University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-07-28
HOW To WRITE A
HUMOROUS STORY
First Thing Necessary Is an
Idea, According to f.
p. Butler.
THEN 1T EVOLVES ITSELF
Recipe to Pass Vacation
Hours Pleasantly and
Protitably.

Out OF the professed kindness OF
heart Of the professional humoriSt.
for the benefit OF those who would
like 10 pass their vacation hours pleas
antly and protitably, Elias Parker But
Ter gives the following recipes for a
humorous story. The first is de-
scribed as the one favored b. the
magazine editor:
Put in no buriesque. no exagger-
alton. nothing coarse. no dialect; make
il. preferably. 4 suburban tale avoid
funerals Intoxicating, slang. Avoid
mechanical devices. retain q certain
classic quality OF language. When
completed q story built on these lines
will be promptly rejected. If not
built on these lines ii will be rejected.
This" says Mr.. Butler, is lovely
recipe for those who can afford to
use IL | can't. This is my recipe,
or at any rate my idea of writing 4
humorous story:
Write 4 story so unusual that l
know no editor would buy it.
of course | have not the bravado
10 do this. but if had every editor
would want that story. The editor
knows what he wants; it is what he
does not think he wants"
AT this point the flow Of his thought
is interrupted by q noise on the piazza
without: it is veritable piazza. for
the humorist has so far fallen under
the spell OF the editors recipe that he
has gone ont to live AZ Flushing. where
suburban joys. adventures and miSad-
ventures may have fair chance TO
multiply themselves. The noise proves
to be dual noise, and the humorist
gets up and looks out of the window.
Twins is twins" he says, and the
magic combination which was to open
the way of success for unknown hui
morists-is forgotten.
AS for the twins themselves, they
have thus far managed TO pass six
months in the household without ap-
pearing in 4 tale, but it is easy to see
that their parent has already begun
TO look at them with professional
eye from which nothing suburban is
sacred.
ftrsf IN Too no
coming back to the case in point;
for there has to be an idea at the
bottom of a humorous story even.
which can be the rankest kind OF Slush
and still 60"
For instance?" you suggest, desir-
ing the concrete.
We'll, for instance" he meditates,
looking out of the rear window,
through which. from somewhere, floats
in the sound of the rhythmic swishing
|of irons against ironing board. "for
instance-just TO be imaginative. you
know-suppose 4 lady from Kansas
wearing q haystaek looking hat should
drop in here and ask for classic
style interview for the Sun. lmprob
able, of course, but it contains all the
ingredients. | don't know; | may use
that, SO perhaps you'd better not give
it away.
An Idea From an Office Boy.
1T was somebody in magazine
office, the office boy. | think. who
sprang the main idea for Pigs Is Pigs
had written story about pair of lop
cared guinea pigs and a Chicago adj
vertising agent who. counting on the
rapidity of multiplication OF the ami
mails, resolved to make fortune by
advertising widely lop cared guinea
pigs for sale, thinking the supply
would keep pace with the demand.
Orders and checks poured in from all
over the country. but unfortunately
the Top cared beasts died and the ad-
vertising agent became bankrupt mail
| ing back checks.
Here the idea of the story was the
merits OF advertising; man up in the
| Northern wilds. finding nothing to
read but the 2-year-old newspaper lin