OVERSTRAIN
A reader has just so much of attention, interest and appreciation to
give to any story and, to hold him in the illusion, it is of the
highest importance not to wear him out before you are through with
him and not to use him up on minor points or on matters that should
put upon him no strain whatever.
_Brevity_.--Most of all, don't talk too much or too long. A story is
never so dead as when buried in words. Most of the stories submitted
can be cut to advantage, often very heavily cut. The reader gets
worn out waiting for something to happen--is bored by being told in a
hundred words what he could have grasped in twenty.
Do not feel that you must give the entire history of the hero's life
in a short story; only a certain few incidents and facts have direct
bearing and the remainder must be mercilessly cut out. Nor all the
scenes and {88} action of any story. Make it your object to have as
much as possible happen off-stage; what forces itself to the
footlights will probably belong there.
_Unclearnesses and Distractions_.--Any unclearness or ambiguity or
any distraction is of course a profitless strain upon the reader.
Don't compel a reader to _reason_ out things that should be clear at
a glance. Even the intentional unclearness of subtlety, though by no
means a fault, must also be weighed as to disadvantage in strain.
All the points covered in Chapter VI apply in this one.
_Sentence Length_.--Vary it. If you can, vary it in accordance with
variation in emotions of material, in desired effects on reader, but
vary it in any case. The very monotony of a long succession of
either long or short sentences is wearing.
Don't drag a reader through a sentence so long that in following it
he tires out before he can draw mental breath.
_Hold Reader to Correct Plot Line_.--From first word to last, don't
wear him out by letting him cover useless distance over false trails.
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_Classical and Other References_.--In addition to their dangers of
distraction and unclearness they force a reader, if they reach him,
to picture or consider characters, events and scenes in addition to
those of the story. They are of course justified in comparatively
rare instances.
_Dialect, Archaic Speech, Slang, Foreign, Unusual and Technical
Words_.--All these offer obstacles to at least part of your audience.
To a probable minority dialect is a delight, it is of course
necessary to faithful realism, and it undoubtedly gives color. Yet
many will not read a dialect story, their chief reason being the
labor necessary to understand it. There are, too, those who
consciously or unconsciously object to anything foreign, meaning by
foreign anything different from their own. It is, for the author, a
question of weighing advantages against disadvantages. Archaic
speech, as far as strain is concerned, is merely dialect. One writer
makes the rule of using the speech of the time in which his story is
laid for all periods following and including that of Elizabeth, using
modern English for all earlier periods, his argument being that her
reign {90} approximately draws the line between speech that is now
intelligible with little or no effort and speech that is not.
Archaic forms of foreign tongues must be rendered to us in English,
so fall under the same rule.
Slang, too, is to be weighed as to advantages and disadvantages. It
is perhaps more difficult than in the cases of dialect and archaic
speech to compute the proportion of readers to whom it will be
sufficiently intelligible. On the other hand, it is generally in
itself humorous and therefore of particular value when a humorous
effect is desired; gives color; aids in characterization.
The danger of foreign, unusual and technical words is much the same
on the score of strain as on the score of distraction and unclearness.
_Relief Scenes_.--At some point a reader's response to a demand on
his emotions ceases and he grows callous to the appeal, but writers
often forget this fact and continue to demand long after he has lost
his ability to respond. Perfection is to bring him to your climax at
the full flood of response, but to do so requires careful handling.
A steady, gentle increase of demand is best if you can be {91}
absolutely sure of results, but a most useful safeguard is the use of
relief scenes. If you've keyed him up to a dangerously high pitch,
give him a rest-scene before you add a further call upon his
emotions--shift the scene or time and let him look a moment at a
quiet landscape or gentle action. Make the change a decided one and
you not only rest him but profit by the sharp dramatic contrast
between the relief scene and those following and preceding it.*
*Read De Quincey's _On the Knocking at the Gate in "Macbeth."_
_Frames or Brackets_.--That is, a story within a story--a story one
of whose characters tells the main story. Its advantage is a gain in
semblance of reality--if it is handled with sufficient skill. It
very seldom is. Its disadvantage is an overstrain, in demanding of
the reader that he form two illusions instead of one, and a
consequent dividing and weakening of attention. Having accomplished
the task of getting clear in his mind one setting and one set of
characters, he is forced to take up a new set of characters and
probably a new setting, a double strain within the compass of a
single story. If, as is {92} often the case, a character in the
frame (or several characters) persists in interrupting the course of
the inner, the real story, conflict or confusion of illusion is
compounded.
Most writers could profit by not attempting the doubly difficult task
of a bracketed or framed story. Unless exceptional skill is brought
to bear, the frame-story is almost sure either to be too slight and
unconvincing or to be made more or less convincing by being developed
at such length that it is too serious an encroachment upon space
needed for the real story. Yet it is a favorite attempt with those
least able to handle it.
_Mystery Stories_.--These must be considered as a class by
themselves, for their deliberate intent is to make the reader strain
at solving a puzzle or at following its intricate presentation and
solution, and he turns to them at least partly for the mental
stimulus involved. Yet overstrain is entirely possible. In fact,
this type, by reason of its inherent intricacy and effort for the
reader, demands particularly that he be not compelled to strain over
points that are non-essential to the mystery proper. Unskilled or
unfair writers sometimes intentionally add {93} confusions that are
in no way necessary, and many a mystery story lessens its hold on
readers by unintended unclearnesses or suggestions that mislead in
unnecessary directions and to no purpose. A reader may like to solve
puzzles, but he most emphatically has the right to be at all times
clear as to just what the puzzle is.
_Plot_.--Unnecessary intricacy, of course, should be avoided in any
type of story; the difficulty in a given case is to draw the line
between necessary and unnecessary. But for any writer who has not
made very decided progress toward mastering his art a fairly safe
rule is to simplify his plot as much as possible. Perhaps that plot
might be made more effective if developed in greater intricacy by
skilled hands, but his hands are probably not sufficiently skilful
and the net result of his attempt is likely to be a reader worn out
by too many loosely knit threads of plot. As he grows in skill he
will find that more and more intricate plots become--for him--simple
plots and therefore to be undertaken with confidence.
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