Why Your Manuscripts Return
by Alexander Good
CONTENTS.
Introduction ------- 7
Fiction Writing ------ g
1. The Plot ------ g
2. Construction - - - - - - 12
3. Characterization - - - - - 17
4. Dialogue - - - - - - 21
5. Atmosphere ------ 25
The Short Story ------ 30
The Article -------33
Poetry ---- 36
Style ---------38
The Manuscript ------ 42
The Note Book -------45
Placing the Manuscript ----- 46
Finally -------- 52
Introduction.
IT may be supposed that the Guide Posts along the road to literary success are already sufficiently numerous.
Whence comes, then, this enormous mass of crude, undigested material with which the "Literary Reader " has to wage an unending struggle ?
An outpost, beyond the furthest advanced guard of the Publishing Army, this Reader has to cope with the first onslaught of the literary beginner (often termed in dreadful phrase "literary aspirant''), and it is a matter of surprise to find him almost invariably with an imperfect knowledge of the weapon he proposes to wield.
The Reader who should set his judgment within a hundred miles of infallibility, has undoubtedly many shocks in store for him, and it were well for all of us to remember the dreadful legend of our Greatest Author having condemned the first book of our other Greatest Author.
The aim set up for the present publication is a very modest one. It proposes only to indicate the faults which chiefly disfigure the MSS. to beginners, and to suggest appropriate remedies.
For the sake of convenience I have divided my remarks on Fiction Writing into the following sections, viz. : (i) Plot, (2) Construction, (3) Characterization, (4) Dialogue, (5) Atmosphere.
These headings follow the form into which my reports on the books submitted to me customarily fall ; it will be observed that the magic word " Style " is omitted, but a few remarks on that subject will be appended.
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