The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-08-11
How the
Story Ended
BY F. A. mitchell

were waiting for the copy for the last
| chapters, the whole to be ready for
| publication within q week. l was writ
ing late one night when for a time
how long I know not-my faculties
| came to standstill
My next remem brance is that / was
walking in grove, strange to say,
with my heroine, Evelyn Hope-not
| only Evelyn Hope, the creature Of my
Imagination, but Evelyn Hope real
being. And she was talking to me.
"You are trying to compel me to mar
ry that Scotchman, and / wish you to
understand that / won't do it"
Angus McGregor is a fine fellow"
l replied. you must marry him. I've
written the story with that end In
view, and IL you won't have him shall
have TO tear the whole thing to pieces
Besides, there's no time for you to
change your mind at this late date.
The book is advertised for the LIST OF
March"
II change my mind! You might bet
ter state II you change my mind. You
novelists collect lot OF us together
and undertake to make us do just what
you intend we shall do. Then when
we''--
"KickT'
Eyes. that expresses It exactly. When
we kick you say. You've got to do
as wish you to do And we won't
that is, unless your win comedies with
our own"
well, then, If you will be so obstrep-
orous, whom do you wish to marryT
She didn't reply TO this right off. We
were passing through some long grass,
and she bent down and picked blade
growing higher than the rest and, put
ting one end of IL in her mouth, said:
You profess to be a novelist. A nov
elist must understand the human heart.
What do you know about the human
hearth"
Il thought I was well equipped in
that respect"
And you can't make your heroine
marry the man Of her choice. Fine In
stincts you have for divining how love
works"
I'm woman / admit my most sue
cessful novel was one In which made
up my mind as TO the man / would
love were l a woman and then made
her marry the biggest chump In the
lot"
The woman knew better. At heart
he was a noble fellow"
Cal \ Iv1r~
You novelists tire me. The fellow
you were creatingl Just as IL you
could create a characterv'
"Why notT'
you set up dummy and p,lt this
into him and that into him, thinking
that this and that you have put in will
make him act so and so, but 1t doesn't |
He goes Off and does the other thing |
while you stand gaping at him. What's
the reason for your failure? Why, yorr
calculations are all wrong"
i've violated what the playwrights
call the dramatic laws, you mean"
Nonsense. There is no such thing |
as dramatic laws. IL there were there
would have TO be a mammoth dramatic
prison, for the characters would be
breaking the laws every day. No; your
trouble has been In not foreseelng the
thousands of influences through which 4
your characters will pass. One of them
commits horrid murder. Your reader
yearns to see him hanged. He escapes
from prison the night before the hang
ing. Straightway your readers SYM
pathy goes with him and he hopes the
murderer will not be caught"
I'VE are wasting time In generaliz-
ing. You have told me that you won't
marry Angus, and yet you will not tell
me who is your choice"
Yes, l will. I'll have none of them"
None of theml Great heavens!
What shall / do7 The printers are
the publishers are bounding
me for the end, and now you. my hero
Inc, on whom have lavished so much
affection, tell me that you will neither
marry the man of my choice nor
''Your choicew
"Well. who's been writing the story" :
You. BY the time you have written
, few more you'll discover that instead
IF writing a story the story writes !
you"
You don't mean it, But time is s
PRESSING. Come. be good, Fix it so
hat / can finish the yarn and have :
lone with 1t"
And You wish to know my prefer q
,nce?"
'I do"
/ turned and looked eagerly in her c
yes. To my surprise. they fell to the :
round and a color rose to her cheeks.
With an infinitely sweet look on her a
ace she faded into another real living
icing. my betrothed, who was bending 81
yer me.
"Have I been illr' asked.
Every ILL.," e
How long?" =
"a week" n
Bring me the last chapter of my Z
oveI"
The story was written in the first
erson. In a few hundred words /
lade the heroine in love with this r
person who was telling it. Al
Il the while keeping himself in the 81
background. Then hurried the manu- t
,ript or to my publisher. =
The book met with a great success. fe
-hich every one said was the sudden p