Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-11
STORYTELLING.

The chief essential for this line OF bust
ness, yet one that is much disregarded by
many young writers, is the having story
10 tell. 1t is a common superstition that
the story will come if you only sit down
with a pen In your hand and wait long
enough-a parallel case to that which as
signs one cows tail as the measure of
distance between this planet or the moon
1t is no use "throwing off" few brilliant
ideas ct the commencement, If they are
only to be passages that lead to nothing :"
you must have distinctly in your mind at
first what you intend TO say at last. Let
ii be granted" says great writer (shough
not one distinguished in fctiOn) 'that a
straight line be drawn from any one point
to any other polnt;" only you must have
the "other point" to begin with, or you
can't draw the line SO far from being
straight" it goes wabbling aimlessly
about like wire fastened at one end and
not at the other, which may dazzle, tut
cannot sustain; or, rather, what it does
sustain is so exceedingly minute that it
reminds one of the minnow which the
inexperienced angler f1atters himself he
has caught, but which the fisherman has
In fact put on the hook for bait. This
class of writer is not altogether uncon-
scicus of the absence of dramatic interest
ia his composition. He writes to his edit
or Ct have read thousand such letters)
ut has been my aim, in the inclosed con
tribution, to steer clear of the faults of the
sensational school of fiction, and | have
deslgnedly abstaiDed from stimulating the
unwholesome taste for excitement" In
which high moral purpose he has un-
doubleday succeeded, but, unhappily, In
nothing else. 1t is quite true that
some writer's of fiction neglect "story'
almost entirely, but then they are
perhaps the greatest writer's OF all. Their
genius is so transcendant that they can
afford to dispense with "plot;" their hu.
NOR, their pathos, and their delineation of
human nature are amply sufficient, with
out any such meretricious attraction ;
whereas our too ambitious young friend
is In the position of the needy knife
grinder, who has not only no story to tell,
but in lieu of it only holds up his coat
and breaches torn In the scuffie"-the ev-
idence Of his desperate and Intellectual
struggles with literary composition. I
have known such an sspirant to instance
Mrs Gaskell's Crawford" as parallel to
the back boneless, fesh-and- bloodless ere.
alton of his own immature fancy, and to
recommend the acceptance of the latter
upon the ground of their common rejec.
ton of startling plot and dramatic situa-
ton. The two compositions have GER
tainly that in common; and the f1awless
diamond mas some things, such as mere
sharpness and smoothness, in common
with the broken beer bottle. Many young
authors Of the class I have in my mind,
while more modest as respects their own
merits, are even still less so as regards
their expectations from others. "If you
will kindly furnish me with subject" so
runs letter now before me, 81 am sure I
could do very we'll; my difficulty is that
[ never can think of anything to write
about. Would you be so good as to oblige
me with q plot for novel?" It would
have been infinitely more reasonable, of
course, and much cheaper, for me to grant
it, if the applicant had made request for
my watch and chain; but the marvel is
that folks should feel any attraction
toward a calling for which nature has de.
MED them even the raw materials. It is
true that there are some great takers who
have nothing to say, but they don't ask
their hearers to supply them with a topic
of conversation in order to be set agoing.
James Pam, in Nineteenth Centuru