Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-06
IF YOU WOULD WRITE
BY H. Addington Bruce
TDITORS are agreed that pretty near
II everybody has an ambition to tut

TDlTORS are agreed that pretty nearly
II everybody has an ambition to turn
~ author, judging from the tremen-
dous inflow of manuscripts to newspapers
and magazine offices.
Editors also are agreed that very few
would-be authors ever pause to ask them
selves what successful authorship involves.
| 1t involves, in the first place, knowledge
of the correct use of words. And it involves
a command of many words. Nobody whose
vocabulary is limited, who does not know
the exact meaning of the words he uses,
need ever hope to shine in the literary
world.
Fundamentals of grammar. of sentence
construction, of the technique of emphasis,
must also be at the authors command Other
wise there can be no clarity of thought or
expression, and without clarity there can be
no compelling appeal either to the editorial
mind or to the mind of any individual in the
great multitude known as the general read
ing public
In other words, it is folly for any person
to essay authorship without a thorough
grounding in verbal expression. And such a
grounding can be had only through patient
study and prolonged practice.
But it is not enough to know words and
their meaning, sentences and their construc-
ton, and the niceties of grammatical and
rhetorical usage. The candidate for literary
honors must also cultivate sedulously the
quality of imagination.
And it must not be imagination in the
sense merely of fancifulness. 1t must be
Imagination of the sort that one successful
author had in mind when, contributing to
the American Magazine account of her
own evolution as a writer, she emphasized:
'By imagination [ mean more than mere
plot building, cold thing whereby char
acters are moved about like checkers. I
mean an imagination so vivid that it becomes
sympathy.
when you can figuratvely crawl into
another's skin and button it around you,
sink your personality so completely in his
that you think his very thoughts, then you
have the imagination Whic.t is sympathy.
Imagination like this has the further ad-
vantage of fostering what L might call ''uni-
versatility of appeal
The unsympathetic, or the narrowly SYM
pathetic, think along limited lines. They
are interested in certain things, which may
or may not-usually not-be of vital general
they must to write successfully-the narrow
ness of their personal interests compels a
mechanical, wooden, dull, and commonplace
treatment that evOkes responsive throb
in those who read what they have written.
Of course, to know how to express ones
self and to feel both keenly and broadly do
not sum up the secret of successful author
ship. But they come surprisingly close to
summing it up.
And there would be far fewer dsappoint-
ments, both in editorial offices and in the
countless homes whittier rejected manu-
scripts come limping back, if only more
pirants for appearance in print took the pains
to study first principles of expression, and
to gain a sympathetic understanding of the
hopes and fears, the longings and aspira-
tions, the problems and the dreams of their
fellow human beings.
Copyright, 1921, by The Associated News
papers,