The Indianapolis journal., 1903-08-23
WRITING CHEAP FICTION
LITERARY RECORDS By AUTHORS
WHO ARE UNKNOWN TO FAME.
Modern Dime-NoveI Writing Done by
RuIe-Twenty Manufactured in
Forty Weeks.


lNiHS. the boy DticcliNe anu pbhti hciOtS
whose exploits thrill small boys is not
done by writer's of the same heroic and fire.
eating type as the characters portrayed.
Men who write such stories need principally
fertile imagination. capacity for hard
work and the ability to turn out thousands
of words of readable stuff day to make
them successful.
They have never rescued imperiled maid
ems, tracked Indians and murderers over
deserts and mountain trails, or recovered
lost fortunes. Many of them have never
seen live Indian or cowboy. have bare
speaking acquaintance with the detectives
at headquarters and carry no si~-shooters
in their back pockets.
More than one dime-novel publishing
firm has made a fortune at the business of
providing literature for Young America,
aud that IN the days when they paid
writer from SO to $3.50 for a story. Things
are done differently now
Each dime-novel publishing house en-
ploys staff of writer's, who receive reg
ular salary. Besides the staff of regular
contributors. persons who can be depended
upon TO turn i'm fixed amount of copy
every week. each publishing house has
list of workers who can write a story to
order and at short notice
When a regular writer falls ill or takes
vacation, when some special event
HdPpeIS WHlcn makes "A foundation lOf a
plot Tor popular novel, one OF these
special writers is communicated with and
is ordered to dash off story OH three or
four days notice. Inspiration forms small
part or the dime-novel writer's stock i'll
trade. for nearly all his stories are written
to order. In these cases the writer fol-
lows plot suggested by the publisher and
does not even select the title
Stories of sensational crime or adventure
in the daily newspapers that offer a possi-
bility of being dressed up into an inter-
by the publishers as the subjects for a
novel. This is particularly true If the
incident is of national interest.
a few years ago producer of this class
in the way of rapid production. writing
1900 words of copy in thrty-siX hours.
To do this he was compelled TO go without
much sleep and to take his meals i'll bites
between sentences.
RAPID WORK NECESSARY.
The necessity for such rapid work arose
over an incident in the South American
city where several sailors from the United
States cruiser Baltimore were attacked
in the streets by a mob Through the
industry of this trained writer his pub
fishers were able to put on sale two days
after news of the event reached New
York story i'm which the murdered boat
swan's mate of the cruiser was the hero.
When Admiral Dewey won his victory i'm
Manila harbor. there were a score of stories
in which that battle formed the chief
event on the newsstands within a week.
And so IL goes. A disastrous railroad
wreck, thrilling escape from death, a
tional catastrophe-al! furnish material for
the dime-nove writer.
Many people who denounce such fiction
as wholly bad may not know that the
publishers will not allow a suggestive SEN
tence or a line In the stories or word that
any boy or girl might not read. The heroes
pprfOrm rather remarkable
ploits and exterminate a good many bad
people, but 1T is generally an outdoor life
the writers tell about, the heroes are self
reliant men or boys. and the bad people
who get killed deserve II. The moral of the
stories must be good. Virtue always tri-
umphs and vice is overthrown.
Said a successful writer of boys stories
the other day:
1--WE writers of dime novels do not at
tempt a polished style of English as a
rule and the pages write are rarely
read or edited by ourselves. The publishers
want action, plot, incident dialogue and
thrilling situations.
"In order to write successful dime novels
the author must possess at least super
fetal knowledge of great variety of sub
lects. He must be able to depict life in
the slums of a great city, or the free. row
ing existence of the cowboy on the West
ern plains; he must lay his scenes i'm Cuba
or the Philippines without making any
material error in the descriptive sections.
THAT the plot and incidents must be
plausible is rigid rule. No matter how
improbable the deeds of the hero seem,
the author must be sure that what he does
is not absolutely impossible nor absurd.
If Brandywine Pete scalps Indian in
the Black Hills IN the morning and cleans
out a faro bank In Deadwood at night,
the story must explain satisfactorily how
he made the journey from one point to
the other Iii the time specified
FOLLOWING OTHER MEMS PLANS.
1t often happens that the dime-novel
writer must take up a character created
by another individual and carry this hero
along through new adventures without
changing his habits or permitting him to
repeat himself in any Of his daring deeds.
One central figure is often carried along
through twenty or thirty numbers of
library, and while the same name may
appear on the title page of each separate
story. dozen different authors may have
contributed to the series, each one taking
up the thread of the story where his prede-
cessor left off. This is considered hard
work, but is one of the things that come
TO the professional dime-novel writer.
"A publisher who had created a romantic
Western adventurer with a name that
proved popular with the boys. contracted
with one of his weekly writer's for series
of twenty stories,' said the man quoted
from above. THE writer worked indus
trlously for thirty-two weeks. getting out
complete story bimonthly, when he was
taken i'll.
THE publisher was in a quandary. but
laid the before one of his special
writer's. who arranged to take up the work
where the other left off and carry on the
central characters unchanged This man
employed in the day time, and could
give only his nights and one day week
to the extra work.
''In order to prevent any discrepancies
in the stories, he had to read UP what the
original writer had written about the char
acters. He did this and wrote four novels
of 10000 words each i'm twenty days without
interfering with his regular work. The
stories were dictated to stenographer.
and were thus written at the rate of 1900
words hour.
1t is said that regular writers of dime
novels. men who do no other kinds of
work. are able to produce story of from
10000 TO $1,000 words week. and TO keep il
up for six months in the year. The writer
cannot attempt 10 think out his plot and
arrange the events in the hero's life before
sitting down to write, as that would take
too long
Instead. he must be able 10 take title
name and the incident suggested by the
publisher and write a story of specified
length, letting the plot grow and develop
as he progresses. He must invent names
ne writes the letters that spell them,
and create thrilling incident or climax for
the ending Of every chapter. leaving the
elimination of the entire story for the
very end.
Dime novel writing may not be the
noblest calling Of the exponent OF fiction.
but ia is one of the best-paying, and the
demand for good. readable stories Is so
great that 2 Derson who can tell a story i'm