There is a popular notion that anyone can write a story. A good novel
is easy reading, and it seems, on that account, to be easy writing.
Many a reader, in the comfortable enjoyment of good fiction, misses the
genius of it altogether. He is like the skeptical young man who could
see nothing difficult in the art of sculpture. “All you need to do,”
he said, “is to get a block of marble, then take a hammer and chisel,
and knock off the parts you don’t want.” So stated, sculpture does seem
very simple. But, after all, there is some importance in knowing what
parts of the marble to knock off.
* * * * *
Many of us feel, at times, an inward stir that prompts us to express
ourselves in the written word. We are quite sure that we could write
a novel or a play. That we don’t do so is simply because we are so
busy--or something else. “I could write plays as well as Shakespeare
if I’d a mind to,” said someone years ago to Charles Lamb. “Yes,”
answered the gentle humorist, “anyone could write plays as well as
Shakespeare--if he had the mind to.”
* * * * *
Some take their pen in hand to prove to themselves how easy it all is.
When they have tried out several of the productions that they have
dashed off so readily, they sometimes discover that what was easy
writing for them was hard reading for others, and the wise ones then
come to realize that the good fiction that makes such easy reading is
often the finished and refined product of double and re-doubled labor.
* * * * *
For those that are determined to win their way in fiction, the means
for study and observation are ample. There are many books on the art
of writing to inform and guide the aspiring author, and there is a
wealth of fiction literature ever at hand to supply him with examples
of good story writing. In a helpful, informing book on the technique
of fiction, Professor Charles F. Horne makes clear the essential
elements of the novel--which he finds to be six in number: (1) Plot,
(2) Motive or Verisimilitude, truth to life, (3) Character Portrayal,
(4) Emotional Quality--Sentiment, Passion, (5) Background, (6) Style.
“A novel,” Professor Horne writes, “cannot consist simply of a fixed
picture, a description of a man in repose. It must show him acting
and acted upon. In other words, it deals with man in his relation
to his environment. Hence it must have two essentials: the man and
his movements; that is, the characters and the story. The causes and
effects of these two essentials give us two more. The man can only move
as he is swayed internally by his emotions; and the movement can only
be seen externally in its effect on his surroundings, his background.
These four form the positive elements or content of the novel, and they
must be presented under the limitations set by man’s experience of life
or verisimilitude, and by his modes of conveying ideas, his style of
speech.”