The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-13

New York Times Literary Review.
What is a desirable length in story.
This is a question that often puzzles the
beginner i'm literature. And yet it is by no
means difficult to answer. Most editors of
periodicals agree with regard to the ideal
length of the short story; that it should be
between 1000 and 5,00O words. 1t sounds as
II IL might be easy 10 write story of this
length: but professional story writer's know
better They will tell you that il is more
difficult TO take a good theme and develop
IL logically and cOnvincingly, at the same
time bringing out the full dramatic value.
without writing two or three times 5000
words One successful short story writer
says that he writes without thinking of
the length of a story, letting il develop
itself. When IL is finished he has il type
writtes then he carefully revises it, cut
ting il down to the average magazine
length. In this way he occasionally sacri-
fees several thousand words; but he be-
lieves that the pruning greatly strengthens
the work. There are always weak places
I'm n story that writer is perfectly well
aware of. he says. Il call them soft
spots Well. when i cut, L try TO remove
those soft spots, and IL is wonderful how
much more vigor the whole story seems to
gain"
Some magazine editors consent to publish
stories as long as $500 words, but only for
exceptional reasons-because the work is
an author strong enough to merit the priv
ilege. More rarely stories of between 1900
or 13.0o0 words find acceptance in the peri
odicals and are published in two parts.
There. however. are less short stories than
nOvelettes and il Is a well-known fact,
greatly deplOred by the way, by Mr.. w. ID.
HOwells. that novelties are not favored
by the American public. Mr.. Howells has
dolefully referred TO the charming work in
the form of the novelette, done by the for
eign writer's. Besides being too long for
the periodicals. the novelette, is too short
for book publiCat iOn. OF course, several
novelettes by the same author may he
brought out in book form. but volume OF
this kind is dreaded by publishers because
60 frequently neglected by readers. Henry
James Il one of the few writer's among con-
temporary American and English writer's
who have boldly COmbatted this condition
OF affairs. He has written more novelties
than any prominent novelist using our Ian
guage during the past twenty-five years.
and has brought them out i'm collections"
Ills favorite form Of story telling seems to
be the story OF about 20.000 words.
The ideal length OF novels. from the pub
III the past Few years. No publisher likes
10 bring out novel OF less than 6Oe0
words. a l. true that many novels as short
A. 5o.et are placed between covers but al
ways with misrepresentation. unless they
have qualities that make "A good sale eX-
tremeiy probable \ fair length for n novel
s. about 900 words. Even more likely TO
attract n the novel Of lU.W0 Beyond this
number OF words "a novel cannot go with
out running the risk OF seeming forr1fd-
able 10 the reader In this country books
become formidable much more easily than
IN England. where readers. trained In the
Old-fashiOned English three-vOlume novel
maintained for many years by the circulat-
Ing library system. look askance on ro-
nance which promises only a brief and IN
satisfactory entertainment