The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-15
MYSTERY OF A MYSTERY
WRITER'S COLLABORATOR

There is no mystery about Miss Ger
aldine Ronner the author Of novels.
plays and mystery stories tina Apple
tons publish and an increasing number
Of people read. She lives In an apart
aren't. one fight NJ on the corner Of
Park avenue and Seyenty-ffth street.
There is a decided mystery, however,
ahou, Miss Bonner's collaboration.
"A scientific man" said the author
simply, as she seated the caller In q
wicker chair and sat down. near her
writing table. facing him. ~ can't tel
YOU his name. lie wouldn't like II. He
furnishes the central idea and ! write
The story.
"His name does no, appear on the
hooks. He doesn't want IL TO. a sort or
modesty, perhaps. combined with other
motives. Possibly he feels that II would
not enhance his standing as n scientist
engaged In accurate and eNacting re
search TO have his name printed on the
cover Of exciting yarns that could nave
no professional standing among his
learned colleagues,
"An engineer No. 7 can't venture 10
tell YOU anything that might lead 10 his
Identification with the stories. Rut II
is n fact that he Nrst came 10 me several
years ago with two such central ideas
as have spokcn OF and offered them
10 me. had never written q mystery
story and had no thought OF doing So.
81 liked one Of these ideas and didn't
like the other. Taking the one that ap-
pealed to me We followed the method
that we have used ever since. Together
we traced the action back to It's be-
ginnlngs. to the very starting points or
what was 10 become a dramatic, cxcit-
ing. bizarre occurrence. Al this point
the scientist dropped out. Al this point
ne always abandons to me the task of
! visualizinC the actors In the story and
writing the story itself,
Doing a mystery story IL remarkably
like doing n play. 7 say that because
I've written half n dozen plays. OF which
four have been sold-au unusually hig
Dercentage of success. the managers tell
me. In both play and mystery tale
YOU follow most successfully Sardou's
method. Let me Illustrate It. \ man
comes home and finds his wife in the
arms Of her lover. Instead OF shooting
him or trying to kill both the outraged
husband docs something totally uncx-
pected, ever something inappropriate,
Now, why did he do just that eNtraor-
binary thing? You have to trace the
action back from the big. centra'
moment to the beginning OF the play or
story. 1t may he some outward circum,
stance that compelled the man to act in
that way and his peculiar action may
have the most surprising and suitable
consequences ar the explanation may
be purely psychological. Either way |,
must he convincing. And that means. ]
~ that the author must live the
part.
YES, the mystery story IL essentially
,chitectural No amount of character
delineation will cover up bad structure,
That is why there are 80 many bad
mystery stories. The writer's uon't take
time to build their framework properly,
they are too impatient to spend some
hours musing upon their people and
their behavior. Patience, After all,
it's not a question OF that. You stand
appalled, at the writing and rewriting of
sentences. paragraphs, chapters OF n
story. but when the author Is doing his
work rightly he IL hardly conscious OF
the actual performance. He is not think
ing of the effort OF writing this line over
o. chang ,ng this phrase to another. Tic
Is so much under the skins of his char.
acters that his work Is pure creation
Miss Bonner expressed the opinion that
the greatest work In the way OF mystery
stories has been dom by Gaboriau. Poe
and Conan Doyle in his earlier pieces
such as "a Study In Scarlet" and 1.-THE
Sign OF the -Four" But che ADDED that