The Writing Of The Short Story Part 2

_Vb_3_ when it pleasurably affects the sensibilities.

_A_1_ = Audition in the way of simple idea of the thing to be heard.

_A_2_ = Audition as a reviving of the sense of sound.

_S_1_ = Sensation, the mere presentation of the idea of an appeal to one of the other senses.

_S_2_ = Sensation, a subjective reviving of the sensation itself.

_x_ used to indicate that a subjective excitation of some one of the senses has motor effects, as in the s.h.i.+ver at the thought of a file upon the teeth.

_m_1_ = Mood "effect," from which we learn the feeling of the writer without experiencing it ourselves.

_m_2_ = Mood "effect" from which we sympathetically experience the feeling of the writer.

_m_3_ = Mood "effect," a revelation of the feeling of a character in the story.

_c_1_ = Direct statement of character.

_c_1a_ = Direct statement of character that does not reveal the author's att.i.tude toward the character.

_c_1b_ = Direct statement in which we are made aware of the author's att.i.tude toward the character, but are not affected by it.

_c_1c_ = Direct statement of character sympathetically influencing us to the author's att.i.tude toward the character.

_c_2_ = Character "effect," characterization of a group or community of people.

_c_3_ = Character "effect," cla.s.s or type characterization of the individual.

_c_4_ = Character "effect" in the way of individualization.

_d_ = Degree, added to symbol for mood effect to indicate intensity of the feeling.

_k_ = Kind, used to indicate that the inference concerns itself with character and not intensity.

_/_ = A symbol employed (see section 26) to indicate that one inference is drawn as an ultimate conclusion from another more immediate inference.

SUBJECTS FOR DAILY THEMES

Subjects for visualization and the reviving of other sensations.

1. A sunset sky. 2. A group in the park. 3. A spring freshet. 4. The man at the thres.h.i.+ng machine. 5. The city across the river: night. 6.

Moonlight among the hills. 7. A city street. 8. The college campus. 9.

Eleanor's rose garden. 10. The witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii: 6-25). 11.

Mt. Pelee in eruption. 12. The woods at night. 13. David playing before Saul. 14. A ferny water course among the trees. 15. A bluebird in the orchard. 16. The violinist. 17. In time of apple blossoms. 18. The scent of new-mown hay. 19. Barbara at the piano. 20. The first watermelon. 21.

Sailing with the wind. 22. Dawn in the mountains. 23. The wind among the pines. 24. The blacksmith and the forge.

Subjects for presentation of mood.

1. Uncle d.i.c.k hears the news. 2. Balboa catches sight of the Pacific. 3.

Silas explains himself. 4. Napoleon looking back at Moscow. 5.

Congressman Norris is refused the floor of the convention. 6. Johnnie is told that he may go to the circus. 7. Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga. 8.

Bamba, king of an island in the south seas, sees the first s.h.i.+p of the white man. 9. Alfred meets a Hallowe'en obstacle.

Subjects for visualization and presentation of facts as "effects."

1. A deserted house. 2. In the second-hand store. 3. The railroad wreck.

4. The beggar at the door. 5. Representative Dongan reads a letter from "The Corners." 6. A woman at the station. 7. Mrs. Humphrey's kitchen. 8.

The trail of war.

Subjects for character studies.

1. The village oracle. 2. The landlord of the Lion Inn. 3. The old stage-driver. 4. The conductor. 5. An old-fas.h.i.+oned music-master. 6. A pirate captain. 7. A country beau. 8. Deacon Bradley. 9. The school bully. 10. The female suffragist. 11. One of the four hundred. 12. A disciple of Mrs. Eddy. 13. "The man with the hoe." 14. The scissors grinder. 15. Captain Doty of the police. 16. A candidate for office.

THE COMPLETE STORY

The invention of situations and plots can hardly be a matter of cla.s.s-room instruction. If stories come to one, it is well. Study of the detailed means of making them living for the reader will then be worth while. The student should be encouraged to invent plots of his own, but as a simplification of this difficulty, to the end that some exercise in the writing of a complete story may be had, plots of some successful published stories are here given with suggestions regarding methods of treatment.

I

Scene, a saloon where both men and women are drinking. One of them, a girl, thinks she sees at the window the face of Christ with his tender eyes. She leaves and will not permit the others to go with her.

At a little distance she comes upon the stranger waiting for her. He tells her that when she wakes it will be to a new life and she will be his, bidding her go to a house he points out and remain for the night. She obeys, and the man pa.s.ses into the shadow.

Introductory sentence in the original, giving the atmosphere of the story: "This was the story the mystic told." Concluding sentence in the original, connecting it with our sense of unfathomable mysteries: "And this the listener gravely asked, 'One was chosen, the others left. Were the others less in need of grace?'"

Divisions of the story. 1. Visualizing description of the saloon and of the street outside through which the stranger pa.s.ses.

2. Appearance of the face at the pane and its effect on the young girl (_m_3_ "effect"). This is the difficult part of the story, and the reader can be made to believe in it only through sympathy with the girl's feeling.

3. The talk of her companions and her answers (_m_3_).

4. Her search for the stranger in the night (_m_3_).

5. His talk to her when she finds him.

This story in the original contains a little less than two thousand words. It will be seen at once that unless handled in such fas.h.i.+on as to appeal vividly to the imagination, a story with this for its theme will seem weak and unreal. It must be made as suggestive as possible or it will fail. It preaches, but it must avoid the air of preaching. Consider carefully how you would present the stranger--whether first at the window or before--so as to affect the reader with a sense of something more than human in him.