficulties in order to accomplish the result in the standard technical
requirements of architecture.
The Contemporary Short Story, a
Practical Manual by Harry Torsey Baker, ( 1916). A distinguished British
critic, Professor Hugh Walker, remarks: "There is no other form of
literature in which America is so eminent as in the writing of short
stories." This dictum alone is sufficient justification for introducing a
course in this subject into every college in the land. Not only is a
better understanding and appreciation of the finest short stories
fostered by such a course, but not a few students find themselves able
to write tales that are accepted by reputable American periodicals — if
not during their undergraduate years, at any rate shortly afterward.
Writing fiction for the magazines is both an art and a business. This
volume accordingly aims to teach promising young authors, whether in or
out of college, how to write stories that shall be marketable as well as
artistic. It attempts to state succinctly, and as clearly as may be,
some fundamental principles of short-story writing. These principles are
based upon somewhat extensive reading of short fiction in English, both
classic and contemporary; of a pretty large number of manuscripts
submitted to important periodicals; and of most of the critical works on
the short story. Many of the pages are written from the editorial
standpoint. I have not attempted to set up an impracticable ideal on the
one hand, nor to concede too much to the lower range of popular taste
on the other.
