The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-12-24

only those writer's with nothing to lose
would steal
As matter Of fact. the work Of re-
writing stories in order TO avoid detec-
ton is more difficult than that of writ
ing entirely original matter Any au-
thor worthy of the name viii evolve
plots of his own which he can clothe
better than stolen plots.
How. then, are stories, novels.
dramas. or whatever the fiction writ
ings may be called. created?
1t will be best TO deal with stories
first. Short stories are far more diff
ficult to write than are nOvels-that is,
in proportion to their length. Plays
greatly resemble short stories so far
as the writing is concerned. A novel
may consist to a great extent Of de-
scriptive writing and character delin-
cation. This is not the case with a
short story or a play, where dramatic
effect is of prime consideration.
The men who write fiction are men
of perception, who utilize every idea
which surrounding objects suggest.
Take Charles Dickens as an example.
He was in the habit of making use OF
every character and. happening that
he came across. His characters were
characters Of real life, clothed with
attributes which his mind suggested
The short story writer gets many
ideas from what he reads. These ideas
suggest others round which the story
is written. Generally the story tells
itself after the writer has started with
a central idea.
It is not often that a story consists
of the mere description Of an incident
in real life, although Charles Reade OBJ
tained most of his ideas from the
newspapers. After all, everyday life
is far too prosaie to be interesting
when put in the form Of a short story,
which must be crisp and powerful
Undoubtedly the greatest Of drama
lists Is NJ. sardou. His method is quite
different from that which the ordinary
individual would suppose to be the one
followed.
First of all he makes a list Of char
acters. or rather of attributes upon
which characters are formed, He may
start with jealosy, for instance, adding
passion and obstinacy. This viii be
his first character. Then he may
have purity. self-wili and filial obedi-
ence as number two. So he goes on
until he has obtained the necessary
number of characters.
The question then is: What viii hap
pen when these characters are thrown
together? What viii happen when a
passionate, obstinate man who is jea!-
Gus of an innocent girl-equally OBJ
stinate, save where her father is cCE-
cerned-is thrown into the whirlpool
amidst other characters. built up
equally artihcially?
Each character is created in the same
way, and the play works out as re
suit of the action and cOunteract1on or
the characters whose temperaments
have been thus synthesized. NJ. SardOu,
however. writes his works backward to
a certain extent. He calculates the
most difficult positions into which the
characters can be thrown. Then he
works up to this.
He works it ali out cOldly and care
fully before giving his characters life.
The date of the action of the play, its
scenery and the other effects he re-
CARDS as mere adjuncts. The charac-
ters must work out the play before they
are clothed, so to speak.
When all this Is done the characters
are given names and life, and the play
is modified accordingly, although the
main action remains the same.
g 9 Q
Our own distinguished play-writer,
A w. Pinero, follows a somewhat sim
liar synthetical method, his characters
Suggesting the problems, and not the
problems the characters.
Mr.. Pinero differs from NJ. SardOu,
inasmuch as his characters are not ar
tifciaI ones. He makes a note of peO-
pie he comes in contact with, and ar
ranges them in his mind in certain or
der. Then he starts to evolve the play.
What would happen in real life if
character number one loved character
number two, who hated character num-
Der FIVE, who was jealous of character
humber eight? This Mr. Pinero works
out, keeping in view all the time the
personality Of each character. Each
character must retain the actual pc
culiarities of the prototype in real life.
Now the methods pursued by these
authors are not applicable to short
story writing, where analyses Of char
acter are of little use. The writer gets
hold of a strong dramatic incident and
writes round it.
The difficulty is to find this idea or
plot. Some trivial incident will set in
motion a train of thought which will
provide several plots. and each plot
will suggest others. After all, there is
a strong family likeness among the
plots of short stories, the art of fiction
writing consisting in presenting those
plots in an attractive manner.