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Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been
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                         The "how to" Series




                         HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL




     +--------------------------------------------------------------+
     |                     The "how to" Series                      |
     |                                                              |
     |                                                              |
     |                     I. HOW TO DEAL WITH                      |
     |                         YOUR BANKER                          |
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     |                       BY HENRY WARREN                        |
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     |                       _Third Edition._                       |
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     |         _Fcap. 8vo, Cloth, Cover Designed, 2s. 6d._          |
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     |                    IV. HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR                    |
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     |                       BY HENRY WARREN                        |
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     |                 _Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3s. 6d._                  |
     |                                                              |
     |                                                              |
     |                   V. HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL:                   |
     |                                                              |
     |                 A Practical Guide to the Art                 |
     |                         of Fiction.                          |
     |                                                              |
     |                 _Crown 8vo, Cloth, 3s. 6d._                  |
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     |                                                              |
     |                    VI. HOW TO INVEST AND                     |
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     |                       BY C. H. THORPE                        |
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     |                    LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS                    |
     |                   9 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.                   |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------+


                         The "how to" Series




                            HOW TO WRITE A
                                NOVEL

                     A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE ART
                              OF FICTION


                                LONDON
                            GRANT RICHARDS
               9 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
                                 1901




PREFACE


This little book is one which so well explains itself that no
introductory word is needed; and I only venture to intrude a sentence or
two here with a view to explain the style in which I have conveyed my
ideas. I desired to be plain and practical, and therefore chose the
direct and epistolary form as being most suitable for the purpose in
hand.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I

  THE OBJECT IN VIEW
                                                             PAGE
  An Inevitable Comparison                                      3

  A Model Lesson in Novel-Writing                               5

  The Teachable and the Unteachable                             9


  CHAPTER II

  A GOOD STORY TO TELL

  Where do Novelists get their Stories from?                   12

  Is there a Deeper Question?                                  14

  What about the Newspapers?                                   17


  CHAPTER III

  HOW TO BEGIN

  Formation of the Plot                                        25

  The Agonies and Joys of "Plot-Construction"                  28

  Care in the Use of Actual Events                             31

  The Natural History of a Plot                                35

  Sir Walter Besant on the Evolution of a Plot                 40

  Plot-Formation in Earnest                                    43

  Characters first: Plot afterwards                            45

  The Natural Background                                       47


  CHAPTER IV

  CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISATION

  The Chief Character                                          50

  How to Portray Character                                     52

  Methods of Characterisation                                  55

  The Trick of "Idiosyncrasies"                                58


  CHAPTER V

  STUDIES IN LITERARY TECHNIQUE

  Narrative Art                                                63

  Movement                                                     66

  Aids to Description: The Point of View                       67

  Selecting the Main Features                                  70

  Description by Suggestion                                    73

  Facts to Remember                                            75


  CHAPTER VI

  STUDIES IN LITERARY TECHNIQUE--CONTINUED

  Colour: Local and Otherwise                                  79

  What about Dialect?                                          84

  On Dialogue                                                  86

  Points in Conversation                                       91

  "Atmosphere"                                                 94


  CHAPTER VII

  PITFALLS

  Items of General Knowledge                                   96

  Specific Subjects                                            98

  Topography and Geography                                    100

  Scientific Facts                                            101

  Grammar                                                     103


  CHAPTER VIII

  THE SECRET OF STYLE

  Communicable Elements                                       105

  Incommunicable Elements                                     110


  CHAPTER IX

  HOW AUTHORS WORK

  Quick and Slow                                              116

  How many Words a Day?                                       119

  Charles Reade and Anthony Trollope                          122

  The Mission of Fancy                                        127

  Fancies of another Type                                     129

  Some of our Younger Writers: Mr Zangwill, Mr Coulson
      Kernahan, Mr Robert Barr, Mr H. G. Wells                132

  Curious Methods                                             134


  CHAPTER X

  IS THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF NOVELS EXHAUSTED?

  The Question Stated                                         138

  "Change" not "Exhaustion"                                   142

  Why we talk about Exhaustion                                145


  CHAPTER XI

  THE NOVEL _v._ THE SHORT STORY

  Practise the Short Story                                    154

  Short Story Writers on their Art                            159


  CHAPTER XII

  SUCCESS: AND SOME OF ITS MINOR CONDITIONS

  The Truth about Success                                     164

  Minor Conditions of Success                                 169


  APPENDIX I

  THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION. By Edgar Allan Poe           175


  APPENDIX II

  BOOKS WORTH READING                                         201


  APPENDIX III

  MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON WRITING FICTION                         205




HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL




CHAPTER I

THE OBJECT IN VIEW


I am setting myself a task which some people would call very ambitious;
others would call it by a name not quite so polite; and a considerable
number would say it was positively absurd, accompanying their criticism
with derisive laughter. Having discussed the possibility of teaching the
art of writing fiction with a good many different kinds of people, I
know quite intimately the opinions which are likely to be expressed
about this little book; and although I do not intend to burden the
reader with an account of their respective merits, I do intend to make
my own position as clear as possible. First of all, I will examine the
results of a recent symposium on the general question.[1:A] When asked
as to the practicability of a School of Fiction, Messrs Robert Barr, G.
Manville Fenn, M. Betham Edwards, Arthur Morrison, G. B. Burgin, C. J.
C. Hyne, and "Mr" John Oliver Hobbes declared against it; Miss Mary L.
Pendered and Miss Clementina Black--with certain reservations--spoke in
favour of such an institution. True, these names do not include all
representatives of the high places in Fiction, but they are quite
respectable enough for my purpose. It will be seen that the vote is
adverse to the object I have in view. Why? Well, here are a few reasons.
Mr Morrison affirms that writing as a trade is far too pleasant an idea;
John Oliver Hobbes is of opinion that it is impossible to teach anyone
how to produce a work of imagination; and Mr G. B. Burgin asserts that
genius is its own teacher--a remark characterised by unwitting modesty.
Now, with the spirit of these convictions I am not disposed to quarrel.
This is an age which imagines that everything can be crammed into the
limits of an academical curriculum; and there are actually some people
who would not hesitate to endow a chair of "Ideas and Imagination." We
need to be reminded occasionally that there are incommunicable elements
in all art.


An Inevitable Comparison

But the question arises: If there be an art of literature, why cannot
its principles be taught and practised as well as those of any other
art? We have schools of Painting, Sculpture, and Music--why not a school
of Fiction? Let it be supposed that a would-be artist has conceived a
brilliant idea which he is anxious to embody in literature or put on a
canvas. In order to do so, he must observe certain well-established
rules which we may call the grammar of art: for just as in literature a
man may express beautiful ideas in ungrammatical language, and without
any sense of relationship or development, so may the same ideas be put
in a picture, and yet the art be of the crudest. Now, in what way will
our would-be artist become acquainted with those rules? The answer is
simple. If his genius had been of the first order he would have known
them intuitively: the society of men and women, of great books and fine
pictures, would have provided sufficient stimuli to bring forth the best
productions of his mind. Thus Shakespeare was never taught the
principles of dramatic art; Bach had an instinctive appreciation of the
laws of harmony; and Turner had the same insight into laws of painting.
These were artists of the front rank: they simply looked--and
understood.

But if his powers belonged to the order which is called _talent_, he
would have to do one of two things: either stumble upon these rules one
by one and