,libraries47          ,,the ,,technique 
,,of ,,fiction ,,writing     ,the one   
excuse and breath of                    
art--charm4--,stevenson4         ,the   
,technique of     ,fiction ,writing     
,by     ,,robert ,,saunders ,,dowst     
,,james ,,knapp ,,reeve     ,,publisher 
,,franklin1 ,,ohio       ,copyright1    
#aiah     ,the ,editor ,company         
,copyright1 #aiba     ,james ,knapp     
,reeve         ,,to     ,c4 ,k4 ,r4 ,d4 
,,preface   ,many books have been       
written on fiction technique1 and the   
chief excuse for the present addition to
 the number is the complexity of the    
subject4 ,its range is so wide1 it calls
 for so many and so different capacities
 in one attempting to discuss it1 that a
 new work has more than a chance to meet
 at least two or three deficiencies in  
all other treatments4  ,i believe that  
the chief deficiency in most works on   
fiction technique is that the author    
unconsciously has slipped from the      
viewpoint of a writer of a story to that

 of a reader4 ,now a reader without     
intention to try his own hand at the    
game is not playing fair in studying    
technique1 and a book on technique has  
no business to entertain him4           
,accordingly1 ,i have striven to keep to
 the viewpoint of one who seeks to learn
 how to write stories1 and have made no 
attempt to analyze the work of masters  
of fiction for the sake of the analysis 
alone4 ,such analysis is interesting to 
make1 and also interesting to read1 but 
it is not directly profitable to the    
writer4 ,it is indirectly profitable1 of
 course1 but it will give very little   
direct aid to one who has a definite    
story idea and wishes to be told the    
things he must consider in developing it
 and writing the story1 or to one who   
wishes to be told roughly how he should 
go about the business of finding real   
stories4 ,in fact1 ,i believe that      
discussion and analysis of perfect work 
has a tendency to chill the enthusiasm  
of the beginning writer4 ,what he       

chiefly needs is to be told the         
considerations he must hold in mind in  
conceiving1 developing1 and writing a   
story4 ,the rest lies with his own      
abilities and capacities to work        
intelligently and to take pains4        
,therefore the first part of this book  
takes up the problems of technique in   
the order in which they present         
themselves to the writer4 ,beginning    
with matters of conception1 the         
discussion passes to matters of         
construction and development1 and       
finally to matters of execution1 or     
rather the writing of a story considered
 as a bare chain of events4 ,then the   
matters of description1 dialogue1 the   
portrayal of character1 and the         
precipitation of atmosphere are         
discussed1 and lastly the short story   
and novel1 as distinct forms1 are taken 
up4  ,usually the propositions necessary
 to be laid down require no             
demonstration2 they are self-evident4   
,that is why a book on technique for the

 writer need not indulge in fine-spun   
analysis of perfect work4 ,where        
analysis will lend point to the abstract
 statement1 ,i have made it1 but my     
constant aim has been not to depart from
 the viewpoint that the reader has in   
mind some idea of his own and wishes to 
be told how to handle it4               
,unquestionably literary dissection is  
useful in that it gives the beginning   
writer familiarity with the terminology 
and processes of the art1 but the main  
object of a book on technique is to     
place the results of analysis1 directly 
stated1 in logical sequence4  ,i will   
note one other matter4 ,a great part of 
the technique of fiction writing        
concerns matters of conception and      
development which are preliminary to    
actual writing4 ,in fact they are       
essentially and peculiarly the technique
 of fiction4 ,the story that is not a   
justly ordered whole1 with each part in 
its due place and no part omitted1      
cannot have full effect1 however great  

the strictly executive powers of its    
writer4 ,verbally faultless telling will
 not save a story which is not logically
 built up and developed1 either before  
writing or in the process of writing4   
,the art of telling a story is largely  
the art of justly manipulating its      
elements4 ,the art of telling it with   
verbal perfection is not so much a part 
of the strict technique of fiction      
writing as it is of the general         
technique of writing4 ,therefore ,i have
 made little attempt to discuss the     
general art of using words4 ,for        
assistance in studying the art of       
expression the reader should turn to a  
work on rhetoric4 ,the subject is too   
inclusive for adequate treatment here4  
,moreover1 it is debatable whether the  
art of verbal expression can be studied 
objectively with any great profit4 ,but 
the art of putting a story together can 
be studied objectively with profit1 and 
its principles are subject to direct    
statement4  ,i desire to acknowledge my 

indebtedness to ,mr4 ,william ,r4 ,kane1
 of ,the ,editor ,magazine1 for much    
helpful criticism and many valuable     
suggestions4     ,,table ,,of ,,contents
             ,introduction              
#ac         ,i4 ,the ,writer ,himself   
#bb        ,,ii4 ,the ,choice of ,matter
                          #cj           
,,iii4 ,conceptive ,technique3 ,story   
,types             #cg        ,,iv4     
,conceptive ,technique3 ,plot and       
,situation      #dh         ,v4         
,constructive ,technique of ,narration  
#fd        ,,vi4 ,executive ,technique  
of ,narration              #hj          
,,vii4 ,executive ,technique of         
,narration           7,continued7       
#ie      ,,viii4 ,description           
#ajg        ,,ix4 ,speech               
#aba         ,x4 ,portrayal of          
,character                       #acf   
,,xi4 ,atmosphere                       
#aeb       ,,xii4 ,the ,short ,story    
#afe      ,,xiii4 ,the ,novel           
#ahb       ,,xiv4 ,conclusion           

#aig            ,appendix               
#bji     ,,introduction   ,a work of art
 is first cloudily conceived in the     
mind2 during the period of gestation it 
stands more clearly forward from these  
swaddling mists1 puts on expressive     
lineaments1 and becomes at length that  
most faultless1 but also1 alas6 that    
incommunicable product of the human     
mind1 a perfected design4 ,on the       
approach to execution all is changed4   
,the artist must now step down1 don his 
working clothes1 and become the artisan4
 ,he now resolutely commits his airy    
conception1 his delicate ,ariel1 to the 
touch of matter2 he must decide1 almost 
in a breath1 the scale1 the style1 the  
spirit1 and the particularity of        
execution of his whole design4  ,thus   
,stevenson1 in ,a ,note on ,realism1    
takes it for granted that the artist in 
pigments1 stone1 or words cannot        
reproduce until he first has produced1  
cannot show a perfect work unless he    
paints1 builds1 or writes along the     

lines of a perfected design4  ,one      
cannot dabble long at architecture or   
the graphic arts without gaining keen   
realization of the fact that conception 
in its elaborative aspects is as much a 
part and phase of technique as the      
executive handling of materials4 ,but   
the art of literature1 and1 more        
narrowly1 the art of fiction1 deal with 
materials other than those employed in  
the other arts2 words1 not colors or    
marble1 nor yet sounds1 are the resource
 of the story teller to precipitate his 
conception in enduring form2 and words  
are at once frank and mysterious things4
 ,their primary office is to forward the
 common business of life2 each has some 
meaning in itself1 more or less         
definite4 ,it results that the writer of
 a story who sets out with only the     
merest glimmering of what he means to do
 in mind can produce a superficially    
plausible work1 a work not too obviously
 misshapen1 a work that means something1
 at any rate1 although his failure to   

trace a design to guide his hand almost 
inevitably will prohibit his giving the 
basic conception most effective         
expression4 ,and1 since almost any      
sequence of words has some significance1
 it also results that the writer of     
fiction who works at haphazard may fail 
to discover that failure in his work as 
a whole is due to lack of planning      
rather than to defective execution4 ,the
 mere grammatical coherence of a        
fictionally slipshod piece of work is a 
shield between its writer's inquiring   
eye and its essential defects4  ,the art
 of fiction is the art both of the tale 
and of the story1 fictions that differ  
radically4 ,their most striking         
difference is stated in the following   
pages2 here ,i can only remark broadly  
that the tale is episodal1 consisting of
 a fortuitous series of incidents       
without essential connection or relation
 except that they all happened to happen
 to the characters1 while the story is a
 whole in that each incident functions  

in the development of a plot or dramatic
 problem4 ,if prevision and full        
elaboration of his basic idea are       
essential to the writer of a tale1 they 
are doubly essential to the writer of a 
story1 simply because a story is a whole
 and the result of careful co-ordination
 of parts4 ,even if the writer of some  
particular story has not worked along   
the lines of a fully elaborated design1 
the story actually will manifest        
co-ordination of parts or else be       
worthless4 ,a story is more than a      
series of incidents2 it is a series of  
incidents significant in relation to    
character4 ,its writer cannot set to    
work with an eye solely to the physical 
spectacle and follow after with his pen2
 he must prepare his people as well as  
the events1 a task of cunning           
calculation4 ,he must have an eye to    
many other matters1 but this is not the 
place to state them4 ,the matter of     
character is the matter significant     
here1 because the whole difference      

between tale and story is made by the   
presence or absence of relation between 
events and personality4 ,and it is      
certain that the writer of a story      
cannot hope to do the best work if he   
postpones until the moment of actual    
writing the task of moulding and        
elaborating his basic idea with a view  
to giving it maximum effect4 ,the task  
to express perfectly1 in a verbal sense1
 is difficult enough to claim the       
undivided attention of the ablest       
artist1 but undivided attention cannot  
be given the matter of verbal expression
 by a writer who shapes his substance   
and picks his words at one and the same 
time4 ,either word or substance must    
suffer4  ,accordingly1 to emphasize the 
necessity that the writer of fiction    
give full shape and development to his  
design before writing1 ,i have stated   
the necessity and discussed technique   
itself under two heads1 conceptive or   
constructive technique and executive    
technique4 ,to have carried this        

division rigorously through the whole   
book would have been neither possible   
nor profitable1 for it would have       
involved much repetition and confusion1 
but the various items of technique are  
either largely conceptive and           
constructive or largely executive1 and  
the best place to discuss each has not  
been difficult to determine4 ,it was    
only necessary to contemplate the actual
 process of conceiving1 developing1 and 
writing a story1 and to take up in their
 order the problems that confront a     
writer of fiction4 ,the only matter     
which found no natural place1 so        
approached1 was that of                 
characterization1 which is almost       
equally a matter of construction and of 
execution1 so that discussion of it has 
been broken up to some extent4  ,this   
approach to technique is the natural    
approach1 and has been adopted for that 
reason4 ,the more naturally and easily  
any study can be conducted1 the greater 
the results that will be achieved4 ,but 

there is a more immediate reason for    
taking up the phases of technique in the
 order in which they present themselves 
to a writer of fiction1 thereby         
emphasizing the existence and importance
 of the constructive phases of          
technique4 ,briefly1 it is that         
construction is at once easier and more 
important to learn than execution4      
,perhaps a little argument in support of
 the statement is called for4  ,it will 
not be questioned seriously that it is  
easier to learn the main principles of  
construction than it is to learn or     
discover how to write with finish and   
power4 ,it is entirely possible to state
 abstractly the principles of           
construction1 to grasp their reasons and
 implications from abstract statement1  
and to apply them by a mere act of the  
intelligence in writing any story4 ,but 
it is entirely impossible to state      
abstractly the principles of writing    
with finish and power1 or to learn to   
write so from any mere discussion of the

 matter4 ,the condition is illustrated  
by almost any treatise on rhetoric1     
where half the text will be made up of  
examples transcribed to lend some weight
 to the obviously--and                  
necessarily--inadequate discussion4 ,how
 to write with finish and power can be  
learned only by long continued and      
intelligent practice1 if it can be      
learned at all4 ,of course1 this is not 
to say that constant practice is not    
necessary to gain any real facility and 
adequacy in applying the principles of  
construction4  ,the argument of the last
 paragraph is clinched by the fact that 
of a thousand stories1 all of which are 
well constructed and put together1 only 
a few or perhaps none will be written   
with any approach to real literary      
power1 in the verbal sense4 ,of all the 
writers of to-day who can put together a
 story in workmanlike fashion how many  
have the power of the telling word8 how 
many have even a style8  ,i have yet to 
substantiate the assertion that         

construction is more important for the  
writer of fiction to learn than         
execution1 but the task is easy4 ,in the
 last analysis1 the power of a story1   
that is1 its power to interest1 depends 
upon its matter1 the spectacle it       
presents4 ,if the whole conception is   
justly elaborated and properly put      
together1 it will have very nearly full 
effect1 even though its writer does not 
give it perfect verbal expression1      
provided the verbal precipitation of the
 thing is not too shamelessly           
inadequate4 ,perfect verbal expression  
is necessary to give a properly         
constructed story maximum effect2 it is 
not necessary to give it approximate    
effect4 ,but perfect verbal expression  
will not save a story that is misshapen 
and distorted through lack of proper    
construction4  ,these considerations    
strongly urge the writer of fiction to  
master the principles of constructing a 
story before he frets about the nuances 
of expression1 and just as strongly they

 impose upon a book on technique the    
obligation to discuss matters of        
construction at length and also to      
discuss them as such4 ,the book which   
does not explicitly insist that certain 
matters are matters of construction1    
therefore to be performed before        
writing1 is very apt to mislead4 ,it is 
a defect from which too many books on   
fiction technique are not free1 and one 
that ,i have tried to avoid4  ,how      
comprehensive and inclusive are the     
principles of construction the first    
half of this book attempts to show4     
,here it is enough to state that they   
embrace matters so different as the     
manipulation of possible incidents in   
the interest of climax1 and the         
preparation or building up of the people
 of a story that its situations may have
 real dramatic value for a reader4 ,the 
writer of fiction who merely writes     
cannot hope to provide by any instinct  
for these and the other matters of      
construction1 and no power in his words 

can fortify essential weakness in his   
matter4 ,style1 literary power1 the     
right word in the right place--all will 
resist the tooth of time1 but no one    
will preserve a story from the contagion
 of decay at the heart4 ,indeed1 in the 
juster sense1 a shapely design is the   
necessary foundation or basis for       
perfect writing1 which is no mere       
varnish4  ,in this present era of       
magazine literature the chances are that
 nine out of ten actual or prospective  
writers of fiction who take up a book on
 technique for serious study will do so 
with an eye to the short story4 ,and    
since this book is for the practitioner 
of the art1 not for the mere reader of  
fiction1 ,i have felt myself under      
obligation to discuss the short story   
and its peculiar technique with some    
approach to adequacy4 ,statement of the 
way the short story has been approached 
may serve to align the reader's mind    
with the argument4  ,in the first place1
 the short story is yet a story1 a      

fiction1 so that the general technique  
of fiction is applicable to it1 with    
suitable modifications here and there4  
,in the second place1 the short story is
 a distinct type of fiction in that it  
embodies a plot or dramatic problem and 
is brief enough to read at one not very 
prolonged sitting4 ,it is at once       
slighter and more pointed or direct than
 the long story of plot1 the novel or   
romance4 ,the result is that all its    
processes1 particularly the process of  
characterization1 must be conducted in a
 fashion more swift and summary than in 
a long story1 and the difference is the 
whole of the difference in the technique
 of the two forms4  ,unfortunately1 a   
discussion of the peculiar technique of 
the short story cannot confine itself to
 this difference without failing to     
clear away the many misconceptions that 
becloud the subject4 ,a good deal has   
been written on the short story1 and1   
since there is really not very much to  
say1 a good many writers have been led  

into nonsense4 ,with so much            
misconception in the air1 ,i have felt  
that it would be useful to state a      
tenable theory of the short story1 and  
have attempted to do so in the chapter  
on the form4 ,the matter will be found  
there and cannot be reproduced here1 but
 brief statement of the argument will   
complete the foretaste of the book4     
,since the short story is a story1 at   
least1 it may be divided and classified1
 like all stories1 into stories of      
character1 stories of complication of   
incident1 and stories of atmosphere1    
that is1 into stories which emphasize or
 stress the element of personality1 the 
element of incident1 or the element of  
setting4 ,but the truly significant     
division of the short story into types1 
the division which it will be most      
directly profitable for the writer of   
fiction to realize1 is twofold1 not     
triplicate1 and is the division into the
 dramatic short story and the short     
story of atmosphere or unity of         

emotional effect on a reader4  ,these   
two types are as different as black and 
white1 and the misconception noted above
 consists in confusing them4 ,the short 
story of atmosphere is ,poe's sort of   
story2 he said something definite and   
true about his peculiar art2 but later  
writers1 critics rather1 have padded and
 distorted his words to cover the whole 
field of the short story4 ,the general  
result is much printed folly1 and the   
specific result for the short story     
writer is that he is continually urged1 
commanded1 entreated1 and advised to    
invest his work with some mysterious    
unity4 ,the advice is sound if the short
 story of atmosphere1 the short story of
 unity or totality of emotional effect1 
is meant2 the short story of atmosphere 
is a mysterious and subtle unity in that
 its people and happenings are curiously
 of a piece with its setting1 serving to
 deepen or intensify the emotional      
effect of the setting on a reader4 ,but1
 applied to the dramatic short story1   

the advice is unsound1 for the dramatic 
short story may and usually does involve
 much diversity and contrast in its     
three elements of people1 events1 and   
setting4 ,the only sense in which it can
 be said to be a unity is that it is    
verbally coherent1 a single story4 ,the 
single story may involve radically      
different people1 happenings1 and       
scenes4  ,the positive evil tendency in 
telling the short story writer to seek  
to invest his work with unity is that if
 he follows the advice his material will
 be restricted1 and he will write       
stories too simple really to interest1  
apart from the appeal of their          
characters4 ,and this point of interest 
brings up another aspect of this book   
which ,i would mention4  ,the last      
chapter states a general theory or      
philosophy of fiction which it will     
prove most profitable for the writer of 
fiction to grasp1 however imperfectly ,i
 may have stated it4 ,the theory is not 
profound1 in the sense that it is       

mysterious1 being merely the theory     
which is implied in the content and aim 
of the art of fiction itself4 ,the      
content of fiction is man and what he   
may possibly or even conceivably        
experience2 the aim of fiction is to    
interest1 in ,stevenson's words1 the one
 excuse and breath of art--charm4 ,how  
much is implied in the content and aim  
of fiction ,i have tried to show in my  
closing pages1 but the theory there     
stated is the guiding principle of the  
whole book1 and any value it may have   
derives from such unforced handling of  
the subject4 ,apart from the merit of my
 own work1 one thing at least is        
certain4 ,if commentators on the art of 
fiction generally would deal less in    
isms and seek less to display their     
profundity and critical acumen1 the     
actual writer of fiction might read them
 with some profit4 ,as it is1 the       
greatest single danger threatening the  
practitioner of the art is that his     
eagerness for all that pertains even    

remotely to his trade may lead him to   
take seriously the empty thunders of the
 schools and to forget that his business
 is to interest and captivate ,mr4 and  
,mrs4 ,smith1 simply that4  ,to sum up1 
my desire has been to write a book that 
would be of some practical use1 at least
 practically suggestive to the writer of
 fiction2 therefore the only natural way
 to approach technique has been adopted1
 and ,i have indulged in analysis only  
when the analysis would be useful in    
itself or would serve to clear away     
misconception4 ,in other words1 the book
 has been written strictly for the      
writer1 not the reader of fiction1 and  
that implies much4     ,,chapter ,i     
,,the ,,writer ,,himself      ,critical 
,faculty--,cultivation of               
,genius--,observation and               
,information--,open-mindedness--,attitud
e ,toward ,life--     ,prejudice and    
,provincialism--,the ,social            
,question--,reading--     ,imagination4 
,accessible as are the data of the      

fiction writer1 the facts and           
possibilities of life1 their very       
accessibility places him under strict   
necessity to sift the useful from the   
useless in search for the pregnant      
theme4 ,for if life presents a          
multiplicity of events to the writer1   
from which he may select some sort of   
story with little labor to himself1 life
 also presents the same multiplicity of 
events to the reader1 who can see the   
obvious as well as the lazy writer1 and 
who will not be pleased with a narration
 of which he has the beginning1 middle1 
and end by heart4 ,a tale which does not
 interest fails essentially1 and        
novelty1 in the undebased sense of the  
word1 is the root of interest4          
,therefore the writer of fiction who    
takes himself and his art seriously must
 develop the open and penetrating eye   
and the faculty of just selection4 ,all 
is not gold that glitters1 a fact that  
too often becomes painfully evident only
 when some tale discovered with joy and 

developed with eagerness lies coldly    
spread upon paper4 ,the beginner who    
will approach his own conceptions in a  
spirit of unbiased criticism and        
estimation before determining to set    
them down will save himself useless     
labor1 much postage1 and many secret    
tears4 ,half of the essentially feeble  
work produced that has not a chance of  
getting published is the result of the  
writer's falling in love with his own   
idea simply because it is his own idea4 
,the defect is in conception rather than
 in execution1 and a matter of first    
importance to the writer is to develop  
the faculty of estimating his           
unelaborated ideas4  ,unquestionably    
this faculty can be developed4 ,the     
struggle for its development is half    
over1 in a practical sense1 when the    
writer comes to judge his concepts at   
all before writing1 when he wins free of
 the habit of writing just to be        
writing1 and of choosing to work on a   
particular tale because it is the best  

he can squeeze from his brains at the   
particular moment1 rather than because  
it is absolutely good and he knows it to
 be absolutely good4  ,unquestionably1  
too1 the critical faculty is powerless  
to supply worthy conceptions4 ,but that 
is beside the point4 ,if the conceptions
 are worthy1 the just critical faculty  
will recognize their merit1 and give the
 writer courage and confidence to send  
each tale across the almost inevitable  
sea of rejections until it comes to     
port1 as it surely will1 if well done4  
,and if the conceptions are feeble1 and 
the writer cannot better them1 it will  
be better for him and all concerned that
 he discover the truth4  ,whether the   
essential genius of the teller of tales1
 the power that first supplies a theme  
of moment and then a fitting garb for   
it1 is a plant capable of nurture1 is   
not for me to attempt to show1 or even  
to state4 ,fortunately1 the question is 
academic4 ,the dons may debate the      
point1 but for those who themselves     

labor in the literary vineyard the thing
 to remember is that the same habits of 
observation and practice which some     
claim will create the literary faculty  
will at least foster its growth1 if it  
is a gift1 as others claim1 and not to  
be artificially cultivated4 ,steady     
hours at the desk and moments with the  
notebook1 the cultivation of the seeing 
eye1 the informed mind1 and the         
sympathetic heart1 may not be able to   
create the divine spark4 ,but it may    
burn within one for all that2 and shall 
one neglect to bring it to full flame on
 the mere chance that it may not exist  
because of the possibility that it      
cannot be created8 ,if the chance of its
 existence is great enough in the       
individual's eyes to justify the labor  
of writing at all1 it is great enough to
 justify undertaking the correlative    
activities of observation and           
self-culture4 ,at the least of it1 these
 can result only in making one a better 
and more complete man or woman1         

irrespective of the literary result4    
,the writer who fancies that his labor  
is but to string words1 and that idea or
 passion come to life in the barren mind
 or heart1 is foredoomed to failure4 ,no
 equation can be formed between         
something and nothing1 nor can something
 come from nothing4 ,all life and all   
art is a quid pro quo2 the writer must  
barter his time and sweat for his raw   
materials1 ideas4  ,there is little need
 to state that of writers of equal      
genius the one with the deepest         
reservoirs of observation and           
information to draw upon will produce   
the more significant work4 ,in relation 
to expository and argumentive writing   
the fact is patent2 in relation to the  
writing of fiction it may be less       
obvious1 but1 curiously enough1 is even 
more impressive when perceived4 ,the    
writer of special treatise or argument  
may devil his subject for the occasion2 
though the writer of fiction may        
specially investigate the phase of life 

or society with which he deals1 his     
investigations will aid him only in the 
external matters of dress1 customs1     
speech1 or atmosphere4 ,for the         
preservation of the essential congruity 
and justness of the whole as a          
presentation of life he must depend     
solely upon his own innate familiarity  
with life1 which cannot be brushed up   
for the occasion1 for it necessarily    
derives from the totality of the        
individual's experience and the use he  
has made of it4  ,in this connection it 
may be noted that above all else the    
writer of fiction must be catholic in   
his interests and sympathies4 ,he is the
 sieve through which the motley stream  
of life is poured to have selected for  
presentation its most significant       
aspects1 and any unwisely cherished     
aversions of his are so many gaps in the
 netting through which1 to his own loss1
 worthy matter constantly will escape4  
,it is difficult enough at best for even
 the most open-minded writer to achieve 

some approach to an adequate            
presentation of a phase of life1 and for
 the writer whose vision is distorted by
 prejudice and predilection1 however    
perfect his technique1 it is nearly     
impossible4 ,the writer of fiction is   
concerned with political1 social1 or    
religious dogmas only in so far as they 
impinge upon and affect the individual  
life whose course his pen is tracing1   
and his only proper and fruitful        
attitude toward such dogmas is that of  
observer1 not of fierce advocate or     
equally fierce assailant4 ,the heart of 
the people is sounder than its head1    
perhaps because larger1 and life is a   
complex of passion rather than a complex
 of intellectual crusades4 ,the writer  
of fiction addresses the whole man1 his 
emotional nature as well as his         
intelligence1 and should address him by 
presenting the whole man1 instead of    
some feeble counterfeit not actuated    
primarily by passion4  ,emotion can be  
evoked only by the portrayal of passion1

 and emotion--sympathy1 disgust1        
admiration1 any spiritual excitement--is
 the root of the appeal of fiction4     
,there are other elements of interest1  
primarily intellectual1 as in the       
detective story or any story of         
ratiocination1 but emotional appeal is  
the one essential in work of any        
compass4 ,emotional appeal is attainable
 only through a just presentment of     
life1 and toward life the writer of     
fiction must preserve an attitude of    
observation and ready acceptance4 ,in   
the last analysis1 that is his business4
 ,the world pays its wage to the        
scientist for the narrow1 intensive     
view2 it pays its wage to the teller of 
tales for the broad1 extensive view4    
,the course of letters is marked by     
great failures whose essential technical
 powers were nullified or at least      
hampered by their narrow outlook on     
life1 and by great successes whose      
achievements bear the scar of prejudice 
and provincialism4 ,in our day1 the     

multitudinous standing controversies of 
the past have been reduced in bitterness
 by the more general diffusion of       
information and by the conflicting      
claims of more numerous interests that  
demand exercise4 ,nevertheless we still 
have the division between rich and poor1
 capital and labor1 conservative and    
radical4 ,for reasons immaterial here1  
this division and resulting social      
conflict will become more complete and  
bitter2 the writer of fiction will face 
the fact and be forced to deal with it  
at times2 and it is to be remembered    
that one may be abreast or even ahead of
 the best thought of the day without    
being hectic1 and that to draw the      
conservative of fiction as a fool or a  
villain simply because he is a          
conservative is bad art4 ,conceivably a 
man may be back in the ruck of thought  
and belief because he is a fool1 but he 
is not a fool merely because he is      
behind the times4 ,he may have had no   
chance to learn better1 and that is     

precisely the story4  ,besides viewing  
life with a sympathetic and inclusive   
eye1 the writer of fiction should       
investigate the smaller world of books4 
,life is infinitely more rich in        
substance than the printed word1 but the
 observer is not a disembodied spirit1  
and cannot scrutinize the whole world1  
cannot exhaust even his own little      
neighborhood4 ,he can call to his       
service the eyes of his contemporaries  
and of those who have gone before1 and1 
in a few hours reading1 can live        
vicariously a dozen lives4 ,in this very
 real sense the world of books is       
practically larger than the actual      
world2 one can hope to exhaust its more 
significant matter4 ,by reading1 the    
writer of fiction can gain familiarity  
with the actual tissue of life1 the     
casual relation between motives and     
acts--so often obscured in real         
life--can mingle with nobler1 baser1    
more significant people than he will be 
apt to meet1 and can estimate the       

efforts of others in his own art4       
,reading of all sorts will yield        
information1 and reading of fiction will
 reveal the root causes of success and  
failure in the difficult task to        
precipitate life in words4  ,there is   
little need to emphasize the difficulty 
of the task1 twofold as it is4 ,one must
 find matter1 and one must display it4  
,not only will reading conduce to mental
 development and flexibility2 it will   
reveal the function of the single word4 
,life is seen in chiaroscuro1 but words 
are sharp and definite things4 ,as      
,stevenson has said1 the writer must    
work in mosaic1 with finite and quite   
rigid words4 ,if he really works1       
scorning to abuse a noble instrument and
 to prostitute a noble profession1 his  
difficulties will but increase with his 
earnestness4 ,flaubert is a case in     
point4 ,only by reading can the writer  
discover the resources of language1 and 
only by reading can he find             
encouragement in the spectacle of what  

patience and devotion have achieved4    
,one may employ a method of literary    
presentment diametrically opposite to   
that of fitting the right word in the   
right place1 the method of taking a     
broad canvas1 disregarding length1 and1 
in a sort1 modeling the verbal mass1    
which will possess plasticity to an     
extent1 though composed of words        
intractable and rigid in themselves1    
like the atoms which compose modeler's  
clay4 ,but this method is open only to  
the writer of a novel of epic length2   
the verbal economy of the short story   
forbids it2 and it will usually be found
 that the books which manifest it--,les 
,miserables1 ,david ,copperfield1 ,tom  
,jones1 ,jean ,christophe1 ,war and     
,peace1 much of ,thackeray's work1 for  
instance--owe their appeal to the       
essential vitality and worth of their   
matter rather than to any detailed      
perfection of artistry4 ,if the story is
 worthy1 it will not be injured by      
compact and artistic expression2 the    

function of the artist is to select the 
significant from life and to present it 
as pungently and as perfectly as        
possible2 brevity in expression is as   
essential as economy of line in drawing4
 ,i have read and heard it stated that  
,stevenson and many others eminent for  
artistry are thin and self-conscious in 
their work1 and personally ,i would give
 much to know whether this impression   
does not derive from the fact that many 
of the accepted great books of the      
world1 and most of those appearing day  
by day1 are negligible as examples of   
executive artistry1 by their contrast   
making the occasional work that is      
concisely and artistically done seem    
somewhat artificial4 ,the reader is     
perhaps so accustomed to imperfect work 
that the perfect has a touch of         
artificial glitter1 and seems unreal4   
,but this is a digression4 ,the fact    
remains that the writer of fiction who  
would live by his art cannot afford to  
go in ignorance of what has been done   

before him4 ,he should read1 widely and 
with all his faculties on the stretch4  
,a vast amount of experiment lies ready 
on the printed page4 ,one may not by    
reading learn how to do perfect work1   
but one can at least discover what      
cannot by any possibility be done4  ,the
 general proposition is that the writer 
of fiction must observe life1 must      
estimate it1 and must express the phase 
that his estimation shows to be         
significant4 ,the open eye1 the         
cultivated and able mind1 and the       
trained hand are all equally essential1 
and all must work together in harmony4  
,some have the eye without the hand2    
some the hand without the eye2 in others
 the faculty of discrimination is       
wanting2 but eye1 mind1 and hand may all
 be trained by application4 ,no one who 
has not done his best has the right to  
complain of failure1 and he who engages 
in the difficult business of letters1   
and neglects to use all efforts to equip
 himself1 is a fool and nothing else4   

,the writer may live in prosaic         
surroundings and be repressed by daily  
contact with people as dull as          
ditchwater2 yet the world is wide and   
man a free agent within limits2 let him 
strike his tent and go elsewhere4 ,but  
let him first make quite sure that the  
defect is in his environment and not in 
himself4 ,otherwise1 when ensconced in a
 snug artistic ,bohemia1 he may suffer  
the pain of learning that some quiet1   
clear-eyed seer has found rich ores in  
the old home life1 and has wrought them 
to fresh shapes of beauty4 ,and beyond  
the influence of all accidents of time  
and place lies the world of imagination1
 instinct with austere beauty1 offering 
escape1 solace1 and rich gifts to him   
who has the golden key4 ,investigate the
 life that was ,hawthorne's in ,salem1  
,massachusetts1 in the thirties and     
forties1 then read ,the ,scarlet        
,letter1 and turn your eyes within if   
ugliness lies stark about you4 ,no boor 
and dullard may walk with you in the    

fields of fancy1 alone with the night   
wind and the quiet stars4 ,dream with   
sanity1 live with sanity1 work with     
sanity and purpose1 and realize that    
life and thought are your business1 and 
that the stream of life as a whole is   
clean and fresh and sweet and utterly   
interesting even if you yourself are    
caught in some stagnant backwater4 ,open
 your eyes and swim for the clear       
reaches of the stream4     ,,chapter    
,,ii  ,,the ,,choice ,,of ,,matter      
,selection--,sincerity--,adventure--,com
mon ,problems of ,life--                
,originality--,novelty and              
,worth--,three ,elements of ,fictional  
,literature--,interest--,elements of    
,interest4   ,life is infinitely        
various1 and the possibilities of the   
imagination are even more extensive2 the
 writer of fiction has enough material  
at hand4 ,his primary task1 to pitch    
upon a theme1 is almost wholly          
selective1 unless he is cursed with a   
paucity of observation or barrenness of 

imagination1 in which case he has       
mistaken his calling4 ,and in this task 
of selection the writer must bear in    
mind several considerations1 his own    
predilections1 his own powers1 the      
intrinsic worth of the idea1 and--last  
but not least--the audience he is to    
address4 ,the writer should give ear to 
his own personal likings because he will
 do better work when he has interest in 
the matter under his hands2 he should   
consider his own powers lest he attempt 
too much2 he must consider the intrinsic
 worth of his theme lest his work be    
essentially feeble2 and he must ponder  
his audience that his work may not go   
for naught4 ,as to this last1 a word of 
advice may not be out of place4 ,though 
the average reader may have little power
 to express1 he usually has a well      
developed power to appreciate1 and there
 is no need to write down to him4       
,condescension on the part of the writer
 of fiction is less obtrusive than in   
more directly informative writing1 but  

it is instantly perceived and resented  
when present4 ,the best audience for the
 writer to imagine is simply the best   
audience1 alive in sensibilities and    
intelligence4  ,stories--and therefore  
potential stories--may be divided       
roughly into two classes1 those meant   
frankly to entertain and those designed 
to perform a higher function in         
addition4 ,the line between them is not 
hard and fast2 the same basic idea will 
slip from one side to the other under   
different handling by different authors4
 ,but there is a real difference1 and   
that difference is made by the presence 
or absence of sincerity in the writer4  
,the complete and rounded story will    
interest1 which is the element of bare  
matter1 will be so perfectly told that  
its mere structure will give pleasure1  
which is the element of artistry1 and   
will truly express some phase of life as
 the author sees it1 which is the       
element of sincerity4 ,stories may      
possess all1 some1 or none of these     

elements1 but no story which does not   
possess them all can be said to fulfil  
completely the ideals of the art of     
fiction4 ,there is no abstract          
obligation to be sincere resting on a   
writer of fiction2 he should be sincere 
because his work will gain in power4 ,a 
reader will feel the presence or lack of
 the quality4  ,this does not mean that 
the writer of fiction should take       
himself and life too seriously1 a fault 
of which ,george ,eliot is perhaps an   
example4 ,he should simply be true to   
his own artistic convictions4 ,if he    
must write pot-boilers for a living1 he 
should refuse to let the hours so spent 
dull his artistic sense4 ,no taint      
attaches to writing an entertaining     
story for the money in it2 the elder    
,dumas1 for instance1 was a far greater 
artist in letters than hosts of more    
sombre writers who preceded and have    
succeeded him4 ,and the writer who has  
,dumas' intrinsic gaiety and verve may  
write adventure and write literature    

too4  ,back of the possibility lies the 
fact that the more bizarre phases of    
life are somewhat accidental and not    
very inclusive4 ,the writer who deals   
with them must draw on his imagination  
heavily1 not only for initial           
conceptions but for details4 ,very      
possibly he may miss some of the warm   
verisimilitude that derives from writing
 of familiar things and constitutes the 
keystone of the fictional arch4 ,the    
strange and striking may gain a reader's
 superficial interest very easily1 but  
easy come1 easy go and the story of     
deep-rooted appeal is the story that    
displays to a reader sharply            
individualized human beings meeting the 
daily problems that are our common human
 lot4 ,these problems are not dull      
because they are common and universal2  
their universality is the source of     
their interest4 ,the writer who can     
reduce a general problem of love1 hate1 
or labor to specific terms of persons   
and events1 and can invest the whole    

with that certain momentousness1 as of  
life raised to a higher power1 which is 
the hallmark of literature1 fulfils the 
highest possibilities of the art1       
whether he be as realistic in method as 
,dostoievsky in ,crime and ,punishment  
or as romantic in spirit as ,hawthorne  
in ,the ,scarlet ,letter4  ,perhaps all 
this is somewhat repellent4 ,we are not 
all ,hawthornes in embryo--worse        
luck6--and though a good many aspire to 
do something worth while in itself some 
day1 another good many are more humble1 
and incline to view the editor's check  
as sufficient warranty of success4 ,such
 an attitude is much healthier than that
 of the persecuted genius who refuses to
 investigate present conditions in the  
public taste and to coax and take       
advantage of them4 ,but it may be       
carried to extremes4 ,i do not think    
that many deliberately write trash1 but 
it is apparent that a good deal of trash
 is written through too sedulous        
imitation of the tone of current        

literature4 ,there is a recognizable    
type of machine-made story used by all  
the all-fiction magazines1 and so forth4
 ,subject to correction1 ,i believe that
 the greater part of this cut-and-dried 
product is owing less to editorial      
conservatism than to authorial          
diffidence toward truly original work4  
,work may be original in substance1     
method1 and viewpoint without being     
obscene or even frank4 ,when they do    
leave trodden ways1 too many young      
writers persist in opposing the         
justifiable editorial reluctance to     
print anything that might give offense  
in a magazine of general circulation4   
,the sex relation is not the whole of   
life1 and even the sex relation may be  
treated1 without the conventional sugar 
coating1 to give all essential facts and
 make all essential comments and not be 
forbidding4 ,we have a great world      
spread before us1 and there is more in  
it for telling than is already printed  
and on the newsstands4 ,when looking for

 a story1 the thing to do is to forget  
those that have been written1 to forget 
everything except the spectacle of life4
  ,in the choice of matter the two main 
considerations are novelty and worth4   
,freshness in substance or form will go 
far to stimulate the writer and to sell 
the result of his labor1 and essential  
worth is inspiring4 ,no man finds       
pleasure in trivial and useless labor1  
but all normal men find pleasure and    
exhilaration in labor that is worth     
while4 ,the writer who has worthy matter
 beneath his hands1 and who knows it1   
will remain keyed to the requisite pitch
 during the labor of composition4       
,numbers have testified that the truest 
joy of authorship is found in conceiving
 and elaborating a tale before setting  
pen to paper1 and time spent in         
estimating an idea and exhausting its   
possibilities and deficiencies before   
writing is necessary to make certain    
that the idea is worth while4 ,moreover1
 it is necessary that the writer know   

precisely what his idea is in order to  
develop it properly by excising the     
superfluous and emphasizing the         
significant4 ,conscious artistry is     
impossible unless the author knows      
definitely what he is striving to       
express4  ,the writer of fiction should 
bear in mind the three elements of the  
story that is literature1 and should ask
 himself whether his projected tale is  
interesting1 whether it is capable of   
being cast in literary form1 and whether
 it is worth while4 ,if the idea meets  
all these requirements1 any failure in  
the completed work will be due to       
defective execution1 not to deficiency  
in the conception4 ,if the idea fails to
 meet the test as to form and worth1 it 
may yet be worth while to write the     
story1 for it may sell2 if the idea is  
not interesting1 it should be rejected  
without remorse4 ,the first and highest 
function of a story is to interest and  
entertain2 indeed1 artistic form is but 
a means to that end1 as is essential    

worth2 and the dull1 uninteresting      
story--a contradiction in terms--is the 
most woebegone literary failure under   
the stars4  ,the writer who allows any  
discussion of the art of fiction or the 
content of fiction to cloud for him the 
basic fact that fiction must be         
interesting is on the highroad to       
failure4 ,it would be better for him had
 he never opened a book1 except of frank
 adventure4 ,nine tenths of the         
ponderous and silly comment on fiction  
past and fiction present is written by  
critics and professors who first kick up
 a great dust over a work in order to   
display their insight in seeing through 
it1 and nine tenths of that nine        
tenths--written purely from a reader's  
and not from a writer's                 
standpoint--consists in appraising      
character by conventional ethical       
standards and in attributing to the     
writer whose work is under examination  
intentions and philosophies of which he 
never dreamed4 ,it is at once very dull 

and very amusing1 but the young writer  
whose eagerness for all information     
about his craft leads him to take such  
matter too seriously is in grave danger4
  ,the writer of good fiction and the   
reader of good fiction are alike in that
 they both realize that the chief end of
 fiction is to entertain and interest1  
that perfection of form is desirable    
simply because it heightens the illusion
 of a story1 and that worth of matter is
 necessary if the story is to be true   
literature because the cultured mind    
cannot find interest in the trivial4    
,culture has been finely defined as the 
quality of a mind instinct with purpose1
 conscious of a tendency and direction  
in human affairs1 able and industrious  
in distinguishing the great from the    
trivial4 ,if this definition is         
valid--it bears its credentials on its  
face--great fiction may be defined as   
fiction which interests the cultured    
mind4 ,the quality of arousing interest 
is the criterion and determinant1 and   

implies perfection of form and essential
 worth of substance4 ,the writer of     
fiction must never lose sight of the    
fact1 nor of the resulting necessity    
that all his work be interesting4 ,the  
fortunate thing is that fiction deals   
with so universal a thing as life2 it   
need not repel the ignorant and         
uneducated in order to attract the abler
 mind4  ,the twin elements of fictional 
interest are the story and its people1  
and here becomes apparent the essential 
weakness of the story of mere incident4 
,it cannot evoke interest as deep as    
that called forth by the story having   
closer relation to character4 ,the range
 of character required by the story of  
incident is narrow2 there are a thousand
 pregnant human qualities which the     
story of incident cannot first develop  
by action and then utilize to hold a    
reader's interest1 but which the writer 
of the more leisurely and inclusive tale
 of everyday life can common can be     
truly vivified only by showing the      

person in acts displaying his essential 
traits1 and the less dependence the     
action of a story has upon character1   
the less real to a reader will be the   
persons involved4 ,the story of         
complication of incident1 of mere       
structural ingenuity of plot1 is        
superficially interesting1 but it lacks 
the deeper appeal of the story which    
develops its people adequately4 ,at any 
rate1 it is true that a reader can love 
or hate characters1 beside being        
interested in them2 he can only be      
interested in an event4 ,the people of a
 story are not to be neglected as       
sources of interest4 ,they are harder to
 display than mere events1 but they are 
infinitely more compelling4 ,a bare     
series of events may interest1 but the  
interest and appeal of what happens will
 be doubled if the observer is a friend 
of the persons affected1 that is1 if he 
knows them4 ,the same is true in the    
case of a story4 ,its reader stands in  
the position of observer of events and  

people4 ,the only trouble is that some  
stories have little action significant  
in relation to character1 and when that 
is the case the writer loses one means  
to make his people real for a reader4   
,the point to remember in searching for 
an interesting story is that the people 
are as influential an element as the    
events4     ,,chapter ,,iii             
,,conceptive ,,technique3 ,,story       
,,types      ,conception and            
,execution--,utility to ,know           
,types--,novel and     ,romance--,short 
,story--,the ,three                     
,types--,emphasis--,three     ,elements 
of ,any ,story--,story of               
,character--,character and              
,action--,story of                      
,incident--,archetypal                  
,character--,short     ,story and       
,fallacy of ,compression--,story of     
,atmosphere--,other     ,types4   ,the  
labors of the fiction writer are of two 
sorts1 conceptive and executive4 ,in    
actual practice1 of course1 the writer  

may have only the faintest glimmering of
 his story when he begins to write1 and 
may simultaneously conceive1 elaborate1 
and express as he goes along2 but that  
is not the method of the conscious      
literary artist4 ,an understanding      
adaptation of means to ends is          
impossible unless the writer has a      
definite purpose fixed in mind from the 
first moment of execution4 ,and in      
writing on technique it is necessary to 
assume the natural order of the total   
artistic or creative process1 whether   
the actual practice of any writer       
coincides with it or not4 ,therefore the
 body of conceptive technique first     
calls for treatment4 ,strict executive  
technique and also the technique of     
construction--which is both conceptive  
and executive--will be taken up after   
dealing with the matter of story types  
and the matter of plot4  ,i need not    
state that there is no technique of     
conception1 mastery of which will yield 
the writer the golden secret of how to  

create or find a good story4 ,that      
depends strictly on personal ability1   
and not on any objective knowledge of   
the mechanics of the art of fiction4    
,but a knowledge of the several         
fundamental types of story1 and of the  
how and why of the differences between  
them1 cannot fail to aid the writer in  
estimating and realizing the            
potentialities and deficiencies of a    
particular idea4 ,the writer who knows  
precisely where his story idea will     
classify under analysis has a standard  
that will prove most useful in the work 
of development4 ,if it classifies as a  
story of atmosphere1 rather than of plot
 or of character1 the writer will be led
 to concentrate upon his proper task of 
creating the atmospheric illusion1 and  
will not dissipate his energies and     
spoil the effect of the finished work by
 interpolating unnecessary touches of   
emphasis upon character or incident4    
,another preliminary word may not be out
 of place4 ,a story is a story1 whether 

long or short2 but the novel or lengthy 
romance is so much more inclusive in    
matter and complicated in structure than
 the short story--viewing the latter as 
a distinct literary type--that it is    
less essential for the writer of fiction
 of book length to know with exact      
definition the effect he wishes to      
produce than it is for the writer of the
 short story of a few thousand words4   
,the potential and usual effects of the 
novel are many2 it may and usually does 
contain chapters or passages emphasizing
 all three story elements of character1 
complication of incident1 and           
atmosphere2 but the short story is      
limited by its brevity to the creation  
of a single effect1 and any touch of    
emphasis looking elsewhere usually will 
detract from the power of the whole4    
,therefore it is in short story writing 
that a firm preliminary grasp upon all  
the implications and connotations of the
 basic idea is most essential1 also most
 attainable1 and therefore a discussion 

of fundamental story types concerns     
itself largely with the short story4    
,but much the same principles of        
constructive analysis utilized by the   
writer of the short story may be        
profitably employed in developing the   
various but more or less unified        
episodes of the novel4  ,the three      
fundamental types of story have a       
perfectly natural origin4 ,a story is   
the relation of what 7#a7 certain       
persons 7#b7 did 7#c7 in a certain place
 and under certain conditions of        
existence4 ,accordingly1 as the elements
 of personality1 action1 or surrounding 
conditions are emphasized1 we have the  
story of character1 of incident1 or of  
atmosphere4 ,as ,stevenson has said1    
there are but three ways to create a    
story1 to conceive characters and select
 and devise incidents to develop them1  
to take a plot--a climactic series of   
incidents--and devise characters to     
enact it1 or to take an atmosphere and  
precipitate it as best the writer may4  

,there is1 however1 an obvious fact to  
remember4 ,these several types of story 
differ from one another only in point of
 emphasis2 in each case an element      
possessed by all is stressed2 no type is
 entirely devoid of the elements        
emphasized in the other two4 ,an        
intended story lacking any one of the   
three elements of character1 of         
complication of incident1 or of setting 
is not a story1 but something else4 ,the
 most common example is the composition 
portraying character without any plot or
 complication of incident1 which is not 
a character story1 but a character      
sketch4 ,it cannot be too strongly      
insisted that a story is a story1       
consisting of a climactic series of     
incidents1 as distinguished from a tale1
 which is a level series of incidents1  
unrelated save in that all happen to the
 same group of characters4 ,plot is a   
matter not specifically under discussion
 as yet1 but half the difficulty and    
most of the inutility in writing on     

fiction technique reside in the fact    
that one must treat in isolation matters
 which are but elements of a unified    
artistic synthesis4 ,a story is a story2
 its people do not merely exist1 they   
live and act4 ,in the case of the story 
of complication of incident1 the        
complication supplies the story-element 
of the fiction2 in the case of character
 story1 the evolution or degeneration of
 character supplies the story-element2  
while in the case of the story of       
atmosphere1 the climactic progression of
 the particular emotional impression to 
the point of highest intensity in itself
 supplies much of the plot- or          
story-element of the conception4        
,another qualification should be stated4
 ,the normal story1 written for its own 
sake1 is emphatic in that it stresses   
some one of its three elements4 ,but    
there is also the thematic story1       
written to vivify an abstract           
proposition or to point a moral4 ,the   
type lays no special emphasis on        

character1 incident1 or setting1 and is 
written with an eye to an ulterior      
purpose beyond the mere sake of the     
story4 ,it is not a natural type1 and   
may be disregarded here4 ,incidentally1 
it is not a very successful type1 and of
 course any success it may achieve as a 
work of art cannot derive from the truth
 or weight of the proposition or moral  
behind it4  ,starting from the          
proposition that there are three normal 
story types1 it may be profitable to    
examine them in detail4 ,i am not yet   
concerned with the technical devices    
whereby character may be drawn1 a plot  
devised and narrated1 or atmosphere     
created2 my sole purpose is to suggest  
how the writer may recognize the true   
character of his idea1 that in          
developing it he may know exactly what  
he is trying to do4  ,the story of      
character is concerned with the         
infinitely diverse traits of our common 
human nature as manifested by the people
 of a story4 ,the single trait or few   

traits1 rather than the totality of each
 person's nature1 should be sought to be
 developed1 for reasons that a moment's 
thought will render apparent4 ,character
 can be truly realized only by showing  
the person in characteristic actions    
and1 unless the writer desires to extend
 his work to a great length1 he can     
formulate no course of action which will
 illustrate a complete personality4 ,in 
all its aspects1 fiction is a matter of 
selection1 and the writer of a story of 
character should concentrate his powers 
of description and exposition upon the  
traits of personality involved in the   
acts of the persons4 ,the short story   
must present a relatively incomplete    
picture of each character's soul2 the   
novel may approach each person from a   
number of angles2 but even the novelist 
should consider whether he cannot give  
maximum reality and vivacity to his     
people by not attempting a too complete 
presentation of each4  ,if1 then1 the   
initial conception of a story involves  

or suggests true traits of character1 it
 may be advisable to develop the story  
so as to throw into strong relief the   
quality or qualities involved4 ,the     
possibility of the wisdom of such       
development becomes a probability if the
 traits are somewhat novel and not those
 possessed in common by all men to some 
extent1 such as the capacity to love1 to
 hate1 to sacrifice self1 ambition1 the 
fear of death1 and so forth4  ,it should
 be remembered that the hallmark of the 
true character story is its progression2
 the persons of the story grow stronger 
or weaker in their respective traits    
under the pressure of events4 ,there is 
a climactic moment of indecision and    
suspense when it is doubtful whether the
 character will shape circumstances or  
circumstances the character4 ,this      
distinguishing attribute of the         
character story is its essential quality
 as a story2 the strict type is debarred
 from recourse to complication of       
incident to save it from being a mere   

sketch2 change or progression in the    
characters is itself the story or plot  
element of the fiction4 ,realization of 
the fact will give the writer a firmer  
grasp on the truth that characters and  
events must be developed in strict      
concert and harmony4 ,anticipating later
 statement a trifle1 let me say that    
portrayal of the actions of a character 
is portrayal of the character himself1  
so that his actions must be             
characteristic1 or two elements of the  
story will be at cross purposes4 ,in    
setting out to write a character story1 
the author deliberately chooses to      
emphasize character and to depend for   
interest on the spectacle of its        
evolution or degeneration4 ,since he is 
after all writing a story--though of one
 type--the author must devise some      
climactic series of incidents4 ,but the 
character element is the preponderant   
strain of the fiction1 and each         
successive incident should be chosen    
with an eye to that element1 and its    

climactic value should inhere in its    
being climactic and progressive in      
relation to the trait of character      
sought to be developed4  ,this is all   
somewhat abstract1 but the test is much 
easier to apply to a concrete story idea
 than it is to formulate in terms4 ,if  
the idea consists of a tentative        
grouping of incidents which suggests an 
interesting phase of character in an    
interesting phase of development1 the   
conception may be elaborated into the   
story which emphasizes character4 ,on   
the other hand1 if the initial idea is  
simply of a phase of character which can
 be adequately shown in progression by a
 series of incidents devised to that    
end1 the same treatment is advisable4   
,in each case it is possible that such  
treatment will give maximum effect to   
the conception4  ,the story of          
complication of incident interests      
primarily because of its plot1 and not  
because of its people or the totality of
 its emotional effect4,a ,it is more    

than a type of story2 in a way it is    
really the archetype of all stories4 ,an
 historical analysis will show the truth
 of the statement4 ,first came the tale1
 a chain of incidents having no         
essential connection except that they   
all happened to the characters4 ,then   
came the story1 a chain of incidents    
which are not fortuitous and accidental1
 but each essential to the whole design4
 ,and from the story have sprung such   
variations as the character story1 which
 emphasizes the element of personality1 
and the story of atmosphere1 which      
emphasizes the setting1 spiritual or    
material4 ,but the story of plot1 which 
stresses the bare incident1 is          
archetypal of all fiction in that       
interest centers in the story rather    
than in the persons or their            
environment4 ,perhaps the ,french conte1
 or brief dramatic narrative1 is the    
strictest story type of all4  ,i have   
chosen to touch upon the character story
 first1 rather than the more fundamental

 and inclusive story of plot1 simply    
because the potential story of plot is  
easily recognizable1 and my sole aim    
here is to state some of the tests which
 the writer may apply to his idea after 
conception to discover its true         
character1 that he may know how to      
handle it4 ,the germ of a plot can be   
distinguished at a glance1 while the    
question of what a plot really is       
requires separate treatment4  ,if the   
writer would produce a strict short     
story1 he cannot rest content with the  
apparent fact that his initial          
conception is the germ of a story plot1 
that being the case4 ,the story of plot 
may be easy to recognize as a genre1 but
 not all stories of plot are potential  
short stories4 ,all plot germs are not  
susceptible of adequate development     
within the narrow limits of the short   
story4 ,ten thousand words is probably  
the extreme limit of the type as a      
commercial possibility1 and1 in a space 
so brief1 if the chain of events is at  

all complicated or lengthy1 it is       
impossible to bring out all its nuances 
and implications4 ,too many critics and 
writers seem to entertain the idea that 
the short story is the result of        
compression1 but emphatically that is   
not true4 ,the synopsis of previous     
chapters before an instalment of a      
serial novel is an example of           
compression1 and a most repellent one4  
,a short story is the result of its own 
inherent brevity4 ,a naturally long     
story1 it is true1 may be shortened     
materially by mere rhetorical           
compression1 but it cannot be rendered a
 short story thereby1 for the short     
story develops its fewer incidents with 
as much rhetorical elaboration as the   
novel or romance develops its many      
happenings4 ,the short story that is a  
short story--such as ,kipling's ,without
 ,benefit of ,clergy1 ,stevenson's      
,markheim1 or ,poe's ,fall of the ,house
 of ,usher--gives off no impression of  
verbal bareness4 ,the short story is a  

literary form1 with all the elaboration 
of expression that the term implies4    
,its brevity results from careful       
selection of the incidents to be set    
forth1 and not from concise expression  
of an indiscriminate welter of          
incidents4  ,undoubtedly the matter     
requires emphasis4 ,too much has been   
written and said as to the necessity of 
compression in short story writing4 ,if 
what is meant is rhetorical compression1
 bare statement without verbal          
elaboration1 no such necessity exists4  
,what is necessary is care in making    
certain that the story is a short story1
 and care to relate nothing not         
essential to its development4  ,the     
,french type of short story in general1 
and ,maupassant's work in particular1   
are often cited to illustrate the need  
for compression4 ,in the first place1   
the essential genius of the ,french     
language is such that in translations1  
to ,english or ,american apprehension1  
fully elaborated statement often seems  

somewhat bare4 ,moreover1 ,i cannot     
admit that ,maupassant's best work is   
equal in rounded artistry and appeal to 
that of others who have chosen to write 
less barely and mathematically4 ,if     
compression means anything1 it means    
squeezing something into less space than
 it would normally occupy1 which is not 
artistry1 but an attempt to do in       
execution the proper work of conception 
and construction1 to devise a story     
which can be given adequate literary    
expression in a limited number of words4
  ,a critical reading of almost any     
successful short story will disclose    
that the manner of its telling is as    
truly the source of its interest and    
appeal as is the novelty or human       
importance of the naked story idea4 ,the
 difference between a recital of facts  
and a work of fiction is the difference 
between mere reporting and true         
literature4 ,the writer who strives to  
compress in expression1 instead of      
carefully selecting the matter for      

expression1 deliberately rejects his    
only means to produce a sufficiently    
full and rounded presentment of the     
particular phase of life he seeks to    
depict4 ,that means is to write with due
 elaboration1 lest the phrasing seem    
stark and flat in comparison with the   
softly moulded contours of life itself4 
,there are two elements in literature1  
the fact and the form2 they are equally 
important and should be equally         
complete4 ,when considering the fitness 
of a plot to serve as the skeleton for a
 short story1 remember that in execution
 the thing must be written with due     
verbal elaboration1 else it will be     
angular and unattractive1 and that the  
idea of many incidents1 people1 or      
places cannot be so written in the space
 available4 ,in execution1 write        
adequately1 and in conception and       
construction1 select4  ,the story of    
atmosphere1 which emphasizes the setting
 in which its people move1 and seeks to 
bring out the emotional value of the    

physical or spiritual environment1 is   
not difficult to recognize1 being like  
the story of plot in this respect4 ,but 
it is most difficult to do well4 ,the   
story of character deals with concrete  
people1 and the story of plot deals with
 concrete events2 the story of          
atmosphere deals with these and         
something more1 an intangible sensual or
 emotional impression1 as of beauty or  
horror1 correspondingly more difficult  
to create4 ,it demands imaginative      
powers of the highest order1 and perfect
 technical powers4 ,within limits1 the  
unimaginative author may write          
effectively of characters and events1   
for he can see and study them           
objectively in daily life1 and1 again   
within limits1 they may also be         
presented effectively by matter of fact 
phrasing4 ,but atmosphere cannot be     
seen--even physical atmosphere must be  
felt1 or there is no emotional          
effect--and all the resources of        
language at times become pitifully      

inadequate to precipitate an emotion4   
,it is all a matter of clear conception 
and careful design1 and the secret      
cannot be stated1 but must be learned1  
each for himself4 ,however1 ,i am not   
concerned in this place with executive  
technique1 or even with constructive    
technique1 and whatever hints can be    
given as to the creation of atmosphere  
would be out of place4 ,my object is    
merely to state the fundamental types of
 story and the necessity that the writer
 recognize the true character of his    
conception1 that he may develop it with 
emphasis properly laid4  ,other types of
 story exist1 but the lines between them
 are not drawn by the inherent character
 of the art of fiction4 ,the love story1
 for instance1 may be told with emphasis
 on character1 on incident1 or on       
atmosphere1 and the placing of emphasis 
determines its artistic character4 ,the 
technique of conception is concerned    
only with fundamental types1 and the    
sole object of its mastery is to give   

the writer knowledge of the essential   
artistic character of each of his       
conceptions1 that he may work with a    
definite aim in development4 ,my object 
is not to discuss or analyze            
pedantically1 for the sake of the       
analysis itself1 but simply to state the
 importance of discovering the basic    
fictional character of the idea1 that it
 may be properly expanded4 ,strict      
constructive and executive technique of 
course require separate treatment4      
,,footnotes3  ,a ,one might expand here 
on the distinction that in the story    
stressing character it is the particular
 persons who interest the reader1 while 
in the story of plot his interest       
centers in the events1 and the people of
 the story are followed less as         
individuals than as the human focal     
points whereon the events take effect4  
,such fine analysis is tempting1 but of 
little use1 for any story is a compact  
unity of the three elements4            
,,chapter ,,iv  ,,conceptive            

,,technique3 ,,plot ,,and ,,situation   
,definition of ,plot--,character and    
,plot--,dramatic ,value of              
,plot--,complication--,interest--,plot  
as ,problem--,three     ,basic          
,themes--,conflict ,between ,man and    
,nature--,conflict     ,between ,man and
 ,man--,conflict ,within the ,same      
,man--     ,arrangement of ,elements of 
,plot--,climax--,major ,situations--    
,situation and ,plot4   ,the plot of a  
story is its heart and essence4 ,this is
 obviously true in the case of the      
strict story of plot1 and it is very    
curiously true in the case of the story 
of character or of atmosphere4 ,for in  
the story which lays emphasis on        
personality1 the evolution or           
degeneration of the particular trait    
which has been selected for presentation
 is the real story-element of the       
fiction4 ,the fact is the root of the   
necessity that the action develop in    
concert with the trait of character1    
giving it opportunity for expression4   

,and in the story which lays emphasis on
 atmosphere1 the climactic progression  
of the particular atmosphere to the     
point of highest intensity is the real  
story-element1 which is the root of the 
necessity that the action develop in    
strict keeping with the atmosphere1 that
 the effect may not be spoiled4  ,what  
is a plot8 ,many attempts at definition 
have been made1 and the results have not
 been illuminating4 ,everyone has an    
idea of what a plot is1 but those who   
have attempted to state their conception
 briefly have encountered difficulties4 
,perhaps an indirect approach to the    
problem will yield results4  ,a tale is 
not a story1 for a tale is a relation of
 events which happened to happen to the 
characters4 ,it is episodal1 and the    
interest of the thing inheres in each   
episode separately1 not in the whole4   
,there is no essential connection       
between the incidents1 except that they 
all happened to the same group of       
characters4 ,the contrary is true of a  

story1 interest in which is in the      
whole1 as a progression1 and1 since the 
difference between tale and story is    
made by the presence or absence of plot1
 it appears that a distinguishing mark  
of a plot is that its events function   
together as a unit4 ,there is some      
connection between them other than      
chance1 and that connection lies in the 
intimate relation between the events of 
a story and its characters4 ,event and  
personality each influence or even      
determine each other simultaneously4    
,incidentally1 realization of the fact  
will free the writer from any           
misconception that the action and the   
characters are separable elements of a  
story4 ,for instance1 jealousy1 a trait 
of character1 may cause a murder1 an    
event1 and a husband's chance opening of
 a letter addressed to his wife1 an     
event1 may give rise to ,jealousy1 the  
trait of character4 ,or the husband's   
loyalty will be strengthened in the     
fiction if he refuses to credit         

appearances4  ,interaction1 then1       
between incidents and characters1       
arising from the unity of the whole     
conception1 is the first essential      
element of a plot4 ,the second essential
 element--and there are but two--is that
 the several incidents of the story     
possess climactic value1 not necessarily
 climactic value in the sense of        
ascending tensity--though that is most  
desirable--but climactic value in that  
each event should have influence in     
forwarding the story to a definite end1 
that state of quiescence which is not   
attainable in real life short of the    
grave1 but which fiction must postulate4
 ,in other words1 since a plot is made  
up of incidents which influence and are 
influenced by the characters1 and since 
the story must move to an end1 a plot   
presents a problem4 ,what will the      
persons do8 if the emphasis is on       
personality2 and what will happen8 if   
the emphasis is on the event4  ,to state
 it in the form of a definition1 a plot 

is a series of events which influence   
and are influenced by traits of         
personality1 and which are climactic in 
that they move to a definite conclusion1
 so that the series embodies some       
problem of life brought to solution4  ,i
 state this merely for what it may be   
worth1 which possibly is no great matter
 to the writer of fiction4 ,plots are   
not to be found by vivifying a          
definition1 but a definition may prove  
useful in testing a story idea when it  
is found1 and the object of the whole   
discussion is merely to give the writer 
some aid in appraising the essential    
fictional value of his conceptions4     
,the fact that a plot is a problem gives
 the several events their climactic     
value4 ,they are steps and approaches to
 the solution4 ,and a plot is a problem 
simply because fiction concerns man1    
while man is a free agent1 in           
possibility at least4 ,given certain    
characters and an event bearing upon    
them1 and the problem of what they will 

do instantly arises1 and the problem of 
the ultimate result of their actions4   
,given certain events1 to reverse the   
emphasis1 and characters on whom they   
bear1 and the same problems arise4 ,a   
plot is question and solution in one1   
and the solution must inevitably follow 
from the characters and events4  ,it    
will be perceived that the              
distinguishing quality of a plot is its 
dramatic value4 ,a plot is a problem of 
life1 and a problem is a conflict       
between opposing forces4 ,event and     
character wrestle with one another1 and 
the outcome is doubtful1 wherein lies   
the interest of the story4 ,it is       
accurate to state that the conflict is  
between event and character1 for though 
character may struggle with character1  
nevertheless the struggle is operative  
only in action1 and the opposed persons 
struggle with the doings1 not the naked 
souls1 of each other4  ,it will be      
perceived also that the element of      
complication is not essential to a plot1

 as ,poe has pointed out4 ,of course1 in
 the story of incident1 where the       
reader's interest centers chiefly in the
 events1 not in the characters or       
atmosphere1 complication is most useful1
 and in fact supplies much of the       
problem- or plot-element of the fiction4
 ,but complication is not a sine qua    
non1 and should not be so regarded4     
,complication of incident1 indeed1 in   
the story which is fundamentally of     
character or atmosphere1 may prove a    
positive handicap1 adding to the        
difficulties of execution and spoiling  
the unity of effect1 if the fiction is a
 short story4 ,as has been stated1 the  
novel is a broader canvas1 without a    
single emphasis if the writer wills1 and
 here1 within the limits of naturalness1
 complication of plot is thoroughly     
desirable4 ,any bid for a reader's      
interest is of use1 only in the short   
story the writer must necessarily limit 
himself to one sort of bid4  ,at that   
last of it1 pretty nearly all of the    

technique of fiction writing has root in
 the necessity first to gain the        
reader's interest and then to hold it4  
,that is the real object of perfection  
of form1 even1 and the device of plot   
has root in the same object4 ,in simpler
 and more unsophisticated ages the stage
 presented not drama but mere           
spectacles1 as the tale did in the      
spoken word or printed page2 the plot1  
lending to the play its dramatic        
character and to the fiction its story  
character1 developed only when audience 
and readers lost the child's vivid      
interest in whatever he sees1 and began 
to yawn at the episodal4 ,pageantry and 
the unrelated event became stale1 in    
comparison with the spectacle of life   
itself1 and then plot was found1 a      
method of isolating a single one of     
life's strands1 and1 by showing it in   
high relief1 lending it an added dignity
 and appeal4  ,the basis of the more    
intense appeal of the plot over that of 
the episode is psychological4 ,the      

hardest thing in the world to do is to  
make a reader think1 but the reader who 
does think is interested4 ,that is why  
he is thinking4 ,since a plot is a      
problem1 the reader of a story of plot  
is made to think1 and the matter        
impinges upon him with some force4 ,to  
repeat former phraseology1 if the       
emphasis is on the events1 he tries to  
figure out what will happen1 at least   
wonders about it2 if the emphasis is on 
the characters1 he tries to foresee what
 they will do4 ,incidentally1 the reader
 of to-day is habituated to the story of
 plot4 ,if nothing happens he will chalk
 a black mark against author and        
magazine1 as the editor knows4  ,as has 
been said--and emphasis is not out of   
place--a plot is a problem4 ,problem1 in
 this connection1 means conflict between
 opposing forces1 which gives the       
various events and situations of a story
 any dramatic value they may possess4   
,it follows that there are three basic  
plot-themes1 conflict between man and   

his environment or ,nature1 conflict    
between man and man1 and conflict       
between opposed traits in the same man4 
,it will be profitable for the writer to
 bear this in mind when combing the     
world for his story4  ,in his essay on  
,victor ,hugo's romances1 ,stevenson has
 touched upon the emergence in fiction  
of the conflict between man and ,nature4
 ,briefly1 his argument is that in the  
works of such a one as ,scott the world 
and natural forces serve but as stage   
and stage devices for man and his       
doings1 while ,hugo1 particularly in    
,the ,toilers of the ,sea1 draws storm1 
cold1 and heat as man's active enemies1 
almost endowing ,nature with a          
vindictive personality4 ,whatever the   
fact as to ,hugo1 it is certain that to 
those who meet her face to face on sea  
and land ,nature is a somewhat          
stony-hearted mother1 yielding food and 
shelter only at the pistol-point of toil
 and struggle4 ,to those of us who live 
in cities1 and whose concerns are mainly

 social1 the constant struggle of       
mankind against drought and flood1 storm
 and cold1 fire and famine is obscured1 
but it is a living reality1             
nevertheless1 and a rich source of      
fiction that will get under the skin of 
the most pampered apartment-dweller4    
,the roots of our lives stretch far into
 the dim past1 when the unending        
struggle with natural forces was a      
bitter reality to all1 and adequate     
fictional presentment of the struggle   
with ,nature often proves to have an    
incisive appeal wanting in less         
fundamental themes4 ,particularly1 the  
writer may rely upon such a story's     
appealing to the cultured and the       
uncultured mind alike1 for the intrinsic
 human importance of its theme is felt  
by all4 ,the elements of the dramatic   
problem presented are so simple that    
previous familiarity with them in       
personal experience is not essential to 
their understanding4  ,a fine example of
 this theme given short story treatment 

is ,bret ,harte's ,the ,outcasts of     
,poker ,flat1 while the portions of     
,stevenson's ,kidnapped dealing with    
,david's experience on the ,isle of     
,earraid and his flight through the     
heather with ,alan ,breck find their    
dramatic quality largely in the same    
theme4 ,it is interesting to note that  
,harte1 however1 does not emphasize the 
conflict between man and ,nature to the 
utmost of possibility1 for in his story 
there is much emphasis on character and 
the struggle of man with man4 ,whether  
the story gains or loses in total effect
 thereby is immaterial2 it will prove an
 interesting experience for the writer  
to recast the tale so as to bring out   
more exclusively the theme of conflict  
with ,nature4 ,in connection with the   
general discussion as to plot1 ,i will  
state that if ,harte had entirely       
excised the theft of the party's horses 
by the treacherous member1 and had not  
brought out the contrast between the    
gambler1 the prostitutes1 and the       

innocents1 the story still would have   
been adequately plotted4 ,the bare      
situation of men and women snowbound in 
a mountain cabin is a plot germ1 for it 
suggests the problem whether they will  
survive or perish4  ,the plot which     
presents conflict between man and man is
 distinctly social in nature4 ,the      
possibilities for the writer of fiction 
in the general scramble for the almighty
 dollar1 the rivalry of love1 the desire
 for revenge1 and a thousand other      
passions and ambitions that bring man   
into conflict with his fellows1 are     
practically infinite4 ,three minutes    
spent in running over this field for    
plots will demonstrate the folly of     
bewailing the lack of something fresh to
 write about4 ,perhaps some ingenious   
mathematician1 given the data that there
 are a hundred million men and women in 
the ,united ,states1 and that each one  
has some small number of desires and    
passions active or dormant1 will        
calculate the potential conflicts       

resulting4 ,each conflict is the seed of
 a plot1 and each plot may be written a 
hundred times1 each story being made    
different from the last by varying the  
manner of treatment4 ,there is not too  
little to write about2 there is so very 
much that keen selection is essential4  
,any magazine offers examples of the    
exploitation1 by short story writers1 of
 the conflict between man and man1 while
 to portray the conflict is peculiarly  
the field of the novel1 with its social 
emphasis4 ,balzac and ,thackeray are    
supreme masters in presenting a slice of
 the social spectacle2 ,vanity ,fair and
 ,cousin ,pons depict struggle between  
their people1 and but little else4 ,at  
the top of the social ladder the        
struggle is carried on by intrigue and  
sugared words1 at the bottom with the   
knife and naked fist1 but the struggle  
is the same in essence1 and of          
enthralling interest to a reader4 ,all  
the world loves a winner1 and all the   
world wants to find out whom it is to   

love4 ,the mere mechanical details      
wherein the struggle finds expression   
and operation are the least of the plot1
 which is indebted for its dramatic     
quality to the bare fact of struggle4   
,doubtless the girl who runs daily to   
the public library for a novel would be 
shocked to be told that she is impelled 
by the same human quality that makes    
street-loafers and passersby gather     
about two fighting boys1 but she is1    
nevertheless4 ,the writer who would     
please her--and her father1 mother1 and 
brothers--will do well to remember the  
fact4  ,the story which seeks to present
 conflict between two opposed traits in 
the same man or woman is most difficult 
to write so as to create any fictional  
illusion4 ,it deals almost exclusively  
with psychological data1 of the facts of
 the soul1 and requires knowledge and   
imaginative insight as well as verbal   
dexterity4 ,it is supremely easy to     
conceive a plot involving struggle of   
the man with himself1 but it is         

supremely hard to give such a struggle  
objectivity1 to expand it into a fiction
 operative in action and yet developing 
the internal conflict4 ,i cannot think  
of a finer example than ,stevenson's    
,markheim4 ,a close and critical study  
of this story by one who is qualified to
 taste its full flavor will reveal at   
once the great difficulties that face   
the writer who chooses such a theme1 and
 the high pitch of achievement          
attainable through proper handling of   
material4  ,the greatest practical      
drawback to the giving of much time to  
mastering the technique of soul-analysis
 lies in the narrow appeal of such a    
story even when perfectly conceived and 
written4 ,to recur to the always        
apposite ,stevenson1 it is safe to say  
that his ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde is 
a thousand times more interesting to the
 average reader than ,markheim1 simply  
because the soul-struggle is so much    
more completely made objective and given
 expression in action in the first      

fiction than in the second4 ,this is    
done so very emphatically that nine     
readers out of ten entirely miss the    
point of ,jekyll and ,hyde1 and fail to 
realize that the struggle is between two
 tendencies in the same man1 who is     
split into his good and bad selves      
merely for the sake of concreteness4    
,most fiction readers have little love  
for abstractions and fine spun          
analysis--witness the common repute of  
,henry ,james1 to an extent undeserved1 
it may be said in passing4 ,exclusive   
emphasis upon the struggle of the man   
with himself will tend to confine the   
writer's appeal to the intellectuals1 in
 the special modern sense1 a matter     
inimical to the pocketbook1 at the least
 of it4 ,psychological analysis is most 
useful in developing almost any type of 
story1 but as the sole theme for a      
fiction it has its disadvantages4  ,when
 the writer has his hands on a plot1 of 
whatever type and however found1 his    
conceptive labors are by no means over4 

,it remains to recast and rearrange the 
elements of the idea1 that the most     
effective arrangement may be discovered4
 ,a first invention is very rarely      
incapable of improvement1 and in the    
interests of artistry the author should 
exhaust all the possibilities of his    
idea before writing1 that he may not    
chance upon unsuspected potentialities  
in his story only when it is half       
written1 or not discover them at all4   
,within limits1 of course1 any story    
will tend to shape itself2 in           
particular1 there is much testimony as  
to the intractability of characters2 but
 one cannot consciously strive to do any
 particular thing or to produce any     
particular effect without first knowing 
just what the thing or effect is to be4 
,possibly the most important matter is  
to arrange the incidents1 the separate  
elements of the problem or conflict     
which the plot presents1 in such manner 
as to give the progression a climactic  
character4 ,not only should each major  

event be a definite step toward the     
conclusion1 solution1 or denouement1 but
 each succeeding event should be more   
striking1 significant1 and tense than   
its predecessor4 ,this sort of climactic
 movement is not essential to a plot1   
but it is an essential element of a good
 plot1 particularly a good plot for a   
short story4 ,the short story is a much 
more strict and artificial type of      
fiction than the novel2 in other words1 
its writer has fewer resources to       
impress a reader1 and he must utilize to
 the full whatever is open to him4      
,among his resources is the device of   
sensible movement to a crisis or climax4
 ,like the rest of fiction technique1   
the device is useful because it tends to
 keep alive and stimulate a reader's    
interest4 ,this it does because         
ascending tensity suggests further      
struggle4 ,any flat incident1 on the    
contrary1 less tense or striking than   
its predecessor1 infallibly suggests    
that the story is already falling to its

 end1 and the end seems dull because the
 problem is not fully worked out or even
 stated4 ,psychologically1 the point is 
delicate2 it is a queer paradox that a  
reader at once hates to think and yet   
wants to be made to think4 ,but that is 
a reader's condition4 ,with equal       
readiness he will welcome climactic     
movement and continue to read1 or       
welcome any premature fall in tensity   
and throw the story aside4  ,to show by 
example the results that may be achieved
 by use of the device of movement to a  
climax is impracticable2 these matters  
that cannot be displayed by pungent     
quotation the student must dig out for  
himself by intelligent reading4 ,almost 
any successful story will display       
climactic arrangement of its major      
events4 ,i cannot forbear to mention the
 ascension whereby ,thackeray leads a   
reader of ,vanity ,fair up to ,rawdon   
,crawley's confrontation of ,becky and  
,lord ,steyne4 ,hawthorne's ,the ,house 
of the ,seven ,gables1 a book in most   

respects so totally dissimilar1 shows a 
like process in leading up to the death 
of ,judge ,pyncheon4 ,george ,douglas's 
,the ,house ,with the ,green ,shutters1 
less widely known1 is strongly climactic
 in its latter part4 ,but examples1 in  
short story and novel1 are infinite in  
number and sort4  ,to recapitulate1 a   
plot is a problem of human life brought 
to a fitting and convincing solution1   
and consists of a series of events which
 displays the fact and result of a      
conflict between opposing forces1       
spiritual and material1 actuating and   
affecting men and women4 ,therefore the 
chief characteristic of a plot is its   
dramatic value4 ,the definition may be  
turned to use not so much in the        
discovery of plots as in appraising     
their fictional value1 their power to   
arouse and hold a reader's interest1    
after they have been found or invented4 
,since a plot is a conflict between     
opposing forces1 and since fiction deals
 with man1 the three fundamental        

plot-themes are conflict between man and
 his environment1 conflict between man  
and man1 and conflict in the soul of the
 same man4 ,realization of the fact will
 serve to give point and definition to  
the writer's search for the idea4       
,finally1 a just regard for his readers 
will lead the writer to cast his        
incidents into some climactic           
arrangement4 ,the first1 last1 and only 
proper aim of a story is to interest1   
and break in the expected movement to a 
climax is fatal to interest4  ,it would 
be interesting to go into the matter of 
plot-analysis at some length--,i have in
 mind particularly the deficiencies of  
,poe's definition that a plot is a      
series of incidents contrived to produce
 a single effect--but this book is for  
the writer4 ,i shall try throughout to  
keep to the writer's viewpoint and to   
develop nothing not of practical utility
 in the work of conception1 elaboration1
 and execution4  ,thus far the          
discussion has been concerned with plot 

as a whole2 it remains to consider the  
events1 incidents1 or situations which  
compose a plot4 ,the situations of the  
plot or story are what its writer must  
cast into a climactic consequence1 and  
he must have some standard to measure   
each before he can determine its proper 
place4  ,the fictionally significant    
aspect of a plot is that it embodies a  
conflict between opposing forces1 that  
is1 it is dramatic4 ,likewise1 the      
fictionally significant aspect of a     
situation is that it displays opposed   
persons--or at least opposed forces--in 
conflict4 ,the writer manipulates his   
material--preferably before writing--so 
that two or more persons1 actuated by   
incompatible motives1 are brought into  
conflict2 there is a moment of          
indecision2 then some person bends the  
other or others to his will2 and the    
situation determines4 ,or the writer    
brings a character or group of          
characters into conflict with ,nature1  
as did ,harte in ,the ,outcasts of      

,poker ,flat4 ,here1 also1 there is a   
period of indecision1 and then either   
the human force or the natural force    
triumphs4  ,the dramatic quality of any 
situation inheres in the struggle       
between opposing forces which each      
presents1 and rises or falls with the   
essential strength of such forces4 ,take
 two instances of conflict between      
opposed motives in the same person4 ,in 
some humorous story a character may be  
unable to decide which of two women he  
wants to marry4 ,one can cook1 let us   
say1 and he is a gourmand2 the other is 
pretty1 and he has leanings that way1   
too4 ,the dramatic quality in such a    
story will be slight1 because the       
motives involved are relatively weak1   
yet it will be present4 ,but take the   
story of a ,french girl who is outraged 
by a ,german soldier and gives birth to 
a child by him4 ,her quality of         
patriotism can be built up to great     
intensity1 if the writer wills1 even to 
the point where the reader will accept  

an impulse on her part to kill her      
child4 ,her quality as a mother can be  
built up likewise4 ,it would be a most  
effective touch to have her hate the    
unborn child furiously1 then to arrange 
matters so that she should be unable to 
carry out her first impulse to kill it  
and be forced to care for it1 giving it 
opportunity to awaken her dormant       
maternal instinct4 ,finally1 love for   
,france and hatred for ,germany can be  
stimulated again1 so that she is shown  
veering between the impulse to kill and 
the impulse to cherish4 ,such a         
situation is intensely dramatic1 for it 
involves conflict between two of the    
most intense human qualities1 love of   
one's country and love of one's child4  
,the more terrific the opposed forces in
 any situation1 the higher its dramatic 
value4  ,at first glance it may seem    
that the relative position in a story of
 each of its various major situations is
 determined by the plot itself1 but that
 is not the case4 ,it appears to be the 

case because it is usual to regard the  
plot of a story as the entire mechanical
 arrangement of the fiction1 including  
the nature and order of the situations1 
which is a false view of plot4 ,as the  
previous discussion has attempted to    
demonstrate1 plot is merely the conflict
 between opposed forces of personality  
and environment1 at least one of the    
forces being of personality4 ,any two   
stories which display conflict between  
the same forces have the same plot1     
though one may vary widely from the     
other in the means employed to give the 
struggle objectivity and expression in  
action4  ,the writer of fiction should  
realize the point4 ,the imagination     
produces concrete pictures and          
conceptions1 and1 when a story is       
imagined1 it will come to life in terms 
of concrete people and events1 more or  
less definitely ordered and determined4 
,but the writer should not stop there4  
,he should ascertain just what opposed  
forces of personality or environment    

give the story and its situations plot  
and dramatic value1 and then should seek
 to find whether he cannot give the     
basic conflict involved more effective  
presentment than will be given by the   
persons and situations which he has     
already conceived4 ,an essentially weak 
conception may offer a clue to a        
dramatic conflict that will have        
fictional power if properly developed by
 persons and situations different from  
those first conceived4  ,it will be     
perceived how far it is within the      
writer's power to manipulate situation  
in the interests of art1 which1 in this 
connection1 means climax4 ,starting with
 some basic conflict1 which will be his 
plot1 the writer can devise situation   
after situation in which the struggle   
will become more and more acute1 until1 
finally1 it will become so serious as to
 involve all the elements of the story4 
,and with the determination of the      
dramatic situation which involves all   
the elements of the story1 the story    

itself will terminate1 for the struggle 
which it embodies will have been settled
 one way or the other4 ,this final      
situation will be the climax of the     
story1 and its outcome or result will be
 the denouement4 ,the story will be     
ended because the struggle or conflict  
it serves to embody will have ended4    
,one force or the other will have       
triumphed4  ,in considering the question
 of situation1 the writer of fiction is 
considering a more specific aspect of   
the question of plot4 ,usually he       
desires to find a plot of real dramatic 
value1 and likewise he usually desires  
to find a situation or situations of    
real dramatic value4 ,the dramatic value
 of plot and of situation resides in the
 struggle between the opposed forces    
which it presents4 ,the more powerful   
the forces involved in either case1 the 
greater the dramatic value of the       
conception4 ,each major situation of a  
story derives its dramatic quality from 
the opposition of incompatible motives  

or forces that endows the story's plot  
with its dramatic quality4 ,in fact1 it 
is not too loose to say that the        
situation of a story is its plot1       
provided the main situation or climax is
 meant4,b  ,the purpose of the action or
 incidents of a story is to give the    
dramatic struggle it embodies concrete  
expression4 ,that is to say1 the        
dramatic quality of a story is specific 
in relation to certain persons and      
certain events4 ,two definite men1 for  
instance1 will engage in a definite     
fight over a definite woman4 ,the writer
 will seek to individualize the persons 
involved1 which is a matter of          
description and characterization1 and he
 will seek also to picture the physical 
struggle as definitely as possible1     
which is a matter of descriptive        
narration4 ,it is not enough to conceive
 a plot or dramatic situation2 the      
writer must also expand it into a story1
 which should be as concrete and        
specific as its nature permits4 ,only   

thus can a reader be made to feel the   
essential power of the whole conception4
 ,it follows that the action or         
incidents of a story should be devised  
with a view to express the dynamic      
elements of the plot and that no        
incident should be incorporated in the  
story unless it will serve to build up  
some one of the forces involved or else 
serve to illustrate the conflict of     
forces that have been built up          
previously4   ,,footnotes3  ,b ,polti1  
in ,the ,thirty-,six ,dramatic          
,situations1 uses the word situation in 
a sense practically inclusive of plot4  
,plot is a word so abused that it even  
might be advisable to abandon it in     
discussion in favor of situation4 ,the  
latter suggests more nearly the         
requisite idea of persons keyed for     
struggle4 ,in particular1 plot carries  
too many connotations of mere           
complication1 which is not one of its   
essential qualities4     ,,chapter ,v   
,,constructive ,,technique ,,of         

,,narration,c      ,importance--,plot   
and ,situation--,spiritual ,values of   
,story--     ,order of                  
,events--,introduction--,primary and    
,secondary ,events--                    
,climax--,naturalness--,the             
,end--,preparation--,proportion--       
,general ,considerations4   ,a story is 
the relation of what certain persons did
 in certain places and under certain    
conditions of existence1 and in its     
broadest aspect the art of narration    
includes the description of persons and 
delineation of character1 the depiction 
of scenes1 and the suggestion of        
atmosphere4 ,but these matters bulk so  
large in themselves as to call for      
separate treatment4 ,my purpose here is 
to discuss constructive technique1 how  
the bare story1 a succession and        
progression of events1 should be planned
 and built up before writing4 ,the      
problem is constructive1 not executive1 
and should be considered and settled1   
within limits1 before setting pen to    

paper4  ,in fact1 much of the technique 
of fiction writing concerns matters of  
conception and construction4 ,giving the
 story its verbal flesh after it is     
thoroughly mapped out in mind in accord 
with the canons of the art is in truth a
 more or less simple matter to the      
writer who has any command of language  
and literary facility4 ,the result may  
not be a masterpiece--which is a        
significant idea1 justly elaborated1 and
 perfectly told--but it will possess one
 of the elements of a story worthy to   
live4 ,the trouble is that so many      
writers set about the task of expression
 when all they have in mind is the      
merest germ of an undeveloped idea or   
story1 and then are forced to wrestle   
with construction and with language at  
one and the same time4 ,each task is    
great enough for the undivided attention
 of the ablest artist4 ,i believe that  
in the end the constructive task is     
pretty well done1 but that the more     
strictly literary task to give the      

conception verbally perfect expression  
is usually somewhat slighted4 ,we have  
so many well conceived and elaborated   
stories1 and so very few so perfect in  
expression that they deserve to live1 a 
fact indicating that construction can be
 learned by nearly all1 though literary 
power seems to be incommunicable4 ,the  
proper attitude for the beginner1 who   
has not the facile practice of his art  
at his fingers' ends1 is to treat the   
first draft of his story as merely      
tentative and an aid to development4    
,,order ,,of ,,events  ,the discussion  
of plot and situation in the preceding  
chapter was pointed to emphasize the    
importance of the constructive phases of
 technique4 ,a plot is not merely a     
climactic sequence of events or         
happenings2 a plot is some human        
struggle1 some conflict between opposed 
forces1 that finds concrete expression  
in a climactic sequence of events2 and  
an infinite number of persons and       
incidents may be devised to give        

specific expression to a single         
fundamental plot idea4 ,having fixed    
upon a plot1 the writer of fiction      
should realize precisely what is the    
human problem or struggle involved1 and 
should consider just what sort of       
characters and just what sort of        
incidents will give most effective1 most
 interesting expression to the          
particular story idea4 ,this he should  
be the more ready to do because a story 
usually comes to mind ready formed as a 
series of events1 and only infrequently 
is the first combination the best1 that 
is1 the one which will present most     
forcefully the underlying plot1         
struggle1 problem1 or essential story   
idea4 ,the writer of fiction has for    
material vast infinity of imaginable    
characters and imaginable events2 he    
should manipulate that material to a    
narrowly specific end1 the end of giving
 most effective expression to his       
particular story idea or plot4 ,in other
 words1 he is an artist1 and must devise

 and re-devise1 select and reject1      
arrange and re-arrange that with which  
he deals4  ,another condition of his art
 requires the fiction writer to master  
the technique of construction and always
 to practice it before approaching his  
strictly executive task of writing4 ,a  
story is usually more that a mere       
physical spectacle1 more than a sequence
 of physical happenings4 ,each event1   
each situation is fictionally           
significant or interesting by virtue of 
its relation to the natures or spirits  
of the persons involved4 ,through the   
physical tissue of what happens runs the
 psychical thread of personality1       
relating part to part and rendering the 
whole indeed one story4 ,a story is a   
thing of spiritual values as well as a  
physical spectacle1 and it cannot be    
written adequately by visualizing its   
events and following them with the pen4 
,some part of its spiritual value rests 
in necessary implication from what      
happens1 but not all4 ,the rest must be 

brought out deliberately by the writer1 
and he cannot hope to do so to the full 
unless before writing he realizes the   
necessity and shapes his work           
accordingly4 ,the point is of very great
 importance4 ,it would be hard to       
overestimate the number of potentially  
fine stories that have been ruined      
through failure to realize that the main
 situations or happenings of each       
fiction could not have full effect on a 
reader unless many subtle matters of    
personality and spirit were deliberately
 brought out in advance4  ,the first    
concern of the writer who has found his 
bare story is to determine the order in 
which to cast both its major and minor  
events4 ,the necessity that the more    
important happenings of the story be    
given some climactic arrangement1 to    
hold and stimulate the reader's initial 
interest1 has been touched upon before1 
but the general ordering of events is a 
matter of such importance that it will  
be discussed at length4  ,the aim of any

 story is to interest1 and the writer   
should endeavor to touch his reader's   
interest as quickly as possible4 ,long1 
purposeless1 and therefore dull         
introductions--usually the result of the
 writer's having set to work with no    
very definite idea of what he has to    
do--should be avoided2 the writer should
 consider precisely what his story is1  
and then how he may best set it in      
motion without delay4 ,the technique is 
easy to state but hard to meet4 ,perhaps
 it may be possible to set off with a   
happening sufficiently unique and       
striking in itself to arouse a reader's 
interest2 descriptive touches as to     
setting or as to a character may be     
employed2 or--after the fashion of some 
modern writers--one may indulge in a    
little philosophical overture           
forecasting the nature of the tale4 ,a  
classification of the several ways to   
open a story might be made1 but it would
 not be useful4 ,in the first place1    
each good story is perfectly unique2 in 

the second place1 independent reading of
 fiction will show the ways much more   
completely than mere statement4 ,one    
slight matter is perhaps worth noting4  
,often inherently dull introductory     
matter can be given piquancy on the lips
 of a narrating character4  ,the writer 
should not distort his story merely to  
begin it interestingly4 ,the aim of     
fiction is to interest1 but the person  
to be interested is the cultured reader1
 not the mere sensation-sop4 ,if a      
particular story is forbidden by its    
content to begin with a rush1 it should 
not be wrenched and distorted to that   
end4 ,the writer who seeks merely to    
cater to current tastes with each tale  
will do well to devise fictions that    
will subserve his purpose naturally4    
,thereby he will achieve his aim the    
more easily1 and may spare the reading  
public much inferior work4 ,but it is   
always well to make quite sure that any 
story cannot be begun swiftly before    
adopting the more leisurely approach4   

,kipling's ,without ,benefit of ,clergy 
might have been begun so much less      
invitingly by one less skilled4  ,the   
more complicated the plot1 the more     
difficult it will be to arrange its     
elements justly4 ,the events of the     
structurally simple story usually can be
 related in chronological order2 one    
gives place to the other without effort 
or preparation4 ,the story with a       
complicated plot is not so simple to    
order justly4 ,in the structurally      
simple story nearly all events have a   
primary value2 each is a definite step  
in the climactic ascension of the whole4
 ,in the story of complicated plot1 on  
the contrary1 there are a comparatively 
small number of events having this      
primary value in that they are definite 
steps in the climactic ascension1 and   
there are also a comparatively large    
number of minor events having only a    
secondary value in that they serve to   
give the primary events naturalness1    
intelligibility1 and effect4 ,thus1 in  

the story displaying the conflict of two
 characters1 the chief events will be   
those giving the struggle the most      
intense expression1 and the minor       
events1 having only a secondary value1  
will be those which serve to prepare the
 various conflicts and to build up and  
vitalize the two opposed persons4 ,even 
if these minor events are only secondary
 in intrinsic significance1 they are    
essential to the story1 and the task of 
its writer--no easy one--is to order its
 primary events so that they will form a
 climactic ascension in point of tensity
 and interest1 and to order its         
secondary events so that they will      
function naturally in endowing the      
primary events with the fullest measure 
of significance to the reader4  ,each   
story is unique and characteristic1 and 
of course very little specific advice   
can be given as to the just ordering of 
events1 primary and secondary4 ,there   
are two main necessities2 the story must
 be told1 and it must be told plausibly4

 ,the first necessity1 that the story be
 told1 requires that the writer take    
care1 not only to set forth its primary 
events with due elaboration1 but also to
 develop its characters into            
individualized human beings--an office  
chiefly performed by the secondary      
events--and to make due preparation for 
each successive primary event1 that the 
reader may fully understand its import4 
,the second necessity1 that the story be
 told plausibly1 requires that the      
events be ordered naturally as well as  
climactically1 be told in accordance    
with the canons of life as well as of   
art4 ,the difficult task of the writer  
is to picture his single phase of life  
so deftly and with so little apparent   
forcing of his matter that the whole    
will be endowed with the significant    
simplicity of art and yet have the      
naturalness of life4 ,of course it is   
hard1 and of course it takes long and   
patient practice to conquer the secret4 
,that is why the writer who has full    

command of technique is so rare4  ,the  
story itself largely determines the     
order of its primary events1 for their  
succession is the story4 ,but the       
secondary events are as largely subject 
to the control of the writer1 who may   
devise1 adapt1 and order them almost at 
will1 and in just and natural ordering  
of them lies much of the secret of      
verisimilitude4 ,they are the mortar    
that binds the stones of the edifice1   
and by slighting them many a fine       
initial conception has been rendered    
feeble in execution4 ,they need not be  
elaborately treated2 in fact1 the       
technique to be acquired is to relate   
them in due subordination to events     
intrinsically more important1 though    
giving them an easy and natural flow and
 succession4 ,but the minor events must 
be ordered justly1 that the story may   
march becomingly from major event to    
major event1 and therefore the writer   
must struggle with their ordering4 ,no  
rules capable of statement regulate the 

matter2 the writer can only be told its 
importance and urged not to consider his
 story fully developed and ready for    
writing simply because he has determined
 the order of its main events4  ,perhaps
 the whole philosophy of the ordering of
 events1 major and minor1 can be stated 
broadly to be that in ordering the more 
important events of a story the writer  
must regard chiefly the necessities of  
climax1 that is1 of art1 while in       
ordering the secondary events he must   
regard chiefly the necessity to be      
natural1 that is1 to achieve            
verisimilitude4 ,art is life raised to a
 higher power1 and the struggle of the  
artist is to present his phase of life  
as simply and pungently as can be done  
without entirely severing the relation  
between his conception and life itself4 
,one function of the secondary events of
 a story is to prepare the elements of  
the main events4 ,in the love story1    
,john meets ,joan that he may           
subsequently make love to her4 ,another 

function of the secondary events is to  
develop character4 ,in ,london's ,the   
,sea ,wolf most of the earlier episodes 
and many of the later are narrated to   
build up the impression of ,wolf        
,larsen's ruthlessness4,d ,it follows   
that any minor event will serve a double
 purpose when devised and placed so that
 it will forward the mechanical progress
 of the story and also illustrate       
character4 ,tarkington1 in ,monsieur    
,beaucaire1 begins the story with a     
scene over the card table which not only
 gives the barber-prince his necessary  
introduction to society but also shows  
the stuff of which he is made4 ,in      
constructing his story before writing1  
the author should select and place each 
incident with an eye to its serving as  
many purposes as possible4 ,the story   
will gain thereby in compactness and    
uniformity of interest4 ,it is golden   
advice to urge the writer not to accept 
the secondary events of a story as they 
first come to mind1 but to re-arrange   

and re-devise until each happening      
performs as many functions as the       
necessities of the story permit4  ,there
 is nothing particularly new and        
striking about the main events and      
situations of many stories that not only
 are getting published to-day1 but are  
truly interesting and worth while4      
,their interest--and therefore their    
worth--derives from their writers'      
management of secondary events4 ,by     
varying the nature and succession of    
minor events1 any fundamental plot      
theme1 such as the eternal triangle of  
two men and a woman1 may be utilized a  
thousand times without essential loss of
 interest4 ,as has been stated1 the     
naturalness and plausibility of a story 
depend largely upon just selection and  
ordering of its secondary events1 and1  
curiously enough1 in a very real sense  
the reader's interest depends on the    
minor happenings4 ,the plot must be a   
real plot and an interesting one1 but1  
at the last of it1 the plot is only the 

skeleton4 ,the minor events of the story
 are the comely flesh that gives the    
conception the attraction and interest  
of life4 ,the figure may be grewsome1   
but it is accurate4 ,a thousand skulls  
look much alike1 but no face is         
precisely the same as another1 even to  
the casual eye4 ,the flesh makes the    
difference1 and the minor events of a   
story are its flesh4  ,the chief        
necessity in beginning a story is to    
begin it interestingly1 if its nature   
permits2 the chief necessity in ending a
 story is to end it--and there is no    
proviso as to its nature4 ,a story is a 
fiction with a plot1 and a plot is a    
chain of events with a definite and     
significant ending4 ,the writer who has 
discovered or devised a true plot upon  
which to hang his fiction will not      
struggle on aimlessly after narrating   
the climax1 for there will be nothing   
more to relate4 ,i believe that absence 
of true plot is most often responsible  
for the story that stumbles to a lame   

and inconclusive halt--not an           
end--rather than executive inaptitude on
 the writer's part1 for the climax of a 
true plot is a hard thing not to feel   
and realize4 ,at any rate1 when the     
climax is reached and the story told it 
must be ended1 justly but finally4      
,there is nothing more for the reader1  
unless the characters are caught in     
another chain of significant events4    
,but that is another story4  ,to        
recapitulate1 a story is a progression  
of events1 major and minor4 ,the story  
largely determines the character and    
order of its main events1 for they are  
the story itself2 nevertheless the      
writer should give them climactic       
arrangement1 as far as possible4 ,the   
minor events are more subject to his    
control1 and he should devise and order 
them chiefly with an eye to             
verisimilitude and plausibility1 not    
forgetting that each should serve some  
definite purpose and will be the more   
useful if it can be made to serve more  

than one4   ,,preparation  ,two sorts of
 preparation must engage the attention  
of the writer of a story4 ,the first is 
purely mechanical1 and is the result of 
the writer's realization of the physical
 necessities of his story4 ,if at some  
definite point the hero is to be found  
in some definite place by other         
characters1 the writer must prepare to  
place him there4 ,the necessity is      
obvious1 and this sort of preparation   
requires little discussion1 except the  
warning that in the complicated story it
 will demand close attention4 ,but the  
second sort of preparation is a much    
more delicate matter1 and in a sense is 
a great part of the art of fiction4 ,i  
have reference to the necessity that the
 writer individualize and vitalize the  
people of his story so that the         
significant situations of the fiction   
may have maximum effect on a reader4    
,the problem is not so much how to      
delineate character1 which will be taken
 up later1 as to plan the whole story so

 that it will have body and not be a    
mere report4  ,there are three          
fundamental types of story1 it is true1 
in that a story may emphasize any one of
 its elements of character1 of          
complication of incident1 or of         
atmosphere4 ,but the story which depends
 for its appeal on the novelty or       
intrinsic significance of the bare      
succession of its events is somewhat    
rare2 at least it is true that fiction  
concerns man primarily1 and in the      
normal story1 or1 better1 in the story  
which the necessities of plot-structure 
most frequently produce1,e the man is as
 important as the event4 ,since the     
person is as important as the event1 the
 persons involved in any significant    
situation of a story must be developed  
as well as the situation itself4 ,the   
aim is to give the situation maximum    
effect1 and the concern of the writer is
 not so much to develop character1      
strictly1 as to give the body of reality
 to the whole story4 ,it is about human 

beings1 and1 however novel and          
interesting the plot1 unless they are   
given some of the vivacity and          
concreteness of real men and women the  
fiction will be devoid of the breath of 
life4 ,the first sort of preparation    
builds up the physical situations of a  
story2 the preparation now under        
discussion builds up its people4        
,nothing is more common than for the    
beginning writer to devise or discover  
an eminently worthy plot idea1 and      
nothing is more uncommon than for him to
 utilize it to the full and develop it  
adequately4 ,the reason for the failure 
is simple4 ,the better the plot1 the    
more humanly significant its situations4
 ,they are so very significant1 in the  
case of the fine plot1 that the         
beginning writer is led to think that   
his only task is to outline them4 ,but  
merely to outline a significant         
situation or event will not give it the 
emotional force that fiction must       
possess1 otherwise the newspaper would  

be read in tears4 ,the event must       
involve real people1 if the emotion of a
 reader is to be aroused4 ,a newspaper  
item may state that ,mary ,smith has    
committed suicide because deserted by   
her lover1 but though the casual reader 
will realize intellectually and         
abstractly the pathos of the situation1 
his emotion will not be stirred unless  
he is a more sensitive human precipitate
 than most readers4 ,to move his heart1 
rather than his mind1 some particular   
,mary ,smith1 like no one else in the   
world1 must walk a living presence      
through the story built about such a    
theme4 ,the difference is between merely
 reporting events and picturing life4   
,like most other matters of technique1  
this of giving individuality and life to
 the people of a story is based on the  
necessity to achieve verisimilitude and 
interest4 ,human life is a great complex
 of millions of men and women doing     
certain things1 and in a story1 which is
 a picture of a phase of life1 the      

people must be drawn with as much       
definition and detail as the events1 or 
the reader will not accept the fiction  
as fictional truth4  ,in great part1 the
 matter of developing the human elements
 of a story is a problem of             
construction1 as is the matter of       
preparing a natural succession of       
events4 ,the writer first must order his
 main events as interestingly and       
plausibly as possible4 ,he then must    
devise and order his secondary events as
 to give the requisite spacing and      
naturalness to the whole1 and he also   
must take care to provide for such      
action on the part of the characters    
that when they come to the main events  
they will be something more than named  
abstractions4 ,of course1 the writer has
 means at command to vitalize his people
 other than to draw them in actions     
illustrating their peculiarities1 but it
 is difficult enough at best to vivify a
 character1 and the writer who depends  
solely on his powers of direct          

description will achieve very meager    
results4 ,i have already referred to the
 part the secondary events of a story   
play in developing character1 and have  
cited ,london's ,the ,sea ,wolf as an   
instance4 ,a great part of the book is  
devoted to a succession of episodes     
which develop ,larsen's striking        
personality4 ,it is very skillfully done
 in this respect1 and the result is as  
memorable a figure as exists in recent  
fiction4 ,the beginning writer and even 
the more practiced hand will do well to 
note the great part that just           
construction must have played in        
producing the impression of the ,wolf's 
virility and ruthlessness4  ,it all may 
be termed a matter of drawing character1
 but the necessity is to realize that in
 constructing his story before writing  
an author must prepare for the          
development of its people as well as for
 the development of its events4 ,the    
work will have to be done sometime1 if  
the story is to be more than a report1  

and it should be done before writing1 so
 far as it is a matter of construction4 
,the writer who has conceived a plot of 
real merit has done much1 but he has not
 done all4 ,the striking events of a    
plot are significant only in relation to
 the people of the story1 and a reader  
must be made to feel the reality of the 
characters as well as the reality of the
 events4 ,the single concern of the     
writer of fiction is to lay on his page 
a picture of a phase of life that is    
effective because it is plausible1 and  
he must give equal attention to the     
persons of the story and to what they   
do1 both in construction and            
execution4,f   ,,proportion  ,in        
planning his story with an eye to giving
 it the greatest semblance of reality1  
the writer has one means ready to his   
hand which is the more useful because   
somewhat mechanical4 ,i have reference  
to the preservation of proportion4      
,fundamentally1 proportion is a mere    
matter of space or length4 ,in real life

 events vary in point of the time they  
take to happen1 and in the story        
proportion may be preserved by dividing 
the available space justly between the  
several events4 ,normally a love scene  
will take longer to happen than a       
murder1 which is an affair of one       
high-pitched moment1 and in planning and
 writing a story which contains both a  
love scene and a murder a proper amount 
of space should be assigned to each4 ,in
 the story the reader passes through    
days in an hour and through hours in a  
minute2 he must not be made to pass     
through minutes in an hour1 and through 
hours of events as important to the     
story in a minute4 ,a murder may be more
 important in the story than a love     
scene1 and so require emphasis1 but it  
cannot be stressed by great expansion   
without violating proportion4 ,emphasis 
must be laid by narrating vividly1 a    
matter to be taken up in its proper     
place when discussing executive         
technique4  ,the mere fact that the     

writer must narrate the main events of  
his story in some detail usually will   
lead him unconsciously to preserve      
proportion so far as they are concerned4
 ,the space necessary to develop a      
murder will have roughly the same       
relation to the space necessary to      
develop a love scene as the duration of 
a real murder has to the duration of a  
real love scene4 ,but the minor events  
of a story function on a different plane
 from its major happenings1 and so      
cannot be proportioned similarly4 ,if a 
murderer must sail from ,london to ,new 
,york to reach his victim--either on    
account of the place necessities of the 
story1 or to fasten an impression of his
 animosity on the reader--the minutes of
 the days of the voyage cannot be       
related with as much detail as the      
minutes of the actual killing4 ,in      
planning a story1 the writer should make
 provision for the secondary events and 
the strict matter of transition1 as well
 as for the main events1 but he should  

not plan to narrate in detail until a   
main event is reached4 ,the beginning   
writer seems very often to be afraid to 
narrate in general terms1 even where the
 story demands no detail1 and the fault 
probably arises from a vague feeling    
that the reader will not accept the     
author's say-so1 but must be shown4 ,to 
an extent1 that is true4 ,however1 where
 the matter is of transition1 merely to 
forward the mechanical progress of the  
story1 detailed narration is distortion4
 ,it will inevitably cause loss of      
suspense and interest4  ,realization of 
the relative importance to the story of 
each of its parts will give the writer  
the standard whereby to distribute its  
space4 ,in writing the short story the  
preservation of proportion is most      
essential2 there is so little space at  
hand that two words cannot be wasted in 
detailed narration where more general   
narration will suffice1 and it all comes
 under the reader's eye so nearly at one
 moment that any disproportion in the   

treatment of events of equal importance 
will be detected4 ,in the novel1 lack of
 proportion may be a more secret fault1 
but it will have its effect4   ,,general
 ,,considerations  ,in casting about for
 a story the writer should regard       
chiefly the intrinsic merits of each    
idea that comes to him4 ,but when he has
 pitched upon his theme or plot1 and    
approaches the task of construction and 
elaboration1 he should change his       
viewpoint and strive to view his        
conception with the cold eye of a       
reader4 ,a reader has nothing to go upon
 except what the writer sets down1 and  
realization of the fact will lead the   
writer in construction to provide for   
every matter essential to give the story
 full appeal4 ,unless it is developed   
completely1 it will fail to impress one 
who has no knowledge of the conception  
except that imparted by the writer's    
words4 ,nothing essential can be omitted
 or slighted without risking failure4   
,on the other hand1 nothing unessential 

can be brought out without obscuring the
 real story4 ,careful construction and  
elaboration of the initial idea is      
necessary before writing1 that the      
author may have his hands free for the  
difficult task of execution1 and in     
construction the writer should occupy   
the detached position of a reader when  
estimating what should be developed and 
what suppressed4   ,,footnotes3  ,c ,in 
discussing the principles of            
construction it is obviously impossible 
to illustrate the text by quotation1 for
 just construction could be shown only  
by reprinting an entire story4 ,the     
reader must supplement what is said here
 by independent analytical reading4 ,the
 only fortunate thing about the         
situation is that the matters which can 
be adequately illustrated by brief      
quotations--such as vividness in        
narrating--are chiefly matters of       
execution and least subject to          
profitable objective study4  ,d ,this   
story is a particularly instructive     

instance of how much the secondary      
events are within the writer's control1 
and also of how much depends on their   
just selection and ordering4 ,the twin  
plot themes of the book are the struggle
 of man with man and the struggle of man
 with nature2 they are developed almost 
entirely without aid from the           
superficially main events of the story1 
,maud's coming aboard the schooner and  
what follows4 ,that is precisely the    
artistic defect of the work4  ,e ,the   
three fundamental plot themes are man's 
struggle with nature1 man's struggle    
with man1 and man's struggle with       
himself4 ,the human element is          
inherently a part of any plot4  ,f ,it  
would be difficult to overstate how much
 of its appeal such a story as ,fannie  
,hurst's ,t4 ,b41 reprinted in ,the     
,best ,short ,stories of #aiae1 owes to 
its author's careful development of the 
personality of ,sara ,juke4 ,yet the    
story is not strictly a character story4
 ,in less competent hands the bare story

 would have been nothing2 as it is1 it  
is a fiction of real worth and          
significance4     ,,chapter ,,vi        
,,executive ,,technique ,,of ,,narration
      ,mode of ,narration--,first       
,person ,narration--,variation--        
,advantages--,disadvantages--,plausibili
ty--,third ,person                      
,narration--,advantages--,avoidance of  
,artificiality--     ,consideration of  
,length--,maintenance and ,shifting of  
,viewpoint     --,attitude of           
,author--,style--,product of            
,technique--     ,congruity of          
,manner--,story of                      
,action--,fantasy--,story of            
,character4   ,after conceiving and     
elaborating his story1 the writer must  
approach the task of expression4 ,the   
two preliminary matters to be settled   
are the mode of narration and the manner
 or style for which the story calls4    
,though preliminary1 they are most      
properly treated as part of executive   
technique4   ,,mode ,,of ,,narration    

,the question of how the story may be   
told most easily and effectively is much
 more delicate than merely to choose    
between narration in the first or third 
person1 for numerous variations in these
 two basic methods are open to adoption4
 ,each method or viewpoint has its      
advantages and disadvantages1 and that  
method should be chosen which most      
nearly suits the particular story4      
,variation in first person              
narration--the typical form of which is 
to have a chief character tell his own  
story--is possible by shifting the story
 from the lips of a major character to  
those of a less important personage1 who
 is often little more than an animated  
mouthpiece4 ,the device is really an    
attempt to escape from the inherent     
disadvantages of typical first person   
narration4 ,a just regard for the reader
 often requires that more be set forth  
than any major character could naturally
 know1 but some minor character may be  
made to pass ubiquitously through the   

whole tale1 viewing the essential acts  
of all the major characters and relating
 them to the reader4 ,or the device may 
be carried farther1 and the story told  
in the first person by a succession of  
characters4  ,the chief advantage in    
first person narration by an important  
or the most important character lies in 
the fact that the reader is accustomed  
to a more or less one-sided presentation
 of events4 ,that is the way he sees    
things himself1 as a bare succession of 
happenings springing from the conflict  
of human motives of which he can be sure
 only of his own4 ,something happens1   
and he knows within limits why he did   
his part in bringing it about1 but the  
part of the other man is obscure to him1
 and he can go only on conjecture and   
inference4 ,so the story told in the    
first person has perhaps a slightly     
greater flavor of plausibility than that
 told in the third person4  ,there is   
another advantage in first person       
narration4 ,some stories cannot be      

launched with a rush2 the significant   
action must be prefaced by a            
considerable mass of introductory matter
 that is essential to full understanding
 of subsequent events2 and this         
introductory matter can often be made   
less repellent to the reader when it is 
artfully introduced by a narrating      
character4 ,the speaking character can  
be made to tell his story with a smack  
of personality that appears somewhat    
affected and flippant when the writer   
employs the third person4 ,this         
flippancy and affectation is apparent is
 some of ,kipling's and ,o4 ,henry's    
work1 and probably repels as many as it 
attracts4  ,generally1 throughout a     
story1 first person narration makes     
easier the attainment of uniformity of  
style1 if that be a merit in the case of
 all stories as it unquestionably is in 
the case of the short story1 with its   
necessary emphasis on all formal        
unities4 ,during the vogue of the       
historical novel some years ago this    

mode of narration was ridden to death   
simply because it lessens for the writer
 the labor of catching what he conceives
 to be the tone of the particular       
society he is portraying4 ,as to the    
general matter of tone1 ,stevenson      
refers1 in a letter1 to ,the ,ebb ,tide1
 as a dreadful1 grimy business in the   
third person1 where the strain between a
 vilely realistic dialogue and a        
narrative style pitched about 7in       
phrase7 'four notes higher' than it     
should have been has sown my head with  
grey hairs4 ,had the story been told by 
one of the characters there would have  
been no difficulty of the sort4  ,the   
,ebb ,tide probably could not have been 
told effectively in the first person1   
for much of its power derives from the  
way in which ,stevenson limns the lovely
 ,south ,pacific scenes through which   
its poor lost derelicts of people move4 
,their speech is vilely realistic       
because they are common men1 sea captain
 and clerk and middle-class ,englishman1

 and the lips of no one of them could   
have been made to state effectively     
without distortion what his eyes saw4   
,any story has certain matters which    
must be brought out justly if the whole 
is to have due effect1 and if first     
person narration renders it impossible  
to treat such matters justly that mode  
of narration cannot be used4 ,the       
example of ,the ,ebb ,tide shows that in
 estimating the availability of         
narration in the first person the writer
 must consider that the very nature and 
being of a character may seal his eyes  
to many matters4 ,moreover1 the reader  
will not readily accept in a narrating  
character the literary power that is    
even expected in the author writing in  
the third person4 ,a story is a whole1  
its people existing subject to the      
limitations of its necessities1 and the 
mode of narration must function         
naturally with the rest1 and not demand 
impossibilities4  ,one difficulty of    
first person narration is not so much   

fictional as psychological4 ,if the     
story demands emphasis upon the good    
qualities of the narrator1 his bravery1 
devotion1 love1 generosity1 or a        
thousand others1 a reader will soon     
weary of the eternal ,i4 ,it is safe to 
say that if a character must be shown in
 a strongly favorable light1 let it be  
done by the author or some other        
character1 not by himself1 unless the   
moral perfection of the person is a     
matter solely of inference from his     
acts4  ,the very complicated plot can   
rarely be handled well in the first     
person1 particularly if the events      
cannot be cast in chronological order4  
,on the other hand1 first person        
narration is often a useful device to   
keep from the reader's knowledge1       
unobtrusively and without seeming       
effort1 matters which he must not learn 
prematurely4 ,conan ,doyle's ,watson is 
an instance4 ,thus the chief            
disadvantage in employing the narrating 
character1 that he cannot be made       

omniscient1 may be turned to advantage4 
,the whole question is one to be        
determined only after careful           
consideration of the demands of a       
particular story1 and the chief need is 
not so much to state rules for its      
solution as to point out the real       
necessity that the writer know what he  
is about before pitching on a mode of   
narration4 ,it is a prevalent habit1 and
 a bad one1 to accept a story as it     
first takes shape in the mind1          
narrative1 point of view1 and all4      
,there is a tendency among writers of   
fiction1 particularly those who are just
 beginning1 to narrate in the first     
person1 perhaps because they feel that  
the reader will accept the story more   
readily in such shape4 ,other things    
being equal1 first person narration is a
 trifle more natural and plausible than 
narration in the third person1 but its  
limitations are much more strict4 ,at   
the last of it1 readers are so          
thoroughly habituated to the impersonal 

viewpoint that a writer does not gain   
much in power to convince by adoption of
 the other4 ,a story is taken up because
 a story is wanted1 and a reader is     
willing to accept the conventions of the
 art4 ,so incredible a fiction as ,poe's
 ,a ,descent into the ,maelstrom was    
probably best told in the first person1 
but the average story need not strain so
 sedulously for verisimilitude so far as
 the mechanics of narration are         
concerned4  ,typical third person       
narration is illustrated by the story of
 action1 the wholly objective story1    
told in the third person4 ,the          
impersonal relator is omniscient1 but   
his omniscience is not so obtrusive as  
in the story that touches on the facts  
of the soul4 ,this omniscience of the   
relator is the chief advantage of third 
person narration1 but the writer will   
only infrequently find it advisable to  
assume omniscience absolute and entire1 
involving knowledge of all the objective
 acts and the subjective motives of all 

the characters4 ,if the story is largely
 analytical of more than one character  
the writer may be forced to know it all 
in order to display his material4 ,but  
omniscience carried to such a point     
tends to be over-artificial1 the        
underlying cause of much of the artistic
 weakness of the story which lays bare  
the souls of all characters instead of  
one or two of the most significant4 ,in 
his own daily life the reader is        
accustomed to a one-sided presentation  
of the social spectacle1 and complete   
omniscience on the part of the          
impersonal relator of a fiction has the 
taint of artificiality1 or even of bare 
exposition4 ,and exposition1 which      
implies a mathematically complete       
presentation1 is not fiction1 which     
implies shading and suppression1        
absolute or temporary4  ,any suggestion 
of artificiality may be entirely        
avoided1 and the frequently necessary   
advantages of third person narration    
retained1 by assuming omniscience as to 

all the physical facts or events of the 
story while rejecting omniscience as to 
the souls of the characters1 except the 
souls of one or a few4 ,thus the writer 
may escape the inherent limitation of   
first person narration1 that the story  
is told by a character of definite      
powers and knowledge1 and retain the    
chief advantage of that mode of         
narration1 the more or less single      
viewpoint1 corresponding with a reader's
 own outlook on life and its happenings4
 ,this hybrid method of narration       
utilizes the virtues and rejects the    
vices of the two strict types4 ,by      
telling his story in the third person1  
but from the viewpoint of one or two of 
the chief characters1 an author may     
assume the desirable omniscience as to  
objective facts and the desirable       
limitation upon knowledge as to         
subjective motives4 ,this is not to say 
that the nature of a particular story   
may not call for strict first or third  
person narration2 it is merely a        

suggestion that the virtue of each type 
may be utilized at once4 ,each story    
makes certain demands1 and the writer is
 not confined to two means of satisfying
 them4  ,a reader of any catholicity of 
taste can recall numerous examples of   
the various modes of narration1 and in  
future reading it will be directly      
profitable for the writer to note the   
narrative device employed1 and how it   
has aided or hampered the development of
 the fiction4  ,more extreme devices    
have been1 and may be employed1 such as 
,richardson's of telling a story in a   
series of letters4 ,they are curious    
rather than important4  ,in estimating  
the availability of a mode of narration 
the writer should consider the matter of
 length4 ,the adoption of the omniscient
 viewpoint may carry the story          
unnecessarily beyond due limits1 for the
 writer who has taken to himself the    
privilege to know all facts and motives 
may be led into depicting events or     
analyzing character for his own         

pleasure1 rather than because the story 
demands it4 ,if a story demands space1  
space it must have1 but the essence of  
literary power and artistry is to write 
with the utmost brevity and pungency    
compatible with adequate expression4    
,the story must be told2 every essential
 phase must be brought out2 but         
unsignificant words can only do their   
bit toward spoiling the desired effect4 
,the adoption of a too inclusive mode of
 narration may lead the writer astray2  
conversely1 the mode of narration most  
nearly suited to the necessities of his 
story will aid in holding his pen to the
 line4 ,if the story is of action1      
unconcerned with motives save by        
implication1 and the writer tells it in 
the first person1 or in the third person
 from the viewpoint of a single         
character1 he will be led to confine    
himself to the depiction of the panorama
 of events1 which is the work in hand4  
,yet1 if the story requires that the    
reader be given a direct view of the    

spiritual workings of large numbers of  
characters1 the writer must tell it in  
the third person and assume universal   
knowledge as to event and spirit4 ,a    
mode of narration must be deliberately  
selected for each new story with due    
regard to its idiosyncrasies1 and to    
make the choice correctly cannot fail to
 be of great advantage4  ,it is often   
stated that having settled upon what is 
most narrowly termed a mode of narration
 and most broadly a viewpoint the writer
 should be sedulous not to depart from  
it4 ,the writer of the short story      
should not alter the narrative point of 
view1 for obvious reasons4 ,the short   
story is short2 it depends for its power
 upon dramatic effect2 and in writing it
 there is no occasion or excuse for any 
shifting of outlook4 ,the short story is
 artistically the strictest form of     
prose fiction1 that is1 it is most      
strictly subject to the conventions of  
the art of fiction1 of which maintenance
 of the point of view is one4 ,but the  

novel is a much looser form1 and unless 
the particular story is uniquely uniform
 in texture1 as the frank tale of       
adventure1 shifting the point of view   
often will prove necessary4  ,if the    
author of a novel has chosen to write   
with knowledge of the inner workings of 
more than one of the characters1 but not
 with knowledge of all1 so that he      
relates from the viewpoint of several   
characters1 rather than the viewpoint of
 some impersonal observer to whom the   
souls of all are open1 numerous shifts  
of viewpoint will be necessary4 ,they   
are implied in the mode of narration    
itself4 ,the world cannot be looked at  
through the eyes and souls of a         
succession of characters without a      
succession of shifts4 ,all this merely  
amounts to saying that certain modes of 
narration which cannot be employed in   
writing the strict short story may be   
freely employed in writing the novel4   
,in the case of the novel1 or of the    
story that is somewhat brief without    

being a strict short story1 the task is 
not so much never to shift the          
viewpoint1 rather always to indicate the
 shift with clearness4 ,just as the     
reader's interest should be the first   
consideration in choosing matter and    
devising a plot1 clarity to the reader  
must be considered when any shift in the
 narrative point of view becomes        
necessary4 ,let the shift be avowed and 
obvious2 any uncertainty can lead only  
to confusion4  ,it follows that writers 
who have chosen to tell their stories   
from the viewpoints of several          
characters will prove the most          
profitable for study as to how to shift 
viewpoint without confusing a reader4   
,chiefly1 of course1 they are novelists1
 ,eliot1 ,balzac1 ,hardy1 ,scott1 and an
 infinity of lesser lights4 ,galsworthy1
 for instance1 in each of his chapters  
succeeds in producing a singular unity  
of effect1 with corresponding clarity   
for the reader1 chiefly by making his   
shifts of viewpoint coincide with shifts

 of scene and person4,g  ,inextricably  
bound up with the mode of narration and 
the general narrative viewpoint of the  
story is the matter of the author's own 
attitude toward the story4 ,the         
distinction between these matters is    
fine1 but real4 ,it is possible that a  
given story may be told1 adequately so  
far as the bare story is concerned1 in  
any one of several different ways4      
,narration in the first person by a     
major or a minor character may be       
employed1 or the author may write in the
 third person1 assuming knowledge of all
 events and of the inner workings of    
one1 some1 or all of the characters4    
,but there is another consideration4    
,the whole conception may depend for its
 appeal upon what ,i am forced to call  
very roughly sympathy for a character or
 group of characters1 and a mode of     
narration must be employed which will   
enable the author to express his        
sympathy that he may evoke the reader's4
  ,i do not wish to shift the discussion

 into the field of ethics1 but the point
 is that any chain of events may be     
colored in the telling favorably or     
unfavorably to the persons concerned4 ,a
 coarse instance is afforded by a       
prosecution for crime4 ,in making their 
final arguments to the jury1 prosecuting
 attorney and attorney for the defense  
alike deal with the same facts in       
evidence1 but on the lips of one the    
defendant will be a glorified and       
persecuted saint4 ,a more delicate      
instance is afforded by ,stevenson's    
,the ,ebb ,tide1 previously mentioned4  
,robert ,herrick commits all the        
criminal acts committed by ,huish1 the  
cockney clerk1 except to attempt murder1
 but the reader pities ,herrick while   
hating ,huish4 ,this is so because      
,stevenson writes of ,herrick with a    
measure of sympathy1 and tells the      
story1 though in the third person1      
almost entirely from his point of view4 
,but of ,huish we have only his acts and
 words4 ,the treatment of him is wholly 

objective4  ,the story which develops a 
chain of events tending to show a       
character or group of characters in a   
strongly unfavorable light should not be
 told too objectively1 or the reader    
will be repelled by its uniform         
ugliness1 a matter which must be        
considered in choosing a mode of        
narration4 ,it is not a point of morals1
 but one of contrast4 ,if the writer has
 no sympathy for one or some of his     
people1 or writes in such manner that he
 cannot express any predilection1 they  
will appear all of a piece to a reader1 
with a consequent loss of interest4 ,in 
this very real sense the story whose    
characters are uniformly repellent may  
be said to be bad art4  ,generally1     
therefore1 the writer must consider the 
necessities of his story in determining 
the mode of narration1 and must also    
consider his own attitude toward its    
people and their doings4 ,its appeal to 
him may lie in his sympathy for some    
person or persons1 and unless that      

sympathy be given expression in some way
 the story may not have an equal appeal 
to a reader4 ,the perfect fiction is a  
congruous expression of a phase of life1
 and in it the more subtle matters of   
life1 sympathy and predilection have    
their place4   ,,style  ,the term style 
has been so exclusively used to denote  
an author's style in general1 rather    
than the style of some particular work1 
unlike the styles of others by the same 
hand1 that it is apt to suggest         
something different from what is meant  
by its use here4 ,to show the           
distinction ,i cannot do better than to 
quote from ,stevenson's ,a ,note on     
,realism4  ,usually in all works of art 
that have been conceived from within    
outwards1 and generously nourished from 
the author's mind1 the moment in which  
he begins to execute is one of extreme  
perplexity and strain4 ,artists of      
indifferent energy and an imperfect     
devotion to their own ideal make this   
ungrateful effort once for all2 and1    

having formed a style1 adhere to it     
through life4 ,but those of a higher    
order cannot rest content with a process
 which1 as they continue to employ it1  
must infallibly degenerate towards the  
academic and the cut-and-dried4 ,every  
fresh war in which they embark is the   
signal for a fresh engagement of the    
whole forces of their mind2 and the     
changing views which accompany the      
growth of their experience are marked by
 still more sweeping alterations in the 
manner of their art4 ,so that criticism 
loves to dwell upon and distinguish the 
varying periods of a ,raphael1 a        
,shakespeare1 or a ,beethoven4  ,in the 
case of ,stevenson himself this process 
is especially manifest4 ,with a unique  
earnestness he sought from the first to 
adapt his manner to his matter1 and1    
since he grew with the years1 each new  
tale concerns itself with matter a      
little more humanly significant than its
 predecessor1 and is told in keeping    
therewith4 ,the result is that such     

stories as ,the ,new ,arabian ,nights   
series1 fantastically conceived1        
fantastically told1 give place to ,the  
,master of ,ballentrae1 ,the ,ebb ,tide1
 and ,weir of ,hermiston1 fictions      
worthy in every sense1 the last1 indeed1
 an unfinished masterpiece4 ,and with   
each new story the author's style gains 
in dignity and restraint1 in the process
 of adaptation to the work4 ,i mention  
,stevenson in this connection not       
because he is greater than many others1 
nor his work finer1 but because its     
range was so wide that it called for    
many manners or styles4 ,all will prove 
a profitable study1 for they are all    
,stevenson's and yet all different4     
,writers who have been somewhat more    
narrow in choice of matter have not been
 under so pressing a necessity to vary  
their manner with each new work4        
,possibly it is unwise to emphasize the 
matter of style at all when writing for 
the apprentice author4 ,telling the     
story is usually task enough1 and style 

in general is a product rather than an  
item of technique1 therefore best sought
 indirectly4 ,but even if the more      
delicate tones and shadings possible in 
writing are beyond the reach of all save
 the most skilled1 preservation of the  
broader congruities of manner is        
possible by the beginner1 and must be   
achieved if his work is to be even      
passable4 ,such a story as ,the ,scarlet
 ,letter could not have been told in    
,dickens' usual manner1 nor could ,the  
,pickwick ,papers have been written in  
the style of ,meredith4 ,the manner of  
telling any story must be reasonably    
adapted to its content1 or the whole    
will be a shabby burlesque1 destined    
never to achieve the laurel of print4   
,the writer need not fret about his     
individual style1 but he should ponder  
seriously the manner for which each     
story calls4  ,the story chiefly of     
action is best told without great verbal
 elaboration1 which is unnecessary and  
tends only to hinder the march of       

events4 ,the whole thing is an objective
 presentation1 and the open character of
 its elements renders unnecessary       
laborious and involved explanation4 ,the
 bare facts carry their own warrant     
openly displayed1 and when they are     
shown the task is done4 ,sentences will 
tend to be a trifle shorter than in     
other work1 and paragraphs likewise4    
,the writer's chief aim will be to write
 not only clearly but vividly1 for the  
story of action must depend chiefly upon
 vividness for its verisimilitude4 ,the 
simpler figures will be profitable to   
employ1 provided they are not too good  
and do not call attention to themselves 
rather than the image they are used to  
precipitate4 ,the writer's general      
endeavor will be to follow stylistically
 the rapid movement of events4 ,a       
reading of ,dumas will show this method 
in use4  ,if there is a touch of fantasy
 about the tale1 greater elaboration in 
sentence structure and some freakishness
 in the choice of words will be         

permissible and even desirable1 for true
 verisimilitude lies in the accordance  
of manner and matter4 ,the story with a 
thread of unreality in its essential    
composition will not gain in power by   
matter of fact telling2 the measure of  
verisimilitude which it can attain is   
strictly limited by its very nature1 and
 can be gained to the full only by      
frankly and avowedly making it what it  
is4,h ,an instance is afforded by       
,stevenson's ,new ,arabian ,nights      
series or ,hawthorne's ,tanglewood      
,tales4  ,the story placing emphasis on 
character1 or the story of atmosphere1  
unless the atmosphere itself be the     
onrush of events1 will normally demand  
more leisurely treatment than the story 
of action4 ,the movement of the story   
will be slower1 and the style will be   
correspondingly affected4 ,dealing with 
motives directly will force the writer  
to qualify and distinguish1 adding to   
length of sentences1 while to           
precipitate an atmosphere in words is a 

matter of such delicacy that the writer 
will be forced to employ every resource 
of language1 with a consequent          
complication in structure4 ,the         
necessity is to hold the tale in mind   
before writing until its totality of    
character is realized1 then to strive to
 commit no gaucheries in execution4 ,the
 right word for the right place must be 
sought1 indefinite advice which will    
prove of little aid in writing a single 
story1 but which will yield ample       
returns if followed through careful and 
intelligent writing of many stories4 ,in
 dealing with this matter of manner or  
style1 and the necessity that it be in  
keeping with the particular story in    
hand1 it is impossible to give examples 
on account of lack of space4 ,i can only
 refer the reader to almost any fiction 
that has resisted the tooth of time4 ,to
 leave prose for a moment and turn to   
poetry1 a reading of ,milton's          
,l',allegro and ,il ,penseroso will     
demonstrate the possibility and display 

the result of adapting the manner to the
 matter4 ,the style of both is          
unmistakably ,milton's alone1 marked by 
his dignity and elevation of tone1 yet  
one is as sweet and light as a summer   
breeze1 the other as grave and sombre as
 a minor chord4  ,a reading of ,jane    
,austen will prove profitable in this   
connection4 ,her books are all of a     
piece in manner and matter4 ,perhaps the
 writer who must please the somewhat    
hectic modern market will find little   
profit in imitating her choice of       
matter1 but the skill with which she    
weaves her pattern will be instructive4 
,emily ,bronte's ,wuthering ,heights    
perfectly fits the garment to the body4 
,the story is wild and its style is     
wild4 ,george ,douglas's ,the ,house    
,with the ,green ,shutters1 a more      
recent book and one of singular power1  
is well done in this respect4 ,it is    
essentially rugged and bitter1 and the  
author1 though without particular       
distinction of individual style1 strikes

 no note not in keeping with the general
 conception4   ,,footnotes3  ,g ,i will 
note here a matter suggested rather than
 stated by the general discussion1 which
 is intended to be practical rather than
 philosophical4 ,narration must be in   
the first or third person1 but the two  
fundamental types are personal and      
impersonal narration1 and the line      
between them is not drawn by the        
pronouns ,i and he4 ,truly1 when the    
story is told in the first person1 the  
writer adopts the personal viewpoint of 
the narrating character1 but when the   
writer chooses to write in the third    
person he also adopts the personal      
viewpoint of the character of whose soul
 he assumes knowledge1 if he does so as 
to the soul of only one4 ,this is the   
case1 with a shifting personal          
viewpoint1 when the writer assumes      
knowledge of the minds and souls of     
several characters1 but not of all4     
,assuming knowledge of the soul of a    
character necessarily involves looking  

at the world through his eyes4 ,it      
results that the only real impersonal   
viewpoint is to write in the third      
person and either to renounce all       
knowledge of motives or to assume       
knowledge of all events and the spirits 
of all the characters1 when the reader  
will gain the impression of an          
impersonal relator rather than of a     
shifting personal viewpoint4 ,the point 
is of no great importance1 but          
realization of it may be of some slight 
service4 ,in particular1 if the story is
 told in the third person1 but from the 
viewpoint of a single major character1  
universal knowledge of events cannot be 
assumed4  ,h ,the writer should strive  
to realize this fact4 ,the necessity is 
not to make the reader accept a story as
 literal truth1 but to make him accept  
it as fictional truth4 ,many of ,poe's  
stories are unbelievable1 but their     
power is felt to the full though they   
are not believed4 ,in other words1 the  
reader will grant the author his        

premises4     ,,chapter ,,vii           
,,executive ,,technique ,,of ,,narration
      ,narration ,method--,story of the 
,commonplace--,story of the             
,bizarre--,vividness--,suspense--,emphas
is and ,suppression--     ,matter of    
,weight--,expansion and                 
,vividness--,primary and     ,secondary 
,events--,transition--,general          
,narration--,blending     of ,elements4 
,the writer who has discovered a good   
plot1 so that his interest will not flag
 in writing1 and who has fully developed
 the conception1 so that he can have a  
single eye to execution1 will meet few  
obstacles in setting down the whole     
story4 ,difficulties there will be in   
plenty1 but they will be self-imposed4  
,that is to say1 it will be very easy to
 give the justly elaborated conception  
expression approximately adequate1 but  
it will be very hard to give the        
conception verbally faultless           
expression4 ,if the writer strives      
merely to tell the story1 the labor of  

writing will be slight2 if he strives to
 write with artistry and power1 it will 
be infinitely great4  ,this book is on  
the technique of fiction writing1 not on
 the technique of writing2 my aim is to 
discuss only the matters of technique   
peculiar to the art of fiction4 ,thus1  
in this chapter ,i shall have occasion  
to state that the important event should
 be emphasized1 and that vividness in   
narration is a means to that end1 but   
how to narrate vividly is a question of 
rhetoric generally1 and it is not my    
purpose to discuss it4 ,moreover1 it is 
emphatically true that the capacity to  
narrate vividly cannot be attained by   
the mere study of examples1 the only way
 in which the matter can be studied4    
,the writer can only strive constantly  
in his work to write with definition and
 force4 ,it is all a matter of practice1
 whether or not the capacity must be    
inborn4 ,but the principle of fiction   
technique1 that the important event     
should be emphasized in some way1       

whether by vividness or expansion1 is   
subject to direct statement and to      
assimulation from the direct statement4 
,therefore statement of the principle is
 all that a work on fiction technique   
need attempt4 ,the rest lies with the   
writer himself4,i  ,the first chapter on
 the executive technique of narration   
took up the two preliminary problems of 
the mode of narration and of manner or  
style2 this second chapter has to do    
with certain other matters that must be 
considered in writing a story1 viewed as
 a chain of events4 ,character1         
atmosphere1 and dialogue will receive   
separate treatment1 and for discussion  
of the strict technique of expression   
the reader is referred to works on      
rhetoric1 except that in discussing the 
technique of description in the next    
chapter ,i shall have occasion to touch 
upon nicety of expression4   ,,method   
,the method of narration is necessarily 
influenced somewhat by the style the    
writer of a story strives first to find 

and then to maintain1 but the style does
 not entirely determine the method1 or  
the method the style4 ,the matters are  
distinct1 though mutually influential4  
,there are two kinds of lives1 or at    
least two kinds of incidents1 the       
humdrum and the bizarre4 ,likewise and  
consequently there are two kinds of     
stories to be told1 the humdrum and the 
bizarre4 ,each may be fashioned into    
something worth while4 ,whether the     
matter of a story is worth while depends
 on the significance of the phase of    
life involved2 whether the story itself 
is worth while depends on its           
plausibility or verisimilitude1 which   
depends on the way it is constructed and
 told4  ,the humdrum story1 that deals  
with the more common actualities of     
life1 the little details that are       
significant only in combination or in   
relation to certain characters1 can be  
told as simply as the writer desires4   
,he has only to set down the succession 
of details that constitutes the story4  

,each new incident will not only advance
 the narrative progress of the story1   
but the commonplace nature of each      
incident in itself will tend to give the
 fiction its necessary plausibility4    
,simply because each incident is common 
and of universal occurrence the reader  
will accept it and the story compounded 
of such elements4 ,matter of fact       
phrasing1 not phrasing too literary in  
spots1 is most suitable4,j ,such a story
 does not require high lights of        
expression1 and they should not be      
interpolated4  ,the story dealing with  
the strange and wonderful is another    
matter4 ,in writing it the author's aim 
is the same as in writing the           
commonplace story1 to give it           
plausibility and verisimilitude1 but the
 task is infinitely more difficult4     
,proper construction will aid greatly1  
and in execution the writer has two     
resources4  ,the first is the method of 
,defoe1 and consists in showing the     
reader the strange course of events     

through a lattice of familiar thoughts  
and things4 ,it is an attempt to give   
the essentially bizarre story something 
of the plausibility and power of the    
story of the commonplace by             
interpolating universally familiar      
matters of detail4 ,they are unnecessary
 to the bare story1 but they are useful 
to give the reader a thread of          
connection between his own experience   
and the strange fiction4 ,the method is 
persuasive1 and requires a high degree  
of craftsmanship to employ well4        
,familiar and unfamiliar must be woven  
together with a careful and skilful     
hand4 ,and obviously it requires space4 
,examples are ,defoe's work--often      
cited--such as ,robinson ,crusoe or ,a  
,journal of the ,plague ,year1 or       
,balzac's ,peau de ,chagrin4  ,the      
second method to give to the strange and
 wonderful verisimilitude and           
plausibility is not persuasive1 but     
consists in writing with such vividness1
 definition1 and force that the verbal  

picture will be accepted without        
question as visual evidence4 ,seeing is 
believing4 ,in fact1 the more strange or
 wild any chain of events1 the deeper   
their impression on a reader1 provided  
always that he be made to see them4     
,obviously1 to the use of this method   
the highest powers are necessary1 the   
power to select the salient and         
distinctive points of the thing to be   
drawn1 excising all superfluous matters1
 the power to choose the exact and vivid
 word1 and1 finally1 the power--more1   
seemingly1 than that of mere            
word-selection--to precipitate reality  
in words1 one sometimes manifested by   
works the diction of which is not       
particularly dynamic4 ,it is the method 
of ,stevenson and ,kipling1 among       
others1 and to the author who can employ
 it no degree of novelty in the physical
 conditions of a story is a deterrent4  
,he can show the thing like a painting  
or a stage scene1 and his reader runs   
breathlessly with him1 caught up in the 

race of events4 ,the method demands the 
highest imaginative powers in the       
author1 that he may actually see the    
matter he is depicting1 in detail and in
 the mass1 and the highest executive    
powers1 that he may fix its living image
 with his pen4  ,this method to present 
the bizarre event with all the color and
 body of reality--of course it may be   
employed in depicting the commonplace as
 well1 though expression of the         
commonplace should not be too           
heightened--is the method of the severe 
literary artist1 because it is          
compatible with the most perfect unity  
and the greatest brevity4 ,to arouse    
emotion in a reader the writer must have
 something more than mere color in his  
work1 but to make a reader see anything 
it is only necessary always to search   
for the right word1 which is the word   
both exact and dynamic4 ,yet if this is 
the sole condition1 it is a doubly hard 
one4 ,the perfectly exact word is so    
elusive1 and1 when discovered1 it is so 

often lacking in the requisite force4   
,exactness is not enough2 the needful   
word is the one that not only will fit  
the author's vision1 but give it life2  
and it is here that figurative language 
finds its office4 ,i saw a fleet1 is    
exact4 ,i saw a hundred sail1 is equally
 exact1 and much more vivid4  ,vivid1   
direct writing1 which does not depend on
 connection with his own experience to  
hold the reader1 is the most practicable
 narrative method for use in the short  
story or novel of incident1 that is1 in 
the typical fiction1 where interest     
centers in the course of events4 ,in    
other words1 it is the typical narrative
 method2 the method of coaxing the      
reader into believing the strange by    
showing it in juxtaposition with the    
familiar is a variation from type4      
,narration consists in stating what     
happened4 ,if what happened was         
commonplace1 the reader need only be    
told it2 if what happened was strange1  
the reader must be coaxed or forced to  

believe it1 and the writer must either  
coax him or narrate with such vividness 
and power that the word will have the   
body and reality of the fact4           
,,suspense  ,the term suspense is often 
misused to characterize a quality of    
narration supposed to result from the   
employment of some technical device4    
,what is meant1 of course1 is that a    
good story1 involving real people1      
justly related1 will hold its reader's  
interest until the denouement is        
reached4 ,suspense means continued      
interest1 and can result only from sound
 conception1 careful elaboration1 and   
adequate narration of a story4 ,the     
reader who is shown real people in an   
interesting situation will be in a state
 of suspense through his curiosity and  
desire to learn what happened next4     
,there is no technical device to create 
suspense1 for suspense can result only  
from the worth of the whole story4 ,i   
mention the matter thus briefly on      
account of the misuse of the term4 ,if  

there is any technique to create        
suspense1 it is the technique to order a
 story's events in a climactic          
ascension1 and is not an executive      
device4   ,,emphasis ,,and ,,suppression
  ,a story is made up of a succession of
 happenings1 some of major and many of  
minor importance1 and in telling it the 
writer must emphasize the most important
 events to impress their significance   
upon a reader4 ,it will not do to relate
 the whole1 indiscriminately1 with as   
much vividness as the writer can        
command1 for the fictional value of the 
whole necessarily resides in the        
relation between its chief events1 and  
that relation can be made apparent only 
by showing them in high relief4 ,the    
most important events of a story must be
 emphasized2 events of some but not of  
controlling importance must not be      
stressed too much2 and the very trivial 
events1 which are usually matter of     
transition1 necessary only to the       
mechanical progress of the story1 should

 be suppressed by narrating without     
detail and in general terms4            
,fundamentally1 emphasis and suppression
 are matters of weight1 while proportion
 is a matter of space4 ,there is a real 
relation between preserving proportion  
and laying emphasis1 but it is          
accidental4 ,when an important event is 
somewhat complicated1 as a love scene1  
proportion requires that it be narrated 
in detail1 for it would take some time  
to happen in reality2 and due emphasis  
will be secured by detailed narration4  
,but when an important event is         
inherently simple in character and brief
 in the time it would take to happen1   
proportion requires that it be given not
 too much space1 while emphasis requires
 that it be stressed4 ,to stress such an
 event1 the writer's sole recourse is   
vividness in narration4 ,the physical   
details are few1 but they must be made  
strikingly impressive4 ,where an event  
is essentially complicated1 a knot of   
many details1 emphasis may be laid by   

detailed narration1 by expansion1 and   
proportion will not be violated4 ,in the
 case of the important but inherently   
simple event there are no great number  
of details to be marshalled on the page1
 and the writer can only strive to      
invest his few words with power4  ,the  
writer should consider the matter of    
proportion in allotting the space of a  
story before writing1 as has been       
stated4 ,in writing1 the mere fact that 
he follows events in detail with his pen
 will lead him to emphasize by          
expansion1 where the subject matter     
naturally calls for that mode of        
securing emphasis4 ,where expansion is  
impossible on account of the absence of 
details to be narrated1 the writer's    
realization of the importance of the    
event will lead him to cast about for   
the vivid word4 ,that is to say1 in     
dealing with the important events of a  
story the way to write is to visualize  
the procession of happenings and to     
follow them with the pen in detail1     

seeking the vivid and emphatic word     
where the event is vivid and emphatic4  
,when the event is a bundle of many     
details1 setting them down will         
emphasize the episode by expansion2 and 
where the event is simple1 and a mere   
detail in itself1 as a blow1 vividness  
in narration will counterfeit the force 
of the episode4  ,normally1 the         
succession of chief events will take up 
the greater part of the space available 
for a story1 and1 if the work of        
construction has been done properly     
before writing1 the writer will have his
 attention free to visualize each       
successive happening and to picture it4 
,the difficulty will be to express      
perfectly4 ,the process is natural4 ,it 
cannot be too strongly insisted that the
 way to write the strict story part of a
 story is to strive to see the thing in 
imagination and to get it on paper with 
the breath of life in it4 ,by following 
his vision with his pen the writer will 
take care of the matters of proportion  

and emphasis without detached           
calculation looking to that end4  ,but  
that is not quite true in narrating     
secondary events and writing general    
matter of transition1 the part of a     
story that gives the main events a      
natural sequence and proper spacing1 or 
that develops character4 ,the main      
events exist only for the story2 they   
are the story4 ,the secondary events and
 matter of transition exist largely for 
the sake of the reader4 ,such events    
prepare the characters1 for instance1   
that the main situations may have true  
and full dramatic value to the reader1  
while the general matter of transition  
serves to give the main events spacing  
and the story plausibility4 ,and in     
narrating secondary events1 and writing 
matter of transition1 the writer cannot 
have an eye solely to imagining the     
procession of little happenings and to  
reproducing them in detail4 ,if he wrote
 so they would bulk as large as the main
 events1 and the short story would fill 

a novel and the novel an encyclopaedia4 
,instead1 the writer must realize the   
reasons that led him to choose or devise
 each secondary event while constructing
 the story1 and must narrate each minor 
event so that it will just perform its  
designed function and no more4 ,the     
major events of a story are primarily   
significant1 and it is sufficient to    
narrate them so as to counterfeit them  
as they would be in reality4 ,the minor 
events of a story are not significant in
 themselves1 but only in relation to    
something else1 and in narrating them   
the writer should develop only their    
significant phases4 ,they must be given 
reality and verisimilitude1 but their   
aspects and implications unimportant to 
the story should not be detailed and    
thereby stressed4 ,all aspects of the   
main events are to be detailed simply   
because all aspects of the main events  
are important to the story4 ,they are   
the story4  ,the discussion is somewhat 
abstract and involved1 but necessarily  

so4 ,the technique will be easier to    
practice than it sounds1 much easier1   
for instance1 than to narrate the simple
 but important event with due emphasis  
through vividness4 ,that necessity is   
supremely easy to state or realize1 but 
supremely hard to meet in writing a     
story4 ,the technique of handling       
secondary events and matter of          
transition is hard to state abstractly  
and to grasp from mere discussion1 but  
when it is grasped it is comparatively  
easy to apply in writing1 for it calls  
for no executive power1 merely the      
negative power to leave out the         
insignificant4  ,it will be seen that   
the process of narrating the minor      
events of a story is not natural1 but   
highly artificial4 ,the process of      
narrating the main events is natural2 it
 consists merely in imagining and       
reproducing them with as much body and  
color as possible4 ,where undivided     
attention to phrasing is most essential1
 the writer can give it2 where it is    

least essential1 in setting out a minor 
event1 the writer must give much        
attention to what aspects of the episode
 he should emphasize4 ,he cannot        
reproduce it in full detail simply for  
what it is in itself4 ,just narration of
 secondary episodes and transitional    
passages is a matter of calculation2    
just narration of the more important    
events of a story is a matter of warm   
creation and verbal power4              
,,transition  ,in a sense1 all events of
 a story may be said to have a primary  
value1 for an event is at least a       
happening and has some interest for a   
reader4 ,but the people of a story must 
be carried on from event to event1 major
 or minor1 and the story with them4 ,the
 necessity causes the insertion of      
transitional matter in any story that   
has more than a single episode4         
,transitional matter has no capacity to 
evoke interest in itself1 unless it be  
so detailed as to form a succession of  
petty happenings1 in which case it      

ceases to be strictly transitional4     
,therefore it should be gotten over with
 as quickly as possible4 ,the writer    
should narrate in general terms1 as has 
been stated in discussing proportion1   
the only end being to forward the       
mechanical progress of the story4 ,no   
emphasis need be laid on such matter4 ,a
 frequent fault in beginning writers is 
lack of capacity to pass from one event 
to another smoothly and swiftly4 ,many  
seem unable to step from detailed to    
general narration where the story       
demands it1 and as a result their       
stories lose interest4 ,the details of  
important events are the breath of life 
to a story1 but details without         
fictional purpose only clog the action  
and discourage the reader's interest4   
,matter of transition should be handled 
as swiftly as can be done without       
rendering the whole story jerky and     
unbalanced4 ,it may be noted that       
transitional matter on the lips of a    
narrating character can be given        

piquancy and made interesting in itself1
 like introductory matter4  ,often      
transitional matter may be entirely     
omitted4 ,thus ,maupassant1 in ,the     
,necklace1 does not attempt to make the 
story an unbroken chronological         
progression4 ,the nature of each        
particular story determines its content1
 of course1 and where matter of         
transition is necessary or desirable the
 writer should realize its nature and   
handle it accordingly4   ,,blending ,,of
 ,,elements  ,each story has two primary
 fictional elements1 the people and the 
events1 but it has three mechanical     
elements1 the action1 the speech of the 
characters1 and the matter descriptive  
of persons or places4 ,and while each   
tale is unique1 and any one of these    
mechanical elements may largely         
preponderate over the others1           
nevertheless the normal fiction will    
devote a substantial amount of space to 
each4 ,if the story permits--a proviso  
implied in discussing any matter of     

technique--it will be well for the      
writer to strive to distribute and      
intermingle its action1 dialogue1 and   
descriptive matter in a texture pleasing
 because varied4 ,the whole should not  
be built of unwieldy chunks of          
description1 speech1 and action         
succeeding one another with monotonous  
regularity1 but descriptive touches     
should be intermingled with the         
dialogue1 and narrative matter with     
word-painting and the speech of         
characters4 ,obviously this is no       
absolute rule1 and is perhaps not ever a
 matter of strict art1 but it is true   
that a reader quickly wearies of much of
 the same thing1 and a story is for its 
reader4 ,moreover1 a story as a whole   
will gain in verisimilitude by judicious
 distribution of its mechanical         
elements4 ,the matter is merely another 
phase of the necessity to give a fiction
 the seeming of life1 and should not be 
neglected1 the more so because it is    
easy and a mechanical matter4 ,the      

beginner can afford to neglect no chance
 for success4   ,,footnotes3  ,i ,in    
connection with the subject of vivid    
narration of an important event ,i might
 illustrate the text by brief quotation4
 ,unlike matters of construction1       
matters of strict execution can be shown
 by pungent quotation4 ,the question is 
not whether it is possible1 but whether 
it is useful4 ,take this sentence from  
,stevenson's ,kidnapped3 ,his sword     
flashed like quicksilver into the huddle
 of his fleeing enemies4 ,it is         
perfectly descriptive1 alive as the     
sword was alive in the hand of ,alan    
,breck4 ,but no one by reading it can   
learn to write like it1 a capacity to be
 gained only by long and arduous        
practice1 such as ,stevenson's4 ,a good 
many books on technique have more       
quotation than text1 and while free     
quotation lends a superficial weight to 
the whole1 it is not of much practical  
use to one seeking to learn how to      
write4 ,his own reading will offer him  

examples in plenty1 and the most or even
 the only useful thing a work on        
technique can do for him is to state the
 principles he should try to follow in  
his own work4  ,j ,i once read a story  
in manuscript wherein a character       
related a commonplace tale of woe to    
another1 with the result that the       
other's eyes glistened with hot tears4  
,not only has the expression been worked
 to death1 so that it has no primary    
freshness for a reader1 but it is too   
artificial and strained for a story of  
the commonplace4     ,,chapter ,,viii   
,,description      ,interest--,secondary
 ,function of                           
,description--,distribution--     ,story
 of ,atmosphere--,effectiveness of      
,distributed ,description               
--,description of                       
,persons--,example--,analysis--,accuracy
--     ,mechanical ,limitations of      
,story--,use of ,all ,senses--          
,description of ,setting--,two          
,objects--,to ,clarify ,course of       

,events--,to ,create ,illusion of       
,reality--,use of ,all ,senses          
,order of ,details--,contrast4   ,all   
writing is descriptive1 in a sense2     
narration1 for instance1 is simply the  
picturing of shifting physical          
conditions in a state of fluxation4 ,but
 description is usually taken to mean   
the picturing of physical conditions    
more or less static4 ,the term is used  
so here1 for the technique of describing
 persons1 scenes1 and objects generally 
requires treatment separate from the    
description or narration of bare events4
 ,in describing a happening of his      
story1 and in describing one of the     
characters1 the writer's general object 
is the same1 to show the person or event
 with the vivacity of life1 but the     
conditions to which the writer is       
subject are somewhat different in each  
case4 ,to mention but one difference1   
normally much more space is available   
for pure narration than for pure        
description4 ,the events of a story are 

the story2 its people and its setting   
are drawn only to give the fiction the  
highest attainable degree of            
verisimilitude4 ,and1 since the space   
available for description in the normal 
story is somewhat limited1 the writer is
 under stringent necessity to make each 
word tell4 ,in narrating an event1 the  
matter has an interest of its own for a 
reader apart from the manner of telling1
 but in describing a person1 scene1 or  
object1 the word is all in all4 ,if the 
picture is not effective1 nothing is    
achieved4  ,in coming to the writing of 
a descriptive passage1 the writer should
 realize its secondary function in the  
story4 ,except in the case of the story 
of atmosphere1 and perhaps of the story 
of character1 a reader's interest will  
focus in the progression of happenings  
as such1 and the sole object of strictly
 descriptive matter is to give maximum  
concreteness to the events by depicting 
their setting and individualizing the   
persons concerned4 ,what happens is the 

first consideration1 not where it       
happens nor whom it affects4 ,most      
stories might be told without a single  
word of strict description1 and no such 
word should be given place in any story 
unless it will forward the fiction to a 
higher degree of verisimilitude4  ,it   
follows that descriptive matter should  
not be written pages at a time4 ,its    
function is to lend body and color to   
the whole course of events1 therefore   
descriptive touches should be inserted  
throughout the whole course of a story4 
,to give an itemized description of a   
character at the start1 or to picture   
the whole countryside through which the 
story is to move1 is a poor1 because    
ineffective1 way to write4 ,not only    
will the reader be repelled by great    
spaces of description1 but he will      
forget the attempted picture with speed4
 ,the thing to do is to insert a vivid  
word here and there where it will do the
 most good as the story progresses4     
,description is for the story1 not to   

give the writer a chance to heap words4 
,numerous successful authors have       
indulged in lengthy descriptions1 but   
the worth of their books does not result
 from the indulgence4 ,hugo's           
description of mediaeval ,paris in      
,notre ,dame is an example so extreme as
 almost not to be in point1 but most of 
the elder generation of writers hampered
 the march of their stories by          
describing at inordinate length4 ,no    
matter what the eminence of those who   
have written so1 it is a technical      
fault1 for it tends to render the story 
stiff and mechanical and unnatural4     
,lengthy description is not only        
inimical to a reader's interest2 it is  
perfectly useless in a fictional sense4 
,the sole function of description is to 
give body and reality to the story1 and 
that function cannot be performed unless
 the descriptive quality runs through   
the whole1 and the descriptive matter is
 not gathered into stagnant pools of    
words4  ,much of the effect of the story

 of atmosphere may depend upon its      
descriptive matter1 which may constitute
 a great part of the whole text4 ,the   
fact does not invalidate the general    
proposition4 ,in discussing the various 
aspects of technique1 such as this      
matter of description1 the initial      
assumption is that only the technique of
 the normal story will be stated4 ,the  
normal story is the story of            
complication of incident1 where interest
 centers in the course of events rather 
than in the people or the setting4      
,variants from it1 the story emphasizing
 character and the story stressing      
atmosphere1 by their very difference    
call for a different handling of        
elements4  ,aside from the fact that a  
single lengthy description of a person  
usually will have less effect on a      
reader than the same amount of          
descriptive matter deftly interpolated  
throughout the whole story1 or the fact 
that recurrent descriptive touches as to
 setting will do more to give body to   

the fiction than a single lengthy       
description1 the writer should consider 
the mere rhetorical difficulty of       
descriptive writing4 ,he must stand or  
fall by the picture he creates4 ,in     
narrating1 he has another resource than 
perfection in expression1 for the bare  
event1 apart from the way it is told1   
will interest a reader4 ,but a picture  
will not interest unless it is a        
picture4 ,rhetorical skill is the sole  
determinant between absolute success and
 flat failure in describing4 ,and it is 
hard enough to find one or two telling  
descriptive phrases without contracting 
with the reader to supply several pages 
of them4 ,not only is a long descriptive
 passage of questionable value in the   
normal story1 even when well done1 but  
very few can write a long descriptive   
passage well4 ,the matter of emphasis   
here comes up again for consideration4  
,vividness is not absolute1 but         
relative4 ,one vivid phrase will seem   
vivid to a reader1 but fifty or a       

hundred together will not4 ,the reader  
will become accustomed to the higher    
level of expression1 and the whole will 
fail of its object4  ,in the course of a
 story the writer will have occasion to 
describe persons and--roughly--things4  
,descriptive writing is descriptive     
writing1 but the matters for            
consideration in describing a man or    
woman and a countryside are somewhat    
different1 and will be taken up         
separately4   ,,description ,,of        
,,persons  ,as ,i have stated in another
 place1 the writer cannot gain much in  
capacity to express through the         
objective study of examples4 ,he can    
only practice the art1 seriously and    
intelligently4 ,but ,stevenson's brief  
story of an episode in the life of      
,master ,francois ,villon of ,paris1    
poet1 master of arts1 and house-breaker1
 ,a ,lodging for the ,night1 so         
perfectly describes the persons involved
 that it calls for quotation4 ,the      
object is not to display perfect use of 

epithet1 rather to demonstrate the      
entire adequacy of brief and pungent    
description4 ,villon1 after a short     
introduction1 is discovered in a small  
house with some of the thievish crew    
with whom he consorted4  ,a great pile  
of living embers diffused a strong and  
ruddy glow from the arched chimney4     
,before this straddled ,dom ,nicholas1  
the ,picardy monk1 with his skirts      
tucked up and his fat legs bared to the 
comfortable warmth4 ,his dilated shadow 
cut the room in half2 and the firelight 
only escaped on either side of his broad
 person1 and in a little pool between   
his outspread feet4 ,his face had the   
beery1 bruised appearance of the        
continual drinker's2 it was covered with
 a network of congested veins1 purple in
 ordinary circumstances1 but now pale   
violet1 for even with his back to the   
fire the cold pinched him on the other  
side4 ,his cowl had half fallen back1   
and made a strange excrescence on either
 side of his bull neck4 ,so he          

straddled1 grumbling1 and cut the room  
in half with the shadow of his portly   
frame4  ,on the right1 ,villon and ,guy 
,tabary were huddled together over a    
scrap of parchment2 ,villon making a    
ballade which he was to call the        
',ballade of ,roast ,fish1' and ,tabary 
spluttering admiration at his shoulder4 
,the poet was a rag of a man1 dark1     
little1 and lean1 with hollow cheeks and
 thin black locks4 ,he carried his      
four-and-twenty years with feverish     
animation4 ,greed had made folds about  
his eyes1 evil smiles had puckered his  
mouth4 ,the wolf and pig struggled      
together in his face4 ,it was an        
eloquent1 sharp1 ugly1 earthly          
countenance4 ,his hands were small and  
prehensile1 with fingers knotted like a 
cord2 and they were continually         
flickering in front of him in violent   
and excessive pantomime4 ,as for        
,tabary1 a broad1 complacent1 admiring  
imbecility breathed from his squash nose
 and slobbering lips2 he had become a   

thief1 just as he might have become the 
most decent of burgesses1 by the        
imperious chance that rules the lives of
 human geese and human donkeys4  ,at the
 monk's other hand1 ,montigny and       
,thevenin ,pensete played a game of     
chance4 ,about the first there clung    
some flavor of good birth and training1 
as about a fallen angel2 something long1
 lithe1 and courtly in the person2      
something aquiline and darkling in the  
face4 ,thevenin1 poor soul1 was in great
 feather2 he had done a good stroke of  
knavery that afternoon in the ,faubourg 
,st4 ,jacques1 and all night he had been
 gaining from ,montigny4 ,a flat smile  
illuminated his face2 his bald head     
shone rosily in a garland of red curls2 
his little protuberant stomach shook    
with silent chucklings as he swept in   
his gains4  ,the first thing to note    
about this fine descriptive fragment is 
that the persons are definitely placed  
in the room4 ,the monk before the fire  
is the focal point2 the others are      

placed in groups on his right and left  
hand4 ,two objects are achieved thereby2
 not only does the picture gain in      
definition1 but it is given a closer    
relation to the story1 which is partly  
concerned with what happens in the room4
 ,in other words1 ,stevenson describes  
his characters in relation to the story1
 and does not merely describe each one  
as he has occasion to name him1 in      
isolation1 and merely to give a reader a
 photograph with the name4 ,each is     
described in relation to the story and  
as he comes up in it4  ,the second thing
 to note is the extreme brevity and yet 
the complete adequacy of the description
 of each person4 ,there is no itemizing 
of physical details2 ,stevenson has     
visualized not so much each man as the  
most striking characteristic of each    
man1 and has used all resources of      
language to precipitate that            
characteristic in words4 ,the result is 
impressive4 ,a reader gains a clear and 
definite impression of the individual   

personality of each character1 his      
spiritual nature as well as his physical
 aspect4 ,the definition of the         
impression in each case results from the
 author's having described nothing      
possessed by any two in common4 ,he has 
shown the unique quality of each person1
 which is all that is necessary4  ,this 
point of the technique of describing    
persons is nine-tenths of the whole     
technique4 ,the fiction writer's proper 
aim is not so much to build up a        
physical picture of a character by      
itemizing the details of hair1          
complexion1 stature1 and so forth1 as it
 is to reproduce the person's unique    
quality as an individual human being4   
,whether the character is an individual 
depends on the writer's creative genius1
 but whether he seems individual depends
 on his actions and the way he is       
described4 ,stevenson states ,villon's  
salient physical characteristics1 then  
remarks that the wolf and pig struggled 
together in his face1 and a reader has  

the man1 soul and body4 ,the same       
method1 though with less emphasis1 is   
employed in picturing the others of the 
group4  ,a fundamental philosophical    
truth is that all knowledge is relative2
 we know things only in comparison with 
things previously encountered and       
classified4 ,it follows that the        
difference between objects or persons is
 the ultimate factor that determines the
 character of each4 ,the single unique  
quality of any character in a story is  
what the author must bring out in       
describing him if he is to have on paper
 the vivacity and distinction of the    
author's mental conception4 ,in real    
life a reader meets many men and women2 
he does not take trouble to phrase the  
individual peculiarity of each1 but he  
is acutely conscious of it4 ,each       
acquaintance stands for something unique
 and distinctive in his eyes1 though he 
does not and perhaps could not state the
 essential difference from all others4  
,and1 in describing a person in his     

story1 the writer must state that       
person's essential difference from all  
others1 if the person is to have the    
reality of life for a reader1 for the   
reader's only contact with the person is
 through the writer's words4 ,in life1 a
 reader will eliminate unconsciously    
from his mental representation of an    
acquaintance all qualities which the    
latter has in common with others1 but   
verbal representation of a human being  
is shadowy enough at best1 and in a     
story the writer himself must eliminate 
his characters' undistinctive qualities 
for the reader1 or the persons will lack
 definition and concreteness4  ,the     
third thing to note about this example  
of the description of persons is a      
matter which it really does not         
illustrate1 because it is perfect4 ,my  
statement is at once obscure and        
paradoxical1 but what is meant is that  
in describing a person it is possible to
 give so sharp a verbal etching that the
 reader will believe from the word      

itself4 ,it is the descriptive aspect of
 narrating with such vividness that the 
word will be accepted as visual         
evidence4 ,as it happens1 in describing 
,villon and his fellows1 ,stevenson has 
found a combination of words which not  
only constitutes a vivid picture but is 
one that a reader may realize in        
imagination without loss of definition4 
,yet take such a touch as ,balzac's in  
stating that a character had a face like
 a glass of dirty water4 ,it is         
extremely vivid1 but its vividness is   
somewhat superficial1 that is1 if a     
reader dwells on it1 and tries to       
realize the image in thought1 it will   
lose much of its definition4 ,i have    
first-hand knowledge of the effect on   
only one reader1 of course1 myself1 but 
others have confessed when questioned   
the same inability to realize this      
particular figure without loss of       
definition4 ,the important point for the
 writer of fiction is that a reader will
 not pause to scrutinize too closely an 

image verbally definite and striking2   
such a descriptive touch as to a minor  
character will perform its office of    
giving the person vivacity and reality  
better than a more accurate but less    
heightened itemization of details4 ,in a
 sense1 ,stevenson's passage is an      
example of this matter4 ,it happens that
 his description can be realized without
 loss of definition4 ,that is why it is 
perfect4 ,but the same method may be    
employed less justly and yet have more  
effect than any mere itemization of     
physical details4  ,in picturing his    
chief characters the writer should not  
rely solely upon mere verbal sharpness4 
,if the story is worth while they will  
have saliences that should be stated as 
well as exemplified in action4 ,but the 
minor characters are shadowy enough at  
best1 and any verbal definition that can
 be given them will lend concreteness to
 the story4 ,if an image is not only    
striking1 but also subject to           
realization without loss1 so much the   

better4 ,if an image is verbally happy1 
but not intrinsically perfect1 it may be
 better to employ it than to write with 
just accuracy1 but flatly4 ,i believe   
that accuracy should be sacrificed to   
verbal felicity in no other place than  
in describing a minor character4 ,it is 
an aspect of the general fictional      
necessity that mere literalness be      
sacrificed to verisimilitude1 and1 in   
describing a minor character1           
verisimilitude requires that a reader be
 faced by what will seem to him to be a 
definite person rather than some        
particular definite person4 ,strictly   
speaking1 a minor character need not be 
individualized1 but he must be drawn    
with the nearest possible approach to   
the sharp outlines of life4 ,a major    
character must be drawn definite and    
unique2 a minor character need only be  
drawn definite1 though the more         
individual he is made the better4 ,it   
follows that any sharp verbal image     
applied to a minor character will help  

the story1 though it is within limits   
meretricious4  ,the three matters here  
discussed are the main considerations to
 be held in mind in describing the      
persons of a story4 ,they should be     
described in relation to the story1 as  
they are placed by their actions in the 
physical setting4 ,in describing the    
chief characters1 the persons whose     
personalities have significant relation 
to the course of events1 the writer     
should endeavor to bring out with       
maximum definition and vividness the    
single unique quality of each person4   
,in describing minor characters1 the    
chief necessity is to give each person  
as much as possible of the definition   
and concreteness of life4 ,little space 
is available1 and the writer may be     
driven to the use of somewhat           
meretricious figures4 ,the perfect      
figure should always be sought1 but1 if 
the writer cannot discover it1 the      
literally inaccurate figure may be      
better than flat writing4 ,the general  

aim in describing persons is to give    
maximum concreteness to the whole story1
 and seeming definition will sometimes  
serve as well as actual definition4     
,the necessity that the persons of a    
story be described in relation to it1 as
 they are placed in the physical        
setting1 requires the writer to realize 
and regard the mechanical limitations of
 the story4 ,if it is told in the first 
person1 and the narrating character     
perceives another in the distance1 a    
description of such other must confine  
itself to matters apparent at a         
distance1 until the persons approach one
 another more nearly4 ,the same         
necessity obtains where the story is    
told in the third person1 from the      
viewpoint of a character who perceives  
another at a distance4 ,likewise1 a     
character cannot be made to see through 
a house or a mountain1 or into the next 
room4 ,a good deal has been written on  
this matter1 but from the wrong angle4  
,the writer should not seek to master   

any abstract rule1 rather should he     
strive to visualize his story as he     
writes it from the viewpoint from which 
he has chosen to tell it4 ,if he thus   
gets into his story--so to speak--in    
describing he will unconsciously respect
 the mechanical limitations of the tale4
 ,moreover1 his attention will be free  
for the severe task of expression1      
undistracted by any eye to precepts4    
,the way to write a story is to picture 
it in imagination and then follow it    
with the pen4 ,that is why the          
unpracticed writer of high imaginative  
powers so often writes with a strict if 
unconscious regard for the laws of      
technique4  ,another matter as to the   
description of persons is worth noting4 
,the normal human being has more than   
the sense of sight2 he can also hear1   
feel1 and smell2 and verbal appeals to  
these other senses may be effective4    
,the timbre of a character's voice or   
sound of his step1 the feel of his hand 
when shaken1 an odor about him or her1  

as of liquor1 tobacco1 or perfume1 may  
be stated in describing the person4     
,such a descriptive touch will often    
prove most useful1 the more so because  
it gives another dimension to the       
person1 so to speak4 ,a very            
characteristic and impressive thing     
about ,uriah ,heep is his handshake1 as 
,copperfield felt it4 ,the matter will  
be taken up again in discussing the     
technique of describing setting1 where  
it necessarily bulks larger4,k          
,,description ,,of ,,setting  ,the      
fiction writer is a dramatist in a very 
real sense1 but he cannot depend for    
verisimilitude on flesh-and-blood       
actors1 painted scenery1 and actual     
properties4 ,he must describe all these 
to give his narrative verisimilitude and
 concreteness4 ,the technique of        
describing persons has been discussed1  
and the technique of describing mere    
objects1 the properties of the piece1 as
 the dagger in the hand of an assassin1 
is not so much a part of the technique  

of fiction writing as of the technique  
of writing generally4 ,it is a question 
of rhetoric4 ,but the technique of      
describing setting is fictional as well 
as rhetorical1 that is1 the writer of a 
story must consider what he should      
describe as well as how he should       
describe it4 ,his task is more highly   
selective than the task of describing   
the persons or properties of a story4   
,they1 with the events involving them1  
are the story itself2 the setting or    
environment of a story is not1 but      
merely a background or stage4 ,yet      
sometimes1 as in the story of           
atmosphere1 the setting is an integral  
and necessary part of the fiction4 ,one 
can only say that it all depends4  ,the 
fact that the setting is sometimes an   
integral part of the story and sometimes
 not requires the writer to set to work 
differently in each case4 ,in writing   
the story of atmosphere1 he must regard 
the setting as matter for reproduction  
for its own sake2 in writing the normal 

story1 he must regard the setting as    
only incidental1 and should not         
reproduce it unless it will clarify the 
course of events for a reader or serve  
to give the story its necessary body and
 verisimilitude4 ,the story of          
atmosphere requires separate treatment2 
here only the technique of describing   
the setting or settings of the normal   
story will be discussed4  ,as stated1 in
 writing the normal story1 the story    
where interest centers in the course of 
events1 the writer should not describe  
setting unless it will clarify the      
course of events or lend body to the    
fiction in the eyes of a reader4        
,general descriptive writing has no     
other function to perform4 ,realization 
of the truth will lead the writer to    
avoid writing great wastes of           
description4 ,if a particular story     
requires that the physical conformation 
of a neighborhood be brought out1 a few 
words will serve better than many1 which
 will be apt to confuse a reader1 at    

least to distract his attention4 ,and   
when the writer describes setting to    
give body to the story1 scattered       
descriptive touches will have more      
effect than a single isolated block of  
description4 ,it is another aspect of   
the matter touched upon in relation to  
the description of persons4 ,if a story 
is to have the concreteness1 definition1
 and vivacity of life1 the descriptive  
quality must permeate the whole1 both as
 to the persons and their environment4  
,the descriptive task cannot be         
performed once and for all1 either as to
 the persons or the setting1 any more   
than can the narrative task4 ,narration 
continues throughout the whole story1   
for it is the story2 and likewise       
description must accompany each item of 
narration1 for description is a part or 
quality of the whole story4 ,where the  
course of events is rapid1 their quick  
succession itself will counterfeit a    
like phase of life1 for an observer     
would note the events as such rather    

than the setting4 ,but where the course 
of events is more leisurely1 descriptive
 touches as to setting will be necessary
 to counterfeit such a phase of life1   
for an observer would note not only the 
happenings but the environment4 ,a story
 is a reproduction of a phase of life2 a
 reader is its observer2 and the whole  
must be made to stand forth for him as a
 like spectacle would show in actuality4
  ,the other necessity1 to describe     
setting to give the story verisimilitude
 and concreteness1 is not so easy to    
state or to meet4 ,this sort of         
descriptive quality must permeate the   
whole story1 as has been stated1 and its
 introduction or creation is a matter of
 difficulty4 ,the natural and best way  
to conquer the secret is to imagine the 
course of events while standing in the  
shoes of the person from whose viewpoint
 the story is told1 then to follow them 
with the pen4 ,where the character would
 see1 feel1 hear1 or smell something1   
state the impression upon him4 ,thus    

,kipling1 in ,without ,benefit of       
,clergy3 444 ,old ,pir ,khan squatted at
 the head of ,holden's horse1 his police
 sabre across his knees1 pulling        
drowsily at a big water-pipe that       
croaked like a bull-frog in a pond4     
,ameera's mother sat spinning in the    
lower veranda1 and the wooden gate was  
shut and barred4 ,the music of a        
marriage procession came to the roof    
above the gentle hum of the city1 and a 
string of flying-foxes crossed the face 
of the low moon4 ,kipling has imagined  
his story as ,holden would have lived   
it2 not only has he seen through        
,holden's eyes--he has heard with       
,holden's ears4 ,in this short passage  
there are three appeals to the sense of 
sight1 and two to the sense of hearing1 
and the fragment gains by stating more  
than visual impressions4  ,the point has
 been noted in discussing the           
description of persons1 but is worth    
enlarging upon4 ,the task to give body  
to a story is difficult enough at best1 

and the writer can afford to neglect no 
resource4 ,of the five senses whereby   
man grasps his surroundings1 that of    
taste is probably of the least use to   
the writer of fiction1 but the senses of
 sight1 hearing1 smell1 and touch can   
all be utilized on occasion4 ,a         
character at sea can be stated to have  
seen the waves of a storm1 felt the     
force of the gale and the sting of      
driven raindrops1 and tasted the salt   
spray1 also to have smelt the musty     
fo'c'sle when he went below4 ,each touch
 will give the whole picture added      
reality for a reader4 ,the beginning    
writer is too apt to rely solely upon   
what a character might have seen4 ,a    
deserted house has a smell as           
characteristic as its look1 and the     
fragrance of violets is as impressive as
 their visual beauty4 ,night can be told
 from day by its odor1 and the rattle of
 typewriter keys in an office is as     
suggestive of modern industry as a      
serenade is of other days and other     

loves4 ,a hero can feel his sweetheart's
 soft or toil-roughened fingers as well 
as see her expensive silks and furs or  
cheap and much worn dress4 ,life is a   
complex of many sense-perceptions1 and  
the more numerous and varied the        
fleeting impressions a character is     
stated to have caught1 the more concrete
 and real the story will be for a       
reader4  ,description is the usual but  
not the happiest term to denote the     
general process of giving a story a     
setting and environment of its own4 ,it 
is--or should be--more than a process of
 picturing scenes4 ,all pertinent and   
striking sense-impressions received by  
the characters should be stated1 for    
only thus can the nearest approach to a 
just representation of life be made4    
,the writer's sole object is to give the
 fiction the concreteness of life2 it   
cannot be achieved by painting verbal   
pictures for a reader1 but it can be    
achieved by stating justly the ways in  
which the totality of the environment   

affected the characters4 ,just          
description of the characters will make 
them real men and women for a reader1   
and just statement of the effects of    
their environment upon them will make   
them real people in a real world4  ,the 
strictly executive technique of         
descriptive writing is not hard to      
grasp1 however hard it may be to find   
the desired word4 ,the impression that  
the character involved would receive    
first should be stated first1 and the   
less striking details should follow in  
the order of their impressiveness4      
,thus1 in describing a skating scene1   
the observant character should be made  
to see the interweaving skaters and to  
hear the peculiar whinnying ring of the 
skates before he sees individuals4 ,it  
is all a matter of visualizing1 or1     
better1 visualizing and living the story
 in the shoes of the character from     
whose viewpoint it is told4 ,the writer 
who will live each story thus in        
imagination1 and will state the         

successive impressions the character    
would naturally receive while moving    
through such a chain of events in real  
life1 will do far better work than one  
who strives to carry in his head a body 
of rules and precepts and to write with 
observance of them4 ,technique cannot be
 discussed without directly stating     
principles1 but the business of actual  
writing is natural1 not mechanical and  
artificial4 ,the writer becomes         
artificial precisely when he forgets he 
is writing a story and begins to daub in
 descriptive matter without relation to 
the characters or the events4 ,the thing
 to do is to get inside the skin of the 
character from whose viewpoint the      
particular story or particular part of  
the story is told1 to see with his eyes1
 hear with his ears1 smell1 taste1 and  
feel with his nerves1 and to state no   
impression as received by him that the  
course of events would not allow him to 
receive4 ,a horse-thief fleeing from a  
posse will have no eye for the beauties 

of a landscape4 ,if the writer desires  
to show the scene for the sake of its   
contrast with such an event1 he must do 
so lightly and quickly4 ,a reader will  
be mounted with the pursued man1 and his
 eyes will be ahead4  ,as to the matter 
of contrast between event and setting1  
no rules can be stated4 ,all that can be
 said is that sometimes it is a useful  
device4 ,but the main purpose of        
descriptive matter in the normal story  
is to give it concreteness1 and         
generally the purpose will be realized  
best by stating the sense-impressions   
which would be received in actuality by 
the characters4 ,a story will gain much 
in naturalness and plausibility thereby1
 for the same reason that narration in  
the first person or from the viewpoint  
of a single character is the most       
natural and plausible way to write1 if  
the particular story permits4  ,one     
other thing may be useful to note4 ,in  
describing a person1 the writer should  
strive to state his unique quality as an

 individual2 in describing a scene1     
also1 the writer should seek to bring   
out its unique quality4 ,that quality   
should be sifted out and realized in    
imagination1 and then the writer should 
search diligently for the few telling   
words that will precipitate it4 ,as the 
story moves on1 men1 women1 and         
children1 houses1 ships1 and electric   
cars1 streets1 deserts1 and smiling     
fields1 will come beneath the writer's  
pen4 ,and they must all be given        
reality1 not for their own sakes1 but   
for the sake of the story4              
,,footnotes3  ,k ,a good deal of        
abstract statement might be made as to  
the description of persons1 but the main
 considerations have been stated4 ,the  
whole philosophy of this phase of       
technique rests on the necessity that   
every line of a story be given as much  
as possible of the concreteness and     
vivacity of life4 ,it is useless to give
 a long description of a character once 
and for all when he first comes up in a 

story4 ,even if a reader gains a sharp  
impression therefrom1 he will not carry 
it with him through the succeeding      
events involving the character4 ,his    
first impression of the person must be  
kept alive by repeated descriptive      
touches1 not so much because the person 
must be described adequately as because 
every part of the story must have the   
body of life4 ,the distinction is fine1 
but real1 and perhaps may be made       
clearer by imagining a reader witnessing
 an event in which a friend is involved4
 ,he knows his friend1 as he can know no
 character in a story2 nevertheless he  
sees him uninterruptedly as the event   
develops4 ,to counterfeit the process in
 a story1 descriptive touches as to the 
persons must be interspersed with the   
narrative matter1 though the persons    
have been described already4 ,a story   
should describe persons in action and   
repose4     ,,chapter ,,ix  ,,speech    
,potency of ,dialogue--,mechanical      
,distribution--,naturalness--           

,directness--,dialect--,situation--,thre
e ,resources to ,meet     ,demands of   
,situation--,physical                   
,effect--,ellipsis--,elements     of    
,language--,style--,verbs of            
,utterance--,transcription of           
,speech for it ,own ,sake--,creative    
,process4   ,when the writer of a story 
is not using narrative or description1  
he will be transcribing the speech of   
his characters4 ,and in the matter of   
transcribing speech the writer of       
fiction has a chance comparable with    
that of the dramatist and the           
practitioner in the graphic arts4 ,the  
effect of narrative or description upon 
a reader is secondary and derivative2   
the effect upon him of written speech or
 dialogue is very nearly primary4 ,the  
fiction writer has not the actor's      
studied tones to give dialogue complete 
life and body1 but the appeal of written
 speech is infinitely more direct and   
compelling than that of any other sort  
of writing4 ,a word is a word1 whether  

spoken or written1 and cannot be read   
without setting up some echo in the ear4
 ,when the writer of a story describes  
its hero1 a reader may or may not see an
 image1 faint or distinct1 behind the   
words4 ,but when the writer sets down   
his hero's words1 a reader cannot choose
 but hear4 ,even if the words be        
unnatural and stilted1 they will be     
heard4 ,that is why badly managed       
dialogue is so potent to ruin a story4  
,the speech of the characters in a story
 is strongly impressive1 whether for    
good or ill4 ,the more powerful a tool1 
the more damage it will do if           
mismanaged4  ,thus the essential force  
of dialogue or written speech may be a  
handicap or an assistance4 ,if a        
character's words jar upon a reader1    
they will do so strongly1 if they are   
natural and in keeping with the whole   
conception of the person1 they will do  
much to give him the breath of life4 ,it
 follows that the writer of fiction     
should give due attention to the        

transcription of speech1 the more so    
because superficially the task is easy4 
,perhaps the first consideration is the 
mere mechanical distribution of         
dialogue4 ,in real life only the        
after-dinner speaker talks at inordinate
 length4 ,conversation1 except that of  
the bore1 is essentially fragmentary4   
,not only is each person's part         
fragmentary1 but the whole conversation 
is usually somewhat brief4 ,people      
caught in a more or less rapid sequence 
of events have no time to talk at       
length1 and a story is a more or less   
rapid sequence of events4 ,the writer   
must counterfeit a like phase of life   
with his story1 and to do so he must    
mingle the mechanical elements of the   
story in a texture pleasing because     
varied4 ,the mechanical elements of a   
story are its narrative1 its            
description1 and its dialogue or speech 
of the characters2 these must blend and 
intermingle1 varying the appeal to a    
reader and simulating the pattern of    

life4 ,an unfailing sign of the amateur1
 at least of the amateur with no innate 
sense of fictional values1 is a story   
made up of hard and angular blocks of   
narration1 description1 and dialogue4   
,the skilled writer--if the particular  
story permits1 a proviso always to be   
understood--will intermingle speech with
 action and description with both4      
,dialogue should no more be written     
pages at a time than should description1
 and if a great deal of speech must be  
transcribed en bloc1 it should be broken
 up to some extent by descriptive       
touches and even by narration more      
detailed than that part of the story    
naturally calls for4  ,the next         
consideration is to make the people of a
 story talk naturally4 ,the necessity   
has affiliations with the necessity that
 the speech of any person be made       
characteristic1 for dialogue is an      
efficient aid in the portrayal of       
character4 ,the writer must make each   
person talk like a human being1 even if 

not like some particular human being4   
,good1 nervous dialogue will be full of 
elisions1 mere exclamations1 unfinished 
sentences1 gaps that a reader will      
bridge readily for himself4 ,he will be 
skilled in the business1 for that is the
 kind of talk addressed to him every    
day4 ,in more sedate and leisurely ages1
 if we may judge from the tales then    
written1 people could frame a sentence  
on the lips1 but it is a lost art now4  
,to be literary in transcribing speech  
is to invoke almost certain failure4    
,literary dialogue usually is ruinous4  
,a reader's interest may survive stilted
 and affected narrative or descriptive  
writing1 for most readers have read so  
much of such writing that it is almost  
expected1 but stilted and affected      
dialogue will kill interest once and for
 all4 ,in narrative there is something  
behind the word for the reader1 even in 
description there is a faint something1 
but in dialogue there is nothing at all4
 ,the word is the word2 if it fails1 the

 failure is total4  ,yet it will not do 
to be quite literal in transcribing     
speech4 ,if the speech of real life is  
broken and fragmentary1 it is also      
impossibly wordy and purposeless4 ,the  
lawyer who has spent weary hours in     
reading transcripts of testimony knows  
the fact to his cost4 ,the writer of    
fiction has not space to set down with  
minute accuracy just what his people    
probably would have said during the     
progress of the story2 he must          
counterfeit the auditory impression of  
real speech by eliding and leaving      
sentences unfinished2 but this          
mechanically broken and abrupt speech   
must have the purpose and direction     
which is wanting in real speech4 ,the   
characters must not only talk naturally2
 they must say certain definite things  
and convey definite and necessary       
information1 directly or by implication4
 ,there is little need to emphasize here
 the necessity that the writer have some
 fictional purpose in making a character

 say something1 except to warn against  
transcribing speech solely for the sake 
of its suppositious intrinsic wit or    
vivacity1 for each story will assert its
 own claims over the talk of the        
characters4  ,the question of dialect   
has been debated often and at length1   
both for and against4 ,there are many   
fine stories in dialect in whole or in  
part1 but their merit does not result   
from the employment of dialect1 though  
the dialect may be a necessary part of  
some of them4 ,in the larger sense1 the 
question is merely one of naturalness4  
,the pronunciation of no man is in exact
 accord with the ideal standard of the  
dictionary2 all have mannerisms of      
speech and accent4 ,in some sections    
such mannerisms are so common and marked
 as to form a dialect1 almost a patois1 
and1 if a story involves a character    
from such a district1 fidelity to fact  
requires the writer to write dialect    
when the person is speaking4 ,dialect in
 a story must be intelligible to one    

unfamiliar with it1 which requires the  
writer to iron out its greatest         
divergences from the normal in an       
endeavor to retain its piquancy while   
avoiding its obscurity4 ,the question is
 not one of technique1 but one of       
material4 ,the only insistence of       
technique as to dialect is that it must 
be intelligible4  ,unquestionably there 
is prejudice against the story told     
wholly in strongly marked dialect by a  
narrating character1 both on the part of
 editors and readers4 ,the type had a   
vogue some years ago1 but its commercial
 and artistic defect is that it tends to
 be unintelligible4  ,dialect is a      
useful aid in characterization1 as is   
any slighter mannerism of speech4 ,the  
matter will be taken up in discussing   
the portrayal of character4 ,here ,i am 
concerned only with the more general    
aspects of the management of dialogue4  
,as stated1 the first necessity in      
writing dialogue is to place the word   
where it would be spoken in life1 during

 the action1 not in isolated masses of  
speech4 ,the second necessity is to     
write naturally1 and yet to invest the  
hasty and elided speech of the          
characters with purpose in the fiction4 
,dialogue must be not only natural and  
easy2 it also must be significant1      
significant in relation to life--which  
is the matter of naturalness            
re-stated--significant in relation to   
the characters1 and significant in      
relation to the story4 ,that is to say1 
the justly written bit of dialogue will 
be natural1 will illustrate character1  
and will inform a reader1 directly or by
 implication1 of something he must know 
if he is to catch the full savor of the 
story4 ,these are the most general      
conditions to be borne in mind in       
writing dialogue4 ,it remains to discuss
 the necessity that a writer consider   
the matter of situation while           
transcribing speech4 ,the necessity     
requires discussion4 ,not only is it    
stringent1 but it is politely ignored by

 too many books on technique4  ,the     
abstract statement is that the same     
person will talk differently according  
to his situation at the moment4 ,jones  
is ,jones1 of course1 but the ,jones who
 discusses preparedness with ,smith is a
 different ,jones from him who          
telephones to summon the doctor for his 
dying child1 and his speech in each case
 will not be the same4 ,my lady will not
 berate her maid for a fault as she will
 reprove her lover1 and the head        
bookkeeper talking to a subordinate and 
to the boss would impress a listener as 
two different persons4 ,the man and his 
speech are influenced by the event4 ,the
 writer of fiction1 being under constant
 necessity to counterfeit life1 must    
keep the speech of his characters in    
accord with the situation as well as    
with the general looseness of actual    
talk4  ,it may be said that this        
necessity to write dialogue with an eye 
to the situation of the persons is      
merely a more narrow phase of the       

general necessity to be natural4 ,that  
is true4 ,the writer will never go      
astray who lives his story in           
imagination and sets down the speech of 
the characters as it would have been    
phrased in actuality4 ,the only trouble 
is to determine just how the persons    
would have spoken1 and it is a trouble  
because it requires more than a vivid   
imagination4 ,imagination will embody   
the course of events for a writer1 will 
touch in the setting with glowing color1
 but imagination alone will not supply  
the words spoken4 ,to find them1 the    
writer must employ his intellectual     
faculties as well as his imaginative    
powers1 and precisely for the same      
reason that the characters must employ  
their intellectual faculties in         
speaking4 ,one who writes a story lives 
vicariously1 lives another's life for   
the time being1 and where that other    
would be forced to think1 as in         
speaking1 the writer must think         
likewise4 ,where the other would be     

forced only to observe1 as in witnessing
 events or observing setting1 the writer
 can rely solely on his imaginative     
powers4  ,there will be little          
difficulty in meeting the demands of the
 situation that is casual and           
commonplace4 ,speech that is merely easy
 and natural is adequate4 ,if the       
incident is not particularly significant
 in a dramatic or emotional sense1 the  
way that the character would talk in    
such circumstances is not hard to find4 
,the story requires that a ,southern    
gentleman of the old school welcome a   
stranger to his house1 let us say2 it   
will not be hard to find the host's     
words on that occasion4 ,but suppose he 
must discover a few pages farther on    
that the stranger is his daughter's     
seducer4 ,what will he say8 ,the writer 
must find for him words that will chime 
with the tensity and dramatic value of  
the situation4 ,to meet the necessity   
the writer has three resources4  ,the   
first lies apart from the matter of     

speech4 ,by just portrayal of the       
physical effect of such a discovery upon
 a character the writer will accomplish 
much4 ,to put it flippantly1 the        
character will be made to talk naturally
 by making him speechless4 ,to put it   
justly1 in such a heightened moment in a
 story narration should be very         
detailed1 and the writer should show the
 physical effect of any discovery upon a
 character before transcribing the words
 born of the moment4  ,the second       
resource of the writer to meet the      
necessity that a character's words fit  
the emotional and dramatic qualities of 
a situation is largely mechanical4 ,even
 casual speech is elliptical and        
exclamatory2 speech born of excitement  
or agony of soul is strongly so4 ,the   
more broken and fragmentary the         
character's speech1 the greater the     
suggestion of emotional stress and      
upheaval4  ,the third resource of the   
writer is a matter of diction4 ,english 
is a language compounded of             

,anglo-,saxon and ,latin and ,greek     
elements4 ,the primary basis of the     
tongue is ,anglo-,saxon2 that is why it 
is ,english1 and not a ,romance         
language4 ,we learn the simpler1 less   
abstract part of our vocabulary1 the    
part that stands for fundamentals1 in   
childhood2 the rest is acquired later4  
,not only is the ,anglo-,saxon word the 
word we know best2 it is also the word  
which will express our deepest loves and
 dreads and hates4 ,the ,latin element  
of the language gives it its flexibility
 and its capacity to express ideas1 but 
its capacity to express emotion resides 
in its ,anglo-,saxon element4 ,love1    
hate1 birth1 death1 ,god1 devil1 father1
 mother1 sister1 brother1 sin1 lust1    
greed1 filth1 hope1 care1 weep1 laugh1  
smile--all are strictly ,english words  
of ,teutonic origin1 and all are much   
more forceful and suggestive or         
connotative than any ,anglicised ,latin 
equivalents4 ,the writer of fiction     
should realize the fact1 and should make

 his people use strictly ,english words 
when caught in a pregnant situation4 ,a 
lawyer1 in discussing a case1 properly  
may be made to employ the word deceased1
 for instance1 but when informed that   
his wife has died suddenly1 ,dead8 he   
should be made to say1 ,dead8 ,that is  
very obvious1 of course1 but it will    
serve for an illustration4,l  ,the      
question of character intrudes here4    
,all speech should be characteristic of 
the person uttering it1 but the         
necessity that the word should fit the  
moment is more stringent than the       
necessity that the word should fit the  
person1 provided that the moment is so  
tense that its force might be expected  
to strip any husk of mannerisms from the
 persons involved4 ,indeed1 the more    
strikingly individual the casual speech 
of a character1 the greater will be the 
effect of making him utter in a crisis  
the broken and disjointed ,english words
 that come to the lips of all of us when
 our loves or our pocketbooks are       

threatened4  ,after stating the         
necessity to make dialogue accord with  
situation1 and after pointing out the   
three resources of the writer to this   
end1 a word of caution may not be out of
 place4 ,in all human probability the   
writer will have for the significant    
situations of his story a much keener   
feeling and appreciation than any       
reader4 ,there is some danger that the  
writer's feeling for his own situations 
will lead him to make his people talk a 
thought too brokenly for acceptance by a
 reader without the same keen           
appreciation of all the emotional and   
dramatic values of the situations of the
 story4 ,the danger cannot be overcome  
by toning down the dialogue2 the writer 
must force a reader to feel the power of
 all the situations of the story4 ,in   
other words1 dialogue in tense          
situations must meet the fact of        
situation1 and each situation itself    
must be built up for a reader by proper 
development and adequate writing of the 

whole story4 ,the art of fiction is a   
whole1 as a story is a whole1 and       
perfect handling of one element alone of
 his story1 as the dialogue1 will avail 
the writer nothing4  ,in transcribing   
speech1 the less the writer thinks about
 the style or manner in which he has    
chosen to tell the story the better4    
,the first consideration is to be       
natural1 that is1 to write as some real 
person would talk1 and1 if possible1 to 
write as some particular person would   
talk4 ,but the general tone of the story
 must be considered4 ,the necessity is  
less stringent or nonexistent in writing
 the novel1 with its permissible variety
 of texture1 than in writing the short  
story of unity of effect4 ,if the people
 of a story are super-normal1 their lips
 must not drop banalities4 ,that is a   
matter of character4 ,but if the single 
effect sought to be produced by a story 
is of horror1 for instance1 its people  
cannot be permitted to make remarks that
 will hinder the attainment of the      

effect1 which is a matter of preserving 
the general tone of the story4 ,the     
speech of the characters must be in     
keeping with them1 in keeping with the  
significant situations1 and in keeping  
with the story as a whole4  ,there is   
one point about the management of       
dialogue which should be the less       
neglected because it is purely          
mechanical and very easy4 ,a page of    
dialogue should not present to a reader 
a monotonous succession of he saids and 
she saids1 simply because the reader    
will feel the repetition and some of the
 illusion of the story be lost4 ,the    
verbs characterizing utterance are      
infinite in number2 moreover1 it is     
frequently possible to set down nothing 
but the words of the speaking character4
 ,thus ,henry ,sydnor ,harrison1 in ,v4 
,v4's ,eyes43  ',did she hurt herself8' 
said ,carlisle1 third-personally1 to the
 elder girl1 who had suspended her game 
to stare wide-eyed4 ',what on earth is  
the matter8'  ,the reply was tragically 

simple3  ',a lady stepped on her        
,junebug4'  ,sure enough1 full on the   
vestibule floor lay the murdered        
slum-bug1 who had too hardily ventured  
to cross a wealthy benevolent's path4   
,the string was yet tied to the now     
futile hind-leg4 ,carlisle1 lingering1  
repressed her desire to laugh4  ',oh6444
 ,well1 don't you think you could catch 
her a new one1 perhaps8'  ',bopper he   
mout ketch her a new one mebbe tomorrow1
 mom 444 ,hiesh1 ,rebecca6'  ,moved by  
some impulse in her own bouyant mood1   
,carlisle touched the littlest girl on  
the shoulder with a well-gloved finger4 
',here--,rebecca1 poor child6444 ,you   
can buy yourself something better than  
,junebugs4'  ,the proprietor of the     
deceased bug1 having raised her damp    
dark face1 ceased crying instantly4     
,over the astounding windfall the chubby
 fingers closed with a gesture          
suggesting generations of               
acquisitiveness4  ',is it hers to keep8'
 spoke her aged sister1 in a scared     

voice4 ',that there's a dollar1 mum4'   
',hers to keep 444' replied the goddess1
 smiling4  ,dialogue so managed is      
infinitely more natural and fitting than
 the he-said1 she-said sort4 ,of course1
 the more characteristic the speech of  
the characters1 the less the need for   
verbs of utterance4 ,the primary office 
of such verbs is to indicate the person 
who is speaking1 and1 if the words      
spoken do that1 the verb may be omitted4
 ,the secondary office of verbs of      
utterance is to characterize the manner 
of speech1 and here it is well not to be
 too extreme4 ,a character may snarl or 
bellow or invite or plead1 for instance1
 but if he is made to flame in words    
there will be a suggestion of strain and
 artificiality for a reader4            
,intelligibility and suitable--not      
unsuitable--variety should be the       
writer's aims in managing dialogue4     
,the total amount of dialogue any story 
will contain depends on its nature and  
character4 ,possibly it is true that the

 more strictly dramatic a story1 the    
greater will be the proportion of       
dialogue to the rest of the text4 ,at   
any rate1 a writer should never         
transcribe speech at any length simply  
for its own sake in an endeavor to trick
 a reader into thinking that the story  
is livelier than it is4 ,dialogue is    
attractive to a reader1 but it is       
attractive in a story only when it is an
 essential element of the story4 ,the   
writer should not depend on the         
intrinsic wit and vivacity of his       
characters' speech4 ,even if it is      
interesting in itself1 apart from the   
story1 the fact will not help the story 
as such1 for a reader's attention will  
be distracted from its movement4 ,mr4   
,dooley's talk is beautiful1 read apart 
and by itself2 thrust into a short      
story1 it would hurt the tale4          
,finally1 a word as to the actual       
creative process of writing dialogue4   
,the way to narrate is to live and see  
the story's happenings in imagination2  

the way to describe is to feel the      
totality of the story's environment or  
setting in imagination as some character
 or characters must have felt it2 and   
the way to write dialogue is to be each 
speaking character in turn for a space1 
and to write as the particular person   
would have spoken4 ,as stated above1 the
 writer will have to think as well as to
 imagine4 ,he will have to comprehend   
the essential nature of each speaking   
character1 his personality1 education1  
and habits of life and mind1 in order to
 discover the words that would be called
 forth from such a person by each new   
event4 ,the task is not easy4 ,but the  
writer should bring his full powers to  
bear upon it1 for the dialogue of a     
story is tremendously effective1 whether
 for good or ill4   ,,footnotes3  ,l    
,the writer should not have an eye to   
the origin of his words only while      
writing dialogue4 ,in narrating the     
homely and commonplace event1 and in    
describing everyday scenes1 where the   

value lies in everyday associations1 the
 suggestive ,english word should be     
used4 ,the matter has been touched upon1
 though not in these terms4 ,the whole  
endeavor in fiction writing generally   
should be to make the word chime with   
the substance4     ,,chapter ,x         
,,portrayal ,,of ,,character      ,the  
,three ,modes of                        
,characterization--,dialogue--,action-- 
,description or ,direct                 
,statement--,aims of ,characterization--
     ,to ,show the ,nature--,to ,show   
the ,man as a ,physical ,being--        
,character and ,plot--,characterization 
by ,speech--     ,characterization by   
,statement--,characterization by        
,action4   ,characterization is an      
unlovely term1 but it stands for much4  
,in fact1 it stands for so much that it 
is the hardest point of technique to    
discuss adequately4 ,in the fiction     
writer's vocabulary1 it stands for      
things as diverse as the necessity that 
the whole action of a story be          

significant in relation to character1   
and the necessity that the persons of   
the fiction seem real and individual1   
apart from any unique quality of their  
actions4 ,whether the action of a story 
is significant in relation to character 
depends upon whether the writer has     
discovered a real plot and developed it 
properly2 whether the persons of a story
 seem tangible and unique apart from    
their actions depends upon the writer's 
skill in describing them and            
transcribing their speech4 ,that is to  
say1 characterization is a matter       
accomplished by narration1 by           
description1 and by the transcription of
 speech4 ,a reader of a story has a clue
 to the natures of its people in their  
actions1 in their words1 and in what the
 writer has to say about them4  ,it may 
be well to enlarge somewhat on the      
respective functions of the three modes 
of characterization4 ,dialogue1 action1 
and description or direct statement by  
the author all serve to give the        

character concerned individuality in the
 eyes of a reader1 but all do not       
function in precisely the same manner or
 to precisely the same end4 ,a few      
illustrations will make this clearer4   
,suppose a story involving a character  
whose most salient trait is cruelty4    
,the author may demonstrate this quality
 in the person by stating directly that 
he is cruel1 by showing him in wantonly 
heartless actions1 and by placing on his
 lips words which only a cruel man would
 utter4 ,so far1 so good4 ,each sort of 
demonstration will add something to a   
reader's realization of the character4  
,but more is necessary4 ,cruelty is not 
a particularly unique trait2 moreover1  
if a trait is unique1 merely investing a
 character with it will not serve to    
give him the solidity and liveliness of 
a real person4 ,whether cruelty or any  
other trait is brought out1 if it alone 
is brought out1 the person will be a    
disembodied moral attribute rather than 
a man or woman4 ,to secure a maximum    

effect upon a reader1 the writer must   
manage to show some particular cruel    
person rather than a cruel person4 ,and 
he must resort to the same means        
employed to show the strict             
character-trait1 description or direct  
statement1 dialogue1 and action4 ,but   
the writer's aim will be different4 ,he 
will be concerned with the person's     
appearance and effect upon an observer  
or listener rather than with his nature4
 ,as ,stevenson did for ,villon in ,a   
,lodging for the ,night1 the writer of a
 story involving a cruel person may call
 him a rag of a man1 dark1 little1 and  
lean1 with hollow cheeks and thin black 
locks1 or may employ any other          
combination of words that will give a   
definite picture of the man1 viewed     
merely as a physical object1 whether he 
be thin or fat1 ruddy or pale1 tall or  
short4 ,and1 in setting down a cruel    
person's speeches1 the writer not only  
may make them cruel in content1 but also
 may make them unique and individual by 

some mannerism of speech4  ,what ,i am  
trying to show is the fact that         
characterization1 as the term is        
commonly employed1 includes description 
as well as the strict portrayal of      
character4 ,i have taken up the matter  
of the description of persons under that
 head1 and ,i shall take up1 in this    
chapter1 the matter of speech as both   
illustrating character and              
individualizing the person4 ,the whole  
difficulty of discussing technique lies 
in the necessity to treat in isolation  
matters which are influential in        
numerous directions in a story4 ,in the 
latter part of this book ,i am following
 the conventional mode of discussing    
separately the matters of description of
 persons1 dialogue1 and the portrayal of
 character1 but only after much         
pondering whether such treatment is     
advisable4 ,the advantage is clearness2 
the disadvantage is loss of relation    
between matters mutually influential4   
,for instance1 writing dialogue is      

descriptive writing in a very real      
sense4 ,a reader of a story stands in   
the position of an observer of certain  
persons4 ,their mannerisms of speech1   
which come to him through the ear1 serve
 to build up his total impression of    
them as much as their physical          
appearance1 which comes to him through  
the eye4  ,the process of               
characterization1 then1 however         
accomplished1 is the result of two very 
different aims on the part of the writer
 of a story4 ,the first aim is to show  
the essential natures of the people of  
the fiction1 and may be attained by     
illustration in action1 by direct       
statement1 and by transcribing their    
speech4 ,the second aim is to make them 
appear real men and women1 apart from   
their natures1 and may be attained by   
description--which is direct            
statement--by transcribing their speech1
 and even by action4 ,in all three      
matters of narration1 description1 and  
dialogue the double process may go on4  

,narrating a character's victorious     
fight with a bigger man will leave on a 
reader a twin impression of the person's
 strength--a physical attribute--and    
courage--an attribute more strictly of  
character4 ,when ,stevenson1 describing 
,villon1 states that the wolf and pig   
struggled in his face1 a reader is made 
to see the cruel sensuality of the man's
 face as a physical object1 and to feel 
the cruel sensuality of his nature as a 
spiritual fact4 ,if an avaricious       
character is made to make a miserly     
speech1 a reader will have a clue to his
 nature2 if he is made to make it with a
 lisp or stutter1 there will be a       
descriptive touch as well4              
,characterization may be accomplished by
 narration1 by description1 and by      
dialogue1 and characterization1 as the  
term is commonly used1 includes the     
description of persons as physical      
objects as well as the strict portrayal 
of character4  ,the writer of fiction   
who seeks to acquire the technique of   

characterization should note two facts4 
,the sort of characterization which     
consists in displaying the essential    
spiritual natures of the people of a    
story is largely a matter of plot1 of   
the sequence and character of each      
person's actions4 ,if the writer states 
that ,john is miserly1 and puts miserly 
words on his lips1 the reader will never
 believe in ,john's avarice if he does a
 generous thing in the story4 ,actions  
speak louder than words4 ,a reader will 
believe in ,john's avarice from the     
writer's mere statement and ,john's     
words1 if ,john's actions are not       
significant adversely to the trait4 ,in 
other words1 personality and event must 
have true relation1 on account of the   
inherent nature of a plot1 a matter     
previously discussed4 ,the second fact  
for the writer of fiction to note is    
that the sort of characterization which 
consists in giving the people of a story
 the vivacity and concreteness of real  
men and women is superficial but        

extremely important4 ,a story is        
concerned with the spiritual natures of 
its people2 it shows their growth or    
decay2 the process is the story itself1 
particularly in the case of the story of
 character4 ,but a story does not deal  
with disembodied moral attributes4 ,it  
deals with men and women1 and1 if it is 
to be effective1 a reader must receive  
some definite physical impression of    
each person as well as a knowledge of   
his nature4 ,in the whole philosophy of 
fiction writing1 characterization1 as   
commonly understood1 functions thus3 the
 natures of the several major characters
 are primary elements of the fiction1 as
 are the events2 the impression an      
observer and listener would receive from
 each person must be built up for a     
reader that the fiction may have the    
concreteness and reality of life for    
him4  ,speech1 direct statement1 and    
action1 the several means whereby       
characterization in its two aspects may 
be accomplished1 now may be discussed4  

,,characterization ,,by ,,speech  ,as   
indicated1 characterization is a double 
process4 ,the writer endeavors to reveal
 the natures of his people and to       
individualize them in a more superficial
 but equally important sense4 ,their    
speech may be made to reveal their      
spiritual natures1 and it may be made to
 individualize them4  ,the process of   
making speech reveal character strictly 
is not difficult in itself1 though it   
may be difficult to do so unobtrusively4
 ,a sentimental man will reveal his     
sentimentality when he says sentimental 
things1 just as a hypocrite will reveal 
his hypocrisy in hypocritical words4    
,cruel words will reveal cruelty in the 
person who utters them1 and generous    
words will indicate that their speaker  
is generous4 ,so far as possible1 the   
speech of any character should have     
relation to that phase of his character 
which is significant in the story4 ,the 
cruel man may be avaricious also1 but1  
if his cruelty and not his avarice is   

the trait which has influence upon the  
events of the story1 his words should   
reveal his cruelty rather than his      
avarice4 ,the content of his speeches   
should indicate his possession of that  
trait of his character which is         
influential as to the events of the     
story4,m  ,the difficulty will be to    
find a natural place for these          
indicative speeches4 ,the primary       
necessity in fiction writing is to be   
unforced and natural1 and a character   
cannot be made to say words indicative  
of his inner nature unless he would     
naturally utter them under the influence
 of the circumstances of the moment4    
,here1 again1 the way to write is to get
 into the skin of the person involved1  
to live the story vicariously in his    
person1 and1 when events would naturally
 call from him words revealing his      
pertinent trait1 to transcribe them4    
,primarily1 a story is a story1 and its 
writer must meet all its necessities    
within its limitations4  ,lack of space 

forbids giving examples of the          
revelation of character by speech4      
,dickens will prove a profitable study  
in this connection4 ,the words of       
,pecksniff1 for instance1 reveal as much
 of the soul of ,pecksniff as we need to
 know4 ,all good stories1 in greater or 
lesser degree1 display the method in    
use4  ,the second use of his characters'
 words to the writer of fiction is to   
individualize them4 ,it is not a matter 
of content1 but one of manner4          
,irrespective of what the person says1  
the way he says it1 if unique1 will     
serve to increase the definition of a   
reader's conception of him4 ,if a       
character is made to stutter1 he will   
gain in actuality and concreteness for a
 reader4 ,the instance is coarse1 but   
will serve to indicate what is meant4   
,dickens is unrivalled in his capacity  
to employ this device1 although the     
writer of a short story or relatively   
compact novel will meet difficulties in 
following ,dickens' technique of        

characterization4 ,the demmit of        
,mantalini1 the dispoged of ,sairey     
,gamp1 the greasiness of ,chadband's    
words1 the rounded periods of the       
immortal ,micawber give a reader the    
greater part of his idea of each person4
  ,this sort of characterization may    
well be called description4 ,the aim is 
not to reveal the person's inner        
nature--though the content of a mannered
 speech may do that1 of course--but to  
add to the definition and reality of any
 attempted picture of the person by     
calling in the sense of hearing4 ,unlike
 the effect of descriptive words on a   
reader1 the effect of written speech is 
nearly primary1 though it lacks         
something of the freshness and          
impressiveness of the spoken word4      
,writing descriptive of a character and 
his mannered words function together to 
individualize the person for a reader4  
,the people of a story must be made to  
appear to be real men and women1 if the 
fiction is to have its necessary        

verisimilitude and consequent effect1   
and mannered speech will do much to     
invest the speakers with reality4  ,the 
process must not be carried beyond the  
bounds of naturalness4 ,a mannerism of  
speech may be too pronounced1 in that it
 tends to arrest a reader's attention   
and distract it from the flow of the    
story4 ,unnecessarily distorted         
spelling1 for instance1 employed in an  
attempt to be too strictly phonetic1    
will call attention to itself rather    
than individualize the speaker1 that is1
 it will destroy the illusion of the    
story4 ,yuh for you is an instance4 ,we 
all yuh more or less1 ,i think1 and for 
the writer of a story to insist thus    
pedantically on strict phonetic accuracy
 tends to make the whole fiction labored
 and unnatural4 ,the whole trick is to  
suggest any particular distortion1 and  
yet to have the words as intelligible   
for a reader as if the spelling were    
normal4  ,mispronunciation1 of course1  
is not the only mannerism of speech that

 may be availed of4 ,in fact1 the       
tendency is to abuse it4 ,an open ear   
toward the casual talk he hears will    
give the writer many useful hints1 and  
so will reading the work of others4     
,the speech of class and class varies1  
as does the speech of man and man4 ,a   
lawyer in a story should be             
distinguishable from a sailor by the    
very content of his vocabulary4 ,so     
should a doctor from an engineer or a   
brakeman1 or a musician from an artist4 
,but it must all be done naturally4 ,the
 writer cannot drag in by the ears      
technical terms of any profession solely
 that a reader may be informed          
indirectly of the speaker's profession4 
,but a doctor or lawyer1 for instance1  
will generally be in a story because it 
requires the presence of a lawyer or    
doctor1 and therefore the story will    
offer opportunity for him to reveal his 
place in society by his speech4         
,incidentally it may be noted that this 
matter emphasizes the necessity that the

 writer of fiction be observant in life 
and omnivorous in reading4 ,he should   
know the manner of speech of any        
considerable class of men4 ,it is true1 
of course1 that no two lawyers talk     
precisely alike1 but it is also true    
that it is possible to suggest a lawyer 
speaking by a proper choice of words1   
and that is the thing to do1 naturally  
and unobtrusively4 ,if the speech of a  
character is individualized in some     
manner1 and if1 in addition1 a reader   
can gather his business or profession   
from his words1 he will gain much in    
reality and definition4  ,the content of
 the talk of the characters of a story1 
then1 should reveal their inner natures1
 and their idiosyncrasies of utterance  
and word-choice should be devised and   
set down to intensify the impression of 
their individuality initiated by the    
writer's strictly descriptive touches4  
,characterization is a double process1  
and neither aspect of it should be      
neglected1 whether the writer is        

narrating1 describing1 or transcribing  
speech4   ,,characterization ,,by       
,,statement  ,so far as characterization
 by direct statement is a matter of     
individualizing the persons of a story  
as mere physical objects1 apart from    
their inner natures1 it has been        
discussed in stating the technique of   
the description of persons4 ,it was     
there stated that the writer's endeavor 
should be to catch and fix in words the 
most salient attribute of the character4
 ,and usually it will be the case that a
 person's most striking physical        
attribute will have relation to some    
fact of his spirit1 as in ,stevenson's  
description ,villon's sensual face hints
 of his sensual soul4 ,the fact serves  
to make more obvious the truth that     
characterization is a double process of 
individualizing superficially and of    
revealing the person's nature1 and      
,stevenson's description of the medieval
 ,french poet is an instance of how the 
writer of fiction may attain both ends  

in a single phrase1 and avoid the       
suggestion of artificiality in directly 
stating that a character is good or bad 
or brave or cowardly1 as the case may   
be4 ,instead of stating that ,villon was
 sensual and cruel1 ,stevenson states   
that the wolf and pig struggled in his  
face4 ,a reader sees the man's face and 
comprehends his nature1 and comprehends 
the spiritual fact the more thoroughly  
because reaching it inferentially from a
 mere picture4 ,the point is worth      
noting4  ,however1 the writer of fiction
 frequently must state his characters'  
moral attributes directly4 ,not all     
conceivable persons wear their souls in 
their faces2 if some ruddy1 bluff old   
gentleman is a villain at heart1 the    
writer can only say so1 unless he is    
willing to depend wholly on the         
revelation of spirit worked by the      
character's deeds4 ,and sometimes such a
 revelation comes too near the end for  
the other purposes of the story4 ,much  
of the interest or suspense of a tale   

may depend upon the reader having       
knowledge of the natures of the people  
who struggle with one another singly or 
in groups4 ,or direct statement as to a 
character's nature may be necessary to  
emphasize the significance of his acts4 
,stevenson's ,the ,ebb ,tide is an      
example4 ,the book is concerned with the
 unavailing struggle of a weak man to be
 other than weak1 and the author        
prefaces the course of events with a    
thumbnail biography of the weakling that
 invests the progress of the story with 
something of the inevitability of fate4 
,the method is a favorite one of        
,stevenson's1 and is employed in most of
 his longer work4 ,each brief sketch is 
directed to bring out the character's   
trait or traits of significance in the  
story1 and the whole fiction gains point
 thereby4 ,turgenieff composed a        
biography of each of his characters to  
deepen and clarify his own realization  
of them1 and incorporation in a story of
 a swift and significant sketch of a    

character's previous life likewise may  
serve to deepen and clarify a reader's  
realization of the person4  ,stating    
directly that any person is good or bad 
or brave or avaricious may give a reader
 a key to his acts1 lending them point1 
but direct statement is the most infirm 
mode of characterization4 ,any mere     
statement is less impressive and less   
compelling than a demonstration4 ,and   
direct statement of a character's nature
 must be reinforced and proved by his   
words and deeds4 ,it is difficult enough
 at best to invest a fictitious person  
with reality1 and the writer can afford 
to neglect no device4  ,as in fulfilling
 all other necessities of his story1 in 
characterizing by direct statement the  
writer must be easy and natural4 ,the   
requirement is somewhat indefinite1 as  
stated1 but real4 ,statement should not 
be too bald2 a little subtlety will be  
profitable to employ4 ,to state that a  
character is bad1 simply1 is too        
childlike1 unless the story is told from

 the viewpoint of a child4 ,the matter  
of viewpoint must always be considered  
in characterizing by direct statement1  
for obvious reasons4 ,if the writer     
takes the position of an impersonal     
observer1 to whom the souls of all      
characters are open1 he can write pretty
 much as he wills4 ,if he writes from   
the viewpoint of a single character1    
whether in the first or third person1 he
 cannot assume too inclusive knowledge  
of the souls of the others4 ,the matter 
has been discussed elsewhere4,n         
,,characterization ,,by ,,action  ,the  
value of action as a means to give a    
reader realization of the physical      
appearance of a character is somewhat   
slight4 ,to show the person as          
performing a feat of strength will      
suggest that he is a powerful man1 but  
physical prowess is not a visually      
definite quality4 ,powerful men are not 
always even large men4 ,action is       
greatly useful to reveal the soul1 but  
not very useful to reveal appearance4   

,however1 between narrative and strict  
descriptive writing a borderland exists4
 ,a person may be described as having a 
sneaking look4 ,that is strict          
description4 ,but the writer also may   
relate how the person slunk down an     
alley to avoid meeting someone he dared 
not face4 ,the descriptive value of the 
word slunk as to the person will be as  
great as the narrative value of the word
 to the event4 ,it is merely the matter 
of vivid and effective narration        
approached from a new angle4 ,narration 
consists in stating what happened to    
certain persons and what they did1 and a
 descriptive quality1 both as to the    
persons and the events1 should permeate 
it4 ,visualization of the story in      
imagination will show the way4  ,if     
action is the least effective way to    
hint of the characters' appearance1 it  
is by far the most effective way to     
display their natures4 ,the whole       
purpose of the story of character is to 
display the fact and demonstrate the    

consequences of the possession of       
certain traits by a group of persons or 
even by one person4 ,and in any real    
story1 that is1 in any fiction built    
about a plot1 the traits of a character 
and the events will be mutually         
influential4 ,either the characters will
 be devised to develop the events1 or   
the events will be devised to develop   
the characters4 ,the moral quality of an
 act is a sure index to the moral       
quality of the person who commits it4 ,a
 story must reveal character simply     
because it consists of a series of      
events involving and produced by men and
 women4 ,the writer's endeavor is not   
merely to narrate the events for their  
own sake1 but also to realize just what 
sort of people must inevitably have     
acted so under the given conditions1 and
 to employ his subsidiary means of      
characterization so as to bring out no  
trait unnecessary to the events4  ,there
 is one exception to the rule that the  
writer should endeavor to bring out only

 the traits of character strictly       
material to the events4 ,of course1 the 
primary necessity in fiction writing is 
to develop the whole story naturally4   
,but a story is for its readers4 ,to    
give some stories full effect upon a    
reader it is necessary to invest one or 
more of the characters with a trait or  
traits not strictly necessary to the    
development of the story4 ,usually the  
aim will be to awaken the reader's      
sympathy that he may follow the fortunes
 of the person or persons with greater  
interest than the bare content of the   
story would evoke4 ,for instance1 if a  
story shows a character whose unlovely  
traits lead him into difficulties1      
investing him also with some pleasing   
attribute will deepen a reader's        
interest in his fate by arousing active 
pity for him4 ,i have touched upon this 
matter before and from another angle in 
discussing the necessity that the writer
 select a mode of narration which will  
permit him to express his sympathy for a

 character that he may evoke a reader's4
 ,stevenson's treatment of ,herrick in  
,the ,ebb-,tide was instanced1 and one  
who has read the book will recall that  
its author gave ,herrick attributes of  
mind and soul more pleasing than        
inefficiency and weakness1 though       
weakness was the single quality demanded
 in ,herrick to render inevitable the   
course of events4,o  ,no specific       
technique of characterization by action 
can be stated2 it is a matter of        
conceiving and elaborating the whole    
story justly4 ,the fact for the writer  
is that a person's acts reveal his inner
 nature1 and the necessity that the     
writer must meet is to devise events and
 characters having a natural and        
plausible relation4 ,if this is done1   
the essential substance of the story    
will be sound1 at least1 so far as      
character is concerned4 ,then the writer
 must meet the other necessity to make  
his people appear to be real men and    
women apart from any distinction of     

their inner natures4 ,if both           
necessities are met1 a reader will be   
faced by real people doing things for   
real and adequate reasons1 which is a   
great part of the art of fiction4  ,all 
the acts of a person's life1 great and  
small1 would reveal his whole nature4   
,but a story usually does not take a    
person from birth to death1 and1 if it  
does1 it is concerned with a phase of   
the life rather than with the whole     
life4 ,the art of fiction is highly     
selective1 and necessarily so4 ,not only
 must the writer of fiction produce his 
effects within a limited space1 but he  
must consciously eliminate here and     
suppress there in order to make apparent
 the real significance of his picture of
 life4 ,the significance of one man's   
life may lie in his constant loyalty to 
and sacrifice for his family2 the       
significance of another's in his        
complete disregard of his obligations as
 a husband and father4 ,in either case1 
the writer who sees material for a short

 story or novel in such a life must     
select for reproduction chiefly those   
acts of the character which are         
significant as to the trait sought to be
 brought out1 otherwise the story will  
be without point and meaning4 ,viewed   
superficially1 a story is a mere string 
of events that happened to happen1 a    
thing easy to write without forethought 
and calculation4 ,but the truth is that 
a story is a chain of events at least   
influenced and sometimes even determined
 by character4 ,if the influence of     
character in the fiction is predominant1
 it cannot be written justly without    
careful weighing and selection of the   
incidents that suggest themselves to the
 writer4  ,having conceived a plot and  
devised characters to enact it1 or      
having conceived characters and devised 
a plot to develop them1 the writer      
should outline the main course of the   
story1 mentally or on paper4 ,he then   
should realize definitely and precisely 
what traits of character are primarily  

significant in the story1 and should    
prepare to develop them so as to        
reinforce the effect of his people's    
acts upon a reader by characteristic    
dialogue and description and direct     
statement4 ,the writer should consider  
next whether a due regard for a reader's
 interest requires that he invest his   
people with attributes not strictly     
necessary to the main events of the     
story1 and therefore not to be revealed 
by each person's part in such events4   
,finally1 the writer should realize that
 he must give each person a definite    
physical presence and illusion of       
actuality1 and should prepare to do so  
by visualizing them in imagination4 ,if 
all this is done at all1 it is certain  
that the story will be a better piece of
 work than if the writer set to work    
with only a vague prevision of the      
course of events as his material4 ,and  
if it is done justly1 and the writer has
 adequate executive powers1 the story   
will be worth while1 at least in        

relation to character4   ,,footnotes3   
,m ,a great deal of close argument might
 be developed here4 ,a plot is a chain  
of events influencing and influenced by 
character1 and by character is meant not
 persons but traits4 ,in some story1 let
 us say1 the avarice of one man brings  
him into conflict with another1 also    
impelled by avarice4 ,the conflict1 of  
course1 is not between two disembodied  
attributes1 but between two persons1 and
 the writer of such a story must        
individualize them4 ,he should endeavor 
to give a reader an idea of how they    
look1 by describing them1 and of how    
they talk1 by individualizing their     
speech4 ,but he need not emphasize nor  
even bring out any phase of their       
spiritual natures not material to the   
story4 ,that is to say1 the writer of a 
story1 in order to give it the seeming  
of life1 should make every effort and   
employ all means to invest each         
character with a definite physical      
presence or illusion of actuality1 but  

he should not try to displace the inner 
nature of each person in like detail4   
,n ,it will be instructive to realize   
why direct statement of a character's   
outstanding moral quality is less       
effective than skillful description of  
his person1 though both the statement   
and the description are fundamentally   
descriptive writing4 ,one may say that a
 moral attribute cannot be described1   
can merely be stated1 but that is a     
statement of the condition rather than  
of the cause4 ,the root of the matter is
 that the appearance of a person is the 
resultant of a combination of details2  
by stating the significant details in   
proper relation the writer can force a  
reader to perceive for himself the      
totality of the person's appearance4    
,but a quality of soul is unified and   
undetailed4 ,it is ineffective to say   
that a person is cruel simply for the   
same reason that it is ineffective to   
say that he is handsome4 ,it follows    
that any breaking up of a quality of    

soul into its elements1 if possible1    
will increase the effectiveness of the  
statement4 ,thus1 cruelty may result    
from essential virility of soul in      
combination with insensitiveness1 and so
 forth4  ,o ,to accomplish this         
subordinate and strictly unnecessary    
characterization the writer must employ 
the same three means of speech1 direct  
statement1 and action4 ,but the action  
will constitute only a secondary event  
or events in the story1 and must not    
bulk too large at the expense of the    
primary events4     ,,chapter ,,xi      
,,atmosphere      ,definition--,general 
,atmospheric ,value of ,fiction--,tone  
of     ,story--,preparation of ,reader  
for ,climax--,examples--,the     ,story 
of ,atmosphere--,short                  
,story--,setting--,slight ,dramatic     
,value of ,type4   ,atmosphere--as the  
term is used by the writer of           
fiction--is a most indefinite word2 it  
may be well to preface discussion of    
what it stands for by a definition4 ,and

 in defining it is often conducive to   
clearness to state what a thing is not  
before stating what it is4  ,in the     
first place1 atmosphere is not setting1 
although the setting of a story may aid 
in producing its atmosphere4 ,the frozen
 wastes of a sub-arctic region or the   
man-made squalor of a slum may operate  
powerfully to produce on a reader of a  
story placed therein an impression of   
desolation or of misery1 but that       
impression will derive from something   
other than the setting1 and will merely 
be reinforced thereby4 ,if a slum story 
is essentially cheerful and             
light-hearted in content1 its reader    
will not be oppressed by the setting1   
however truthfully touched in1 unless   
the writer deliberately makes his people
 seem miraculous in point of their      
capacity to avoid the contagion of their
 surroundings4 ,the young girl in ,the  
,dawn of a ,to-,morrow is an instance of
 what is meant by the qualification4    
,atmosphere is not setting1 nor is it   

anything at all that is in a story4 ,it 
is not the quality of the environment2  
it is not the general quality of the    
people or their acts2 it is not the     
quality of the theme or plot4 ,what is  
it8 ,it is the general emotional        
impression made on a reader by the whole
 story4 ,it is nothing that is in a     
story2 it is the emotional effect       
produced by the story on a reader4 ,just
 as a scene1 an event1 or a person1     
unless very commonplace1 will have some 
emotional effect on an observer1 any    
story that is told so as to create the  
illusion of reality will have some      
emotional effect on a reader4 ,as       
,stevenson said to ,balfour3 ,i'll give 
you an example--',the ,merry ,men1'     
,there ,i began with the feeling of one 
of those islands on the west coast of   
,scotland1 and ,i gradually developed   
the story to express the sentiment with 
which the coast affected me4  ,a        
distinction should be noted here4 ,the  
,merry ,men is a strict story of        

atmosphere2 its author1 as he implicitly
 states1 started with an emotional      
effect1 or sentiment1 and devised only  
such persons and action as would deepen 
on a reader the emotional impression    
initiated in this case by the setting4  
,but1 as has been stated1 any story told
 so as to create the illusion of reality
 will have some totality of emotional   
effect on a reader1 apart from its      
specific emotional effects in various   
parts1 unless the fiction is very       
commonplace4 ,that is to say1 the strict
 story of atmosphere1 which has been    
touched on briefly in discussing        
story-types1 subordinates its action and
 its people to its totality of emotional
 effect2 in the normal story1 whether it
 stresses personality or event1         
atmosphere1 or totality of emotional    
effect on a reader1 is a subordinate    
consideration1 resulting from the       
necessity that an observer of persons   
and events be affected thereby in some  
general way4 ,at least it is true that  

the writer of a story of complication of
 incident or of character cannot permit 
any consideration of atmosphere to      
interfere with the events in the first  
case or the persons in the other4       
,whatever totality of emotional effect  
may reside in his work will be inherent 
in the conception1 as it would be       
inherent in such a spectacle for an     
observer1 if the story should happen in 
actuality4  ,the sensible--because the  
most profitable--way for the writer of  
fiction to fit the matter of atmosphere 
into his general artistic philosophy is 
to disregard it entirely1 except where  
it constitutes a primary consideration1 
that is1 except in relation to the      
strict story of atmosphere4 ,the reason 
for this cavalier treatment of the      
matter has been brought out4 ,if any    
story is told so as to create the       
illusion of reality1 some general       
emotional effect will be produced on its
 reader1 will be inherent in the        
conception1 as it would be inherent in  

the spectacle1 if actual4 ,it all comes 
down to this3 by telling his story      
justly as a course of events involving  
real people in a definite environment1  
the writer will produce on a reader     
whatever totality of emotional effect is
 inherent in the conception4 ,if there  
is no totality of emotional effect      
inherent therein the writer cannot      
produce it except by changing the whole 
conception and writing a different      
story4 ,in the case of the strict story 
of atmosphere the writer's attitude is  
different4 ,he sets out1 not with a     
story1 but with an emotional effect1 and
 devises people and events and setting  
to produce it4  ,the point can be made  
clearer by more specific discussion4    
,assume that a writer has conceived a   
story with a definite plot1 involving   
definite people1 set in a ,new ,england 
village4 ,anybody who knows ,new        
,england or has read ,alice ,brown or   
,mary ,e4 ,wilkins ,freeman can testify 
that such a story1 justly told1 will    

have a definite and peculiar atmospheric
 value4 ,but its atmosphere1 its        
totality of emotional effect on a reader
 will be inherent in its setting and    
people1 perhaps even in its events4 ,the
 story itself will determine its        
atmosphere1 which can be only the       
peculiar impression that a ,new ,england
 village1 its people and their lives1   
produce on an observer4 ,by choosing to 
write such a story1 or by choosing to   
write any definite story1 a writer      
debars himself from creating any        
atmosphere not involved in the story    
selected for writing4 ,on the other     
hand1 if a writer desires to put        
together a story of atmosphere1 he      
starts with an emotional effect as the  
basic conception1 and then casts about  
for a setting1 people1 and incidents    
that will produce such emotional effect4
 ,it all depends upon what the writer   
starts with4 ,if he starts with an      
emotional effect1 he may narrate any    
course of events1 and draw any sort of  

people1 and place the tale in any sort  
of setting1 provided only that events1  
people1 and setting be such as to       
produce the desired atmosphere or       
effect4 ,but if the writer starts with a
 definite story1 the only atmosphere he 
can create thereby is the atmosphere    
inherent in the conception4,p  ,though  
it is true that a writer may and should 
disregard the matter of atmosphere in   
writing a story which he has conceived  
as a definite course of events involving
 definite people1 since any atmospheric 
possibilities of the fiction will be    
inherent in the conception and will be  
realized by telling it justly as to     
people1 events1 and setting1            
nevertheless a qualification must be    
stated4 ,no story is conceived as       
definitely as it is written2 the writer 
first grasps the plot or main situation1
 perhaps also the characters1 and then  
expands the outline into a congruous    
presentation of a phase of life by      
filling in details as to environment1   

people1 and events4 ,this filling-in    
process may and should be performed     
partly at least before writing1 but even
 if the writer postpones it until he is 
wrestling with the problem of execution1
 he must remember one thing4 ,any story 
has a general tone1 largely determined  
by its climax or main situation4 ,this  
tone or key of a story is not its       
atmosphere strictly1 perhaps1 but the   
dividing line between the two matters is
 very faint4 ,the atmosphere of a story 
is its general emotional effect upon a  
reader1 and its tone is very nearly the 
same thing1 being the result of its     
writer's having justly performed his    
selective task by transcribing only such
 matters as harmonize with the main     
situation1 tragic or comic4 ,and a      
writer must regard the matter of the    
tone of a story in developing and       
writing it1 if it is to have the        
significant simplicity and unity which  
alone can give the fiction maximum power
 and effect4  ,the practical problem can

 be stated most simply thus3 a reader's 
intelligence and sensibilities must be  
prepared for the crisis1 climax1 or main
 situation by incorporating in the story
 only such matters of environment1      
personality1 or event as harmonize with 
the emotional character of the main     
situation4 ,the necessity is most       
stringent1 of course1 in the case of the
 short story1 but it is a consideration 
to be borne in mind in writing any type 
of fiction4 ,it is merely another aspect
 of the general question of preparation1
 which has been touched upon before4    
,the situations of a story must be      
prepared in a mechanical sense1 that is1
 the writer must prepare to place his   
people where each situation demands that
 they be placed2 the people themselves  
must be developed and individualized1   
that the situations may have full       
dramatic value2 and the mind and heart  
of a reader of the story must be        
prepared for the climax1 which is the   
whole story in little4  ,if the main    

situation of any story is essentially   
tragic1 it will never do not to hint the
 fact until the climax is reached1 when 
a reader will be overwhelmed1 rather    
than upborne and stimulated1 by the     
torrent of battle1 murder1 or sudden    
death4 ,the opening scene of ,macbeth   
presages the lurid character of the     
whole play1 and serves to key reader or 
spectator for murder4 ,likewise1 in the 
case of a story essentially light and   
happy in content1 the purpose of the    
writer is to develop and present one of 
life's many attractive phases1 and that 
purpose will be defeated or at least    
hampered if woebegone people and        
unpleasant situations are given place in
 the fiction4  ,considerations of       
contrast may lead the writer to         
incorporate in his story matter out of  
keeping with its general tone and main  
situation1 but the effort is really to  
emphasize the general tone by striking a
 few discordant notes4 ,contrast is too 
delicate a matter to be discussed with  

any profit2 whether or not the device   
shall be employed in any story is a     
problem that only the artistic sense of 
the writer of the particular story can  
answer4  ,it is very easy to say that a 
story should be told so as to prepare a 
reader for the climax1 that he may      
accept it1 yet1 in a sense1 the thing   
can be achieved only by adequate        
practice of the whole art of fiction4   
,the general necessity is to make the   
whole course of events seem real and    
actual2 the more specific necessity is  
to give a reader a definite clue to the 
nature of the story1 that he may not be 
shocked into disbelief by the climax4   
,this must be done unobtrusively1 as    
every other technical device must be    
employed1 under penalty of failing in   
its office4  ,a quotation showing       
effective employment of the device will 
not be useless4 ,stevenson's short story
 ,thrawn ,janet leads up to an encounter
 with the devil1 and the author loses no
 time in preparing a reader for the     

entrance of his satanic majesty4 ,the   
story begins thus3  ,the ,reverend      
,murdoch ,soulis was long minister of   
the moorland parish of ,balweary1 in the
 vale of ,dule4 ,a severe1 bleak-faced  
old man1 dreadful to his hearers1 he    
dwelt in the last years of his life1    
without relative or servant or any human
 company1 in the small and lonely manse 
under the ,hanging ,shaw4 ,in spite of  
the iron composure of his features1 his 
eye was wild1 scared1 and uncertain2 and
 when he dwelt1 in private admonitions1 
on the future of the impenitent1 it     
seemed as if the eye pierced through the
 storms of time to the terrors of       
eternity4 ,many young persons1 coming to
 prepare themselves against the season  
of the ,holy ,communion1 were dreadfully
 affected by his talk4 ,he had a sermon 
on #ast ,peter1 v4 and #hth1 ',the devil
 as a roaring lion1' on the ,sunday     
after every seventeenth of ,august1 and 
he was accustomed to surpass himself    
upon that text both by the appalling    

nature of the matter and the terror of  
his bearing in the pulpit4 ,the children
 were frightened into fits1 and the old 
looked more than usually oracular1 and  
were1 all that day1 full of those hints 
that ,hamlet deprecated4 ,the manse     
itself1 where it stood by the water of  
,dule among some thick trees1 with the  
,shaw overhanging it on the one side1   
and on the other many cold1 moorish     
hill-tops rising towards the sky1 had   
begun1 at a very early period of ,mr4   
,soulis' ministry1 to be avoided in the 
dusk hours by all who valued themselves 
upon their prudence2 and guidmen sitting
 at the clachan alehouse shook their    
heads together at the thought of passing
 late by that uncanny neighborhood4     
,here ,stevenson loses no time in keying
 his reader to the general pitch of the 
story4 ,it is a task that the writer of 
any story must undertake4 ,the general  
nature of the tale should be suggested  
as soon as possible1 and the story      
should not be allowed to falsify its    

introductory hints1 but should reaffirm 
them constantly1 until all the divergent
 strands of the fiction are knotted     
together in the climax1 which will need 
no interpretation4 ,take another        
instance from ,stevenson1 the beginning 
of ,markheim1 where ,markheim murders   
the dealer in curios4  ',yes1' said the 
dealer1 'our windfalls are of various   
kinds4 ,some customers are ignorant1 and
 then ,i touch a dividend of my superior
 knowledge4 ,some are dishonest1' and   
here he held up the candle1 so that the 
light fell strongly on his visitor1 'and
 in that case1' he continued1 ',i profit
 by my virtue4'  ,markheim had but just 
entered from the daylight streets1 and  
his eyes had not grown familiar with the
 mingled shine and darkness of the shop4
 ,at these pointed words1 and before the
 near presence of the flame1 he blinked 
painfully and looked aside4  ,a little  
farther on3  ,the dealer once more      
chuckled2 and then1 changing to his     
usual business voice1 though still with 

a note of irony1 ',you can give1 as     
usual1 a clear account of how you came  
into the possession of the object8' he  
continued4 ',still your uncle's cabinet8
 ,a remarkable collector1 sir6'  ,and   
the little pale1 round-shouldered dealer
 stood almost on tiptoe1 looking over   
the top of his gold spectacles1 and     
nodding his head with every mark of     
disbelief4 ,markheim returned his gaze  
with one of infinite pity1 and a touch  
of horror4  ,note how strongly and      
withal how naturally the whole of this1 
and particularly the last sentence1     
suggests that ,markheim has come into   
the shop to do murder4 ,the story is    
keyed to tragedy at once1 its reader    
with it4 ,his mind is prepared in       
advance1 that the significant event1    
when it is related1 may be accepted     
without question4  ,as stated1 this     
matter of keying the story and its      
reader to the pitch of the main         
situation or climax is not precisely the
 matter of atmosphere1 but it has close 

affiliations therewith4 ,it is even more
 important to the writer of fiction4    
,any atmospheric value in a story will  
be brought out by telling it justly as a
 course of events involving real people 
in a definite environment1 and          
preparation of a reader for the main    
situation of a story is a part of just  
and adequate narration4 ,the writer's   
hints of the character of what is to    
come must be unforced and natural1 but  
they must be effective4  ,it is obvious1
 of course1 that the more tense or      
strange the main situation of a story1  
the greater the necessity that a reader 
be prepared for it4 ,if the main        
situation consists in commonplace       
characters doing some commonplace thing1
 a reader will accept the spectacle     
without artificial preparation1 but if  
the main situation is highly dramatic1  
the normally placid course of a reader's
 thought and feeling must be agitated   
and stimulated in advance1 or he will   
not rise with the climax4 ,in other     

words1 the fiction will not have        
verisimilitude emotionally4 ,a story is 
both a physical spectacle and an        
emotional progression2 the author must  
write both for the reader's eye and for 
his soul4 ,if any story touches         
emotional heights1 its reader must be   
stimulated thereto by proper            
preparation4  ,it remains to consider   
the matter of atmosphere1 as the term is
 used with relation to the strict story 
of atmosphere1 which emphasizes the     
emotional value of the whole for a      
reader rather than the significance of  
the events or characters4  ,the         
intrinsic difficulty to blend such      
diverse matters as people1 events1 and  
setting or environment into an even     
emotional unity requires that the strict
 story of atmosphere be a short story4  
,even if it is not a short story in     
point of actual length1 it will be a    
short story in point of structure1 that 
is1 it will lead relatively few         
characters through little diversity of  

setting to a single main situation1 or  
perhaps even to no main situation1 in a 
dramatic sense4 ,as noted in discussing 
story types1 the progression of the     
particular atmosphere to the point of   
highest intensity gives the strict story
 of atmosphere much of its              
story-character4 ,the human element is  
incidental and subordinate4 ,however1   
the task of keeping people1 events1 and 
setting true to a fixed emotional tone  
is so difficult that a writer cannot    
sustain the effort for long4 ,many      
novels or relatively lengthy stories    
have high atmospheric value2 ,hardy's   
,wessex novels possess the quality1 as  
does much of ,joseph ,conrad's work1    
,almayer's ,folly1 for instance2 but it 
is generally true that the intrinsic    
difficulty of the story of atmosphere   
tends to confine it within brief limits4
 ,it is certainly true that only the    
skilled hand can compass the feat of    
writing it at all4  ,i have stated that 
the setting of a story is not its       

atmosphere1 and that is true4           
,nevertheless the setting is most often 
what determines the emotional effect of 
the whole4 ,a hundred instances might be
 cited--,the ,merry ,men1 ,the ,fall of 
the ,house of ,usher1 ,almayer's ,folly1
 ,the ,return of the ,native4 ,this     
results from the fact that setting or   
environment is much more potent to      
produce a relatively definite emotional 
effect on an observer than either a     
person or an event1 the two other       
elements of a story4 ,a murder may      
produce a very definite feeling of      
horror in an observer or reader1 but the
 emotion1 while definite1 is not linked 
inevitably to murder alone4 ,many other 
spectacles will horrify4 ,likewise1 a   
person may produce a feeling of disgust 
in an observer or reader1 but so will an
 infinite number of other persons1 all  
radically different from each other and 
the first4 ,but the emotional effect of 
the west coast of ,scotland is special  
and peculiar to that setting2 there is  

no single word in the language          
characterizing it4 ,that is why         
,stevenson had to write ,the ,merry ,men
 to state it1 just as ,poe had to write 
,the ,fall of the ,house of ,usher to   
state the specific emotional effect of  
that particular house1 and ,hardy had to
 write ,the ,return of the ,native to   
state the emotional value of his ,wessex
 moors4  ,moreover1 when the writer     
finds the germ of his story in a person 
seen actually or in imagination1 it is  
more than likely that the emphasis of   
the completed work will be on character1
 and when he finds it in an event or    
situation1 it is more than likely that  
the emphasis of the completed work will 
be on plot4 ,but when a countryside or  
house or stretch of sea-coast suggests a
 story1 it can hardly result otherwise  
than that the completed work will       
emphasize the emotional value of the    
setting4  ,the setting of the strict    
story of atmosphere may determine its   
emotional effect1 but the emotional     

tendency of the setting must not be     
affected adversely by the people or the 
events4 ,that is why the setting is not 
atmosphere1 though it may determine the 
atmosphere4 ,a gloomy and terrific      
setting will have small emotional effect
 upon a reader if the people and events 
of the story are not such as to deepen  
the impression initiated by the setting1
 for the people and events cannot be    
emotionally neutral4 ,if they are       
seemingly real1 that is1 if the story is
 well told apart from the matter of     
atmosphere1 they will make some         
impression on a reader4 ,unless their   
impression is of a piece with that of   
the setting1 the unity of emotional     
effect will be destroyed4 ,and if there 
is no unity of emotional effect1 there  
is no atmosphere1 in the strict sense4  
,confession is good for the soul2 let me
 say that if there is a technique of    
writing so as to produce a unity of     
emotional effect ,i am unable to state  
it4 ,the matter is exceptionally        

delicate1 and only the broadest sort of 
abstract statement can be made4 ,one can
 state--as ,i have stated--that the     
emotional effect of a story of          
atmosphere is usually initiated by and  
dependent on the setting1 and that the  
emotional effect initiated by the       
setting must be reinforced by the       
writer's choice and handling of people  
and events4 ,but that is about all that 
can be said4 ,a specific story of       
atmosphere might be taken and examined  
in detail with profit1 if space were    
available2 yet the devices employed by  
its writer would not completely exhaust 
the resources of atmospheric writing1   
and abstract statement of them here will
 not cover the whole technique4 ,poe's  
technique in ,the ,fall of the ,house of
 ,usher is not identical with           
,stevenson's in ,the ,merry ,men1 nor   
with ,conrad's in ,almayer's ,folly4    
,fortunately1 the strict technique is   
not of great practical importance4 ,any 
story will gain in power by possession  

of an atmospheric quality1 but that     
quality will be present if the basic    
conception is not trivial and feeble1   
and if the story is told adequately as  
to its three elements of setting1       
personality1 and event4 ,any emotional  
value inherent in the thing will then be
 felt by a reader1 as he would feel the 
emotional value of the spectacle1 if    
real4 ,any story that is lived          
vicariously by its writer in the person 
of the character from whose viewpoint it
 is told1 and is written justly as a    
course of events involving real people  
in a definite environment1 will have all
 the effect on a reader attainable by   
the particular conception4 ,and as to   
the strict story of atmosphere1 it will 
be hopeless for the writer of fiction to
 attempt it until he can handle the less
 artificial and less difficult forms    
with some approach to real facility and 
adequacy4  ,one specific point of the   
technique of writing the strict story of
 atmosphere should be noted1 for it is  

important4 ,the emotional effect is     
usually initiated and determined by the 
setting1 natural or artificial1 as a    
tropical island or a house4 ,characters 
and events must be subservient to the   
particular emotional value4 ,it results 
that there can be no real dramatic      
opposition of characters and traits in  
the strict story of atmosphere1 for the 
moral nature of an individual has no    
affiliation with the emotional quality  
of a countryside or any other setting4  
,development of strict traits of        
character1 which are essential to drama1
 will not serve to deepen for a reader  
the emotional suggestion of a setting4  
,the writer of the strict story of      
atmosphere must seek to invest his      
people with such traits as will         
reinforce the emotional suggestion of   
the setting1 and these traits cannot be 
strictly of character4 ,rather they will
 be attributes of appearance1 action1   
mind1 and soul4 ,insanity is an instance
 of such an attribute of mind1 not      

strictly of character4 ,the point is    
difficult to state abstractly1 as is the
 whole of the technique of atmosphere1  
but a reading of either ,the ,fall of   
the ,house of ,usher or ,the ,merry ,men
 will clarify my meaning4 ,the people of
 either story are less human beings than
 humanized emotional abstractions1 of   
the same stuff of gloom or mystery as   
the house or sea4 ,it is needless to    
state that the whole weakness of the    
story of atmosphere as a fiction results
 from the necessary devitalizing of its 
characters1 for fiction primarily       
concerns man1 his conflicts and his     
loves4   ,,footnotes3  ,p ,of course1   
the initial conception of a story of    
atmosphere may limit the writer's power 
to manipulate his material4 ,thus when  
,stevenson pitched upon the emotional   
effect of the west coast of ,scotland as
 that to be produced by ,the ,merry     
,men1 he debarred himself from placing  
his story in any other setting1 though  
he could pick and choose freely among   

possible events and people4 ,a general  
emotional effect1 as of beauty1 is      
somewhat indefinite1 and may be produced
 alike by stories differing widely in   
their three elements of setting1 people 
and events4     ,,chapter ,,xii  ,,the  
,,short ,,story      ,definition--,two  
,types--,dramatic ,short                
,story--,atmospheric     ,short         
,story--,origins--,assumed ,unity and   
,singleness of ,effect     of ,dramatic 
,short ,story--,general ,technique of   
,form--     ,characterization--,interest
 and ,too ,great ,simplicity--          
,limitation upon                        
,complexity--,length--,coherence of     
,form--     ,compression4   ,a story is 
a fiction with a plot1 as distinguished 
from a tale1 which is a string of       
incidents that happened to happen to the
 characters4 ,in the story the events   
are linked together by the natures of   
the people concerned2 personality       
influences event and event influences   
personality4 ,and the short story is1   

simply1 a short story1 a fiction1       
possessing a plot1 that could be and has
 been told adequately within brief      
limits4 ,a plot is a dramatic problem4  
,therefore the short story may be       
defined roughly as a story embodying a  
dramatic problem which can be stated and
 worked out adequately as to all its    
elements of personality1 event1 and     
setting within relatively brief limits4 
,the general nature of the short story  
having been stated1 it is necessary to  
qualify and distinguish4 ,fiction is    
concerned primarily with the intrinsic  
interest and significance of man and his
 acts1 the elements of drama1 but there 
are three fundamental types of story1   
two of which are normal and the other   
abnormal4 ,the types are the story      
stressing personality and the story     
stressing incident1 which are normal1   
and the story stressing atmosphere1     
which is abnormal in that persons and   
events are subordinate to the emotional 
value of the whole for a reader1 which  

is usually determined by the setting4   
,personality is the most prominent      
element of the story of character1 and  
the events are the most prominent       
element of the story of complication2   
each story stresses one of the twin     
elements of drama1 the persons and their
 acts2 and each story possesses both of 
such elements4 ,that is1 both the story 
of character and the strict story of    
plot--plot as a mere sequence of        
events--have some dramatic value4 ,but  
the strict story of atmosphere has no   
dramatic value2 its nature forbids that 
it should4 ,the emotional effect is     
usually determined by the setting1 and  
the human traits that will intensify a  
setting--and with which the characters  
must be invested--are not such as to    
give rise to a dramatic opposition      
between the persons4 ,the definition of 
the short story as a story embodying a  
dramatic problem which can be presented 
adequately within brief limits does not 
cover the short story of atmosphere4    

,in other words1 there are two types of 
short story1 apart from the three types 
determined by the placing of emphasis   
upon any one of the three fictional     
elements of personality1 event1 and     
setting--the dramatic short story and   
the short story of unity of effect4 ,the
 dramatic short story is either the     
story of character or the story of      
complication of incident2 the short     
story of unity of effect is the story of
 atmosphere4 ,the two types here        
contrasted--the dramatic story and the  
atmospheric story--could not be covered 
adequately or to any purpose by a single
 definition2 they are radically         
different4 ,in defining the short story 
,i have defined merely the dramatic     
short story1 and in discussing it ,i    
shall confine myself largely to the     
dramatic short story likewise1 for the  
story of atmosphere has been considered 
elsewhere4  ,knowledge of the origin of 
the two basic types of short story1 the 
dramatic story and the atmospheric      

story1 will clarify the writer's        
conceptions of the types4 ,the story of 
atmosphere1 or story of totality of     
emotional effect on a reader1 was first 
consciously perfected by ,poe1 wherein  
lies ,america's single claim to having  
originated a distinct literary type4 ,by
 following in prose his poetic          
philosophy--as stated in ,the           
,philosophy of ,composition--,poe       
produced such stories as ,ligeia and    
,the ,fall of the ,house of ,usher1     
which have little or no real dramatic   
value1 yet which are certainly not mere 
tales1 for they have plot- or           
story-value4 ,as ,i have stated1 in the 
case of the story of atmosphere1 such as
 these two of ,poe's1 the climactic     
ascension of the particular emotional   
impression to the point of highest      
intensity supplies much of the plot-or  
story-element of the fiction4  ,on the  
other hand1 the dramatic short story1   
embodying a true plot1 may be said to   
have originated in ,france4 ,the type   

was suggested by ,poe's work2 the mere  
mechanical hint1 that of a brief story1 
was received eagerly by ,french writers1
 and the dramatic element1 entirely     
altering the fundamental character of   
the fiction1 was speedily injected4 ,the
 result has been that the offshoot has  
entirely overshadowed the parent stem1  
and this simply because there is so much
 more material for the dramatic story   
than there is for the story of unity of 
emotional effect4 ,the story of         
atmosphere is most difficult to do well1
 so that relatively few are published2  
it has no wide popular appeal1 with the 
same result2 while the range of         
emotional effects is narrow that may be 
produced on a reader by a work of       
fiction1 that is1 there is less material
 for the story of atmosphere than for   
the dramatic story4  ,it is time now to 
notice a matter concerning which much   
glib statement has been made1 the unity 
and singleness of effect of the short   
story4 ,the usual remark of the writer  

or talker on short story technique is   
that the ideal or typical short story   
will manifest the dramatic unities of   
time1 place1 and action1 and will       
produce a single effect4 ,but it is     
notorious that only relatively few      
stories do manifest the dramatic        
unities1 so the speaker or writer goes  
on to say most lamely and indefinitely  
that the laws of technique must give way
 to the requirements of any particular  
story4 ,grant me for the moment that the
 dramatic unities are not essential to  
the perfect short story1 that           
,maupassant's ,the ,necklace is as      
technically perfect a short story as    
,poe's ,the ,cask of ,amontillado1 and  
the viciousness of preaching thus to the
 short story writer becomes apparent4   
,the only definite thing he is told1    
that the unities are essential to the   
perfect short story1 is false4  ,the    
vice of such statement originates in    
failure to distinguish between the two  
types of short story1 the story of      

atmosphere and the dramatic story4 ,the 
story of atmosphere1 of totality or     
unity of emotional effect on a reader1  
can hardly escape manifesting the       
dramatic unities of place1 time1 and    
action4 ,the emotional effect will      
usually be that of a single definite    
place1 for reasons brought out in the   
preceding chapter2 the time will be     
brief1 on account of the inherent       
difficulty to sustain the atmosphere2   
and there will be little complication or
 prolongation of the action1 for the    
same reason4 ,but the dramatic short    
story is not subject to the limitations 
imposed by the necessity always to      
regard atmosphere1 or emotional effect1 
and it may or may not manifest the      
dramatic unities4  ,the way to state the
 relation between the matter of unity   
and the dramatic short story1 the short 
story of true plot1 is this3 on account 
of the limited space available1 the plot
 for a dramatic short story will tend to
 involve relatively few shifts of       

setting1 relatively short spaces of     
time1 relatively few and relatively     
simple events1 and relatively few       
persons4 ,no other sort of plot can be  
adequately handled within narrow word   
limits4 ,the short story must be written
 with verbal fullness and elaboration1  
that its phrasing may not be bare and   
unlike the shaded contours of life1 and 
the plot complicated as to any one of   
its three elements of personality1      
setting1 and event cannot be adequately 
developed in a few thousand words4 ,the 
short story is the result of just       
conception and selection1 rather than of
 mere rhetorical compression4           
,stevenson's ,markheim1 for instance1 is
 written more elaborately than almost   
any other episode in fiction1 long or   
short1 that is1 any other episode of    
equal length in point of the time it    
would take to happen in actuality4  ,poe
 was the first writer to say much of    
anything definite about his art1 and    
commentators on technique who have      

followed him have merely expanded his   
thesis rather than said something new4  
,the only trouble1 in relation to the   
short story1 is that ,poe spoke of unity
 and singleness of effect with his own  
peculiar type of short story in mind1   
the short story of unity or totality of 
emotional effect1 the short story of    
atmosphere4 ,when he stated that the    
short story--his type of short story1   
the short story of atmosphere--should   
possess unity and produce a single      
effect1 he stated the truth1 but when it
 is stated that the short story meaning 
both the story of atmosphere and the    
dramatic short story--should manifest   
the unities and produce a single effect1
 the statement is false4 ,in the first  
place1 the dramatic short story is not  
the result of the same technique as the 
story of atmosphere2 in the second      
place1 the unity stated by ,poe to be   
essential to the story of emotional     
effect is not the same thing as the old 
dramatic unities1 which are mechanical4 

,the fact that the story of atmosphere  
can hardly escape manifesting the       
dramatic unities does not amalgamate the
 two matters4 ,poe's unity is unity of  
emotional effect3 the dramatic unities  
are singleness of time1 place1 and      
action1 a matter that can be preserved  
by anyone1 though usually at the expense
 of the interest of the story4 ,how few 
have written and can write so as to     
produce a unity of emotional effect need
 only be suggested to enforce my point4 
,the matter would not be worth treating 
thus minutely were it not for the strong
 tendency to mislead of any statement   
that the short story must manifest the  
dramatic unities4 ,within very elastic  
limits1 the unities are a convention of 
the drama1 but they are not a convention
 of fiction1 long or short4 ,the art of 
the stage and the art of the story      
differ radically2 the advantage given   
the play by the conciseness of its      
spectacle is compensated by the         
advantage given the story by its more   

inclusive character and greater         
flexibility4 ,i have said that a plot or
 story of plot is a dramatic problem1   
and the word dramatic has connotations  
of the stage1 but what was meant was    
that a plot is a conflict between       
persons1 within a single person1 or with
 nature4 ,it was not meant that a plot  
or story of plot is subject to the      
conventions of the stage4 ,the art of   
fiction is infinitely more inclusive and
 flexible than the art of the stage1 and
 the writer of fiction must utilize to  
the full the advantages of his art in   
order to compensate his work in the eyes
 of a reader for its weakness--relative 
to the play--in vividness and body4     
,one may say that the spectacle of life 
is infinitely various1 so that the      
writer of fiction has plenty of material
 for stories at hand4 ,but life1 despite
 the efforts of ,mrs4 ,grundy1 is       
subject to no conventions1 social1      
moral1 or artistic1 and the short story 
writer who brings all his ideas to the  

dramatic unities as a first test will   
winnow little grain from the chaff4     
,when the short story writer finds a    
hint for a story he should consider     
whether he can bring out with his few   
thousand words all the matters necessary
 to the fiction's having full effect on 
a reader1 but the less he frets about   
any abstract unity or singleness of     
effect the better4 ,the words have a    
plausible sound in discussion1 but they 
mean nothing1 except in relation to the 
story of atmosphere4 ,it means something
 to say that the dramatic short story   
should possess unity of tone2 it means  
something to say that it should possess 
unity of style2 but it means nothing to 
say that it should possess unity1       
simply1 unless the dramatic unities are 
meant1 and in that case the statement is
 false4 ,some short stories happen to   
possess the dramatic unities2 more do   
not4  ,by the very nature of the        
conceptive process the writer seizes his
 story ideas in terms of persons1       

events1 or atmosphere4 ,and when he has 
a definite story idea he first should   
develop it so as to give it maximum     
effect1 and then should consider whether
 he must write a short story or novel or
 romance to give his developed idea     
adequate expression4 ,the writer who    
starts with some abstract knowledge of  
fiction technique1 and seeks to vivify  
rules of construction into a definite   
story1 will accomplish very little4     
,good stories are not conceived that    
way1 and good writers do not go to work 
that way4 ,the story is the thing1 and  
it does not lie between the covers of   
this or any other book on technique4 ,it
 lies in the people and events the      
writer sees in reality or in            
imagination1 and to find it the writer  
must turn to life or to his dreams4     
,after the story is found the writer's  
knowledge of and facility in technique  
will come into play in the work of      
development and execution4  ,the broad  
outlines of the technique of the        

dramatic short story were implied in the
 statement that it will tend to involve 
relatively few shifts of setting1       
relatively short spaces of time1        
relatively few and relatively simple    
events1 and relatively few persons4 ,its
 unity of tone--which is characteristic 
of the short story1 dramatic and of     
atmosphere--results from its simplicity 
as to persons1 events1 and setting1 and 
its unity of style results from its     
unity of tone4 ,the elements of the     
short story are less complex than those 
of a longer fiction1 and the fact causes
 all the modifications in the general   
technique of fiction as manifested by   
the short story4 ,in the short story1   
for instance1 there is less opportunity 
than in the novel to manage secondary   
events to build up character or         
personality4 ,the whole process must be 
swifter1 and the writer must depend     
largely on direct statement and         
description4  ,this matter is of some   
importance4 ,as to setting1 the         

technique of the short story and of the 
novel are identical2 there is merely    
less setting in the short               
story--speaking quantitatively--because 
the type involves fewer shifts of place1
 even if the action does not happen in  
one place4 ,and the technique of the    
short story and of the novel are        
identical as to action2 the short story 
merely involves fewer episodes4 ,but as 
to the people1 the technique of the     
short story and of the novel differ4 ,it
 is true that the short story involves  
few persons1 relatively to the novel1   
just as it involves relatively few      
shifts of setting and relatively few    
events1 but the difference is more than 
quantitative1 and so affects the        
technique of the type4 ,it affects the  
technique of the short story because    
characterization is a matter achieved by
 showing the person in action1 by       
describing him1 by transcribing his     
speech1 and by stating his qualities    
directly4 ,that is to say1              

characterization goes on in every part  
of the story1 except where setting is   
being touched in4 ,and it will go on    
there1 to a slight extent1 if the       
environment is given in terms of the    
impressions received by the character   
affected4 ,on the other hand1 narration1
 or verbal treatment of the event1 and  
the description of setting1 or verbal   
treatment of the environment1 are more  
or less distinct and separate elements  
of a story4 ,the matter is delicate1 and
 ,i run some risk of being obscure here1
 but the net result of the simplicity   
and separateness of both the narrative  
and the descriptive process is that the 
narrative and descriptive technique of  
the short story is the narrative and    
descriptive technique of fiction        
generally4 ,writer of novel and writer  
of short story can narrate a murder in  
much the same way1 or touch in a        
countryside with identical technique1   
but they cannot handle their people     
similarly4  ,perhaps the point can be   

made clearer4 ,the writer of a novel and
 the writer of a short story alike must 
invest their people with the vivacity1  
distinction1 and concreteness of real   
men and women1 but where the one has    
five hundred pages1 let us say1 the     
other has only five thousand words4 ,it 
is a task difficult enough at best to   
precipitate a man in a few drops of ink4
 ,it is also difficult to narrate the   
man's actions with some of the vividness
 of reality1 or to touch in a real world
 for him to move in4 ,but note this4    
,where the novelist must deal with a    
large number of events and scenes1 the  
short story writer has only a few to    
handle2 he has about as many words      
available for each of his few as the    
novelist has for his many4 ,that is not 
the case in creating characters4 ,the   
process of characterization must        
permeate any fiction1 forwarded by the  
narrative matter1 the dialogue1 the     
expository matter1 and the descriptive  
matter alike4 ,and the novelist has five

 hundred pages to initiate1 reinforce1  
and complete the illusion of personality
 where the short story writer has but   
five thousand words4 ,the novelist has  
more people to vivify1 it is true1 but  
not enough more than the short story    
writer to give the latter an equal      
chance if he follows the same technique4
  ,it all comes down to this3 a story1  
long or short1 can be broken up into its
 several episodes and scenes1 which are 
mechanically separable1 but its people  
move through the whole4 ,since any event
 or any scene is in a sense a mere item 
of a story1 not universally influential1
 the technique of handling event or     
scene simply as such is much the same1  
whatever the type of story4 ,but since  
the element of personality is           
universally present and influential in a
 story1 the technique of                
characterization varies with the        
essential nature of the story as a      
whole4  ,the result of the condition    
upon the general technique of           

characterization as applied in the short
 story must now be stated4  ,i have said
 already that the whole process must be 
swifter1 but that is not very definite4 
,expanded1 the statement amounts to     
saying that the short story writer      
cannot develop personality with the     
fullness and diversity of the novelist2 
he must concentrate his verbal resources
 upon the trait developed by the few    
events of the story and upon a few      
striking peculiarities of appearance and
 speech4 ,as to the strict trait of     
character1 the story itself will point  
the way4 ,it will have one main         
situation1 and probably that one will be
 of such a nature as to involve         
relatively simple attributes of soul in 
the persons concerned4 ,as to the more  
superficial matter of making the persons
 seem real and lifelike1 the writer must
 describe sharply1 rather than at       
length--as ,stevenson did in ,a ,lodging
 for the ,night--and must make his      
people talk as individually as possible4

 ,the general aim1 of course1 is the    
same as in the longer story1 to present 
real characters of unique appearance and
 speech4 ,and the writer's              
resources--again of course--are the     
same1 but the brevity of the short story
 forces him to concentrate upon one     
matter of soul1 one matter--or at most a
 few--of appearance1 and one matter of  
speech4 ,the whole art of fiction is    
selective2 even the novel cannot present
 justly the complete man2 and the short 
story1 simply because it is short1 is   
the most highly selective fiction of    
all4 ,it cannot present the whole man1  
but it must seem to4 ,a reader will not 
feel the absence of traits not involved 
in the events1 and by vivid and brief   
descriptive touches1 reinforced by      
unique speech1 any character can be     
invested with what will be accepted as a
 complete physical presence4  ,as       
stated1 the story itself1 if a true     
story and not a tale1 will show its     
writer that his expository matter or    

direct statement as to character must   
bear only upon the traits involved in   
the plot-situation of the story4 ,the   
necessity is not peculiar to the short  
story1 but it is more insistent than in 
the case of the novel4 ,the other points
 of the technique of characterizing in  
the short story are purely verbal1 and  
the writer's success depends upon his   
faculty in pungent description and in   
handling speech4  ,the remainder of the 
technique of the short story1 apart from
 the matter of creating real men and    
women1 is not verbal1 but constructive1 
and is implied in--as it results        
from--the brevity of the fiction4       
,unlike the novelist1 the writer of the 
short story has space for nothing but   
the story4 ,he cannot drag in by the    
heels episodes unessential to the story 
solely for the sake of their intrinsic  
interest2 he cannot waste words upon    
unessential persons4 ,he is faced by two
 facts--that his story must be          
interesting1 so that it will probably   

have to involve considerable            
complication as to persons1 events1 and 
setting1 and that it must be told with  
enough verbal fullness and elaboration  
to give it the body and seeming of life4
 ,trimming between the necessity to     
interest and the necessity to invest his
 story with reality1 the writer first   
must find an interesting story1 and     
then1 in writing1 or in developing and  
writing1 must be vigilant to transcribe 
nothing unessential to the story1 or he 
will be forced to exceed his            
space-limit4  ,the process comprehends  
most of the technique of the short      
story4 ,the whole difference between it 
and the novel is that the novel is more 
discursive4 ,much of the novel's        
interest1 quite permissibly1 may inhere 
in persons1 episodes1 and matter        
generally without relation to the main  
thread of the story4 ,but a short       
story's interest may not inhere in      
matter foreign to the thread of the     
story4 ,that is the case not because of 

any arbitrary requirement that it be a  
unity1 but simply because a short story 
cannot be told adequately as to the     
story without exceeding the word-limit  
if unessential matter be incorporated   
with it4  ,the fallacy1 whether on the  
part of commentator on technique or     
writer of fiction1 in approaching the   
short story as some sort of artificial  
fictional unity lies in the implicit    
disregard of the necessity to interest4 
,the first necessity is that a story    
interest1 and to meet it the writer must
 devise some complication of persons1   
motives1 and events1 and usually that   
will involve some diversity of setting1 
or change of place4 ,the second         
necessity is that the story be told so  
as to create the illusion of reality1   
and to meet it the writer will be forced
 to exhaust his few thousand words4 ,the
 necessity that the story interest can  
be met only rarely without violating the
 unities of the drama2 therefore they   
are not a convention of the art of the  

short story4 ,apart from the matter of  
unity of tone and style1 the short story
 is a unity only in that it is one      
single story1 nothing more1 nothing     
less4 ,that is1 each word is essential  
to the fiction as such4 ,but that does  
not mean that the story or plot is a    
unity in itself4 ,it may involve much   
diversity in the three fictional        
elements of personality1 event1 and     
setting1 the last of which includes     
time4  ,i emphasize the matter because  
the beginning writer is apt to devise   
stories too simple to present a real    
problem to awaken a reader's interest4  
,there is also the converse fault1 of   
course1 that of devising a story too    
complicated to be given adequate        
expression in few words1 but this fault 
will tend to correct itself through the 
difficulties the writer will meet in    
execution4 ,the other will not tend to  
correct itself4 ,the more simple the    
story1 the easier it will be to write   
with some approach to adequacy4 ,the    

writer who fancies that a short story   
must involve as little as possible      
diversity of people1 events1 and places 
may very well continue to devise stories
 too simple to awaken interest1 however 
effectively they may be told4 ,he will  
have no trouble in writing each one     
within his space1 but he will have      
trouble in getting them published1 for  
each will be lacking in essential       
fictional value1 the capacity to        
interest4 ,here ,i can make only general
 statement1 and it is impracticable to  
dwell on the fact that real and highly  
individualized characters will invest a 
simple story with all the interest of a 
more complicated fiction4 ,the general  
truth1 however1 is that the interest of 
a tale lies in the problem it presents  
and solves1 that a problem involves     
complication and diversity1 and that a  
writer may go astray who seeks only the 
dramatically unified and simple plot4   
,his work will interest a reader if he  
creates real people1 but the capacity to

 do so is a rare faculty4 ,at the bottom
 of it1 a story1 long or short1 is a    
sequence of events2 they should not be  
too simple1 for1 apart from the human   
element1 simplicity presents no problem 
to awaken a reader's interest4  ,the    
sole limitation upon the complexity and 
diversity of the short story as a whole 
is the difficulty to develop in few     
words a plot complicated as to          
personality1 event1 place1 or time4     
,accordingly1 the plot suitable for a   
short story will tend to be simple1 but 
it need not be so simple that the       
events1 apart from the people1 will not 
awaken interest4 ,moreover1 the         
unskilled writer who has experienced the
 difficulty to develop an interesting   
plot in few words will be astonished by 
the results of a little forethought and 
careful planning before writing4        
,elimination and suppression of         
inessential and relatively unimportant  
matters will enable him to set forth    
adequately1 though in a few words1 a    

story of real body and interest4  ,the  
whole discussion should awaken          
realization of the fact that the short  
story is the most difficult form of     
prose fiction4 ,to the general          
difficulty of all fiction it adds the   
difficulty that whatever is done must be
 done in a few words4 ,the writer of    
novel or romance has only to interest1  
and his space is practically unlimited4 
,the short story writer must interest1  
and he must interest in few words and   
pages4 ,he must depend solely on his    
story2 he has space for nothing else4   
,he should remember that each item of   
unessential matter given place by him   
will lessen by just so much the number  
of words available to give the real     
story verisimilitude and consequent     
interest and appeal4 ,to take the       
conceptive aspect of it1 in devising a  
short story he should remember that     
inclusion of any accidental and         
unessential matter must lessen by just  
so much his power to awaken interest by 

some diversity and complication in the  
real story4  ,when a story idea is      
found1 the writer should determine      
precisely what matters must be brought  
out if the fiction is to have full      
effect on a reader1 who will have only  
the writer's words to go on4 ,the writer
 should realize precisely what elements 
of personality are significant in       
relation to the main situation1 which is
 the story in little1 and should prepare
 to develop the motives and traits      
involved4 ,he should determine precisely
 what will be the most effective        
physical movement for the story1 the    
nature and order of events1 also the    
setting or environment4 ,he should      
consider the essential nature of the    
main situation1 or climax1 and1 if he   
cannot manage that preceding events     
shall prepare a reader for it1 he should
 prepare from the beginning of the story
 to hint what is to come1 as ,stevenson 
does in ,markheim4 ,finally1 he should  
grasp the developed story as a whole1   

and be vigilant to transcribe nothing   
unessential1 for if the story is real   
fictional knot or problem1 and worth    
while1 he cannot do so without          
sacrificing essential matter or         
exceeding his limits4  ,the physical    
brevity of the short story certainly has
 great influence in the direction of    
simplicity4 ,but its brevity does not   
subject the dramatic short story to the 
conventions of the stage4 ,it must be a 
unity1 so-called1 but only in this1 that
 every word must be necessary to develop
 the story-idea1 which1 in itself1 may  
be simple or somewhat complex4 ,the     
short story of atmosphere is another    
matter4  ,coherence is a word much      
better than unity to express the most   
significant attribute of the dramatic   
short story4 ,the form is coherent in   
that every word1 line1 and sentence has 
relation to the story itself4 ,the novel
 is relatively incoherent in that it    
often embodies whole stories without    
relation to the main story1 or matter   

without relation to any story at all4   
,the most pungent way to put the point  
of the whole discussion is to state that
 the short story1 viewed merely as a    
sequence of words1 is coherent in that  
each word serves to forward a single    
story-idea to its conclusion4 ,that is  
not to state that the story-idea itself 
is coherent or a unity4 ,it is a unity  
in that it is single1 one story1 but the
 one story need not manifest unity of   
time1 place1 and action4 ,the sooner the
 short story writer clears his head of  
any notion that the verbal coherence of 
the dramatic short story involves some  
indefinable unity in its matter or      
story-idea1 or some equally indefinable 
singleness of effect1 the better for    
him1 his work and pocketbook4,q  ,there 
would be no great profit in summarizing 
here the items of technique treated in  
other chapters4 ,all are of use in the  
short story1 functioning as in other    
forms of prose fiction4 ,apart from the 
matter of characterization1 the peculiar

 technique of the short story is        
constructive and supervisory1 rather    
than executive4 ,the writer must make   
certain that he has one story and       
nothing else1 for only one story can be 
adequately developed within brief       
limits4 ,in writing1 he must take care  
to transcribe only story-matter1 for the
 same reason4 ,but in narrating an      
event1 or in describing a setting1 after
 he has determined that event and       
setting are essential to his single     
story1 the writer may employ the        
technique of general narrative or       
descriptive writing4 ,whatever the form 
of fiction1 its aim is the same1 to show
 real men and women doing in a real     
world the things one might expect from  
their natures and the circumstances of  
their lives4  ,in the chapter on story  
types something was said as to the      
current insistence upon the verbal      
compression of the short story4 ,as     
stated there1 the short story1 dramatic 
or atmospheric1 is not the result of    

mere rhetorical compression1 rather of  
the inherent brevity of the conception4 
,the executive technique of long story  
and short are identical1 except as to   
the single matter of characterization4  
,the short story develops its fewer     
episodes with as much rhetorical        
elaboration as the novel develops its   
many1 and the writer who conceives that 
a short story can be produced by verbal 
paring and filing is on the highroad to 
failure4   ,,footnotes3  ,q ,the root   
cause of all the unintelligent          
discussion of the short story's unity in
 books on technique is failure to       
distinguish between form and content4   
,the mere fact that no word without     
relation to the story-idea can be       
transcribed does not mean that the      
story-idea--complex of people1 events1  
and settings--is a unity4 ,the short    
story is a unit in that it is one story1
 rather than two or ten1 but--it is not 
impertinent to ask--what of it8 ,a      
single story may involve great diversity

 and complication of elements4 ,and it  
is what is known as a short story if it 
can be presented adequately within some 
few thousand words1 though it begin in a
 king's palace with tragedy and end in  
laughter in a ,harlem flat4 ,poe's type 
of short story is another matter2 it    
does possess unity of content in that   
setting1 personality1 and events are    
subtly alike4     ,,chapter ,,xiii      
,,the ,,novel      ,novel and           
,romance--,romanticism and              
,realism--,techniques of     ,novel and 
,romance--,incoherence of ,novel        
,relative to ,short     ,story--,novel  
as ,medium of                           
,self-,expression--,interpolation of    
,personal ,comment--,significant        
,simplicity--,permissible               
,inclusiveness of ,novel--,full         
,development of ,personality--          
,variety of ,action--,length--,initial  
,idea--,story--,life--                  
,society--,singleness of ,story--,social
 ,emphasis4   ,i have a small dictionary

 on my desk which defines the novel as a
 fictitious prose narrative or tale     
presenting a picture of real life1 and  
the romance as any fictitious and       
wonderful tale3 a fictitious narrative  
in prose or verse which passes beyond   
the limits of real life4 ,the           
definitions state a distinction easier  
to feel vaguely than to justify4 ,one   
may say with truth that ,jane ,austen's 
,sense and ,sensibility or ,trollope's  
,the ,warden presents a picture of real 
life1 but can one also say with truth   
that ,hawthorne's ,the ,scarlet ,letter 
or ,stevenson's ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4   
,hyde passes essentially beyond the     
limits of real life simply because each 
book states a physically impossible     
thing--the brand of his sin over ,arthur
 ,dimmesdale's heart and the            
metamorphosis of ,dr4 ,jekyll8 ,either  
matter is a mere symbol1 devised to give
 concreteness to a spiritual fact4 ,is  
it not true than human life1 the        
material for fiction1 has its spiritual 

actualities as well as its physical     
facts8 and does not the romance--as it  
is commonly understood--differ from the 
novel merely in that it narrates a real 
adventure of the soul rather than a real
 adventure of the body8  ,the fact is   
patent1 ,i think1 that the writer of    
fiction will gain small benefit from    
conceiving the romance as something     
separate and apart from the novel2      
likewise1 that a book on technique      
without confusion may treat the writing 
of long fiction generally as the writing
 of novels4 ,it is true1 of course1 that
 the essential bent of any particular   
writer may lead him to deal with the    
facts of the soul rather than the facts 
of the body1 or that any particular     
story may be a spiritual rather than a  
physical adventure2 nevertheless the    
story of the spirit must still develop  
facts and show their relations1 and the 
technical resources of its writer are   
precisely the same as those of the      
writer who deals predominately with the 

more concrete physical facts of life4   
,it would be interesting to go at some  
length into this question of romance1   
all its connotations and implications4  
,in particular1 there is an antithesis  
in common thought1 with romanticism and 
realism the two opposed members1 which  
it would not be too dull to discuss4    
,but the discussion would not give much 
light to one who desires to acquire a   
knowledge of the mechanics of fiction1  
long or short4 ,it is permissible to    
call a realist one who transcribes      
predominately physical details1 and it  
is permissible to call a romanticist one
 who transcribes predominated typo for  
predominantly8 spiritual details1 but in
 both cases the basic technique is      
identical4 ,the realist can confine     
himself to physical facts because his   
story deals largely with the everyday   
actualities of life1 and its subordinate
 spiritual values will be felt by a     
reader through inference from the facts4
 ,the romanticist must state spiritual  

facts directly because they are the very
 stuff and essence of his story4 ,he is 
none the less a realist if there are    
spiritual actualities--an indisputable  
proposition--and if he states them as   
they exist for him4  ,the critical      
discussion that treats realism and      
romanticism as opposed artistic         
philosophies is so confused that it     
would serve no useful purpose to go into
 the matter here4 ,what little ,i have  
to say on the subject will be said in   
the next chapter4 ,but it is not        
inappropriate to call attention to the  
fact that every story conceived--in     
,stevenson's phrase--from within        
outwards1 the only genesis for a work of
 art1 is merely a subjective reality2 it
 never happened4 ,perhaps it is so      
essentially commonplace that it probably
 has happened sometime2 perhaps it is so
 little abnormal that very possibly it  
has happened4 ,or perhaps it may be of  
such a nature that it never could have  
happened4 ,in any event1 whatever the   

nature of the story1 its verity and     
reality as a fiction depend solely upon 
its writer's elaborative and executive  
powers4 ,if his hand falter1 tangibility
 and concreteness in the matter of the  
story will not save it1 will not make it
 seem real to a reader4 ,the lives of   
most men are commonplace1 but the       
relatively few lives that are not       
commonplace are as real and actual as   
those that follow beaten paths4 ,in the 
lives of most1 the spiritual element is 
subordinate1 perhaps1 but in the lives  
of some few it is enormously influential
 and supremely real4 ,realism1 the      
artistic philosophy1 asserts that       
fiction should present only the real4   
,the assertion is nonsense for two      
reasons4 ,first1 the commonplace1 or1 if
 you please the inevitable1 the only    
reality which realism admits1 is not the
 only reality4 ,second1 the verity or   
reality of fiction cannot be ascertained
 by any objective test1 cannot be       
determined by the physical possibility  

of its matter1 its people and their     
acts1 for a fiction is purely           
subjective1 a conception1 and           
conceivability is the sole test of its  
verity4 ,the writer of a story          
transcribes what he sees1 not           
necessarily what is4,r  ,as stated1 the 
writer of fiction will derive small     
benefit from conceiving novel and       
romance as entirely different types of  
fiction4 ,the distinction between them  
used to be insisted upon much more      
pedantically than is the case to-day1   
and the present tendency to call any    
story of book-length a novel is a       
healthy sign4 ,the technique of the     
novel1 in the narrow sense of a picture 
of society1 and the technique of the    
romance1 in the narrow sense of a story 
not of real life1 are broadly the same4 
,and where there is no difference in    
technique the artist should admit no    
difference in type4 ,if he does admit   
any difference in type1 and allows it to
 influence him1 his conceptive faculty  

will be hampered and that is artistic   
death4 ,it is hard enough to find a     
story that is worth while1 a story that 
will interest1 without subjecting one's 
self to the added and totally           
unnecessary difficulty to bring all     
one's ideas to the measure of some      
fancied type as a first test4 ,the      
writer of fiction should be warned that 
it is supremely difficult to avoid      
becoming artificial and mechanical1 and 
that he will surely become so if he does
 his conceptive thinking in terms of    
analysis4 ,in the first place1 the      
analytical habit of mind is directly    
opposed to the creative2 in the second  
place1 the analysis that divides long   
stories into novels and romances in the 
special sense is false4 ,the way to find
 a story is to look for a story1        
forgetting all that pedants have written
 and failures practiced4 ,the silly     
criticism that classifies fiction by its
 content is beneath contempt2 the writer
 of fiction who heeds it is supremely   

foolish4  ,in the following discussion  
the term novel will be used simply to   
denote a plotted fiction of book-length4
  ,contrasting the short story and the  
novel1 and dwelling on the relative     
coherence of the briefer form1 ,i had   
occasion to state that the novel is     
relatively incoherent in that much of   
its interest for a reader quite         
permissibly may inhere in matter with   
little or no relation to the main thread
 of the story4 ,of course1 incoherence  
is not a point of the technique of the  
novel4 ,incoherence is not a point of   
the technique of anything1 except of    
some of the ultra modern schools in     
music1 painting1 and verse4 ,the        
statement as to the incoherence of the  
novel was made incidentally in          
developing the argument that the short  
story cannot be incoherent because its  
brevity forbids that it present even its
 single story-idea adequately and also  
set forth irrelevant matter4 ,on the    
other hand1 the novel may set forth     

irrelevant matter because its length is 
not only a greater but a more elastic   
quantity than that of the short story2  
if the interruptions of the story are   
not too frequent and sustained1 the     
power of the story over a reader will   
not be lessened to any appreciable      
extent4 ,that is not to say that the    
novelist should seek to interrupt       
himself4  ,a good many serious          
writers--so-called--choose to write the 
novel simply because it does offer an   
opportunity for direct self-expression  
greater than any afforded by briefer    
fiction4 ,they are confined to          
fiction--may they pardon the            
remark--because they have met1 or feel  
that they will meet1 difficulty in      
finding a publisher for their various   
theories stated as such2 so they        
blithely write a novel1 with insertions 
of politics1 religion1 sociology1 what  
not1 and palm it off on the unhappy     
public for a story4 ,of course such     
direct expression of one's opinions is  

not self-expression through the medium  
of a work of art4 ,it is only choosing  
deliberately to do poor work for the    
sake of money or notoriety or vanity4   
,writing the problem novel is not quite 
the same thing4 ,if a social problem1 as
 the friction between capital and labor1
 is utilized as the fundamental plot--or
 conflict-theme of a novel1 a good deal 
of personal opinion may be introduced by
 the author without injury to the       
artistic coherence of the story4 ,but it
 is well to remember that the primary   
aim of fiction is to interest1 an aim   
that can be achieved most easily and    
most completely by telling a good story4
 ,propaganda is apt to be supremely dull
 anyway1 and it is bound to seem dull to
 one who is looking for a story and     
nothing else4 ,the practical            
implications of a work of art must be   
mere implications1 resting in inference1
 or the work will be feeble and         
misshapen4  ,the novelist can indulge in
 personal comment and yet present the   

whole of his story1 for his space is    
practically unlimited4 ,the writer of   
the short story must sacrifice either   
the comment or the story4 ,the result is
 that the typical novel is more         
incoherent than the typical short story4
 ,the finer the book as a whole1 the    
easier it is to forgive or overlook the 
defect1 for defect it is4 ,one can      
forgive ,thackeray his rambling asides  
and his diffidence in approaching his   
story1 for in all of his books the story
 is present and in each it is a fine    
thing4 ,but ,vanity ,fair1 for instance1
 is too significant a fiction to suffer 
constant interruption without causing a 
reader to become impatient4 ,if a story 
is essentially weak1 interpolating      
personal comment and unrelated matter   
generally will make it weaker2 if it is 
essentially fine and significant1       
passages without bearing on the story   
will irritate the reader4  ,whatever the
 art1 whoever the artist1 his task is to
 hold pen or chisel or brush true to the

 outlines of his conception4 ,if his    
hand leave its proper course1 whether of
 set purpose or through inaptitude1 his 
work must suffer4 ,the art of fiction is
 so infinitely difficult that the       
practitioner should welcome rather than 
bewail his obligation to hew to the     
line1 for by concentrating upon the     
story and nothing else he will be led to
 leave no gaps in his presentment4 ,a   
work of art is a thing of significant   
simplicity4 ,just because the novelist  
works in words1 just because his        
materials have some significance for a  
reader in themselves--unlike the clay   
and marble of the sculptor1 the stone of
 the architect1 and the pigments of the 
painter1 which1 unwrought upon1 have no 
message for an observer--the novelist is
 not at liberty to throw words together 
without some set purpose4 ,the inherent 
significance of each word must have just
 relation to the whole1 if the whole is 
to have the direction and significant   
simplicity of a work of art4 ,the real  

condition is that the novelist1 unlike  
the writer of the short story1 may tell 
his story adequately and do something   
else1 but the artistic quality of his   
work will suffer1 that is1 its power    
over a reader will be diminished1 if he 
interpolates foreign matter4 ,artistry  
is simply the faculty to realize to the 
utmost the inherent power of one's      
conceptions1 and the artistry of any    
fiction lessens as the appeal of the    
story for a reader diminishes4 ,and the 
appeal of a story as such must diminish 
with every interruption1 unless its     
power over a reader be very great1 and  
in that case any break in its movement  
will irritate and offend4  ,i have cited
 ,stevenson's ,the ,ebb-,tide a number  
of times already1 and the book may be   
instanced here4 ,it is a tremendously   
powerful bit of work1 considering the   
nature of its matter1 and its power over
 a reader in large part results from its
 author's having confined himself       
strictly to the story4 ,the conception  

is significant1 and the story as written
 is significant because the conception  
is set forth whole and unmarred4 ,the   
reader's attention is not distracted by 
matter irrelevant to the story4 ,its    
theme1 the impossibility that a weak man
 should be other than weak1 however he  
may be circumstanced1 is developed      
adequately1 and nothing else is         
developed4 ,no book could be more wisely
 recommended to the writer of fiction   
for study of the essential technical    
processes of fiction4 ,it shows adequate
 treatment of personality1 adequate     
treatment of events1 and adequate       
treatment of setting1 shows fictionally 
real people doing fictionally real      
things in a fictionally real            
environment4 ,above all1 it is a story1 
nothing else1 and is pointed to bring   
out its value as a whole2 that is it has
 the significant simplicity of a true   
work of art4 ,it is coherent as to the  
story it embodies1 and in its coherence 
lies its power4 ,the bare conception is 

somewhat weak in that it tends to arouse
 an intellectual rather than an         
emotional interest in a reader2         
moreover1 the conception is positively  
unpleasant and depressing1 in the       
conventional sense2 but the book as     
written is a powerful thing because it  
realizes to the full the inherent       
capacity of its matter to interest and  
impress by telling the story adequately 
and by bringing out nothing but the     
story4,s  ,the novel1 then1 should be   
coherent as to the story it embodies1   
but that is not the whole of its        
peculiar technique4 ,the story itself   
may be widely inclusive1 may1 in a way1 
involve a number of stories4 ,the       
novelist should not seek deliberately to
 combine the unrelated1 but he need not 
follow a single thread4 ,he can turn    
aside into bypaths of action that will  
bring out the natures of his people with
 more fullness than the straight course 
of the story itself1 and he can involve 
his minor characters in sub-plots1      

relatively unimportant stories of their 
own4 ,generally1 the novelist will seek 
to develop personality with greater     
fullness and detail than the writer of  
the short story1 and1 as a result1 the  
action of the novel will be more        
diffused and looser1 less pointed1 than 
the action of the short story4 ,or1     
conversely1 the long story necessarily  
involves more varied action than the    
briefer form1 and therefore develops    
more varied traits in the actors4       
,relative to the short story1 the novel 
is a natural type of fiction in that it 
can make some approach to presenting the
 whole man1 with all his contradictory  
and inconsistent traits and impulses2   
relative to the novel1 the short story  
is an artificial type of fiction in that
 the comparatively direct and pointed   
character of its action forbids that it 
develop more than one or a few          
significant traits of personality4 ,the 
writer of the short story cannot qualify
 and distinguish as to his people's     

natures1 and that is why the fine short 
story is less humanly significant than  
the fine novel1 for no man is pure saint
 or pure villain1 pure this or pure     
that4 ,we are all bewilderingly         
inconsistent1 wherein lies most of the  
interest of life4 ,the novel can show   
its people blown here and there by the  
winds of desire1 as in life1 and that is
 what the short story cannot do4  ,each 
story is a rule to itself1 so far as the
 question of scope and variety of action
 is concerned1 but the novelist will    
derive small benefit from introducing   
unnecessary people and unnecessary      
events merely to lend a greater illusion
 of movement or bustle to the whole4    
,action1 in fiction1 is action which    
plays a necessary part in the story1 and
 the novelist should not interpolate    
insignificant events any more than he   
should interpolate his own opinions on  
life and morals4 ,his task is to tell   
some particular story1 no more1 no less4
  ,it is difficult to state the relative

 inclusiveness of the novel without     
laying a false emphasis on its          
permissible scope and variety of        
content1 for the novel should be        
exclusive as well as inclusive4 ,that   
is1 it should not be a mere welter of   
people and what they do1 but should     
possess some single human significance1 
some primary reason for being1 by which 
its writer can test the availability of 
matter that suggests itself to him4     
,between the conciseness and singleness 
of ,the ,ebb-,tide and the unnecessary  
length and complexity of some of the    
,victorians lies a golden mean easier to
 recognize in specific books than to    
state abstractedly4 ,the ,ebb-,tide1    
though not a short story in point of    
length1 is somewhat brief1 and it is a  
short story in structure1 in point of   
the singleness of its story-idea1 the   
small number of its characters1 and the 
comparative simplicity of its action4   
,of course1 it is none the less a fine  
novel1 a fine long story2 the point is  

that there are thousands of other       
stories1 equally fine1 perhaps more     
humanly significant1 which cannot be    
written so concisely1 but which need not
 run to the length of ,david            
,copperfield1 ,the ,virginians1 or ,the 
,cloister and the ,hearth4 ,to attempt  
to set mechanical limits of length for  
the novel would be mere silliness1 but  
it is true that the average idea for a  
long story can be given complete and    
adequate expression in one or two       
hundred thousand words4 ,usually there  
is no need to write at much greater or  
inordinate length1 unless irrelevant    
matter is introduced for its own sake4  
,and the introduction of such matter for
 its own sake can only hinder the effect
 of the story itself on a reader4 ,it   
may render the book1 the mere sequence  
of words1 more interesting1 but         
irrelevant matter cannot render the     
story itself more interesting4 ,the     
distinction should be noted and         
realized1 for the novelist's aim is to  

interest through his story1 not merely  
to interest4  ,there is another way to  
approach the matter of the novel's      
relative inclusiveness and length1      
perhaps a better way4 ,where the        
novelist first conceives his story      
definitely as such1 as a course of      
events1 he should bring all matter which
 suggests itself for writing to the test
 of relation to the story4 ,he has only 
to write the story1 duly elaborated1 and
 thereby he will take care of the       
matters of length and complexity and    
inclusiveness without detached          
calculation to that end4 ,but if the    
novelist finds his initial idea in terms
 of a life or of a phase of society1 the
 idea does not plot or diagram the whole
 story for him4 ,he has yet to evolve   
the story as such1 and he may devise as 
short and simple a thing as ,the        
,ebb-,tide or as long and complicated a 
thing as ,tolstoi's ,war and ,peace4    
,usually it will be found1 ,i think1    
that the very long novel--,tom ,jones1  

,jean ,christophe1 ,david ,copperfield1 
,anna ,karenina1 ,les ,miserables1 ,the 
,virginians--was first conceived in     
terms of a life or a society1 rather    
than in terms of a definite story4 ,it  
is certainly true that only the life of 
an individual or the life of a society  
can serve to bind together the motley   
elements of a very long novel1 giving it
 some artistic coherence4 ,david        
,copperfield can be called one story in 
that it consists of ,copperfield's life 
and related matters1 but ,our ,mutual   
,friend is in no sense a single story4  
,it is merely a number of stories       
devised to be told together and         
therefore dovetailing to some extent4   
,it all comes down to this3 if the      
novelist conceives a definite story1 he 
has only to tell it1 but if he conceives
 a life or a society he has yet to      
devise his story4 ,and the matters which
 can have some relation to a life or a  
society are much more varied than those 
which can have some relation to a course

 of events4 ,in other words1 the        
conception of a story as such limits the
 writer's choice of matter4 ,if one     
starts with a story1 one can tell only  
the story4 ,if one starts with a life or
 a society1 one can write pretty much at
 large4  ,in discussing the short story1
 it was possible to state that it must  
embody one story-idea1 for the physical 
brevity of the form prohibits adequate  
development of more than a single story4
 ,but if ,i stated that the novel must  
embody one story-idea1 no more1 no less1
 the statement would be false1 for the  
length of the form is practically       
unlimited4 ,as ,dickens did in ,our     
,mutual ,friend and other books1 the    
novelist can tell together three or four
 unrelated stories if he so desires4 ,he
 has the space4 ,the question is not    
whether he can but whether he should    
tell more than one4 ,the answer is that 
he should confine himself to one4       
,perhaps a little supporting argument is
 called for4  ,the most obvious         

criticism of this limitation upon the   
novelist is that it savors strongly of  
artificiality1 rather than of art4 ,the 
reader may think of ,dickens himself1   
his marvelous people1 the world of      
delight in his books4 ,but ,dickens1 it 
may be said with all reverence1 was no  
story-teller4 ,his is a fictional world 
turned upside down4 ,his stories are    
less than nothing2 his major characters 
are less than nothing2 but his little   
people are gods4 ,all his books are mere
 cardboard beside the works of such a   
one as ,dostoievsky1 but in each        
book--with a few exceptions--there is   
some stupendous ,weller or ,micawber1   
not a man1 but a god4 ,one goes to      
,dickens almost as to vaudeville1 and   
,pickwick is his best book because it is
 no story4 ,in it ,weller and the others
 run wild unrestrained by the           
necessities of any predetermined course 
of events4 ,but a story is a            
predetermined course of events1 actually
 or in effect1 and the mere fact that   

,dickens could write poor stories and   
yet interest by his wonderful people    
does not falsify the technique of       
fiction4  ,again1 the fact that the     
novelist should confine himself to one  
story at a time does not debar him from 
following side-issues1 provided they    
have relation to the main course of     
events1 or from creating minor people   
like ,dickens'1 if he has the power4    
,dickens could have placed his people in
 real stories instead of in the weak    
fictions they serve to ennoble4         
,finally1 ,i will state abstractly the  
conditions from which result the        
artistic1 not the physical necessity    
that the novelist confine himself in    
each book to a single story-idea4  ,the 
aim to interest is the aim of fiction1  
long and short1 and the body of a       
writer's resources to accomplish the aim
 make up the body of fiction technique4 
,but the aim of the writer of plotted   
fiction is not simply to interest2 it is
 to interest through a story1 a course  

of events functioning together in that  
they embody some sort of problem4       
,leaving aside the matter of executive  
artistry1 and premising that the writer 
will realize to the full the            
possibilities of his story1 it is       
accurate to state that the interest a   
story will arouse will be in accordance 
with the human significance of the      
problem it embodies4 ,adequate fictional
 treatment of the problem to win love or
 to make a living will be more          
interesting than adequate fictional     
treatment of the problem to escape      
payment of an income tax4 ,and the      
possibilities of any problem of life to 
arouse a reader's interest can be       
realized to the full only by setting out
 that problem and nothing else4 ,only by
 showing the thing in isolation and high
 relief can the writer reveal to1 and   
force home upon a reader its ultimate   
significance4 ,if anything unrelated to 
the story or problem is brought out1    
something of the power of the story as  

such will be lost4 ,likewise1 if two or 
more stories or problems are each       
completely developed in one book1       
neither will have that singleness of    
appeal to a reader which is essential if
 each is to have maximum effect4  ,in   
other words1 a novel does not function  
as a mere physical spectacle2 being a   
story1 it must have a motive1 an        
artistic purpose2 and if it has more    
than one it will be at cross purposes as
 a work of art4 ,that is not a mere     
artistic defect4 ,it is a practical     
defect in that motive1 purpose1 and     
story will not have extreme effect4 ,nor
 is it to say that the novel may not be 
very complicated as to any or all of its
 three elements of people1 events1 and  
setting4 ,anna ,karenina is complicated 
enough1 in all conscience1 but every    
item of the novel has relation to its   
one story either in that it serves      
directly to develop the horrible tragedy
 of ,anna's life or in that it forwards 
the presentment of the society which she

 renounced4  ,the painter cannot put two
 different pictures side by side on the 
same canvas without hampering the effect
 of each2 still less can he commingle   
the two4 ,the architect cannot build on 
two designs at once4 ,nor can the       
novelist--if he would have each story   
realize to the full its inherent        
capacity to interest--combine different 
stories in the same book4 ,he can       
develop personality in great detail2 he 
can follow by-paths of action2 he can   
involve his minor characters in         
subplots2 but the main course of the    
story must be single1 not duplicate or  
triplicate1 that the whole may have     
point and significance4  ,the reader    
will observe that this book lays        
absolutely no restrictions on the       
conceptive faculty4 ,it preaches that   
the way to write fiction is to look for 
a story1 and1 when it is found1 to write
 it so as to give it full effect4 ,it   
may be a short story2 it may be a novel4
 ,it may have its genesis in a dream1 in

 a life1 in a situation1 in a society4  
,but1 whatever its nature1 whatever its 
length1 its effect on1 its interest for1
 a reader1 can result only from itself4 
,the story as such cannot be fortified  
by the introduction of foreign matter1  
although the interest of the writer's   
text as a mere sequence of words may be 
heightened thereby4 ,but the aim of the 
writer of novel or short story is to    
interest through his story as such1 not 
merely to interest4 ,a newspaper is     
interesting1 yet a newspaper is not a   
story1 however much fiction it may      
embody4  ,the novel or long story is apt
 to have a strong social emphasis simply
 because the interplay of society and   
the conflict of its members supply much 
more material for stories than the more 
isolated phases of human life4 ,the     
novelist is under no obligation to      
reproduce a social spectacle in each    
book1 but more often than not he will   
find that he must do so to bring out the
 full value of his conception4 ,it      

follows that he will do well to go about
 with an observant eye1 for it is the   
little details of the novel of manners  
that lend verisimilitude to the whole4  
,and such matters cannot be invented2   
they must have been observed2 for a     
reader knows them whether or not the    
writer does too4   ,,footnotes3  ,r ,for
 a plainer1 because less philosophical  
discussion of the fallacies of realism1 
the artistic philosophy1 see p4 #aii4   
,s ,the ,ebb-,tide is interesting in    
connection with the general question of 
plot4 ,its plot is the struggle within  
,robert ,herrick between an artificially
 stimulated resolution and an essential 
weakness of moral fibre4 ,the mere      
mechanical complication that he and his 
fellows steal a schooner laden with     
bottled water thinking her laden with   
champagne is no part of the plot1 only a
 circumstance of the action1 yet1 as    
plot is commonly understood1 the        
circumstance would be taken as the heart
 of the plot in itself4 ,also1 ,the     

,ebb-,tide is interesting in connection 
with the matter of realism and the      
fallacies of the cult4 ,the realists    
might claim the book1 but they would    
have a merry time to point any essential
 difference between it and ,the ,master 
of ,ballantrae1 which they would reject4
 ,and a distinction that can be         
justified only when applied to extreme  
types-say ,pride and ,prejudice and     
,frankenstein--is not very convincing4  
,,chapter ,,xiv  ,,conclusion           
,story and ,tale--,realism the          
,method--,realism the ,dogma--          
,philosophy of                          
,fiction--,interest--,power of the ,real
 ,problems     of ,life--,test of       
,merit--,aim of ,executive ,artistry--  
,verisimilitude--,ultimate ,artistic    
,significance of ,plot4   ,the purpose  
of this book has been to shed a little  
light on the essential technical        
processes of the art of fiction2 to     
state a general philosophy of fiction   
has not been my aim4 ,accordingly1 the  

text touches only incidentally upon the 
fundamental types of fiction and a      
writer's fundamental purposes in        
adopting any one of them as a medium for
 expression of himself or his           
conceptions4 ,partly to justify some of 
the text1 and partly because it may     
prove of practical service1 ,i shall    
state briefly a general theory or       
philosophy of fiction-not my theory1    
merely1 nor that of anyone else1 but    
simply the theory which is implied in   
the content and aim of the art itself4  
,the content of fiction is man and what 
he may experience1 in body1 mind1 and   
soul2 the aim of fiction is to interest4
 ,certain results follow1 but before    
stating them it will be well to clear   
the way a little4  ,i have stated that a
 story is a fiction with a plot1 and    
have defined a plot as a dramatic       
problem1 that is1 a course of events    
which function together as a whole in   
that they influence and are influenced  
by character or personality4 ,and       

nine-tenths of the technique of fiction 
is concerned with the object to develop 
a plot4 ,to develop a tale1 a fiction1  
long or short1 without a plot1 only     
direct narrative and descriptive writing
 is requisite2 it is the plot-element of
 a fiction1 with all its implications as
 to personality1 that forces the writer 
of a story--a fiction with a plot--to   
weave together cunningly each strand of 
his matter1 narrative1 exposition1      
dialogue1 description1 that the whole   
pattern may show fictionally real people
 doing in a fictionally real world what 
one might naturally expect from their   
natures and the circumstances of their  
lives4 ,the task is infinitely more     
difficult and delicate than to take a   
,sinbad the ,sailor or a ,cinderella    
through a course of happenings without  
essential relation to the nature of     
either person1 who is1 in each case1 a  
mere human focal point for the events to
 be precipitated upon4 ,accordingly1    
this book concentrates upon the fiction 

of plot1 or story1 rather than the      
fiction without plot1 or tale4 ,the     
technique of the fiction of plot        
comprehends and includes the technique  
of the tale1 which could be ignored here
 without loss4  ,whether or not a       
fiction possess a plot1 and is a story1 
or lacks a plot1 and is a tale1 it will 
be concerned with people and what they  
do1 the man and his acts4 ,long or      
short1 a fiction must deal with man1 at 
least with personality1 as do ,london's 
,the ,call of the ,wild and ,kipling's  
,the ,ship ,that ,found ,herself4 ,since
 fiction deals with man1 it deals both  
with physical and spiritual facts1 with 
the facts of the soul and the more      
tangible things of the body and the     
earth4 ,it results that either the      
spiritual or physical element of any    
fiction may largely outweigh the other1 
at least1 preponderate over it4 ,that   
is1 the long story may be what is known 
as a novel or what is known as a        
romance1 and the brief story may reveal 

the fate of the spirit rather than the  
fate of the body and mind4,t  ,precisely
 at this point one encounters a         
difficulty raised by critical comment on
 fiction1 the whole complex of          
obscurantism about realism and          
romanticism4 ,instead of wasting space  
in trying to unravel the threads of the 
tangle as stated by those who have      
knotted it1 it will be much easier and  
much more profitable to state a few     
facts that will demonstrate the         
essential fallacy of such discussion4   
,in the first place1 realism            
characterizes a method1 one that might  
better be called the method of stating  
the concrete in detail4 ,if a story is  
concerned largely with the more common  
actualities of everyday life1 it is     
possible that its writer may best create
 his illusion of reality by itemizing   
the physical facts in some detail4  ,in 
the second place1 realism has been      
elevated from a mere technical method   
into an artistic creed or dogma4 ,the   

assumption is made that only the more   
tangible matters of life are realities1 
and that fiction should seek to present 
only the real4  ,it is unnecessary to do
 more than state that the first term of 
this assumption is false4 ,not only are 
there facts of the spirit as well as    
facts of the body and the phenomenal    
universe1 but the spiritual fact is     
precisely the fact which is fictionally 
significant4 ,fiction deals with man for
 man1 and man is man just and only      
because he has an intelligence and a    
soul1 enabling him to impose his will   
upon brute matter and to rise superior  
to evil fortune4  ,the second term of   
the realists' assumption is that fiction
 should present only the real4 ,and the 
essential fallacy of the assumption is  
this3 it ignores the fact that the first
 aim of fiction is to interest4         
,philosophy1 not fiction1 must give us a
 test of truth and reality4             
,irrespective of what is real--a        
question that the confirmed realist     

answers falsely1 because partially and  
exclusively--one who denies the reality 
and significance of the spiritual life  
of man1 and therefore refuses to give it
 fictional treatment1 debars himself    
from presenting much interesting matter4
  ,it might not be too dull1            
incidentally1 to go into the question of
 how much the world of the spirit shall 
be allowed to impose its necessities on 
the world of the flesh1 but the matter  
is subordinate1 part of the general     
question of verisimilitude4 ,frequently1
 to give concrete fictional treatment to
 a fact of the soul1 the writer will    
have to falsify deliberately as to      
physical facts1 as ,stevenson did in    
,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde4  ,realism1 
the technical method expanded into an   
artistic dogma1 has much to answer for4 
,in the hands of the ,french1 it has    
been responsible for much that is       
uselessly unpleasant and brutal2 in the 
hands of ,english and ,american writers1
 it has been responsible for much       

dullness4 ,the unpleasant facts and     
petty concerns of life alike are        
significant only in relation to the     
persons they affect2 in themselves1 they
 are dreary or repellent items4 ,if the 
ugly fact has no relation to the story  
as such1 it should not be given place2  
if the commonplace detail has no        
relation to the course of the story1 and
 will perform no office in lending      
reality to the fiction in a reader's    
eyes1 it should not be transcribed4     
,the misconceptions that cluster about  
realism the dogma affect adversely both 
the writer of long fiction and the      
writer of short fiction4 ,but the writer
 of short fiction1 if he has read even a
 little critical comment in an endeavor 
to inform himself of the essential      
nature of his art1 will have been       
confused and misdirected by the eternal 
quarrel over the short story1 what it   
is1 whether it is a distinct literary   
form1 its totality or unity of effect1  
and so forth4 ,i have said much on this 

head in discussing the short story1 and 
shall not repeat the argument here4 ,it 
is enough to say that the short story   
most certainly is a distinct literary   
form1 in that it is brief enough to be  
read at one sitting and embodies a plot 
or dramatic problem1 which is not true  
of the tale4 ,but its distinction from  
other forms of fiction1 plotted and     
unplotted alike1 does not lie in its    
totality or unity of effect1 except in  
the case of the short story of          
atmosphere4 ,the dramatic short story1  
whether it stresses character or the    
event1 differs from the novel or romance
 not in that it possesses a plot--so do 
the longer types--but in that it is     
brief4 ,and it differs from the         
tale--which also is brief--in that it   
possesses a plot4 ,the short story of   
atmosphere is abnormal1 and a type in   
itself4  ,as was stated in the chapter  
on the short story1 the only sense in   
which the dramatic short story can be   
said to possess unity is purely verbal4 

,as a mere sequence of words1 it        
possesses unity in that each word is    
essential to the story4 ,that is not to 
say that the matter of the story1 its   
people1 situations1 and settings1 is    
unified1 whatever the word may mean so  
applied4 ,the form is verbally coherent1
 but not necessarily coherent in        
substance1 except that it embodies one  
plot--or story-idea1 no more1 no less4  
,the one story-idea may involve great   
diversity in its three elements of      
people1 events1 and setting4 ,it would  
not be worth while to discuss the       
general false emphasis upon the unity of
 the short story were it not for the    
strong tendency of such discussion to   
lead the writer to devise stories too   
simple really to interest1 apart from   
the appeal to their characters4  ,it    
seems to me that the question of realism
 and the question of the dramatic short 
story's assumed unity of substance are  
the two pitfalls into which the feet of 
the writer of fiction who reads the mass

 of comment on his art are most apt to  
stray4 ,it is difficult enough to find  
an interesting story without having one 
eye blinded by a false artistic         
philosophy4 ,generally1 in reading      
critical comment on specific stories and
 authors and on the art of fiction1 the 
writer of fiction will do well to       
remember that such matter is written for
 the general reader1 not for the        
practitioner of the art1 and that the   
poor critic must say something6 ,he     
cannot discuss technique1 for he would  
be both dull and unintelligible to the  
general reader4 ,so he says what he     
does4  ,it remains to state a true      
artistic philosophy for the writer of   
fiction1 that philosophy which is       
implied in the content and aim of the   
art of fiction itself4 ,the content of  
fiction is man and what he possibly or  
conceivably may experience2 the aim of  
fiction is to interest4 ,it would be    
more accurate to state that the content 
of fiction is personality and what it   

may experience--witness any animal      
story1 or ,kipling's story of a         
steamship1 cited above--but fiction     
deals so exclusively with man that the  
first statement may stand4  ,since the  
content of fiction is man and what he   
possibly or conceivably may experience1 
the writer of fiction is at liberty to  
go to fairyland or ,south ,boston1 to   
heaven1 hell1 or the stock-exchange1 for
 the material for his story4 ,he is     
subject to no limitations1 for whatever 
he can conceive is open to his use4 ,if 
he does choose to leave the homely      
earth1 however1 he cannot return until  
he has finished the story4 ,if his story
 moves in a fairy world subject only to 
physical laws of its own1 such basic    
conditions of the story must continue to
 operate4 ,but that is a matter of      
achieving the aim to interest rather    
than a matter of content1 of telling the
 story so that it will seem real even   
though it is unbelievable4  ,the reader 
will note that the content of fiction   

gives him opportunity to write so       
terrifically realistic a thing as       
,dostoievsky's ,house of the ,dead1 so  
nobly romantic a thing as ,hawthorne's  
,scarlet ,letter1 or so finely fantastic
 a thing as ,carroll's ,alice in        
,wonderland4 ,the sole limitation upon  
his work is his own conceptive and      
executive power1 unless he foolishly    
subjects himself to the bondage of some 
special school4 ,as time goes on1 his   
own essential bent of mind and heart    
will gradually reveal to him the sort of
 matter he can handle best4  ,the       
influence upon the fiction writer's     
philosophy of the aim and necessity to  
interest may now be discussed4  ,an     
important point is that there are       
degrees of interest4 ,a strongly novel  
course of events will catch and hold a  
reader's interest1 but the interest     
aroused by a fiction presenting a novel 
course of events and nothing else is not
 quite the same thing as the interest   
aroused by a story which shows real men 

and women meeting the real problems of  
life1 material or spiritual4 ,the       
interest aroused by mere novelty is a   
matter largely of the intelligence2 it  
tends to be evanescent because it has   
little or no relation to the emotional  
nature4 ,on the other hand1 the other   
sort of interest1 that aroused by the   
spectacle of real men and women meeting 
the real problems of life1 is deepened  
and intensified by the emotional element
 of sympathy and hate for lovable and   
hateful people4 ,and the real1 though   
perhaps intrinsically simple problems of
 life--to make a living1 win love1      
overcome temptation--are precisely the  
problems which are humanly significant  
because universally experienced4 ,the   
story which shows real people struggling
 with such a problem will have a keener 
interest for a reader through his       
familiarity with its matter in personal 
experience4 ,such a story appeals to the
 emotions both through its people and   
through its theme4  ,this matter is well

 worth dwelling upon1 for1 apart from   
merit in point of executive artistry1   
the only standard whereby a story can be
 estimated as relatively significant or 
relatively insignificant is the standard
 of interest1 that is1 interest for the 
ideal reader1 the reader of open and    
able mind and sympathetic heart4 ,the   
aim of fiction is to interest1 and the  
story which most deeply interests most  
completely fulfils the ideals of the    
art4 ,les ,miserables is a greater book 
than any one of ,jules ,verne's         
mechanical romances1 not because it is  
better written1 and not because it is a 
terrific indictment of society--as a    
modern reviewer might put it--but simply
 because its people and matter generally
 arouse the most poignant emotional and 
intellectual interest in a reader       
qualified to feel its power4 ,the       
interest aroused by ,verne's sort of    
story--,h4 ,g4 ,wells' earlier work and 
,conan ,doyle's ,the ,lost ,world are   
more recent examples--is real1 but      

almost exclusively intellectual1        
therefore relatively weak and           
evanescent4 ,books such as ,les         
,miserables cannot be forgotten2 the    
details of the story may vanish from the
 mind with time2 but a reader will      
retain through life the memory of the   
book's power1 the memory of the         
eagerness with which he followed the    
fortunes of its people4  ,between       
masterpieces that will incorporate their
 essence and memory with a reader's very
 life--books such as ,les ,miserables   
and ,the ,scarlet ,letter1 to name      
together the utterly dissimilar--and    
stories that can serve only to while    
away an idle hour or two1 there are     
fictions of every sort and condition1   
the product of all sorts of aims and    
philosophies1 artistic and moral4 ,apart
 from the matter of executive artistry1 
each must take rank as relatively good  
or relatively feeble in accordance with 
its power to evoke interest4 ,some--as  
the detective story or any story of     

ratiocination--have in high degree the  
power to call forth a reader's          
intellectual interest2 some--as the     
fictional comedy of manners--may        
interest slightly the mind through their
 plot and the heart through their       
people2 but each is significant as a    
fiction solely by virtue of its power to
 enthrall a reader of open mind and     
sympathetic heart4  ,if the power to    
interest the ideal reader is the sole   
test of a story's merit as a            
fiction--and no other test can withstand
 examination even for a moment--it      
inevitably follows that to be a         
masterpiece a story1 long or short1 must
 show fictionally real men and women    
coping with the material and spiritual  
problems of our common human destiny4   
,no other matter can arouse the deepest 
and most abiding interest in a reader4  
,however perfect a writer's technique1  
if he chooses to write of physical or   
spiritual matters that are relatively   
trivial and insignificant1 he cannot    

hope to do the finest work4 ,of course1 
it is unnecessary to say that the writer
 of fiction rests under no moral or     
artistic obligation to attempt a        
masterpiece in each story he undertakes4
 ,he is under obligation to attempt to  
interest in some degree4  ,thus far1 in 
discussing the influence upon the       
fiction writer's philosophy of the aim  
and necessity that fiction interest1    
emphasis has been laid upon the question
 of matter4 ,but from the aim and       
necessity results the whole executive   
technique4  ,the general proposition is 
that significant matter cannot arouse a 
reader's deepest interest unless it is  
presented to him effectively1 nor can   
relatively insignificant matter arouse  
whatever interest is attainable by it   
unless it also is presented effectively4
 ,the writer of a story must seek to    
invest it with reality in the eyes of a 
reader1 and his resources to perform    
this difficult task make up the body of 
the technique of fiction4  ,it follows  

that the best story in point of         
executive artistry is the story which   
realizes most fully the inherent        
capacity of its matter to interest4     
,however significant the content of a   
story1 if the writer's hand falter in   
execution1 something of the fiction's   
appeal for a reader will be lost4  ,the 
general aim of executive artistry or    
technique is to invest the story with   
such reality that a reader will himself 
see so much of the thing as is physical 
and feel so much of it as is emotional  
or spiritual1 for only thus can be      
evoked the full measure of interest     
inherent in the matter4 ,unless the     
writer's words constitute in themselves 
a primary spectacle and experience for a
 reader1 instead of a mere secondary    
relation1 the story cannot have full    
effect4 ,a reader will not accept the   
mere say-so of the writer1 who must     
spread upon his page the very stuff of  
life itself1 rather than mere words4    
,how difficult the task1 it is          

unnecessary to dwell upon1 but one thing
 should be noted4 ,this necessary power 
to precipitate reality1 this literary   
power1 only infrequently involves       
writing in a literary manner or style4  
,the essence of literary power is to    
present the particular matter fittingly1
 not artificially4 ,if the particular   
story concerns simple1 everyday people  
and simple1 everyday events1 it should  
be told in simple1 everyday language1   
for such language will serve best to    
precipitate the matter for a reader4    
,literary power is the power to adapt   
the word to the matter1 not the power of
 fine writing4 ,some stories call for   
little verbal elaboration1 while such a 
thing as ,the ,fall of the ,house of    
,usher exhausts the capacities of       
language1 but whatever the nature of any
 story1 its writer's artistry and       
technical capacity are measurable by the
 degree in which he succeeds in endowing
 it with reality and verisimilitude1 not
 by the verbal noise and agility he     

makes and displays4  ,verisimilitude1 of
 course1 is a relative term4 ,the matter
 of the story of everyday life is       
essentially tangible and concrete1 and  
its writer can invest it with           
tangibility and concreteness in a degree
 higher than is attainable by the writer
 who deals with fantasies and dreams4   
,the measure of verisimilitude          
attainable by any story is limited by   
its content4 ,if it deals with fine-spun
 fancies1 it cannot attain the hearty   
solidity of the story that deals with   
the matter of fact4 ,no writer can do   
more than precipitate his conception in 
his words2 if the conception itself is  
essentially airy and impalpable1 so must
 the story be airy and impalpable4 ,in  
fact1 the perfect fictional illusion is 
that which most nearly produces on a    
reader the exact impression the matter  
would produce if actually experienced4  
,if a story is strictly unbelievable--of
 course any story is conceivable1 or it 
would not have been written--the writer 

can do no more than create an illusion  
of fictional verity1 not of literal     
verity4 ,that is1 a reader will accept  
the author's basic assumptions and the  
whole story as well1 if it is developed 
logically from the assumptions4 ,any    
fairy tale is an instance of what is    
meant4  ,i will mention briefly one     
other consequence of the aim and        
necessity that fiction interest4        
,usually the story1 or fiction embodying
 a plot1 will interest more deeply than 
the mere tale4 ,therefore the writer of 
fiction usually will choose to write    
stories rather than tales4 ,the bare    
fact is that the highest type of        
fiction1 the fiction of greatest power  
over a reader through its human         
significance1 is adequately plotted     
simply because it does show real people 
meeting a real problem of life4  ,at    
this point becomes apparent how much    
that grossly abused word plot stands    
for4 ,broadly1 a plot is a dramatic     
problem1 and a dramatic problem results 

from the opposition of man and man1 the 
opposition of man and nature1 or        
conflict within a single man4 ,the      
element of mere complication is not     
essential to a plot1 not being essential
 to a dramatic problem4 ,dramatic       
situation is perhaps a better term than 
plot1 for it has none of the            
associations of complication that cling 
to the latter4 ,even dramatic situation 
is objectionable1 because it has        
connotations of the state1 and suggests 
an acuteness and tensity1 a general     
brevity and pitch of struggle that is   
not essential to fiction4 ,robinson     
,crusoe1 for instance1 though not very  
tense1 is adequately plotted2 it shows  
man's struggle for bread1 shelter1 and  
raiment4 ,don ,quixote is adequately    
plotted2 it shows man in the grip of a  
dream1 and so at odds with all the      
world4,u ,as stated1 all great fiction  
is adequately plotted simply because it 
shows real people faced by the real     
problems of life4 ,the plot of a story  

of worth stands for its author's effort 
to isolate one of life's significant    
elements or problems1 and1 by showing it
 in high relief1 to invest it with that 
certain dignity and momentousness1 as of
 life raised to a high power1 whereby a 
reader may be laid under a spell more   
absolute than any to which the confused 
and shifting spectacle of life itself   
can subject him4 ,in the last analysis1 
great fiction does more than to         
interest2 it whispers to a reader of the
 significance and worth of human life1  
and heartens him to live his own4       
,,footnotes3  ,t ,in a sense1 the mind  
is of the body rather than of the soul1 
where it functions in the common        
business of life4  ,u ,dostoievsky's    
,the ,idiot should be compared with ,don
 ,quixote1 for the fundamental theme of 
each book is the same4     ,,appendix   
,,appendix ,a  ,,suggestions ,,for ,,the
 ,,student   ,it is surely obvious that 
the only way to learn how to write      
is--to write4 ,the only way to learn how

 to do anything is to try until the     
secret is conquered1 and the more       
difficult the feat or art the longer    
must be the apprenticeship4  ,stepping  
from abstract study of technique to the 
actual writing of a story is a violent  
transition4 ,the student has only a very
 general knowledge1 and now he must give
 it narrowly specific application4 ,he  
has read a brief discussion of the      
mechanics of the art of describing a    
person1 for instance1 has read          
,stevenson's description of ,villon and 
his fellows2 now he himself must write a
 description of ,napoleon or ,lizzie    
,smith or ,john ,arthur ,mc,allister2   
and he desires to write as well as      
,stevenson4  ,the only thing to do is to
 go at the task patiently and with      
courage4 ,put the best of you at the    
moment into each thing you undertake1   
but do not expect each single item of   
your work to show an appreciable        
advance1 and do not be discouraged if   
each thing you do seems as poor or no   

better than what has gone before4 ,your 
first1 second1 tenth1 or fifteenth story
 may be patent trash1 in point of       
execution1 but never mind4 ,after a year
 or so of intelligent and directed      
writing the results of your study and   
application of technique will begin to  
appear4 ,it is impossible that they     
should show themselves at once1 for     
technical study will cramp and constrain
 you until you have gained some real    
facility in writing in accordance with  
the canons of art4 ,that is true of all 
arts1 of course4 ,no tool can be used   
properly without practice4  ,perhaps you
 may desire to submit your practice work
 to magazines and publishers as you go  
along1 and if you mean to have a serious
 try at the game it is advisable that   
you do so4 ,the fact that you are       
writing for submission will serve as a  
stimulus2 you will receive helpful      
incidental criticisms from editors1 if  
your work shows promise2 and1 above all1
 you will gradually acquire the         

necessary knowledge of the market1 its  
needs1 tendencies1 and desires4         
,however1 ,i do not believe it advisable
 for one who is trying to learn to write
 to ape deliberately the tone of        
particular magazines1 with an eye to    
possible sales4 ,that is a trick of the 
trade--and permissible enough--but it is
 no way to learn to write fiction4 ,the 
skilled hand can direct his efforts so1 
but the apprentice had better center his
 efforts upon finding some good story   
and upon writing it to the best he knows
 how4  ,a few specific bits of advice as
 to how to go about practicing the art  
of fiction may not be useless4          
,technique is conceptive1 constructive1 
and executive1 and the beginner should  
exercise his latent powers in each      
department4  ,the technique of          
conception is practiced unconsciously by
 anyone who seeks to find a story for   
writing1 but exercise of the conceptive 
faculty should not be limited to the    
times when you desire actually to write4

 ,you should form a habit of thinking   
creatively1 of mentally shaping into    
stories the material offered by         
observation1 thought1 and reading4 ,if  
this is done1 and notes kept of your    
promising ideas1 you will have on hand  
constantly considerable amount of       
material1 and you will not be forced to 
waste time in casting about for an idea 
when the spirit moves you to write4     
,moreover1 ,i think most essentially    
feeble stories are stories conceived and
 thrown together on the spur of the     
moment as the writer sits and looks at a
 sheet of white paper1 and if you have  
five1 ten1 or a hundred stories more or 
less completely blocked out in your     
files or in your mind1 you can choose   
for writing one fitted to your mood and 
also worth the writing4 ,it is almost   
impossible to judge the worth of an idea
 immediately after it is conceived2 by  
separating the conceptive and executive 
processes you will be led to avoid much 
waste labor in developing what is       

essentially weak4  ,a more mechanical   
exercise of the conceptive faculty1 but 
a very valuable one1 is to shape and    
re-shape what ,i will term abstract     
stories4 ,as stated1 a story or plot is 
a dramatic conflict1 showing the        
opposition of man and nature1 man and   
man1 or opposed traits in the same man4 
,the process of developing an abstract  
story is to select from a list of human 
traits and motives two or more which    
present an essential opposition1 such as
 avarice and generosity1 then to seek to
 give the basic abstract opposition most
 effective concrete fictional expression
 by devising persons to be invested with
 the traits and by devising a course of 
action to show the persons in conflict  
under the influence of the traits4      
,thus1 taking the traits of avarice and 
generosity1 husband and wife1 for       
instance1 may each be endowed with one1 
and a course of events devised to give  
the necessary conflict between them     
expression in action4 ,the writer of    

fiction who will perform this exercise  
now and then1 as opportunity offers1 not
 only will chance upon much valuable    
material2 he also will acquire a firm   
grasp on plot1 the story-essence of a   
story1 and will be led to realize that  
mere complication or ingenuity is the   
least of a plot4 ,the exercise is       
valuable because it is the only possible
 way to exercise the conceptive faculty 
in detail4 ,a story-idea gained from    
observation usually is seized as a      
whole1 but a story-idea gained by       
manipulating human traits and motives is
 built up from nothing by combining its 
elements4 ,the story built up in this   
way probably will involve a social      
conflict1 a conflict between man and    
man1 rather than between man and nature 
or opposed traits in the same man1      
because the opportunity for combination 
is greatest in the first case4  ,the    
next point is how to exercise the       
constructive faculty1 how to practice   
constructive technique1 and here you    

have many resources1 only a few of which
 need be mentioned4  ,in the first      
place1 you can study the ways the       
masters have put together their stories2
 this1 though not quite practice1 is    
almost as valuable1 if conscientiously  
and properly done1 and is a necessary   
basis for practice4 ,for obvious reasons
 your laboratory analysis of fiction    
must confine itself largely to the short
 story1 though you can go through the   
process mentally and less thoroughly in 
reading longer work4  ,provide yourself 
with a collection of short stories in   
one volume and a few from current       
magazines that you think good1 also with
 a number of different colored inks or  
crayons4 ,read a story through a couple 
of times1 that you may know definitely  
what it is1 and then read it again      
critically1 underlining every word1     
except those which serve only to forward
 the progress of the story as a mere    
course of events1 and striking out every
 word or passage which seems to you     

inessential to the whole4 ,use a single 
color to mark a single process1 and     
neglect the superficial character of the
 words1 whether they be narrative1      
descriptive1 or serve to embody         
dialogue4 ,thus1 dialogue may serve to  
forward the progress of the story as a  
course of events1 in which case it      
should not be underlined1 may serve to  
characterize1 in which case it should be
 underlined with the color taken to mark
 characterization1 or may serve to touch
 in setting1 in which case it should be 
underlined with the color taken to mark 
any passage where the author strives to 
touch in the environment4 ,it will not  
be profitable to be too minute1 to      
employ too many colors2 the matters you 
will require to make visually           
distinctive are not many4 ,straight     
narration1 including the whole physical 
progress of the story1 whether detailed 
or general1 requires no color2          
characterization1 including the process 
of individualizing a person as to his   

nature1 as to his appearance1 and as to 
his speech1 requires one2 the process of
 touching in setting requires another2  
the process of preparing a reader       
emotionally for succeeding events       
requires a third2 the process of        
intensifying atmosphere--if the story is
 of atmosphere--requires a fourth4 ,and 
mark each passage in accordance with its
 main purpose or function1 for many     
passages will subserve more than one    
end4  ,a number of stories treated in   
this way will be most profitable to     
study4 ,in particular1 each one will    
display graphically and yet in detail   
wherein lies its value as a fiction1    
whether in its people1 in its events1 or
 in its setting1 and will show plainly  
the cunning blending of elements which  
is at once the fact and the result of   
the technique of construction4  ,in the 
second place1 you can exercise your     
faculty of construction by closing the  
decorated book or magazine and trying to
 reproduce two or three of the stories  

you have studied4 ,in doing this no     
effort should be made to transcribe from
 memory2 realize1 rather1 the basic     
theme of each story1 the general        
character of its people1 and the main   
course of its events1 and strive to     
produce as effective a thing from such  
materials as did the author4 ,the very  
great value of this sort of practice    
work lies in the fact that you have a   
positive standard of comparison ready   
for your story when it is written4      
,place yours and the original side by   
side1 and you can see precisely where   
you have failed1 if you feel that you   
have4 ,in examining your own work1 look 
to the matter of expression less than to
 the matter of construction2 see if you 
have realized the necessity to build    
character here1 to touch in setting     
there1 even if your attempt to do so has
 failed in a degree through lack of     
executive deftness4  ,in the third      
place1 the faculty of construction can  
be exercised in original work1 and to do

 so does not necessarily involve writing
 a complete story4 ,ten stories can be  
blocked out and roughly shaped in the   
time it would take to write one1 and the
 more rapid process is preferable for   
the beginner because it will teach him  
that the first conception is not usually
 the best conception4 ,write            
thousand-word outlines of ten stories as
 you have opportunity1 put them aside   
for a while1 and then see if you cannot 
re-shape their people1 re-devise and    
re-order their events1 to make them more
 effective1 more interesting fictions4  
,in blocking out a story do not state   
happenings merely2 indicate your        
people's natures1 their looks1 their    
speech1 and indicate where you would    
touch in setting1 depict character by   
action1 speech1 or description1 or hint 
to a reader the emotional quality of    
what is to come4  ,it will take a very  
real degree of courage and perseverance 
to carry out a course of practice in    
conceptive and constructive technique   

long enough to accomplish its end4 ,but 
if you will lay out for yourself along  
the lines indicated here such a course  
of study and practice1 and then will    
perform the necessary work1 you will    
certainly gain more insight into the    
essential processes of fiction than you 
can acquire merely by accepting at face 
value such story-ideas as may come to   
you and by writing them out one after   
the other4 ,in particular1 you will     
acquire the faculty to re-mould and     
re-shape your material1 instead of      
seizing each idea too uncritically4 ,and
 that is half the battle1 for it is     
precisely the attitude and habit of the 
professional as contrasted with the     
attitude and habit of the amateur4      
,little need be said as to the best way 
to practice the technique of execution4 
,when you find or devise a story that   
you feel is truly worth the writing1    
write it as best you can1 after careful 
and directed planning4 ,you can also try
 to reproduce the work of others1 and   

again the great value of this sort of   
practice lies in your having a positive 
standard of comparison ready for your   
work when it is written4 ,or you can    
practice piecemeal1 if you have the     
necessary enthusiasm1 can go about with 
a notebook in your pocket1 as did       
,stevenson1 and try to precipitate in   
telling words the casual impressions    
that come to you4 ,at all events1 write 
from a primary spectacle1 whether of the
 imagination or of actuality1 and try to
 reproduce something definite in your   
words rather than to string together    
vociferous but meaningless phrases4     
,,appendix ,b  ,,suggestions ,,for      
,,teachers   ,the instructor in fiction 
technique has my hearty sympathy4 ,his  
must be all the woes of manuscript      
reader1 editor1 and friend of the author
 rolled into one4  ,it would serve no   
purpose to list here the inherent       
difficulties of the business of teaching
 the art of the story1 such as that made
 by the fact that the instructor must   

deal with a number of individuals       
differing not only in point of powers   
but in point of earnestness4 ,but there 
is reason to note one thing4 ,the aim of
 the course should not be academic4 ,it 
should not be allowed to degenerate into
 a course in the appreciation of        
fiction1 the most constant danger to    
which lecturing and abstract discussion 
on fiction technique is subject4 ,the   
student should not be permitted for a   
moment1 even1 to become merely the      
appraising connoisseur rather than the  
humble practitioner of the art4 ,such   
shifting of viewpoint is fatal4         
,history can be taught piecemeal2 so can
 mathematics and a hundred other        
subjects2 but the art of fiction cannot1
 even if it is teachable at all4 ,the   
one great secret of the art of fiction  
is the art of construction1 and it will 
profit a class little to assign short   
exercises in handling specific elements 
of a story1 the elements of personality1
 event1 or setting4 ,the whole secret of

 fiction writing is to blend all these  
matters into an interesting and         
significant whole1 and the only way to  
seek or impart it is to construct and   
write or to require the class to        
construct and write whole stories4 ,and 
the proper use of a text-book1 aside    
from general study by the class and the 
discussion of reading-assignments1 is   
for reference in criticising the stories
 that have been written by and read     
before the class4  ,the general aim of  
the teacher should be to keep the       
student writing1 but writing with a     
definite aim4 ,the simplest sort of     
story to write1 of course1 is the story 
of plain action1 and1 concomitantly with
 discussion of plot1 it will be         
advisable to outline for writing two or 
three relatively simple stories4 ,choose
 these from magazines not too recent2   
give the class the main course of       
events1 the people1 and the setting to  
work from2 and read the original story  
when reading and discussing the work of 

the class1 for a fixed standard of      
comparison is extremely valuable4 ,as   
the course proceeds1 more complicated   
stories can be outlined for             
reproduction1 and from the first it will
 be useful to require the student to    
hand in with the story he has written an
 outline of a story of the same general 
type1 but original with himself4 ,after 
telling the class where they may find   
each story they have unconsciously      
worked upon1 state its chief values as  
succinctly as possible1 and point out   
wherein each student's work has or has  
not realized such values1 and also      
indicate any value in the class-work not
 present in the original4 ,incidentally1
 point out the merits and defects of the
 original outlines handed in with the   
complete stories4 ,of course1 the whole 
business must be highly selective2      
discuss fully a little of the best work1
 rather than say a few inadequate words 
as to each student's4  ,as the          
opportunity offers1 it will be advisable

 to engage in oral story-building with  
the class4 ,state two or more traits or 
motives that involve a conflict1 and    
then call upon individuals to outline a 
story presenting the dramatic           
opposition4 ,or assign for reading a    
particular newspaper of particular date1
 and require individuals first to state 
what news item seems to offer the best  
suggestion for a story and then to      
outline the story suggested by it4 ,this
 sort of work is extremely valuable in  
itself and to keep the class from       
forgetting that they are trying to learn
 the secret to find1 develop1 and write 
good stories4  ,finally1 as to the      
matter of original work4 ,when the      
student is asked completely to develop  
and write a story of his own1 it will be
 best to let him work in any direction  
he pleases1 rather than to require him  
to show some particular type of story4  
,the matter of type can be touched on in
 discussion4 ,and1 to emphasize the     
importance of construction1 it will be  

well to require submission of a         
completely developed outline of each    
story before writing1 also to discuss   
and re-shape these with the class1      
stating their outstanding values and    
weaknesses4 ,the general endeavor should
 be to impress upon each student the    
fact that the material of fiction is    
infinitely plastic1 so that he should   
shape and re-shape his conception before
 writing until he is certain that he has
 exhausted its possibilities4 ,the      
matter of verbal execution should not be
 given any great emphasis simply because
 it cannot be treated in class with any 
great profit4 ,the instructor can say   
that this passage is bad and that good1 
hardly more4 ,but a poorly constructed  
story can be taken apart and rearranged 
more effectively1 and the process can be
 grasped by the student because it is   
somewhat mechanical4 ,furthermore1 the  
technique of fiction and the technique  
of verbal expression are different      
matters1 and the instructor in the first

 will be wise if he leaves the matter of
 nice expression to the instructor in   
the second4 ,of course1 obvious verbal  
crudities in class work should be       
pointed out4  ,the real service that a  
course in technique can perform for an  
earnest student is threefold4 ,it can   
lead him to realize keenly that the aim 
of fiction is to interest1 that this aim
 can be attained most completely by     
presentment of a human conflict or      
problem1 and that adequate fictional    
presentment of such a conflict1 problem1
 or plot is to be achieved only by a    
cunning blending of the elements of     
personality1 event1 and setting4 ,that  
course in fiction technique is the best 
course which does the most to open the  
eyes of the student to the essential    
nature of the art and most definitely   
shows him the matters he must bear in   
mind in putting together a story4 ,if he
 leaves the hands of the instructor with
 a knowledge of the fundamentals of     
construction1 the instructor will have  

done well4     ,,appendix ,c  ,,to      
,,write ,a ,,story   ,,conceptive       
,,technique      7#a7 ,find your story1 
a fiction exhibiting personality in     
conflict with its environment1 with     
another personality1 or with     itself4
      7#b7 ,realize precisely what      
constitutes the plot--what opposition   
between what forces of personality or   
nature is the influence     which gives 
fictional significance to the sequence  
of incidents     or events that have    
first come to mind as the story4        
7#c7 ,realize the characters1 major and 
minor2 that is1 discover     just what  
attributes of theirs must be developed  
by direct     statement or by inference 
from action in order to give the plot   
an adequate1 concrete1 specific         
presentment4      7#d7 ,having grasped  
the plot1 the essence of the story1 and 
all     its implications1 and having    
realized the individual people who      
alone can present it convincingly1      
scrutinize closely the events     of the

 story1 as they first were conceived1 to
 discover whether     their             
rearrangement or entire change may not  
result in a     combination presenting  
the plot more adequately and more       
forcefully than the combination that    
first suggested the plot4      7#e7     
,having blocked out the fiction thus1   
consider and determine     from whose   
viewpoint it may best be told4          
,,constructive ,,technique      7#a7    
,arrange the significant events of the  
story in sequence with     a due but not
 forced regard to the necessities of    
climax1 that     is1 increasing tensity 
of the plot-struggle4      7#b7         
,consider how best to link together the 
major happenings1 and     endeavor to   
devise and manipulate the minor events  
so that they     may serve a double     
purpose1 first1 to lead from major event
 to     major event1 second1 to develop 
the characters2 remember that a         
story is a physical presentment of a    
spiritual thing1 the     plot-struggle1 

and that personality should function in 
the small     as well as in the great   
events4      7#c7 ,determine precisely  
the ending toward which to work1 and let
     it coincide with the termination of
 the plot-struggle4      7#d7 ,apportion
 the length of the story among its      
several     happenings1 those main      
events which give physical presentment  
to     the plot and so incidentally     
develop or exhibit character1 and       
those minor events which only develop   
character or merely aid     the physical
 progress of the story4   ,,executive   
,,technique      7#a7 ,determine the    
style or manner of writing for which the
 story     calls1 and maintain it when  
once pitched upon4      7#b7 ,write     
vividly only where emphasis is called   
for by the     event2 do not be afraid  
to narrate in general terms where the   
story does not call for detail2 and     
think less of the word than     of the  
thing you visualize4 ,let the story flow
 before your eye     and sound in your  

ear as to an actual observer or         
listener2     transcribe only what he   
would see1 hear1 smell or think under   
the influence of the particular         
circumstances4      7#c7 ,avoid all     
artificialities1 in description1 in the 
speech of     characters1 even in their 
names and in the undue repetition of    
verbs of utterance--he said1 she said4  
7#d7 ,re-write1 or touch up in          
manuscript4      7#e7 ,after a week or  
more1 when other matters have shaken the
     mind from the ruts it has worn for 
itself in planning and     writing the  
story1 re-read it critically to discover
 whether it     is worth-while and      
whether it cannot be improved4          
,,index       ,action1 #aje1 #aci1 #adf1
 #adh4      ,action1 in novel and short 
story1 #aij4      ,adventure1 #cb4      
,alice in ,wonderland1 #bjc4            
,almayer's ,folly1 #afa1 #afc4          
,anna ,karenina1 #aib1 #aie4            
,artificiality1 #he4      ,artistry1    
#ii1 #ahg1 #ahh1 #bjf4      ,atmosphere 

,definition1 #aeb4       ,atmospheric   
value1 #aed4       ,tone of story1 #aef4
       ,preparation for climax1 #aef4   
,examples1 #aeh1 #aei4       ,story of  
atmosphere1 #afj4       ,short story1   
#afa4       ,setting1 #afa4             
,dramatic value1 #afd4      ,atmosphere1
 short story of1 #aff1 #afh4            
,atmosphere1 story of1 #de4             
,atmosphere1 style of story of1 #ic4    
,anglo-,saxon1 #acj4      ,austen1      
,jane1 #id1 #ahb1 #ahi4       ,balzac1  
,honore de1 #ed1 #hh1 #ih1 #aad4        
,best ,short ,stories of #aiae1 ,the1   
#gf4      ,brevity1 of short story1     
#agh1 #agi4      ,bronte1 ,emily1 #id4  
,brown1 ,alice1 #aed4      ,burnett1    
,frances ,h41 #aeb4       ,call of the  
,wild1 ,the1 #aih4      ,carroll1       
,lewis1 #bjc4      ,cask of             
,amontillado1 ,the1 #afh4               
,cervantes1 #bjh4      ,character1 #ce1 
#cf4      ,characterization1 #gd1 #abh4 
,three modes1 #acf4       ,dialogue1    
#acf4       ,action1 #acf4              

,description or direct statement1 #acf4 
,aims of characterization1 #ach4        
,to show nature of person1 #ach4        
,to show appearance1 #ach4              
,character and plot1 #aci4              
,characterization by speech1 #adj4      
,characterization by statement1 #add4   
,characterization by action1 #adg4      
,characterization in novel1 #aij4       
,characterization in short story1 #agb1 
#agc4      ,character sketch1 #ci4      
,character story1 #dj4      ,character1 
style of story of1 #ic4      ,classes1  
speech of1 #adc4      ,clearness1 in    
description1 #aai4      ,climax1 #ej1   
#eg1 #aeg4      ,cloister and the       
,hearth1 ,the1 #aia4      ,coherence1 of
 novel1 #aij4      ,coherence1 of short 
story1 #agi4      ,color1 #aai4         
,commonplace1 story of1 #ig4            
,complication1 as element of plot1 #ea4 
,complication1 story of1 #db4           
,compression1 #dd1 #afi1 #aha4          
,condescension1 #cj4      ,conrad1      
,joseph1 #afa1 #afb4      ,conservatism1

 portrayal of1 #bf4      ,construction1 
#af1 #fd4      ,conte1 #dc4             
,contrast1 #abc1 #aeg4                  
,copperfield1 ,david1 #aag1 #aia1 #aib4 
,cousin ,pons1 #ed1 #ee4      ,creative 
process1 order1 #cg4      ,crime and    
,punishment1 #cb4      ,critical        
faculty1 #bc4      ,criticism1 #cd4     
,culture1 #ce4      ,current ,questions1
 #be4       ,dawn of a ,tomorrow1 ,the1 
#aeb4      ,defoe1 ,daniel1 #ih1 #bjh4  
,descent into the ,maelstrom1 ,a1 #hd4  
,description1 #aje4       ,interest1    
#ajg4       ,secondary function1 #ajh4  
,distribution1 #ajh4       ,story of    
atmosphere1 #aji4       ,effectiveness1 
#aji4       ,description of persons1    
#aaj4       ,example1 #aaa4             
,analysis1 #aab4       ,accuracy1 #aad4 
,mechanical limitations1 #aaf4          
,use of all senses1 #aag4               
,description of setting1 #aah4          
,two objects1 #aai4       ,use of all   
senses1 #abj4       ,order of details1  
#abb4       ,contrast1 #abc4            

,design1 importance of1 #ac4            
,dialect1 #abg1 #abh4      ,dialogue    
7see ,speech71 #aje1 #acf4              
,dialogue1 in relation to               
characterization1 #adj4      ,dickens1  
,charles1 #bh1 #ib1 #aag1 #ada1 #adb1   
#aia1 #aib1 #aic4      ,diction1 #ajb1  
#acj1 #aca4      ,don ,quixote1 #bjh4   
,dostoievsky1 ,fyodor1 #cb1 #bjc1 #bjh4 
,douglas1 ,george1 #eh1 #id4            
,doyle1 ,sir ,a4 ,conan1 #hc1 #bjd4     
,drama1 conventions of1 #agj4      ,dr4 
,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde1 #ef1 #ahb1 #bjj4
      ,dumas1 ,alexandre1 #ca1 #ib4     
,dunn1 ,finley ,peter 7,mr4 ,dooley71   
#acd4       ,ebb-,tide1 ,the1 #hb1 #hi1 
#ia1 #ade1 #adi1 #ahh1 #aia1 #aib4      
,elements1 blending of1 #aje1 #ajf4     
,eliot1 ,george1 #ca1 #hh4              
,emotion1 #be4      ,emphasis1 #ci1 #dj1
 #gg1 #aja1 #aaj4      ,end of story1   
#gb4      ,events1 order of1 #fe4       
,events1 secondary1 #ajc4               
,exposition1 #he4       ,fall of the    
,house of ,usher1 ,the1 #dd1 #afa1 #afb1

 #afg1 #bjg4      ,fantasy1 influence on
 style1 #ib1 #ic4      ,fiction1 theory 
of1 #aig4      ,fielding1 ,henry1 #bh1  
#aib4      ,figures of speech1 #ajj1    
#aad1 #aae4      ,flaubert1 ,gustave1   
#bg4      ,frankenstein1 #ahi4          
,freeman1 ,mary ,e4 ,wilkins1 #aed4     
,galsworthy1 ,john1 #hh4      ,genius1  
cultivation of1 #bc4      ,greek1 #acj4 
,hardy1 ,thomas1 #hh1 #afa4             
,harrison1 ,henry ,sydnor1 #acc4        
,harte1 ,bret1 #ec1 #ei4                
,hawthorne1 ,nathaniel1 #bi1 #cb1 #eh1  
#ib1 #ic1 #ahb1 #bjc1 #bjd4      ,henry1
 ,o41 #hb4      ,house of the ,dead1    
,the1 #eh1 #bjc4      ,house with the   
,green ,shutters1 ,the1 #eh1 #id4       
,hurst1 ,fannie1 #gf4      ,hugo1       
,victor1 #bh1 #eb1 #aji1 #aib1 #bjd4    
,idiot1 ,the1 #bjh4      ,il ,penseroso1
 #id4      ,imagination1 #bi4           
,imagination and dialogue1 #abi4        
,imitation1 #cc4      ,information1 #bd4
      ,interest1 #cd1 #ce1 #ajg1 #ajh1  
#agf1 #ahe1 #bjc4      ,introduction1   

#fg1 #ha1 #hb4       ,james1 ,henry1    
#ef4      ,jean ,christophe1 #bh1 #aib4 
,journal of the ,plague ,year1 ,a1 #ih4 
,kidnapped1 #ec1 #if4      ,kipling1    
,rudyard1 #dd1 #fh1 #hb1 #ii1 #abj1     
#aih4       ,l',allegro1 #id4      ,la  
,peau de ,chagrin1 #ih4      ,latin1    
#acj4      ,legeia1 #afg4      ,length1 
#hf4      ,les ,miserables1 #bh1 #aib1  
#bjd4      ,literalness1 in dialogue1   
#abf1 #abg4      ,lodging for the       
,night1 ,a1 #aaj1 #acg1 #agd1 #age4     
,london1 ,jack1 #ga1 #ge1 #aih4         
,lost ,world1 ,the1 #bjd4               
,macbeth1 #aeg4      ,mannerisms in     
dialogue1 #adc1 #add4      ,markheim1   
#dd1 #ee1 #ef1 #aei1 #afi1 #agi4        
,master of ,ballantrae1 ,the1 #ia4      
,material1 accessibility of1 #bb4       
,matter1 choice of       ,selection1    
#cj4       ,sincerity1 #ca4             
,adventure1 #cb4       ,common problems1
 #cb4       ,originality1 #cc4          
,novelty and worth1 #cc4       ,elements
 of literature1 #cd4       ,interest1   

#cd4       ,elements of interest1 #ce4  
,matter1 significance of1 #bje4         
,maupassant1 ,guy de1 #dd1 #aje1 #afh4  
,meredith1 ,george1 #ib4      ,merry    
,men1 ,the1 #aec1 #aee1 #afa1 #afb4     
,milton1 ,john1 #id4      ,monsieur     
,beaucaire1 #ga4       ,narration1 #aje1
 #ajf1 #ajg1 #acf1 #adg4                
,narration1 constructive technique of   
,importance1 #fd4       ,plot and       
situation1 #fe4       ,spiritual values1
 #ff4       ,order of events1 #fg4      
,introduction1 #fg4       ,primary and  
secondary events1 #fh4       ,climax1   
#gj4       ,naturalness1 #gj4           
,preparation1 #gj1 #gc4       ,end of   
story1 #gb4       ,proportion1 #gf4     
,general ,considerations1 #gh4          
,narration1 executive technique of      
,mode of narration1 #hj4       ,first   
person narration1 #ha4       ,variation1
 #ha4       ,advantages of mode1 #ha4   
,disadvantages1 #hb4                    
,plausibility1 #hd4       ,third person 
narration1 #hd4       ,advantages1 #hd4 

,avoidance of artificiality1 #he4       
,length1 #hf4       ,viewpoint1 #hf4    
,attitude of author1 #hh4       ,style1 
#ij4       ,congruity of manner1 #ib4   
,story of action1 #ib4       ,story of  
character1 #ic4       ,method of        
narration1 #ig4       ,story of         
commonplace1 #ig4       ,story of       
bizarre1 #ih4       ,vividness1 #ih4    
,suspense1 #ajj4       ,emphasis and    
suppression1 #aja4       ,expansion and 
vividness1 #aja4       ,primary and     
secondary events1 #ajb4                 
,transition1 #ajd4       ,blending of   
elements1 #aje4      ,naturalness1 #adc4
      ,naturalness of dialogue1 #abf4   
,nature1 conflict with as plot1 #eb4    
,necklace1 ,the1 #aje1 #afh4      ,new  
,arabian ,nights1 ,the1 #ia1 #ic4       
,new ,england1 #aed1 #aee4      ,note on
 ,realism1 ,a1 #ac1 #ij1 #ia4           
,notre ,dame de ,paris1 #aji4           
,novel1 #ch1 #ed1 #hg4       ,novel and 
romance1 #ahb4       ,romanticism and   
realism1 #ahc4       ,technique of      

forms1 #ahe4       ,incoherence of      
novel1 #ahf4       ,novel as medium for 
self-expression1 #ahf4                  
,interpolation of comment1 #ahg4        
,simplicity1 #ahh4       ,inclusiveness 
of novel1 #aij4       ,personality1     
#aij4       ,action1 #aia4              
,length1 #aia4       ,initial idea1     
#aib4       ,singleness of story1 #aic4 
,social emphasis1 #aif4      ,novelty1  
#cc4       ,observation1 #bd4      ,our 
,mutual ,friend1 #aib1 #aic4            
,outcasts of ,poker ,flat1 ,the1 #ec1   
#ei4       ,personality1 #aih4          
,persons1 description of1 #aaj4         
,philosophy of ,composition1 ,the1 #afg4
      ,philosophy of fiction1 #bjb4     
,pickwick ,papers1 ,the1 #ib1 #aic4     
,plausibility1 #fh1 #fi1 #ajc4          
,plot1 #aci1 #adh1 #ahi1 #aig1 #bjg1    
#bjh4       ,definition1 #dh1 #ej4      
,character and plot1 #di4               
,dramatic value1 #ej4                   
,complication1 #ea4       ,interest1    
#ea4       ,plot as problem1 #eb4       

,three basic themes1 #eb4               
,conflict between man and nature1 #eb4  
,conflict between man and man1 #ed4     
,conflict within the man1 #ee4          
,arrangement1 #ef4       ,climax1 #eg4  
,major situations1 #fj4       ,climax   
and plot1 #fa4       ,situation1 #fa4   
,plot for short story1 #afh1 #afi4      
,poe1 ,edgar ,allan1 #dd1 #ea1 #hd1 #ic1
 #afa1 #afb1 #afg1 #afh1 #afi1 #agj1    
#ahj1 #bjg4      ,point of view1 #hf1   
#aaf4      ,polti1 ,georges1 #fb4       
,practice1 #if4      ,prejudice1 #bf4   
,preparation1 #gc4      ,preparation of 
reader for climax1 #aef4      ,pride and
 ,prejudice1 #ahi4      ,problem in     
fiction1 #eb4      ,problem novel1 #ahg4
      ,problem1 story or plot as1 #ej4  
,proportion1 #gf1 #ajb4                 
,provincialism1 #bf4      ,psychological
 story1 #ee4       ,reade1 ,charles1    
#aia4      ,reading1 #bf4      ,realism1
 #ahb1 #ahi1 #aii4      ,reporting and  
literature1 #de4      ,return of the    
,native1 ,the1 #afa4      ,rhetoric1    

#ie1 #aji1 #aaj4      ,richardson1      
,samuel1 #hf4      ,robinson ,crusoe1   
#ih1 #bjh4      ,rolland1 ,romain1 #bh1 
#aib4      ,romance1 #ahb4              
,romanticism1 #ahb1 #aii4       ,scarlet
 ,letter1 ,the1 #bi1 #cb1 #ib1 #ahb1    
#bjc1 #bjd4      ,scott1 ,sir ,walter1  
#eb1 #hh4      ,sea-,wolf1 ,the1 #ga1   
#ge1 #gf4      ,selection1 #bb4         
,self-culture1 #bd4      ,sense and     
,sensibility1 #ahb4      ,senses1       
employment in description1 #aag1 #abj1  
#aba4      ,seriousness1 #ca4           
,setting1 #aeb4      ,setting1          
description of1 #aah4      ,sex1 #cc4   
,shakespeare1 ,william1 #aeg4      ,ship
 ,that ,found ,herself1 ,the1 #aih4     
,short story1 #ah1 #ch1 #dc1 #hg1 #aic4 
,definition1 #afe4       ,two types1    
#aff4       ,dramatic short story1 #aff4
       ,atmospheric short story1 #aff4  
,origins1 #afg4       ,unity and        
singleness of effect1 #afh4             
,general technique1 #agb4               
,characterization1 #agb4       ,interest

 and simplicity1 #agf4                  
,complexity1 #agg4       ,coherence1    
#agi4       ,compression1 #aha4         
,significance of matter1 #bje4          
,simplicity1 #ahh4      ,simplicity of  
plot for short story1 #agf4             
,sincerity1 #ca4      ,situation 7see   
,plot74      ,situation and dialogue1   
#abh4      ,social question1 #bf4       
,speech1 #aje4       ,potency1 #abd4    
,mechanical distribution1 #abe4         
,naturalness1 #abf4       ,direction1   
#abf4       ,dialect1 #abg4             
,situation1 #abh4       ,resources to   
meet demands of situation1 #acj4        
,style1 #acb4       ,verbs of utterance1
 #acc4       ,speech for its own sake1  
#acd4       ,creative process1 #ace4    
,spelling in dialogue1 #adc4            
,stage1 conventions of1 #agj4           
,stevenson1 ,robert ,louis1 #ac1 #ci1   
#dd1 #eb1 #ec1 #ee1 #ef1 #hb1 #hi1 #ij1 
#ic1                              #if1  
#ii1 #aaj1 #acg1 #aci1 #add1 #ade1 #adi1
 #aec1                                  

#aee1 #aeh1 #afa1 #afb1 #afi1 #agd1     
#agi1 #ahb1 #ahh1                       
#aia1 #aib1 #bjj4      ,story types1    
#afe1 #aff4       ,conception and       
execution1 #cg4       ,utility to know  
types1 #ch4       ,novel and romance1   
#ch4       ,short story1 #ch4       ,the
 three types1 #ci4       ,emphasis1 #ci4
       ,three elements of story1 #ci4   
,character1 #dj4       ,incident1 #db4  
,atmosphere1 #de4       ,other types1   
#df4       ,short ,story and            
compression1 #dd4      ,story1          
distinguished from tale1 #di4           
,story1 ways to create1 #ci4            
,style1 #hb1 #ij1 #ig1 #acg4            
,suppression1 #aja4      ,suspense1     
#ajj1 #aja4      ,sympathy1 #hh1 #adh1  
#adi4       ,tale1 #ci1 #dc1 #di1 #afe1 
#bjg4      ,tanglewood ,tales1 #ic4     
,tarkington1 ,booth1 #ga4      ,t4 ,b41 
#gf4      ,technique1 natural approach  
to1 #af4      ,technique1 object of1    
#ea4      ,thackeray1 ,william          
,makepeace1 #bh1 #ed1 #eh1 #ahg1 #aia1  

#aib4      ,thematic story1 #dj4        
,theory of fiction       ,story and     
tale1 #aig4       ,realism the method1  
#aii4       ,realism the artistic dogma1
 #aii4       ,short story1 #bjj4        
,interest1 #bja4       ,power of real   
problems of life1 #bjc4       ,test of  
merit1 #bjd4       ,aim of executive    
artistry1 #bjf4       ,verisimilitude1  
#bjg4       ,significance of plot1 #bjh4
      ,thirty-,six ,dramatic            
,situations1 ,the1 #fb4      ,thrawn    
,janet1 #aeh4      ,toilers of the ,sea1
 ,the1 #eb4      ,tolstoi1 ,leo1 #aib1  
#aie4      ,tom ,jones1 #bh1 #aib4      
,tone1 #hb1 #acb4      ,tragedy1 #aeg4  
,transition1 #ajc1 #ajd1 #aje4          
,trollope1 ,anthony1 #ahb4              
,turgenieff1 ,ivan1 #adf4               
,ugliness1 #hi4      ,unities1 dramatic1
 #afh4      ,unity of short story1 #bja4
       ,vanity ,fair1 #ed1 #eh1 #ahg4   
,verisimilitude1 #hd1 #ib1 #ajf1 #ajg1  
#aae1 #aah1 #aai1 #abj1 #abc1 #adc1     
#bjg4      ,verne1 ,jules1 #bjd4        

,victorian novelists1 #aia4             
,viewpoint1 #hf1 #aaf4      ,virginians1
 ,the1 #aia1 #aib4      ,vividness1 #ih1
 #aja1 #aaj1 #aad1 #aai4      ,v4 ,v4's 
,eyes1 #acd4       ,war and ,peace1     
#aib4      ,warden1 ,the1 #ahb4         
,weir of ,hermiston1 #ia4      ,wells1  
,h4 ,g41 #bjd4      ,wit1 in dialogue1  
#abg4      ,without ,benefit of ,clergy1
 #dd1 #fh1 #abj4      ,worth of matter1 
#cc4      ,writer of fiction4           
,critical faculty1 #bb4                 
,cultivation of genius1 #bc4            
,observation and information1 #bd4      
,open-mindedness1 #be4       ,attitude  
toward life1 #be4       ,prejudice and  
provincialism1 #bf4       ,social       
question1 #bf4       ,reading1 #bf4     
,imagination1 #bi4      ,wuthering      
,heights1 #id4     ,transcriber's ,note3
  ,spelling and punctuation have been   
preserved as in the original publication
 except for the following changes3      
,page #bd      less obvious1 but1       
curiously enough1 is is changed to      

less obvious1 but1 curiously enough1 is 
,page #be      familiartiy with life1   
which cannot be brushed up changed to   
familiarity with life1 which cannot be  
brushed up      ,page #bh               
,christrophe1 ,war and ,peace1 much of  
,thackeray's changed to     ,christophe1
 ,war and ,peace1 much of ,thackeray's  
,page #cc      and deficiences before   
writing is necessary to make changed to 
and deficiencies before writing is      
necessary to make      ,page #cg        
,incident--,archtypal ,character--,short
 ,story and changed to                  
,incident--,archetypal                  
,character--,short ,story and      ,page
 #dc      archtype of all stories4 ,an  
historical analysis changed to          
archetype of all stories4 ,an historical
 analysis      which stresses the bare  
incident1 is archtypal of changed to    
which stresses the bare incident1 is    
archetypal of      ,page #ed            
distincly social in nature4 ,the        
possibilities for the changed to        

distinctly social in nature4 ,the       
possibilities for the      ,balzac and  
and ,thackeray are supreme masters in   
changed to     ,balzac and ,thackeray   
are supreme masters in      ,page #fb   
,polti1 in ,the ,thirty-,six ,dramatic  
,situations1 changed to     ,polti1 in  
,the ,thirty-,six ,dramatic ,situations1
      is a word so abused that it even  
might be advisible changed to     is a  
word so abused that it even might be    
advisable      ,page #fe      hapenings2
 a plot is some human struggle changed  
to     happenings2 a plot is some human 
struggle      ,page #fg                 
writers--one may indulge in a little    
philisophical changed to                
writers--one may indulge in a little    
philosophical      ,page #gb            
selection and ordering of its secendary 
events changed to     selection and     
ordering of its secondary events        
,page #hb      lost derelicts of people 
move4 ,their speach is changed to       
lost derelicts of people move4 ,their   

speech is      ,page #hd      analytical
 of more than one charactcer the writer 
changed to     analytical of more than  
one character the writer      lays bare 
the souls of all charactcers instead of 
changed to     lays bare the souls of   
all characters instead of      ,page #he
      virture of each type may be       
utilized changed to     virtue of each  
type may be utilized      ,page #hf     
omniscent viewpoint may carry the story 
changed to     omniscient viewpoint may 
carry the story      idiosyncracies1 and
 to make changed to     idiosyncrasies1 
and to make      ,page #hi      will be 
a be a glorified and persecuted changed 
to     will be a glorified and          
persecuted      ,page #ajb      alloting
 the space of a story before writing1 as
 has been changed to     allotting the  
space of a story before writing1 as has 
been      ,page #aaa      half fallen   
back1 and made a strange excresence on  
either changed to     half fallen back1 
and made a strange excrescence on either

      ,page #aag      strict if         
unconcious regard for the laws of       
changed to     strict if unconscious    
regard for the laws of      ,page #abg  
a story involves a charactcer from such 
a district changed to     a story       
involves a character from such a        
district      ,page #acb      feeling   
and appreciation that any reader4       
changed to     feeling and appreciation 
than any reader4      ,page #acc        
',a lady stepped on her ,junebug1'      
changed to     ',a lady stepped on her  
,junebug4'      ,page #ach              
influencial in numerous directions in a 
story4 changed to     influential in    
numerous directions in a story4         
,page #adj      it may be difficult to  
do so unobstrusively changed to     it  
may be difficult to do so unobtrusively 
,page #adc      ,yuh for you is in      
instance4 ,we all yuh changed to        
,yuh for you is an instance4 ,we all yuh
      ,page #aec      will have some    
totality of emontional changed to       

will have some totality of emotional    
,page #afg      ,poe produced such      
stories as ,legeia changed to     ,poe  
produced such stories as ,ligeia        
,page #agj      connotations of the     
state changed to     connotations of the
 stage      ,page #age      the         
writter's resources--again of course    
changed to     the writer's             
resources--again of course      ,page   
#ahj      thou and words1 though it     
begin in a changed to     thousand      
words1 though it begin in a      ,page  
#ahb      and the metomorphosis of ,dr4 
,jekyll changed to     and the          
metamorphosis of ,dr4 ,jekyll      ,page
 #aia      laying a false emphasis on   
its pormissible scope changed to        
laying a false emphasis on its          
permissible scope      ,page #baa       
,your1 first1 second1 tenth1 or changed 
to     ,your first1 second1 tenth1 or   
,page #bad      obvious reasons your    
laboratory anaylsis of changed to       
obvious reasons your laboratory analysis

 of      ,page #bah      connoiseur     
rather than the humble practitioner     
changed to     connoisseur rather than  
the humble practitioner      ,page #bai 
but writing with an definite aim changed
 to     but writing with a definite aim 
state its chief values as succintly as  
changed to     state its chief values as
 succinctly as