Category: Writing Fiction

Two Methods of Exhibiting the Truth: Although all writers of fiction who take their work seriously and do it honestly are at one in their purpose—namely, to embody certain truths of human life in a series of imagined facts—they diverge into two contrasted groups according to their manner of accomplishing this purpose, —their method of […]

Transition from Material to Method.— We have now considered the subject-matter of fiction and also the contrasted attitudes of mind of the two great schools of fiction-writers toward setting forth that subject-matter. We must next turn our attention to the technical methods of presenting the materials of fiction, and notice in detail the most important […]

Narrative a Simplification of Life.— Robert Louis Stevenson, in his spirited essay entitled “A Humble Remonstrance,” has given very valuable advice to the writer of narrative. In concluding his remarks he says, “And as the root of the whole matter, let him bear in mind that his novel is not a transcript of life, to […]

Characters Should Be Worth Knowing.— Before we proceed to study the technical methods of delineating characters, we must ask ourselves what constitutes a character worth delineating. A novelist is, to speak figuratively, the social sponsor for his own fictitious characters; and he is guilty of a social indiscretion, as it were, if he asks his […]

  Evolution of Background in the History of Painting : The First Stage.—In the history of figure painting it is interesting to study the evolution of the element of back-ground. This element is non-existent in the earliest examples of pictorial art. The figures in Pompeüan frescoes are limned upon a blank bright wall, most frequently […]

The Importance of the Point of View.—We have now examined in detail the elements of narrative, and must next consider the various points of view from which they may be seen and, in consequence, be represented. Granted a given series of events to be set forth, the structure of the plot, the means of character […]

Essential and Contributory Features.—The features of any object that we contemplate may with intelligent judgment be divided into two classes, according as they are inherently essential, or else merely contributory, to the existence of that object as an individual entity. If any one of its inherently essential features should be altered, that object would cease […]

Fiction a Generic Term.—Throughout the present volume, the word fiction has been used with a very broad significance, to include every type of literary composition whose purpose is to embody certain truths of human life in a series of imagined facts. The reason for this has been that the same general artistic methods, with very […]

Fiction a Means of Telling Truth.—Before we set out upon a study of the materials and methods of fiction, we must be certain that we appreciate the purpose of the art and understand its relation to the other arts and sciences. The purpose of fiction is to embody certain truths of human life in a […]

Novel, Novelette, and Short-Story.—Turning our attention from the epic and the drama, and confining it to the general type of fiction which in the last chapter was loosely named novelistic, we shall find it possible to distinguish somewhat sharply, on the basis of both material and method, between three several forms,-the novel, the novelette, and […]