Blanche Colton Williams

“ The short-story is, of course, the recountal of some struggle or complication so artistically told as to leave upon the reader one dominant impression. Perhaps the ‘artistic’ is redundant, for can a story leave such an impression unless it be artistically told? Even geniuses must master their vehicle of expression or remain dumb. To win the sought for reaction to a short-story, painting, play or oratorio, one learns either in the hard, blind school of ‘rejection slips’ or by the intelligent method of skilled critic and master, but learn one must. ”

“ What national and racial customs intensify the setting?
“To me, a narrative that has for its aim to interest the reader in its plot is an anecdote, be its plot ever so thick. A narrative that aims to interest the reader in a slice of palpitating life—the joys or sorrows of people—be its plot ever so thin, I call it a short story.”—Benjamin Rosenblatt. ”

“ Once your motor-body designer has almost approximated the lines of a carriage, an innovator appears who boisterously ridicules the niceties of that technique, and, to the accompaniment of howling from the trained technicians, smashes out a new form, with monstrous hood and stream-line massiveness. Within two years he has driven out all the old technique, and is followed by a ‘school,’ neatly developing a new technique, in its turn to be perfected—then destroyed by some vulgarian who is too ignorant or too passionate to care for the proprieties of design. ”

“ Horowitz die beneath her tremendous recollection and appreciation of all the triumph had cost. The outcome is satisfying: she died in a high moment. Shila is not too much to blame, and consolation for her is at hand. And Selene, being right from her angle of youth and life, is both happy and sufficiently rebuked.
The story, then, has both an opposing and an assisting line. The climax at which all meet and the forces balance is the Revolution news. It is not the deciding moment in the Selene story: that is over. ”

“ O’Brien states that he does not know how much he believes in or practices technical distinctions. “Writing, I think, is the art that must evolve out of ourselves. I began life as an artist and specialized in sculpture, but finding there were things I could not express through such a medium I took to writing. When I am impressed by some important event, it fashions itself in story or drama form in my mind, without any conscious effort on my part, and when I feel intelligent—which is not often—I write.” ”

“ Once the technique of the academic school of painters of still life and landscape and portraits was practically perfect, a noisy, ill-bred, passionate crew of destroyers appeared, under such raucous labels as ‘futurists,’ ‘vorticists,’ ‘cubists,’ and despite the fact that their excesses have not become popular in plush parlors, these innovations have forever ruined the pleasure of picture-gazers in the smooth inanity of the perfected old technique. ”

“ I do not believe that had anything to do with my use of the whirlpool in the story. The situation had been created; it was inevitable that the agent of the priesthood of Siva, most subtle of all in the whole world, would bring the two, or the girl, into the folds of the python. But where? Surely, the only place for this to happen was in the profundities of the whirlpool, traditional abode of the mother of all pythons of that whole region. Hence the necessity for the flood itself to climax the action, to form the whirlpool at its most tremendous phase, to take them down. ”

“ When the Argentina went down, Ferguson saved himself, rather than old Bronson or the Neapolitan peasant women and children. The world was the gainer by Ferguson’s survival. Later, Ferguson loved and became engaged to a girl. One day as they were out walking, they saw a bandy-legged, sore-eyed youngster dash upon the railroad track in front of a train. Ferguson could just have saved the youngster at the cost of sacrificing himself, and although he alone knew this, he allowed the girl to understand that he had made a choice. ”

“ The man who is passionate about beauty or scientific facts, about making love or going fishing or the potentialities of Russia or revolt against smug oppressors, is likely to find himself cramped by the technique of the art which he chooses as a medium, to discard it, and to find a technique of his own. ”

“ As for the story itself, it is a well-meant but probably futile attempt to convince the Average Parent,—to say nothing of the average Aunt Charlotte and Cousin Edith,—that the abysmal differences between the Busters of to-day and their own generation are not so many conclusive proofs that Buster and his tribe are essentially inferior. On the contrary! For to my eyes, the rising generation is a rising one, with a vengeance, and o’ertops its predecessors with a disconcerting splendor. So the story tries to make this conviction clear,—and very likely fails. ”

“ How has each author achieved unity of effect? Notice the definite plot stages in these narratives marked by excellence of structure. Although the technique of every writer may differ from that of every other, yet in his story he will see to it, consciously or unconsciously, that high points, “lights,” or climaxes occur. It is a far call from the Roman biga to the modern automobile; but wheels, body and motor attachment characterize each as a vehicle. From Poe to the present, the short-story vehicle has had, and will continue to have, certain type features. ”

“ My impression is that I set out to draw a born artist hampered by certain disabilities, and one of these being a disinclination for life and utter absence of the love instinct, all the forces of his nature concentrated upon his art, until they reached the point of obsession. ”

“ We are told that all writing is a process of elision, but no one seems to go further and say that short-story writing is the process of ‘hitting the high spots’ plus the art of making the intervals between the ‘high spots’ not only interesting but of such a quality that the ‘high spots’ do not seem strained and unnatural. I find that this is mostly done by the turn of a sentence, or by an apparently adventitious aphorism, or a paragraph of general comment. ”

“ And it is the best atmosphere story in the four Yearbooks. The right way to achieve an atmosphere story, Stevenson told us long ago, is to begin with a mood induced by a place; Mr. Johnson has pursued the plan.
Atmosphere is, then, bound up with setting; plot interest follows in importance; character is of note mainly in the unique manifestation of dual personality. A dreamer, an artist, an idealist—any sensitive medium—would fittingly play the part demanded. The love interest enriches the action and humanizes the character. ”

“ Starting Point. “You ask about the origin of ‘Solitaire,’ which chances to be rather easier to trace than the origin of most of the stories I have written, since I more often begin with an abstract ‘idea’ and work outward to character and plot. When a story begins otherwise I have discovered (and all such things are matters of discovery after the fact, and never of premeditation) that it is almost invariably the result of some purely visual impression of a single person, detached from any incident or complication. ”

“ Comment. This, then, is a narrative the mystery of which must be explained by each reader to his own satisfaction. If the reader “believes” in the supernatural, he will take the whole thing, ghostly scene and all, as somehow occurring. If he does not “believe,” he will then accept the scene as the obsession of a sick man—with a few details left in mystery. I should class it as a story of the supernatural, wherein the appearance is visible to the sick or the clairvoyant mind. ”

“ It seems to me that there is a tendency, in discussing the art of short story writing, to confuse manner and matter, and to conclude that the story with a big, sombre theme must necessarily be superior, as a work of art, to the story which is lighter in subject and treatment. ”

“ Faith would be kept, even at the expense of their mortal bodies and of their immortal souls.—The characteristic of the White Battalion is the spirit of protection. The characteristics of Fouquet and Barres are simplicity, honesty and an almost homely every-day-heroic quality, all of which work to the conviction of the reader. Because of the family relations, the fundamental notions of honor, and elemental ideals exhibited, this story is destined to last. Founded on bed-rock principles of life itself, it towers into the realm of spirit. ”

“ To get your solution out of a physical or natural stroke, by sudden illness or an accident of nature, is equivalent to using a god from the machine,—a charge often laid at the feet of Euripides. But here the death is so logical a consequence—so well prepared for—that you cannot quarrel with it. ”

“ He eventually gives the possible vision,—symbolized earlier by his words, “There’s a bright star, doctor,”—in the thin-worn word, “Democracy.” He declares that such an impossible Utopia must come—or “Hamburg to Bagdad.” As the doctor declares that this wild empire of the spirit is impossible and Hallett agrees, cryptically, that it is impossible, the watch cries “All’s well.” Hallett then says we may do the impossible, after all; in all the world is nothing but the sound of the barricades of revolution. He sees the star, as he has seen it in the beginning of the dialogue. ”

“ On concluding “Extra Men” if a reader asks, “What is its purpose?” he will reply in substance, to his self-query: “To convey the thought that spirits of our heroic dead support the boys at the front.” Theme is dominant. “I cannot say that I believe in the supernatural or miracles,” Mr. Rhodes states, “but I believe the story of ‘Extra Men’ to be essentially and symbolically true.”
Plot. Plot sinks, therefore, into comparative insignificance. A single incident serves to convey the truth. ”

“ The dramatic climax is a double header: First, Ruby accedes, after a struggle, to her Mother’s wishes that she accept Mr. Vetsburg. Second, Mrs. Kaufman gives in to Ruby’s marrying Leo. By this clever duplication, not only is the turning point made more emphatic, but the sympathy of the reader is evoked for both mother and daughter. It is another excellent instance of economy joined to strength.
The climax of action follows without much delay: It is bound up with the dénouement, since in it Mrs. Kaufman learns that it is herself—not her daughter—whom Vetsburg loves. ”

“ I do prefer the ‘I’ narrator greatly. 1st. It does away with the ‘Smart Alec,’ omniscient atmosphere of the third person, which seems to me the bane of most American short-stories—the author gives an impression of groping for his story, just as a person in real life gropes when he narrates an incident. Conrad does this, and does it so beautifully. It seems to me that a ‘thickness’ is achieved that can be got in no other way. This, of course, does not apply to a novel, because in a novel the ‘thickness’ is achieved by mere length. ”

“ It is the genius who selects just the right, again the artistic, material which limns the personality of the character and reveals it to us through that unconscious tell-tale, the character himself; whose story-people talk in just the tone that makes even the impossible carry conviction; and who last, or perhaps first, has a story to tell and an unhackneyed way of telling it.
“Suggestion and restraint in a story appeal to me most strongly.... And when in ‘the joy of working’ one masters the writer’s art, genius as well as mere talent, the reaction will come ”

“ Suspense, one of the best features, in the earlier two-thirds of the story, operates progressively, the cause shifting with the various steps of the action. For example, perhaps the first important question aroused is, “What is Jasper doing all this for?” The second, “Will he succeed in carrying out his well-laid plans?” Meantime, subordinate questions arise, to be satisfied by the author in the unfolding of the narrative. Show that suspense works of necessity less forcibly toward the end, where the outcome becomes more and more inevitable. ”