Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-11-18
HE WRITES STORIES.
THIS MAN MANUFACTURES LITERA-
TuREn AS HE SAWS WOOD.

WrlClng NOVELS, anu WuO Is newer DOtHcFtu
by the critics He writes his novels to or
der, gets his pay promptly and doesn't care
a button for praise.
I asked my friend to tell me little about
his business, for business it is with him,
just as much as journalism is with the
average newspaper man, OF saving boards
is with the ma jority of carpenters.
II go about my work" he said, with as
much system as any other worker. While
at it write from eight to ten hours day
when | have 4 contract for story on my
hands, and l generally keep at it till it is
finished. / began writing about twelve
years ago-indeed, even longer ago than
that. Yes, let's see. had just got out of the
high school began to feel within me the
promptings of imitation as the natural Sc
quence of the admiration those stirring
story tellers had aroused within me, and
wrote boys story which met with some
degree of success.
Il put grea deal of blood and thunder
in it, confess, but no wickedness of heart
and no immortality. | wrote other stories
of similar character and had them pub
lished in some of the New York weekly
story papers of hat day. l experienced the
usual disappointments of all rising young
authors, of course, and found not few
But was too Young to care much, and
consoled myself with the conviction that
the pigheaded publishers didn't know a
good thing when they saw it--a conviction
l still hold TO with what l am inclined to
regard as a conlnendable degree of ten
acity."
AN AUTHORS START
/ asked my friend if he still sometimes
found himself among the great army of
the rejected.
YES, almost us often as when was a
youth-that is il / send my manuscript to
new publishers and let them go on their
merits. This is a world where there are
many men of many minds as there are
many fishes in the sea, and the editorial
mind is quite as diverse and cranky as the
average individuals. But with the pub
fishers who know me well | meet with no
such modification. l generally wait for
them to give me an order. Sometimes my
tales go into their weekly papers, some
times they are pr nted in pamphlet form"
But you started out to tell me-" said,
lust how you manufacture your novels
and romances."
You use the proper word, manufac-
ture, he laughed, "for they are literally
made by hand, as 1t Were. 1t does require
some little INTEL gence, however, and not
a few literary men of some reputation bus
meager incomes essay the blood and thun-
der novel and completely fail at it, They
can surpass me in diction, felicity of ex-
preston and beauty of thought, but they
lack the life, the constant dramatic pose of
the characters and the swift movement of
the actors which have become the natural
characteristics of all l write. Let me tell
you my method: In the first place, keep
nh rnOf mob,
as Charles Reade kept, to be sure, but still
II book filed with many hundreds of news
paper clippings-aa inexhaustible mine,
into which l delve for plots, exciting adj
ventures, queer happenings of all kinds,
names for my char acters and places, and
even for striking titles for my chapters
HOW HE PROCEEDS.
Truth is really stranger than fiction,
and all these clippin gs tell story of actual
occurrences. l find it is hardly ever neces-
sary to exaggerate. l jot down names of
all sorts as meet I'll EN- in reading. There
Is great suggestlve1ess in a name. Take
such name as Pag,les or Bippus or Bob
let-all actual cogn omens which / have
seen on signs or met in newspapers-and
they present a distinct character to nv i'm
agination at once. Then, on the other
hand, take the name of Gertrude or Flor
ence, or the state y name of Eleanor,
which became her vell,' as an old time
romancer put it, or # simple Mary, Kate
or Sue. Each belongs 70 particular style
of being and fits Ike a garment. The
average voracious novel reader has a great
taste and discrimination for the opposite
ness of these things.
"Well, / start out and select title for
my story. 1t must he startling or sensa-
tlnQal Interesting "a he lisrn1ay
scare head of the newspaper is intended to
arouse the interest Of the reader. l take
many of my best titles bodily from the
headlines of some newspaper sensation. In
the next place i make Il table of contents
Chapter ], The Strange Arrival at Chef
wyn HAIL. Chapter ii, The Strangers
Sudden DEATH Chapter III, The Mysteri-
Gus Woman in Black Chapter ", DIR.
Julien's Discovery Chapter V, Put to a
Terrible Test Chapter VI, The Flight by
Night Chapter VII, In Loves Fetters,'
and SO on to the. emf Of the tale.
''Of course, get a central idea to work
out, and my chapter headings indicate TO
my mind some of the scenes that are to be
described; but the rule of the great novel
lists, never to undertake to tell story till
you have story to tell, does not hold with
me. My story is never anything like COM
plete in my mind until have written ten
chapters of it. | make it up as go along,
as the children would say. 1t moves for
ward steadily. of courss, but not with that
consumlnate art that Dickens or a Bull
wer employed.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE PLOT.
"The reader of trashy novels or of boys
books Of adventure doesn' require il any
more than the reader of an ordinary news
paper sensation. l have some little diff
Guilty with my opening chapter often, for it
must be decidedly thrilling. and when
come to the point where the wise publisher
quietly adds. TO be continued in our next
must make the situation positively cleo
trifying. | often do thai without knowing
how under the sun am going to extricate
the unfortunate individ Ials whom ! may
have left facing "A bruce of burglars revolt
vers, or in a burning building, or on a
sinking ship, or even before the breakfast
fire of merciless cannibals. But my scrap
book often comes to my aid. and theirs,
too, and shows me what really occurs in
nd oil RIGHT mn. for m.