mple stories resembling
the Sinbad Voyages, they should next add descriptions of persons and
places and explanations of situations to develop clearness and
interest in their original productions. Taking these themes in turn
students should be required to introduce plot incidents that
complicate the simple happenings and divert the straightforward trend
of the narrative. Now that the stories are well developed in their
descriptions, expositions, and plot interests they should be tested
for their emotional effects. Students should go through their themes,
and by making the proper changes give in some cases a humorous and in
others a pathetic or tragic effect. These few suggestions are given to
emphasize the facts that no one conceives a story in all its details
in a moment of inspiration, and that there is a way of proceeding that
passes in logical gradations from the simplest to the most complex
phases of story writing.

Franklin and Stevenson knew no rules for writing other than to
practice incessantly on some form they wished to imitate. Hard work is
the first lesson that boys and girls must learn in the art of writing,
and a systematic gradation of assignments is what the teacher must
provide for his students. Walter Besant gave the following rules for
novel writers. Some of them may be suggestive to writers of the high
school age, so the list is given in its complete form. "(1) Practice
writing something original every day. (2) Cultivate the habit of
observation. (3) Work regularly at certain hours. (4) Read no rubbish.
(5) Aim at the formation of style. (6) Endeavor to be dramatic. (7) A
great element of dramatic skill is selection. (8) Avoid the sin of
writing about a character. (9) Never attempt to describe any kind of
life except that with which you are familiar. (10) Learn as much as
you can about men and women. (11) For the sake of forming a good
natural style, and acquiring command of language, write poetry."

SHORT-STORY LIBRARY

_BOOKS FOR REFERENCE_:

_American Short-Stories_, Charles Baldwin, Longmans, Green, & Co.

_A Study of Prose Fiction_, Chapter XII, Bliss Perry, Houghton,
Mifflin Co.

_Composition Rhetoric_, T.C. Blaisdell, American Book Co.

_Forms of Prose Literature_, J.H. Gardiner, Charles Scribner's Sons.

_Materials and Methods of Fiction_, Clayton Hamilton, The Baker and
Taylor Co.

_Principles of Literary Criticism_, C.T. Winchester, The Macmillan Co.

_Short-Story Writing_,