The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-03-01
THE GIRL Who HAS BECOME A WRITER
by w. Q. MORROW.

Dear Mss Scrib6lehard: Receipt of your
letter and of marked copies OF newspapers
containing articles written by you is
acknowledged. Your numerous questions
and expressions Of hope and aspirations
set me difficult and somewhat unpleasant
task. would rather you had appealed to
one who makes the training of the young
a business.
A reading of your contributions dis
closes many things that are familiar to
the older worker with the pen-and the
head. Ability to write we'll is the final
test of mental discipline. However bright
a beginner may be, provided he is not one
of those geniuses who know things with
out having to learn them, lack of expe-
rience in the writing craft must inevitably
appear in his work. For that reason alone
an editor who has wise head and kind
heart will sternly repress that consuming
and altogether pitiful ambition of tyros to
sign their work. Possibly there lives here
and there knave of an editor who real
ICES that by tickling tledgling's vanity by
permitting the signature he can secure
passable work for little or no cash pay
ment. There are Individually cases in
which the editor, both wise and kind, per-
mits the signature with knowledge OF the
fact that the indulgence will encourage
very sensitive, fine-grained and ambitious
beginner to put forth extraordinary eff
forts and thus advance all the more
rapidly in the art.
Even in such cases the editor must SUI
for hot ho RI
come, when the beginner has developed
into an able and sure craftsman, glance
through the old scrapbook will bring
many a flaming blush TO the cheek of its
compiler. Writers. particularly those who
are original and imaginative. are unhap-
PLY sensitive crowd, and this fact stays
the tongues of those whose criticism
would be valuable. Unhappily, also, it is
those dull, houndering blunderers devoid
of critical ability who are the freest with
their criticism. and its very stupidity and
obtrusive ignorance merely offend with
out improving.
The qualities which make a signature
valuable are various, but as they are not
to be looked for in the work of beginner
it is hardly necessary to discuss them here.
ence between young women and young
mel in this regard. AS rule the boy is
great deal more modest than the girl. In
the beginning he is dismayed by sugges-
ton that he sign his work. He seems to
realize that outside the little group of per-
sons with whom he works there lies a vast
world of shrewd, sharp, able intellects
ready to scott at mistakes and treat imma-
turity and ignorance with contempt. He
desires to try his legs at walking before he
essays race with expert runners. Much
of his timidity is pure bashfulness, an
awkward quality that seems foreign to the
composition of the average girl. AS his
experience ripens and his range of vision
expands he realizes more and more the
stupendous magnitude of the task which
he has assailed and the hopelessness of
proving able to lift his head above the
waves that tower about him. Thus he too
easily falls contentedly into the position
OF newspaper hack, and grinds out his
life in dreary round of detail.
Not so the ambitious young woman.
Nothing appalls her. Not being bashful
she may also not be modest. But as self
assurance is a necessary element OF sue
cess it isexceedingly valuable where it is
not self-destructive. The one safe rule in
writing is to sign nothing whatever, ex-
cept, possibly, stories, unless it be on the
earnest suggestion of competent critic;
and the best of all is the editor. He will
make such request if he deems it right.
That is a very different matter from
wheedling him into consent. He is the
quickest of all critics to discover new or
original quality in beginners work.
Comparing your letter with your pub
lished work observe a number of curious
differences and easily discern in the ar
ticles the yelled hand of both the editor
and the copy-reader. l notice that the
editor, for a number of conceivable rea-
sons and from one or more possible mo-
tives, has left ruiIious errors of form, taste
and information in your work. He has
permitted your mixed metaphors to go
limping without splints, your infinitives
to remain with their parts divorced, your
squirting clauses to look two ways at
once without shame, your ''onlys" to keep
improper company, and in general has
let your lack of study of the English
language, particularly that branch of it
which concerns construction, to be merci-
lessly proclaimed.
In the absence OF an intelligent effort on
the part of your schoolteachers to saturate
you with an understanding of what
'style' means, your editor has apparently
left it to Providence and time to cure you
of the use of commonplace aud of hack
neyed phrases and quotations. He ha:
permitted you to indulge the use O.
French words, possibly trusting that a:
you grow older you will learn that thi.
practice invites the scorn of the judicious
He has let you try the hopeless task O
Transforming the English into an epigram
NAUTICAL language by the employment II
some of your articles of choppy, frisky
and jerky style that is exceedingly un
pleasant. | am not blaming the unhappy
editor for these things. If he is deserving
of punishment there is special world Sc
apart for that function, and 1 have ne
| jurisdiction there.
The copy-reader has been much kinde
| to you, though you seem utterly deaf tt
the hints that he has been giving yol
these last months. His diligent pencil
| hos road Won q sharp loSsop in awe,