The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15
Advice to Young Writers.

Cyrus Townsend Brady. in New York
Times.
Now, there is another feature of an
authors work to be considered the COM
merciaL Acknowledgements / say writing?
with me is pleasure L love it, yet it is
business and as a business L stick at it
day in and day out with model regularity
of hours of work, except for periods of
needful recreation. / follow it as steadily
as man in pursuit of any other calling.
And advise the beginning author to do the
same. Acquire a habit of sticking to 1t and
keeping at II. People think that some
authors write a great many books. After
ALL what Is the number of words that l. or
any other author. produce compared to the
number of words that any active clergyman
VINO has an average Of three or four serv-
ices a week. with sermons and addresses
upon the one basic theme at each Of them,
produces in the course of year? Which
leads me to think that preaching is a good
foundation for writing. / have found it
merely as a preliminary to authorship.
one element OF successful authorship,
from business point of view. and it is Idle
10 disregard that point of view, is in know
ing what will appeal to the readers for
whom you are trying to write. Another is
In selecting or discovering original subjects
ior consideration: or, at least. if that be
impossible, of devising original means of
presentation, which shall yet be legitimate
and proper. In writing for magazines il Is
incumbent that the character of the maya
zine. or It's editor, it's clientele, should be
studied; and II, without doing violence to
personal convictions, writing can be done
with these things in view, so much the bet
ter.
Yet ii is we'll to bear In mind that mot
boilers are not literature any more than
they are art They may have good quail
ties-they must have good qualities. else
they would not ''boil'-but they are prosti-
tutlons or genius and talent. No one will
make so much out of authorship as he who
perfectly possible not to DO this and yet
have full appreciation OF the monetary
value of work An author should be one
whom money cannot buy, although he sup-
ports himself with his pen
There never were so many opportunities
Tor authors as to-day. The public reads
multiply, publishers and editors keep pace
in the rate of increase with writer's They
are all anxious for new material that is
worth while. And they love above all
exploit him. Sometimes they exploit him
10 death, by the way! Never again will it
be necessary for some Or. Johnson to take
the Vicar of Wakefield out on the street
and sell it for song. Poetry unfortu-
nately. is not popular as a mercantile COM
modify, but Paradise Lost will not have
To be disposed of for a pittance again:
which is encouragement to future Millions
IL man has anything to say and ability to
say II he is certain sooner or later to get
hearing and get paid for IL. Literally
too. But there is no room for the diet
tante in letters; no place for the spasmodic
worker, no field for the careless, the in
different, the superficial author however
great his talent.
In conclusion. If you want to be an author
and think you can, l advise you to try;
and / promise as humble member in
behalf of the mighty guild, that If you have
> the talent and will cultivate Ii assiduously
although you may be long time in Ear
irving" you will inevitably get there in
the end When you have arrived" even
In an humble way. even partially, you will
ind that you occupy one of the most agree
able and delightful positions that II Is pos
sible for man to NIL