Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-01

Washington, ID. c.. Oct. 2S.-If you
have read some particularly uninspired
fiction lately you will be glad to know
that methods of measuring imagination
are being involved. How 70 induce all
the writer's and would-be writer's to
test themselves is, of course, another
problem, as yet unsolved.
In recent years there has appeared
a vast literature designed to show that
anybody who is so inclined can turn
out fiction. The result Of this teach,
ing has been that magazine offices are
flooded with neat stories carefully put
together by rule and carefully con-
forming to the psychology of reader and
editor, as the textbook advised. =
Thus scarcely a fiction writer in
the country remains ignorant of the
established fact that editors abhor blue
ribbon bows on manuscript. 1t is wide
ly understood that a rolled manuscript
would be coldly returned unread.
Also, few, if any, fiction manufacturers
are ava that a happy ending is as
necessary to a story as a snappy be-
ginning. Editors, a writer is told, ac-
quire the habit of reading the first
page and the last of a story. If they
are aroused from their apathy the in
terror of the manuscript may be ex-
plored. Such beliefs have become
tradition among the vast circle of fic-
tioneers.
Hhe creative faculty, being more
elusive, has been passed over vaguely
by most textbook writer's. 1t is as
sumed that a certain amount of mag
ination goes with the desire to create
characters and plots. Nevertheless,
most Of the fiction writer's who never
land simply lack a flexible imagination.
They are encouraged by friends and by
their W judgment to weave stories
when they have nj inventive talents or
when their ~imaginations run along
stereotyped lines.
1t must be admitted that occasionally
fiction writer's attain success in spite
of this defect. A charming style, a
knack of writing from the humorist's
viewpoint, may raise the most hack
neyed plot out Of the ordinary. Gen
orally, however. the gift of style or
humor goes with an original and imag-
NATIVE mind.
The problem of classifying magma
ton from a literary standpoint at
tracted DR.. Edwin Slosson and DIR.
June Downey. DR.. Slosson is an edi-
tor, author and teacher Of Journalism.
DR.. Downey is a writer and professor
of psychology at the University of
| wyoming. JSlng as SUBJECTS c0lIege
students, mainly those interested in
creative writing, a variety of tests
were made.
Tests From the Agony Column
For test material DR.. Slosson went
first of all to the personal column of
the London Times. The personal col
umn in this particular paper is notable
for its unusual messages. and is popu-
larry known as the agony column
Lovers who cannot write or get to-
gether exchange cryptic endearments.
Business firms send signals in code.
Mothers beg estranged sons to return
home. and people of peculiar talents
advertise here hoping that some reader
may need their services.
Most Of the messages are only for
the person to whom they are addressed,
and the general reader must guess at
the meaning. Such a message as Col
liwog.-The gold is gone-Waiting.''
might refer to an attempted burglary.
or a business deal. or II might be 4
lovers sentimental way of saying that
a trouble making blonde had passed
out of his life.
DR.. Downey tried a series of these
items on students. asking them to con-
struct a story from a given personal
and classified the results according to