The Falls City tribune., 1911-02-17
#By#F. A. mitchell
opyright, 1911. by American Press
Association.

"What we want said the manag
ing editor. in our serials is plot. We
must have our characters or some n
of them at the end of an installment
hanging over Il preeipice a thousand
feet deep. to be rescued in the next,
tumbled overheard in midocean. left
To drown. rescued again, etc. And You
needn't bring 1t all out happily in the
end. Kill the hero if you like, There's
Tess of the D'Urbervilles. who was
strung up at the end of the story, and
the whole world read it and wept over
it. Big sales, large profits
You want ii true to life, don't your
Truth is stranger than fiction. II
you'll strike Il plot that every one says
couldn't possibly have happened you'll
get "A selling story. The critics will
call it rot but the people will want
to read it. Try TO do something
startling. My object is to put the
paper on its feet. Many n newspaper
has been made by an ingenious serial
/ had no confidence in the papers
being established by any serial I could
write. however improbable | should
make it., and | told Heaton so, but he
told me to get out and do as he had
instructed. lie had no more time to
talk about the matter. you know
what we want" he said; "go and do
it."
| puzzled for a considerable time
over Il plot, but could invent nothing
original. Then it occurred to me thai
there is nothing original except in real
Incidents that occur from time to time.
and ever these repeat themselves.
After all, the novel Heaton had quoted
had nothing startling in the plot. II
was the writing of it and the tragedy
at the end. | determined to be con.
tent with a commonplace plan and
rely on hanging somebody to do the
rest. | would drag in all the horrid
details of an execution, and | hoped
in this way to serve the managing edi.
tors purpose to a limited extent. In
order to make the story more harrow.
ing | determined that the man who
dangled ut the end of a rope should
be the innocent victim of circum.
stances.
Haycroft was my hero. Gwendolin
Mo~ntclaveries my heroine. They
loved. Haycroft was a distant con.
nection to a millionaire who was n
bachelor, and, since Haycroft was the
only child of several generations Oh
older children descending from tn
millionaire's only brother Tor sister,
for that natter, in case the million
aire died without will Haycroft would
inherit all his property. Pitblado, the
william of the story. also loves Gwen
dOlin, and | must invent some plan for
him to get Haycroft out of the way.
1t was very easy for me to kill the
rich man under suspicious circum
s~tanceS-at least | had Pitblado manu-
facture the circumstances-which went
to show that Haycroft had poisoned
the old gentleman to get his money.
The ingenuity required was to a
a lot of circumstances that would CON
Wet Haycroft and yet he must be in
nocent.
Nothing very original about that, you
say. Well, if there is any originality
in the matter at all | didn't supply it.
Fate lays all the plots for stories, and
all we scribblers do is to write them
up. Nevertheless. though | didn't
know it, | was doing the biggest job
of my life. And do you know while |
ftnIoIf uaU u-ritinr N blood nnd
thunder love tragedy | was turning
bitterness and gall in a real household
into a great happiness.
The story was coming out, the in
stallments appearing nee a week. |
had convicted the hero, and he was
/ intended to have denied by a mer-
CHESS Judge. | was writing the de
scription of the hanging and intended
as soon as it was over TO drive the
heroine insane and conclude with her
shrieks dying away gradually as doors
were closing behind her in a mad
house. The issue of the paper had ap
peared containing an explanation of
that chain of circumstances which had
convicted the murderer. Though they
were not to save him. ! felt bound 10
show my skill in finding n key 10 them
which if brought 10 light would save
the victim. But, relying rs ! did OF Il
double tragedy at the end, I proposed
to bring out the key when it was too
late to do any good. Yoa see, | didn't
intend to spoil the tragic effect by be
ing chicken hearted, especially as the
people involved were merely creatures
of my own brain. Besides. | remem-
bered the instructions of the manag
ing editor, and | was to attract the
attention of the reading public, which
increases the circulation of the paper
and brings in the advertisements, the
ultimate object of the whole thing.
About a week after the appearance
of the issue containing the eXplana-
tion of the incidents that had proved
Haycroft guilty, while | was engaged
writing the removal of Gwendolin to