Evening star., 1935-01-25
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

may be the soul Of wit, but 1t Is sell
dom the soul of writing. Elaboration
is. indeed, its soul. One has but to
think Of the masterpieces Of the
worlds literature to realize that more
often than not length has great deal
to do with their success. The biggest
best seller" Of last year, for instance,
was more than half a million words
in length.
In the typical STORY" however,
things are different. While the word
covers a multitude Of sins as well as
good points, it is fairly well under
stood by every one, in conversation.
The point" is the thing, and as long
as story has a good one, as we say,
most listeners are willing to put up
with great deal
u X y X
There is no need for boring the
audience, on the other hand; that is
what the tiresome speaker does by
insisting on too much elaboration.
Since he is, too, sort of actor, often
he tries to incorporate too much stage
business of his own. He insists on
waving his hands, putting in fateful
pauses. as if to fool his auditors into
laughing at the wrong place. Some
times he does. He oVerreacheS him.
self. as it were, and has to make the
best Of a bad situation. Then when
he comes to the climax of his tale the
effect is likely to be cold and fiat,
when it would have been warm enough
If he had not tried for a double effect
when one would have been sufficient.
This Is but one bad effect of the
tlreSome speaker. Even worse is his
tendency to be too precise, especially
If he has any personal interest in the
thing he is telling. He goes into the
most elaborate presentation, pinning
everything down to its precise date,
as if it made any difference to the
listener. What he has forgotten, you
see, is the listener. The latter is not
at all interested in whether the thing
took place on Monday or Tuesday.
What difference does it make to him?
4 X
The long -winded oral story-teller
ought to realize that such details are
really of no interest to him, even, any
longer.
He merely thinks they are. He is
"reminiscing" aloud, and lets his
tongue run on. He should stop it, for
the better approach to the point of
his narrative. 1t is true that there
are some types of stories which need
plenty Of this sort of elaboration, but
this is only true when the listener
has some special interest in the same
subject. Then he will be able to
stand a great deal of detail of the
sort which, to the casual listener, is
worse than waste of words.
The casual listener wants move
ment. That is what he is after. He
wants the story to get along, to build
itself up as rapidly as possible, just
SO the essentials are put in. Nothing
is more tireSome, if the truth were
known, to the average person in the
daily life than the story told with too
much attention to the niceties of the
case. Striving for effect is bad, espe-
cially in the short anecdote, which
mostly demands of the teller a swift
approach to the essentials In the
old days Of vast oratorical efforts, last
ing for two or three hours at stretch,
duty kept many listener at it. Po-
liteness often prevents a yawn in the
face Of the long-winded story-teller
who insists on being too precise in the
telling of his latest, or his Oldest,
anecdote. He must remember that
the little last detail which is so pre-
ciOuS to him Is OF no particular inter-
est to the one he buttonholes. The
story's the thing, and let him stick to
it closely.