Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-07-03

t1ERF, are today in this country
nearly 50 magazines that are
| i willing to good prices for
i good stories. Among them they
~ bo,1t $50 stories a month and buy
ss,bably 80 more, which they will never
use. III rs
or these 200 OF 800 stories marketed
Ivory month, about one In so Is first
class md about one 8tilSs 10 Is second.
;rsa,,se the editor must have solne-
,snr 10 nj In the spaces between the
t,nnf cover and Tie advertisements.
1Vie editors OF, the better class OF
- zines are continually bowling for
a.ay,cs. II they get good story from
writer they follow him up With re-
auests for moro If they see a good
storv os.two, in another magazine they
,rrif,es ib the author and ask II they
.anbSl im9e. something from him. They
sr,s IN the watch all the time for any
"ne Who has tie gift of narrative.
These are the facts OF the case, We'll
pnawn ia every one in the publishing
h,Sinegs, on the other side are the
theories beloved of budding authors
who feel the germs of genius within
them
THE authors OIL unpublished manu-
eoIipts seem to have two standard
srleyanees against editors The first is
mat editors will accept any old thing
5the writer has a name. The second
Il that editors will never tell an un-
known author why they refuse his
story. ~
the antagonism between the aspir.
Ing author and the unsyrnpathetic pub
Usher Undoubtedly exists. What Is the
realscause of II and whose fault is 1t?
with view to getting at the truth
| Of the matter the writer undertook 70
get.uEon speaking terms with the edi- y
tors Of is of the leading magazines
uuhiished In America today, and aisn
10 make some practical experiments of
his own, so as to test the truth OF the
charges continually made against the,
well known editor by the unknown
author b.
rhe result of these interviews seams
ia prove pretty cbncluslvely that II. the
untpeserl aathoFl cannot get: his story
published It - entirely his own fault.
and that the faults which lead to his
discontinue can be grouped under
three hsatiss
To begin with. the most common
/ faMtiob{all, the manuscript may he all
rishts the situations well described and
the dialogue clever, btl.----no story.
larthe next group of Failures are
those manuscripts in which the story
is lhe.eS but is@not properly arranged
or tsklt This is a fault which puts a
manuscript just in the balance
Whether the editor thinks enough Of it
to bother further whit Is largely
matter of the hunnor of the moment
1t is very much like the hesitation Of
a person In buying something that il
not cutie What he wants, but which
couldsb made to do by spending lit-s
tie hDp and troubleioh3its alteration.
Dlh third class Of failures Is stories
wiiehrareo all right, but are not suited
TO the ma gazlne to which they nre sent.
Thlssis the@cause Of nine-ten of the
faiAaesteof- fnexperienced authors.
One of the most extraordinary deu-
si2ns Of the novice IN authorship Is
that hrs errianuscrlpt is not even read
One1eften hears of pages gummed to-
3gethei as n fest and so on. The reply
to this charge Is that it Is not always
necessary to separate the yolls of an
egg from the shell to find out that it is
rotten.
If.Wliters only knew the eagerness
with which the publishers reader scans
every story that comes into the office
/ from q new source they would quickly
get over the idea that their stories
We're retuln,ad ginreadY y Many Of the /
writer's 6of = esta nIfshedh ,reputa tf5nr are
written oiiti and the magazine edltorris
tirelfss in his quest for new IDEAS a
fresh style, an unexpected field. All
he asks is that the new story shall fit
into the style ofSarchitecture on which
his magazine is built. 4
The one, absolutely hopeless case is
the writer who has no story to tell, but
who can fill up Is pages of twepwriting
with mixture OF dialogue and incident
that leads nowhere. Several of the edi-
tors interviewed spoke feelingly of the
time and trouble wasted In wading
through this sort of authorship.
This sort of writer remarked a
reader for one Of the best-known maya
zines, reminds me of q young fellow
who applied for. "a job in a carpenters
shop and brought a perfectly smooth
Piece of board as a sample OF what he
could do. The carpenter asked him
what It was for or what it fitted. and
found that it did not fit anything. but
was simply lbeautifully-smoo piece
OF work, planned and sand-pnpered, top,
bottom and sides.
The carpenter told the young fellow
70 take 1t back home again and bringi
to him next day with mortise and
tenon Joint init, or an o. G.. panel on
one side-.anythtng to show what the
work OH 1t was for
some people do not seem to under
stand remarked another reader, that
the short story should be restricted to
a single incident. If 1t is a story of
'aaventufe there must be only one adj
Venture,f'if 1t is a love affairgit must
ne only one episode in the courtship.
u It y. y character sketch it must
deal With one trait of character only.
There is no more common mistake
made by would-he magazine writers
than TO imagine that a short story is a
condensed novel. a. short story should
4be like q tlash-llght picture OF a. single
stone being laid ina wall. The novel Is
description Of the whole building
from cellar to ropf.,'
INC rapidity with which a reader can
Judge q story Is the result OF long prac-
use. While 1t is true that an expert
can scan story without reading more
thal third. of the words In Il, he Will
never miss the story If the story is,
there
/ 20 1 4.