A Handbook on Story Writing
by Williams, Blanche Colton, 1879-1944
PREFACE
WHEN in 1910 I undertook the "teaching" of the
short-story to a class of undergraduates at Hunter
College, I found a dearth of books on the theory of
story writing. There were Poe's examples and his
body of criticism, from which help might be deduced; there was the pioneer "Philosophy" of Professor Matthews, and there were two or three texts
whose chief valye lay in their exposition of the genre.
After no great length of time a growing suspicion
asserted itself that although my students could write
unusually well, frequently with suggestion of charm
and power, yet they were not always writing stories.
They fell short of modern narrative requirement.
, As first aid they needed some formulation of the laws
of structure. By a frankly academic and deductive
process, that is to say, by study of the classic stories
and the best current examples, I found obvious underlying principles, so obvious, my first reaction was
that nobody had written them down because of their
obviousness. But I gave them to my students, with
happy results in improvement of manuscripts. The
writers learned to direct their energies, with a diminution of diffuseness, to the accomplishment of
stronger stories.
CONTENTS
I Definitions and Characterisations
II The Inception of the Story
III Plot: Preliminaries
IV Plot: Struggle and Complication
V Plot: Composition
VI Plot: Story Types Dependent on Plot Order
VII The Point of View
VIII The Scenario
IX Characterisation
X Characterisation, continued
XI Dialogue
XII The Emotional Element
XIII Local Colour and Atmosphere
XIV Problems of Composition: Beginning, Body, and End
XV A Short-Story Type: The Ghost Story
XVI Popularity and Longevity
Index
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