Short Story Writing | Page 2

"How to Write Fiction," an anonymous work published by Bellaires &
Co., London; but to my mind that is too slight, too theoretical, and too
enamored of the artificial French school to be of practical value to the
amateur. Far better, as working guides, are the frequent fragmentary
articles on the short story, many of them by successful short story
writers, published in current periodicals, to which I am considerably
indebted. But my greatest obligation is to a course in "The Art of the
Short Story"--the first university course ever offered in that
subject--conducted at the University of Chicago in 1896 by Dr. E. H.
Lewis.
C. R. B.

CHICAGO, August 1, 1900.

INTRODUCTION
The short story was first recognized as a distinct class of literature in
1842, when Poe's criticism of Hawthorne[1] called attention to the new
form of fiction. Short story writing had, however, been practiced for
many years before that: perhaps the narratives of Homer and the tales
of the first books of the Bible may be considered as the first examples;
certainly the short story is closely associated in its early history with
narrative poems, allegorical tales, and mouth-to-mouth traditions, and it
can be traced surely to the fabliaux of the thirteenth century. Later
writers aided in its development: Mallory's "Morte D'Arthur" and
Caxton's popularization of old romances marked a further progress; and
some of the work of Defoe and Addison would almost stand the
modern tests. But the short story as we know it to-day is a product of
the nineteenth century; and it owes its position in literature, if not its
very existence, to the work of Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. They first
recognized its possibilities and employed it seriously; and the art and
genius which they put into their tales assured the short story a
permanent place in literature. They differed in subject matter and style,
but they recognized the same requirements and limitations; and the
canons which they established then obtain to-day.
The modern short story is essentially an American product; and our
masters of its art have established precedents for literary workers of the
old world. In England, Stevenson, Kipling and Haggard are considered
the originators of the modern short story; and Zola, de Maupassant,
Daudet and Paul Marguerite in France, Tolstoi in Russia, and other
famous foreign authors have their claims for consideration; but all of
them, admittedly or not, are but disciples of the earlier American trinity.
This book will confine itself to the English-American short story.
To-day the short story is so popular that we seem to be in a new literary
epoch--the epoch of the short story--and there is no apparent cause to
expect an early diminution in the demand for such literature; so that to

the young writer the short story offers the best opportunity to prove his
mettle. Then, too, it has the additional value of being an excellent
school for the novelist. The short story and the novel have many radical
differences; but in material, treatment and aim they are much the same,
and the same general training is necessary for both. All short story
writers do not become great novelists, nor have all novelists been short
story tellers; but it is a fact that the majority of the present day novelists
served their 'prenticeship in the ranks of the short story writers.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: "Hawthorne's 'Tales,'" by Edgar Allan Poe. Graham's
Magazine, May, 1842.]

SHORT STORY WRITING
I
THE SHORT STORY
There is no modern literary form which is as little understood as is the
short story. The term short story is applied to every piece of prose
writing of 30,000 words or less, without regard to its matter, aim, or
handling; but our purpose demands a definition of some accuracy.
"In the first place, then, what is, and what is not, a short story? Many
things a short story may be. It may be an episode, like Miss Ella
Hepworth Dixon's or like Miss Bertha Thomas'; a fairy tale, like Miss
Evelyn Sharp's; the presentation of a single character with the stage to
himself (Mr. George Gissing); a tale of the uncanny (Mr. Rudyard
Kipling); a dialogue comedy (Mr. Pett Ridge); a panorama of selected
landscape, a vision of the sordid street, a record of heroism, a remote
tradition or some old belief vitalized by its bearing on our lives to-day,
an analysis of an obscure calling, a glimpse at a forgotten quarter ... but
one thing it can never be--it can never be 'a novel in a nutshell'."[2]
"A short story ... must lead up to something. It should have for its

structure a plot, a bit of life, an incident such as you would find in a
brief newspaper paragraph.... He (Richard Harding Davis) takes the
substance of just such