Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-29
PENNY DREADF ULS
How the Average Dime Novel lis
Written.
CREATION OF DAREDEVIL DICKS
Made to Order Around Some Pub
lie Incident.
HAS ITS RIGID MORALITT


To the romantic imagination of the SIN En-
same heroic and nre-eating type as the
heroes he portrays, The actual fact is sso
different that If 1t were known the result
ant loss of glamor would undoubtedly be
accompanied by corresponding decrefse
OF sales. The men who write dime nov Els
do not wear their hair long They carly
no six shooters nor bowie knives and mahy
of them never saw a live Indian or cok-
boy. The writing of such literature isl a
business rather than a profession. and the
only special qualifications requisite to 81 f.
cess are an imagination OF great resourhe
and fertility, and an unlimited capacity
for hard and rapid work. Each publishiI g
house engaged in the business employsE a
staff of regular writers, paying those who
do nothing else a salary, and to those W be
do other work a fixed sum for the MANI
script and copyright of each story. Thhs
is carried on the business of embodyiEg
and re-embodying the good old heroes. Al
kali Ike, Gentleman Joe, Big Foot SancE
One Eye Pete Deadwood Dan, Daredeji
Dick, The Man With the Iron Hand, I IL
Boy Detective and all the other popular f.
vorites, who are still on duty, trailing If
dams, hanging horse thieves, rescuing klsl-
naped maidens, finding lost heirs, recova
good people out of bad scrapeS AMI leavtfg
bad people ''clinging, weak and despairinEs
to yielding twig that holds them for oft
thrilling moment suspended between TIE
edge of the cliff and the yawning. rocf-
bound abyss a thousand feet below.
In addition to the men who are engagdd
to produce a certain amount Of copy wifi
in given time in order to supply the ret
ular issues of the libraries" each publtst
er has list of men who can write stob
to order at short notice. They are classti
as extras or Specials and are callt1
upon when a regular writer is i'll, on a
vacation or falls behind in the producing
of copy. These extra writer's are usual +
newspaper men employed on some paper +
the city or men engaged in some oth9r
class Of literary work that does not fulI'
occupy their time. Nine-tenths Of all tfsa
so-called Observation-Disclosures" stories prf-
duced are written to order. AS a rule til
author does not even select the title ~
his story, and in many cases he is conf
PEELED to follow a plot suggested by til
publisher or to use some incident in red
life as a basis.
Small Boys Mental Food. I
The publishers keep a close watch upot
the daily papers for stories Of sensationd
crimes and adventure that may serve at
incidents in the fiction prepared for thu
small boy, and when a great event or at
incident of national interest occurs there t
the first to put upon the market a dims
novel relating in some way to the affais
that is in the public mind. Within a weeE
of Dewey's victory in Manila bay a scorE
of thrilling stories In which that batus
was the chief incident were on the news
stands. When the sailors of the United
States cruiser Baltimore We're attacked Il
the streets of a South American city a few
years ago and there much wild tai
of war publishing house In New Yori
put on sale forty-eight hours after thf
news of the affair reached this country.
dime novel with the murdered boatswain
mate of the cruiser as the hero. The aul
thor Of the story wrote for thirty-siX hours
without rest or sleep, producing forty thou!
sand words of copy, which went to thd
printers sheet by sheet he wrote III
This is probably the record for rapid liter|
airy production. 1t often happens that
writer of such literature is called upon ID
produce a story of forty thousand to fifty
thousand words in three days.
Usually Dashed OF.
Writers Of dime novels do not, as a rule
attempt polished style of English, and
rarely re-read or revise a page of theil
copy. The publishers want action, plot, in
cident, dialogue and thrilling situations. A
successful writer of dime novels must pos
sess at least superficial knowledge of 8
great variety of subjects. He must be able
to write story of life in the slums of q
plains, of war in Cuba or the Philippines
without making any material error in the
descriptive sections. 1t is a rigid rule that
the plot and incident must be plausible
No matter how improbable the deeds of the
hero may be. the author must be careful to
avoid impossibiiities and absurdites II
AlkaH Ike scalpS an Indian in the Black
Hills in the morning and cleans cut a
faro bank In Deadwood at night, the story
must explain satisfactorily how he made
the journey from one point to the other in
the time specified.
The dime novel writer must also be able
to take up a character created by another
writer and carry the imaginary individual
along through other stories and new ad-
ventures without changing his habits or
permitting him to repeat himself in deeds of
daring. 1t often happens that one central
character is carried along the hero
through twenty or thirty stories published
In the modern library style of such fc-
ton. While the same name or nom de
plume may appear on the title page of
each story, dozen different authors per-
haps contribute to the series, each taking
up the characters where they were left by
the preceding writer. and carrying them On
to new fields of adventure.
Even Made Him Sick.
A publisher who had created a romantic
western adventurer with a name that
proved popular with the boys contracted
with one of his regular writer's for a series
Of twenty stories. After sixteen of the
series had been issued. one every two
weeks, and the other four extensively adj
vertised to appear on certain dates, the
author fell Ill. The publisher sent for one
Of his extra writers, who was employed
on daily newspaper, and arranged with
him to take up the work and carry on
the central characters unchanged. In
order to prevent delay in getting out the
stories advertised, the extra writer
had to read up the career of the hero
from the start and write four novels of
forty thousand words each In twenty days.
The task was successfully accomplished,
and the writer in question did not lose an
hour from his regular work a reporte..
Devoting only nights and Sundays to the
stories, he dictated them to a stenogra-
pher, working sometimes six and seven
hours at night at rate of two thousand
words per hour.
The regular writers of such stories, men
who do not attempt any other work, are
able to produce one story of forty thou
sand to fifty thousand works a week, for
six months or a year, with comparative
ease. Under pressure, they can readily
write two a week, but could not long con-
tinue that rate of production without a
period of complete mental and physical
rest. The author who attempts to lay out
a schedule of his story, to work out a