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Show Secret of Success in Short Story Writing Those who aspire o literary gloiy will find nioro illumination than encouragement en-couragement in remarks on tho subject sub-ject of story writing nifde by Barry Tain. Mr. Pain, who has been called call-ed the "English Do Maupassant," has been visiting this CLuntry, and ' talked of his woik to a New York interviewer. From childhood you havo bnc-u taught to concentrate," he said. "You cannot succeed in any tiado unless you do so. In story writing, on tho other hand, you need very pronounced pro-nounced mind wandering. A born story writer will tako some little thing, a phrase that he hears on the street, a face that he seei, in a newspaper news-paper be will allow it to call up various Ideas clobcly connected with it, he will let theso ideas create others as his mind f:oes wandering on, and the result, while not always a story, sometimes is one. More often oft-en it is the beginning of a story. Hi & "Absolute fiction does not exist, In my opinion. There is always a grain of fact at the bottom or every fable." Like the Japanese, tho author of storlcs in Grey" works backward, creating the scenes and actions of his stories from tho bottom up. Ho puts his characters together and lets them tako care of themselves. Tho lcsult is the plot; the result of the plot is tho story. "If you begin with the plot, par-liculaily par-liculaily if it is elaborate," he explained, ex-plained, "your characters will uy quickly do something for tho sake of the plot alone. They will make sorao false step that nothing -nculd compel them to make in real life. On tho other hand, if they create their own plot they cannot fail to be consistent, and the plot itself iiins tiuc. t II! "In my own experience 1 have had many curious cases of plot formation forma-tion from the action of my characters," charac-ters," he continued. "On ono occasion occa-sion I had agreed to write a story for the fiist number of a magaziuo and to send the title to the editor in time for the tabic of contents. I piomptly forgot tho matter and peacefully went my way. Long aft- . cr, when walking ou the btreot, I passed two men who tfeio talking loudly, and I happened to overhear the words, 'the kindness of the Celestial.' Ce-lestial.' "At first I thought I had heard wrong. Tho phraso had no meaning for me, until I suddenly remembered that the Chinese aro sometimes spoken of as celestials. That trilling fact associated Itself m my nuno with the memory of a boy who went to school with me. Ho was given a Chinese nickname on account of his appearance. "Thinking of tho boy recalled a schoolmaster who hatea mo almost as much as I hated him. I thought, too, that, considering the manner In whicli I had tieated him, it was not surprising that ho haled mc. I then made up my mind to write a story about a boy who 'desired to treat ' with tho utmost kindness a master whom ho had regnided as an enemy. Naturally the boy would bo whimsical whim-sical to carry out such an idea. Still more naturally, all bis attempts at kindness toward the master would lesulL in comic disaster to himself. "Half an hour later I met my editor. ed-itor. " 'You never sent mo tho title that you promised," ho said menacing'.'. Oi li tl "'What!' I exclaimed as innocently innocent-ly as I could. I thought it had been mailed to you weeks ago. It is 'The Kindness of tho Celestial. ' Tho editor was mystified, but pleased; the story Itself was born." Writers of Blorics aro not made, in Mr. Pain's opinion, but the Incl- dent of being born a s.tory teller does not mean that you can spin romance without somo -knowledge of JOtlr craft. "Unless you have tho knack to begin be-gin with, instruction is wasted upon you," he said. "If you havo tills knack you can I cam a great deal that many authors have picked up through failure and experience. I havo often thought that the best known short story writers do not attain at-tain their technique until they havo lost their freshness. "Thp profession is no training for the novcliBt. It ia, perhaps, tho reverse. re-verse. An extremely suggestive, concise way of writing is needed for short stories. A master of the art gives one detail that calls up the en-tiro en-tiro scene. "Meredith, for example, when describing de-scribing an old woman who had received re-ceived t sudden shock, said: 'Sho sat down and was all brown silk.' Zola, ou the other hand, in describing describ-ing a ballroom, gives details of. description de-scription like those of an auctioneer's auction-eer's catalogue. Power of suggestion sugges-tion is tho first and foremost quality vital for the short story writer, who works In narrow limits and must never show "that "he feels these limits in the leaBt." t j |