The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-02
MAKING TIE PINGPONG STORY
LOVERS QUARREL YARNS AN
OTHER NAME FOR THEN.
Chief .DimeuIty Is to Get the Proper Back
ground, Says the Author Motoring
Technical Terms O Useful knowledge
Now BRedekers Observation-Disclosures.

KIOuIut Sbtu dIo utAo hAo
Technical Terms o Useful knowledge
Now Baedekers GoOd-POsSlbilItIes.
one OF the most successful writer's Of
magazine "pingpong' stories was telling
about 1t.
Its almost as easy TO write ~pingpong
stories as it is to swing in a hammock, once
you get into the way Of It, he said. Ping
pongI Oh, that means the viciAsitudinous-
ness-or, better, the sc~rappiness-of the
pair OF lovers in the pingpong story. Ping
out Of love; pong in love again, the thing
all fixed up. Ping expresses the trouble
there's got TO be a little trouble in every
love %story-and pong. the happy adjust
ment OF the business. There couldn't be a
greater snap than writing a pingpong story
onoei you get the idea. The dialogue writes
itsslf, so to speak. You just stick the paper
in the typewriter and hammer away-B
catch myself thinking all manner Of irrele-
vaht things while I'm writing pingpong
stories. Writing them comes so easy now
that / can pound the keys in the manu-
facture Of p~ingpongs and worry at the
same time about the failure to sprouto OF the
radishes | planted last month or wonder
II I got in wrong in a few little real estate
investments that I've made. q.
cor course there's got to be an idea.
When you've got that it's all over except
the mere writing. Alexandra Dumas the
elder knew how to express that. He was
engaged upon a play. The manager who
was TO produce it asked him how he was
progressing with the play. Oh replied
Dumas. It's practically finished. I've COM
pleted it except for the dialogue And
that's the way it is with a %pingpong story.
Get the idea and the mere words just wrap
themselves aroun the idea. After you We
written some thousands Of pingponG stories
YOU find yourself imagining that you're
running out OF ideas. but it's nothing but
imagination. | thought that ] was all in
30 far as pingpongs were concerned several
years ago. hut all that ! needed was a
little vacation of a week or so and then
the ideas began to swarm again. You see,
there are really more possible combina-
ions with two people in love with each
other than there are in billiards or in poker
hands.
Il couldn't even begin to enumerate the
different twists OF the main themes Of
pingpong stories. You can make him
scrappy. naughty and independent. or you
can make the girl that a You can fix
them both that way II you want to-a
first rate ~pingponR frequently results when
they're both more or less to blame, You
can make the girl a bit of a bully and the
man a noody-naddy who'll stand for it,-or
YOU can turn the situation around, making
the man the bully. You can make one or
both Of them the victim Of a misunder-
standing. He can be n sulker and 30 can
Shn tIapH IN Tnuka than hath Rnlkarl
occasionally, but ! found that this in
volved too much work in getting them
together at the windup, and I've got too
much TO think of-business matters and
such like-while engaged in writing ping
pong stories to feel like tsckling ideas
that require any actual thought. So now
make il just as easy for myself to get them
together at the finish as possible.
Locale has a good deal to do with the
salableness and success Of a ~pingpong
story. It's pretty safe to plant most ping
pongs right here in New York. The maya
zines which print the pingpongs circulate
tremendously in the middle West. and the
middle Western folks think that New York
is the most fascinating place ever. They
pretend hat the town rather bores them
when they come here by the hundreds Of
thousands every year, but don't you believe
th~em-they're crazy over it. II the ping
pong Is planted in New York, you never
want to neglect to nave the principals take
a little luncheon or dinner OF supper or
something at the Waldorf Astoria. The
W~aldorf-Astoria is the leading wonder Of
the world TO those same middle Westerners,
40 that when they read in the pingpong
Of the people concerned getting some
thing TO eat at the Waldorf Astoria they
know perfectly well that the fgurantes OF
they yarn are all right-they must be.
IF you make the man a tall, athletic
young lawyer or doctor. and the girl a
beautiful and wealthy heiress who, very
much against the will Of her people, has
come to New York to study sociology or
something because she wants TO do some
thing higher and nobler in the world, you
can't go far ~wrong-that's essentially
~pingppngish and correct. Or you can
make him a busy young ana of a
famous brokerage office. who has never
had time or the desire to cultivate his bet
ter self till he meets up with the girl. When
he meets her, Of course, he falls for Shelley
and Keats and Walter Pater with q thump,
and learns to hate the sordid occupation In
which he is engaged, but you can manage
TO ameliorate his hatred for his brokerage
business before the finish. of course-you
wouldn't want to have him go through
life despising his method of piling up the
millions.
you can't plant all OF the ~pingpongs in
New York, Of course, but it's a big enough
world. There's Monte Carlo, for example.
I've written scores Of p~ingpongs around
Monte Carlo. though I've never been there.
The Riviera has a fine, loafng sound. too.
for q %pingpong, and you can finish them
UP on the Nile, with a little allusion thrown
i'd about S~hepheard's Hotel in Alexandria
or is IL Cairoy / always forget whether
Shepherds Hotel is in Alexandria or
Cairo, and I invariably nave TO look IL up
in q Baedeker when | bring them together
in Egypt in a ping pong, You can make
them tourists on a steamer u for
Hawaii. and the girl can pronounce the
words that mean so much 10 him in Waikiki
on the outskirts OF Honolulu, where the Royal
Avenue Of Palms isl certainly must 90 to
Honolulu some day. IL ! ever get the time.
"For the matter Of that, they can meet
I'D with each other while touring In Japan
in separate parties, have their first scrap
in Yokohama, become reconciled in Toxic,
become sore on each other again In Maya
sald, readjust matters in Kobe. and arrange !
for the marriage next spring In Pittsburg
right there In Japan, with the cherry bios
SONS sitting down upon them and the
fragrance OF the iris flowers permeating |
the air--if iris flowers really are fragrant,
- Il 49,. N---.A L.,, .H.4 |