The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-08
Plots of NoveIists.

Tid-Bits.
There are few more interesting specu-
lations about writer's Of fiction than
to where and how they get the ideas which
they weave SO skillfully into stories for our
delight.
"Of one thing you may be quite sure"
said a popular novelist to the writer,
that few. if any, fiction writers Of any
repute buy their plots. AS Mr.. Anthony
Hope said to me only the other day.
positively inundated with ideas from
plot-mongers, professional and amateur,
but 1 never even look at them. You can
no more take another mans plot than you
can wear his clothes"
Another thing is equally certain. that
practically no two novelists work on iden-
teal lines The most curious method with
in my knowledge is that adopted by Rita,
who has written nearly half hundred
delightful novels. Rita" is one OF the
literary bricks without straw. All
that she requires for her purpose Is an
attractive and suggestive title; and, equip
ped simply with this, and without any at
tempt to evolve even the skeleton OF her
story she sits down TO her desk and begins
to withdrawing the plot to develop itself:
IT'S just like weaving a spiders web,
she says. II begin with my title as the
spider begins with his thread, and 1 work
away until the thread snaps and my story
is complete. / am quite in the hands or
my characters-they do just they please,
and my part is simply TO chronicle their
dOings. When 1 begin a chapter l haven't
the slightest idea how il will develop; and
as for forecasting the end of my story,
1 could no more do it than any of my read
ers. Occasionally get an idea from some
event in actual life, as when l introduced
the Cross poisoning case into The Sinner
and the details Of an Irish murder case into
The Sins OF Jasper Standish.
Occasionally a friend suggests a usefui
idea for a story TO novelist. shameless
Wayne" Mr. Halliwell SATELLITES weird and
haunting novel. was suggested by York
shire legend told to the author by medi-
cal friend at Bradford. DR.. Conan Doyles
latest powerful story, THE Hound of the
Baskervilles," owes it's birth to stroll and
a chat with a literary friend; and Mr.. Max
Pemberton tells how the plot OF sea
Wolves" sprang directly from a story told
him by one of the Rothschilds clerks of
how he and another man conveyed E3,OCO,-
600 I'm gold from London TO ST. Petersburg.
Many of our best novels. believe, have
had their origin in similar way In tact.
my own most successful book was the dl-
rect outcome of a single sentence l over
heard one day in the smoking room of the
National Liberal Club.
One may go so far as to say that any
trivial accident may suggest a plot. One
inspired by a name seen on slgnboard
from a passing omnibus; one of Sir Walter
Besant's by an advertisement I'm the agony
Hopes first novel by an idea that was sug-
gested TO him while listening to a case in
the law courts, for want of anything better
70 do.
Mr.. Rider Haggard traces his career as
novelist to a casual attendance at church
in Norwood. He was so struck by the puri-
~ and beauty of the face of girl who was
sitting near him that, instead of listening
TO the sermon. he began to weave story
around it, This story a few months later
saw the light as Dawn" king Solomons
Mines" was suggested by reading an arti-
Gle on boys books and when Mr.. Haggard
sat down to write Shea feat which he
performed in six weeks-he had absolutely
no material TO work with beyond the sim
pie idea of an immortal woman.
Mr. Anthony Hope admits that he never
introduces actual characters into his books.
Il may take a trait or little trick of man.
ner now and then, but real people never
give you what you want and personally
should find it impossible to portray them in
my stories;'' and this you may take as the
usual rule.
You must not run away with the idea that
all novels are written easily. Some writer's,
like Stanley Weyman and Conan Doyle,
have put in much as years hard read
ing before writing a line of novel. In fact,
it is said that for THE White Company
Dr. Doyle read no fewer than a hundred
volumes, and l am sure you will agree with
me that the result is worth the labor.