Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-25
A sovEL1srs METHOD OF WORK.

should feel inclined to pay tribute to his
nationality by saying that he is most at
home when he is out which is an easy way
OF saying 1t, all the same. 1t is difficult to
say where he is most at home-on the
deck of q yacht in the northern seas
tramping the cliffs at Brighton studying
character in the United States and astron.
omy in Egypt; brooding over a favorite
landscape In an artists studio talking
politics at the Reform Club; or doing the
honors of PASTOR House. | have seen him
under most of these conditions, and have
| always found him the same pleasant, sym.
pathetic companion, the same thoughtful,
unostentatious, quick witted gentleman
Tightly built, 1.-the of limb, strong in the
arm, capable of great physical endurance,
the novelist is nevertheless below the me.
dunn hight Short black hair, thick
| brown mustache, dark hazel eve, a firm
mouth, square forehead, Black gives you
| the idea of compact strength small par.
Gel, so to speak, well packed. You might
sooner take him for an artillery officer who
had seen service, yachtsman, or a man
| who spent most of his life in outdoor
sports and pastimes. than set him down as
an author, and particularly as novelist.
Black might pass for a member of any
profession except the clerical, or for an or.
binary gentleman of the time, until you
come to know him well enough to talk to
him Familiarity, and then you would find,
as you always do in men who have made a
mark on the current history of the times,
in whatever direction, something extraor-
binary In his talk and his appearance.
You would first be impressed with the
bead like brightness of his eve, and its
steadfastness and then you would proba-
bly, be struck with the fact, if you were
travelling with him, that every bit of nat.
ural phenomena going on around him is an
| object OF constant interest with him that
he knows the names of the birds you see,
and their habits if you are at seaport,
| that he knows every class of craft, and the
name of every rope in its rigging; if YOU
are talking OF art, or literature, or politics.
that he has strong, well.formed opinions,
and that he is perfectly frank and open in
expressing them and, moreover II Won
do not want to talk, he can be as silent as
an oyster.
1t Is in these moments of quiet that
| Black is busiest. His Muse is reflective.
! She INDUCES IN long periods of incubation.
| At these times the novelist is DOG
sessed not by one spirit, but by many, by
| spirits both good and evil and not only bv
spirits, but by plots, and not only by plots,
but by words and sentences.
"My method of work." he saws. in
answer to my inquiries, sis, l think, a
pernicious one, and l should be sorry to
| have it mentioned if it were to lead any
/ young aspiranta for literary fame to adopt
| It, Every man has his own way of work.
ing, and mine, repeat, is most objection.
able, and way | warn any young man to
avoid. From now until October in every
| year l write nothing, hardly put pen to
paper except in the way of private let
/ ter or to make an occasional note. Bat
am at work on my next novel. l put it
into complete shape, even to the very con-
structlon OF some of my sentences. | often
keep these in my mind for two and three
months. | am thus always ahead of nv
writing to the last. OF course the method
has the advantage-you can work in any
Incidents or circumstances occurring in the
interval that may suit you, and you get
familiar with your characters they be-
come, as it were, part of your family, part
OF your daily life, which to me seems the
awful part of the business working in this
way you have your story continually on
| your mental shoulders, Sindbads Old
Man of the Sea"
We are at the novelist's chambers over.
looking the Thames Embankment. It is
April. The afternoon is warm, the atmos.
| phere gray. Sitting with his back to the
window, my host turns now and then as if
to let his thoughts wander down the river
with the vessels that pass to and fro-now
a numbering barge, now penny steamer,
now tug towing along a sort OF aquatic
procession.
:" Do you make a summary or precis Of
your story before you begin to write ?"
| 6" Not on paper"
do you make notes OF scenery, locah
ties, atmospheric effects p
"Yes, often very elaborate and careful
notes, and especially in regard to atmos.
pheric Surroundings. If one does not cor.
rectly and completely frame a character or
an incident, with all the circumstances of
the time aud place, one gets only blurred
| page. For example, one may say. l. was
a beautiful day. Bus what kind of a
beautiful day? It must be described so
that the picture shall DE truthful and
finished. Every human being in real life
has a background, and must have in a
novel II the story is to appear real to the
reader"
There is nothing more charming in
| fiction or in essay-writing, feel impelled
to add, ethan the artistic use of natural
effects in the illustration of character, and
| the development and exhibition of incidents,
tragic or otherwise the pathos that may
belong to gray morning or an evening
mist, when woven in with sad thought
or a tender episode, must have often
touched you who are so great student of
Natures moods. y Joseph Hatton, in
| Harper's.