Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-30

portant of all, since without 1t the
reader will not go on. Now the reader
must go on. That is the primary hope
of writer and publisher. Unless the
reader reads on, the book might as we'll
not be written.
The primary way to secure interest
is to create action, not only physical
movement, but even more the action
of human minds. desires, the depths
and heights of misery and grandeur.
This sort of action is dependent upon
the presentation of real people in real
situations. A novel which leaves the
reader with a sense of having got
nowhere sometimes, but not always,
will be found to be a failure in the
presentation of real human beings.
The characters in such cases are
thin. somehow lacking the roundness
of those men and women pictured in
the greater works of fiction.
just how this result, one way or the
other, is secured is scarcely to be, an
alyzed. 1t is another of the things
which are done, not talked about. There
has been a great deal of talk about it
and about, as old Omar said. but in
the last analysis the only WY to write
is to write, and the only way to create
great book characters is to create them.
Z X X X
Human nature is the broad back
ground of every good novel. Even the
most brilliant flights of the imagination
must be based on it. Even the TarZan
stories have this solid superstructure.
Sentiment and humor, to some extent
at least, are necessary ingredients in
the mixture. 1t will be found that even
works of the strictly objective school
yet manage to get a great deal of senti-
-, 49, -t, nf OF
what happens be something to appeal to
the sentiment of the reader.
The reader, whether he knows IL or
not, is party to every good novel, just
as he is a part of every good play, and
even of every great painting. That Is
why a novel which seems to scOrn, in
itself, the softer side Of humanity,
nevertheless makes a great use OF 1t,
after all.
The last of our five simpler ingredi-
entS of the good story is difficult one
to explain, even in a rudimcntary way
1t has TO do with the grand depths of
human nature. There are many excel
lent stories which never touch them.
They are good tales, interesting, replete
with action, but some way or other they
leave the reader with a sense of lack.
This lack, as far as we are able to pin
it down, is due mostly to a failure on
the part of the writer to create these
grander depths of human nature. The
writer almost seems as if he were afraid
of himself, and had no trust in the
reader either.
He may know love, happiness, misery
exaltation, but he is rather suspicious
that these things are only the concern
of weaklings, and therefore will be de-
spised by the robust readers for whom
he writes.
Therefore he fails to put the grand
depths into his story, with the result
that the reader, although he may praise
the book, leaves it with sense almost
of humiliation.
Was the writer afraid to do his best?
What might he not have done If, in ad-
dition to his suspense, plot, action,
humor, he had managed to put these
characters into places where the depths
and heights of human nature had been
called forth?
Every reader will be able to make
list of novels which, for some reason or
other. get nowhere, so far as he is con-
cerned. They may move right along
for others, but for him they are lacking