The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-01
THE MAKING OF A NOVEL.

A Cynical Account of the Way the
 Deed is Done
 Strange as it may appear to the un- initiated. the task of the novelist Is not wholly completed when he has provided himself with bottle of ink and a few pounds (avoirdupois) of foolscap. He has still to conceive story and tell 1t. By fixing his gaze steadily on a far corner of the ceiling for some hours, or days, or moths, with suitable intervals for refreshment. the story may come orth without the necessity of shedding one drop of ink or spelling a single sheet of paper. Inspiration may also be obtained. according to several com petent authorities. by binding large wet cloth round the head and sitting up late in the evenings; but this increases the financial demands of the laundress and gas company. and is not to be re- commended to those os an attenuated income or Of delicate mental equip- ment. Some novelists of distinction, before purchasing ink and paper, take a long holiday in the country, and sit for days and weeks together in a gar den cool and shady, where they can gaze undisturbed at the ethereal blue, and the leafy trees, and the radiant flowers.
 zola used to darken his rooms when he was in the throes. MT. Bret Harte has been pensive for several weeks to- gether when story is matching in his brain. The late Wilkie Collins, wise man, thought out his many inventions by sitting in an armchair and smoking l a cigar. William Black lived with his l characters for months. until he knew them all quite well; then he would l, take an inkoot to the top of the house l and do things costly. The stories of l Anthony Trollope, on the other hand, came to him most easily while he was on foot, and therefore he often found I himself wandering through a wood, amid thI silent solitude Of the whisper ] ing trZss. When George Eliot desired to e,<nceive story she rearTanged the fIrniture and sat down at her desk in her best things. Hawthorne achieved < inspiration now and again by diving into his wife's sewing basket and cut \ ting his .'findn into little pieces with d pair of scissors: also. he has been known to whittle away the arm of a ] rocking chair with a knife. Ouidas i Guardsmen were thought out in the early hours of the morning, most of them at not later than a. m. The stories Of Maurus Jokai will not come in other than violet ink. When MT. Anthony Hawkins desires inspiration he goes to his desk each morning and waits for it; if 1t does not arrive he re- turns home and calls again the next morning. And so on and so forth. There is no patent principle. Some able gentlemen write novel in three months; others take three years.
 A story may be obtained most quick fly by sticking a pin into the paper with closed eyes. No matter where the pin sticks, it is impossible to go wrong. It l lis almost certain to stick into "A Dreadful Accident" or an Awful Loss of Life" By good luck it often sticks into both at once and provides the nu- cleus of a thrilling novel. It, therefore, \ seems surprising that a larger number of people do not write novels. Un- doubtedly-and the fact is not to be disguised d-difficulties may appear about the middle of the story. When
 everybody has been suitably mixed up, and spread over different parts of the
 earth, that is the moment when the
 noelist sits in what MT. Carlyle calls the porch of the sanctuary of sorrow ' It invariably happens that, exactly at
 the time person is wanted in the drawing-room he was down in the kitchen, and it is not always conven- I tent to let some one kill him. These little worries come to the most expert.
 In "The Woman in White" Wilkie Col l lins got MT. Fairlie, with his nerves and his art treasures; Miss Fairlies af terward Lady Clyde, and Miss Hal
 combe in the drawing-room, and all of them were awaiting the arrival of the
 young drawing master, Walter Hart wright Anne CatherWick having new CT been introduced at all What did the novelist do? He left them all, and declined to be on speaking terms with them for several days. One evening he read a short paragraph in newspaper about a lunatic who had escaped from
 an asylum. That settles it. He at
 once arranges meeting between Wall ter Cartwright and Anne Catherwick as she was escaping from an asylum at
 midnight, and all is we'll
 As rule, heroines seldom play tricks with a novelist; it is the, villain of the piece who is most annoying. He has a
 habit of getting into the right place at the wrong time, or in the wrong way.
 Having planned that he shall come in at the back door, there are critical mo- ments, perchance in the midst of love
 idyl, when he will come in only by the
 front door, so that everybody can see him. Wanted as sudden revelation, he stays away; required to stay away,
 he demands to walk in with a leisurely air. A villain of this sort is of no use
 to any one, and it is often desirable to
 drown him and get another. The moon and the sun, the weather and the rail- !way system are also apt to aggravate.