Short Story Writing | Page 9

definite plot, but it is developed by dialogue as
frequently as by action. It is the extreme of the modern tendency
toward dramatic narrative, and is just a little too "stagey" and artificial
to be a perfect short story. It is, however, in good literary standing and
in good favor with the public, and it is most excellent practice for the
tyro, for in it he has to sink himself completely in his characters.
Examples: Hope's "The Dolly Dialogues;" Kipling's "The Story of the
Gadsbys;" and Howells' one act parlor plays, like "The Parlor Car,"
"The Register," "The Letter," and "Unexpected Guests."
(b) A short story has Dramatic Effect when it deals with a single crisis,
conveys a single impression, is presented chiefly by the actors
themselves, and culminates in a single, perfect climax. It may, or may
not, be capable of easy dramatization. It is less artificial than the story
of pure Dramatic Form, but is just as free from padding and irrelevant
matter, and just as vivid in effect. It allows of greater art and finish, for
the writer has wider freedom in his method of presentation. Examples:
Poe's "'Thou Art the Man!'" and "Berenice;" James' "The Lesson of the
Master" and "A Passionate Pilgrim;" Wilkins' "A New England Nun"
and "Amanda and Love;" Stevenson's "The Isle of the Voices;" and
Irving's "The Widow and Her Son" and "Rip Van Winkle." But, indeed,
every good short story belongs in this class, which is not so much a
certain type of the short story, as the "honor class" to which each story
seeks admittance.
Every story cited in this book, unless otherwise located, can be found in
one of the appended published collections of short stories:
George Ade: "Fables in Slang."

John Kendrick Bangs: "The Bicyclers;" "Ghosts I Have Met;" "The
Houseboat on the Styx;" "Mantel-Piece Minstrels, and Other Stories;"
"Paste Jewels;" "The Pursuit of the Houseboat;" "The Water-Ghost and
Others."
J. M. Barrie: "An Auld Licht Manse;" "Auld Licht Idyls."
George Washington Cable: "Old Creole Days;" "Strange True Stories
of Louisiana."
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain): "Merry Tales;" "The Stolen White
Elephant."
Richard Harding Davis: "Cinderella and Others;" "The Exiles and
Other Stories;" "Gallegher, and Other Stories;" "The Lion and the
Unicorn;" "Van Bibber and Others."
Charles Dickens: "Christmas Books;" "Christmas Stories;" "Sketches
by Boz."
A. Conan Doyle: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes;" "The Captain
of the Pole Star;" "The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard;" "Memoirs of
Sherlock Holmes;" "My Friend the Murderer;" "Round the Red Lamp."
Maria Edgeworth: "Popular Tales."
Alice French (Octave Thanet): "A Book of True Lovers;" "The
Missionary Sheriff;" "Stories of a Western Town."
H. Rider Haggard: "Allan's Wife."
Joel Chandler Harris: "Daddy Jake, the Runaway;" "Nights with Uncle
Remus;" "Tales of Home Folks in Peace and War."
Bret Harte: "Colonel Starbottle's Client;" "In the Hollow of the Hills;"
"The Luck of Roaring Camp;" "Mrs. Skagg's Husbands;" "Tales of the
Argonauts;" "Thankful Blossom;" "The Story of a Mine."
Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Mosses from an Old Manse;" "Twice Told

Tales."
Anthony Hope: "The Dolly Dialogues."
William Dean Howells: "A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories;"
"The Mouse-Trap and Other Farces;" "The Sleeping Car and Other
Farces."
Washington Irving: "The Sketch Book;" "Tales of a Traveler."
Henry James: "The Aspern Papers;" "The Author of Beltraffio;" "The
Lesson of the Master;" "A London Life;" "A Passionate Pilgrim;" "The
Real Thing."
Rudyard Kipling: "The Day's Work;" "In Black and White;" "Indian
Tales;" "The Jungle Book;" "Life's Handicap;" "Many Inventions;"
"The Phantom 'Rickshaw;" "Plain Tales from the Hills;" "The Second
Jungle Book;" "Soldiers Three and Military Tales;" "Soldier Stories;"
"Under the Deodars."
Brander Matthews: "Outlines in Local Color;" "Tales of Fantasy and
Fact;" "Vignettes of Manhattan."
Guy de Maupassant: "The Odd Number."
Thomas Nelson Page: "The Burial of the Guns;" "In Ole Virginia."
Scribner's series: "Short Stories by American Authors."
Robert Louis Stevenson: "The Island Nights' Entertainments;" "The
Merry Men;" "New Arabian Nights."
Frank R. Stockton: "Amos Kilbright;" "The Lady, or the Tiger?"
"Rudder Grange;" "A Story Teller's Pack."
John Watson (Ian Maclaren): "Auld Lang Syne;" "Beside the Bonnie
Brier Bush."
Mary E. Wilkins: "A Humble Romance;" "The Love of Parson Lord;"

"A New England Nun;" "The Pot of Gold;" "Silence;" "Young
Lucretia."

III
THE PLOT
The plot is the nucleus of the story, the bare thought or incident upon
which the narrative is to be builded. When a child says, "Grandma, tell
me the story of how the whale swallowed Jonah," he gives the plot of
the story that he desires; and the grandmother proceeds to elaborate that
primal idea to suit the taste of her auditor. In like manner, before you
put pen to paper, you must have in mind some interesting idea which
you wish to express in narrative form; the absence of such an idea
means that you have no