Jenerai Waur INDEX Advertising, Can a Writer Write? Calkins, 48 Allen, Eleanor, How Important Is the Critic, 175 Back to Cinderella, Notes about Story Beginnings, 161 Barrington, E., Maury, 53 Bailey, A., Writing to System, 294 Barton, Bruce, If There Were a Tax on Talk, 315 Browne, Edythe Helen, Do You Know How to Use Burr, Walter, The All-American Circus, 241 Censorship, Evans, 262 Chapman, Katharine Hopkins, Use and Abuse of Chapman, Maristan, The Writer's Workshop, 177, Chesley, Charles H., How to Keep Track of Manu- Cinema, Whither? Kennedy, 196 Clark, A Bess, Locating the Mason and Dixon Line Criticism, Creative, Kiener, 269 Crook, Kile, The Ultimate, 20 Curley, William, The Founder of Short-Circuitism, 239 Davis, LeRoy G., Just What is Literature, 65 Dilley, James L., Free Lance Writers I have Known, Dreams for Sale, Bonham, 61 Duncan, Clyde, Agricultural Journalism, 211 325 Journalism, Agricultural, Duncan, 211 Kennedy, William D., The Manuscript Club Idea, 1, Linton, Lulu, Avaunt, Realists! Oklahoma and New Literary Articles in Periodicals, 31, 74, 111, 153, 185, Literary Scissors, Do You Know How to Use, McCord, David, A Shanty for Publishers, 166 MacKay, Constance D'Arcy, Writing and Placing the Magazines, Women and Their, Kennedy, 280 Manuscript Club Department, 265, 326 Manuscript Club Idea, The, Kennedy, 1, 41, 90 Manuscript Clubs, The, 67, 139, 173 Manuscript Clubs. The Value of, Ray, 141 Manuscript Market, The, 25, 69, 106, 146, 179, 215, 243, Manuscripts, How to Keep Track of, Chesley, 292 Mind, The Ingenious, Richardson, 81 Mitchell, George Winter, Editors and Schools, 144 Short Story, Realism in the, Hooper, 269 Smith, Maude Sumner, What Will Be the Significant Song Writing, On, Kennedy, 249 Stewart, E. C., The Friendly Critic, 145 Store Cupboard, The, Chapman, 204 Stories, Better Film, 252 Story, Beginning the, Volney, 157 Story Telling as an Aid to Story Writing, Trachsel, 283 Story, The Trick of the Gripping, Ray, 205 Swift, Ivan, Pressing the Public, 202 Tanner, William M., Writing the Familiar Essay, Tucker, Gertrude Brevoort, An Agent Advises Beginners, 87 Turner, Ann Price, More about Ben Ames Williams, 105 Versatility Prize Contest, 303, 333 Volney, Dex, Beginning the Story, 157 Wildey, Alice, Help Me Escape! A Story Quick, 142 290 Woolley, Edward Mott, Snaring Editors in New York, 221 Writers, Stimulants for, Fagin, 213 Writing and Placing the Children's Play, MacKay, 130 Writing, Persistence in, Mundell, 142 Writing the Informal Personal Sketch, Tanner, 311 Young, Willa B., Writing for Pay, 291 CAN AUTHORS' MONTHLY FORUM J Volume 39 BOSTON, January, 1927 The Manuscript Club Idea By WILLIAM D. KENNEDY It has undoubtedly been that, while our T has undoubtedly been noted by many editorial policy has been constructive in matters of technique and markets as they affect the individual writer, it has so far been frankly destructive or noncommittal toward all the agencies which offer their services to the writer and toward any "movement" in literature. I choose the beginning of a new year as an appropriate time to announce a change of policy, or rather the introduction of an added policy, which may have important consequences on the character of this magazine. However sound the advice on technical problems, and however accurate and up to date the information concerning markets offered to writers in magazines and books, he who works alone, outside the circles which revolve around the publishing houses and editorial offices of large cities, does, it must be admitted, labor under disadvantages. Especially does he suffer from lack of unbiased critical opinion of his work. This need is vital. "The successful writer often does not know whether or not he has succeeded in conveying the thought he intended," comments Mr. Arthur Sullivant Hoffman, editor of "Adven Number I ture," in his book, "Fundamentals of Fiction Writing": "Naturally enough," he says, "authors are inclined to a kind of reversed ostrich habit. If a point was clear to them when they wrote it, they take for granted that it must be clear to the reader. They forget that they have full knowledge of all that is or happens in their fiction, while the reader can know only what comes to him from the printed page. Often when an editor points out an unclearness they argue with him, blissfully ignoring the fact that the editor is himself a reader and that the reader found it unclear. Possibly the author proves his case that is, he points out other passages in the story which do clear up the unclearness, if the reader remembers them and makes the correct inferences and connections. The fact that, in the actual test, these passages failed to produce the intended results on the reader slides off the author like water off a duck. Still less does he get the idea that a reader should n't be distracted from the story by being compelled to go into a more or less complicated reasoning process in order to get what should have been handed to him on a platter. Even if several editorreaders found the point unclear, he stands. by his guns." Short Story, Realism in the, Hooper, 269 Smith, Maude Sumner, What Will Be the Significant Song Writing, On, Kennedy, 249 Stewart, E. C., The Friendly Critic, 145 Store Cupboard, The, Chapman, 204 Stories, Better Film, 252 Story, Beginning the, Volney, 157 Story Telling as an Aid to Story Writing, Trachsel, 283 Story, The Trick of the Gripping. Ray, 205 Swift, Ivan, Pressing the Public, 202 Style and Vocabulary Test, 136 Tanner, William M., Writing the Familiar Essay, 277. Writing the Informal Personal Sketch, 311 Talk, If There Were a Tax on, Barton, 315 Trachsel, Myrtle Jamison, Story Telling as an Aid to Story Writing, 283 Tucker, Gertrude Brevoort, An Agent Advises Beginners, 87 Turner, Ann Price, More about Ben Ames Williams, 105 Versatility Prize Contest, 303, 333 Volney, Dex, Beginning the Story, 157 Watts, Julia, From Another Hillside, 319 Wildey, Alice, Help Me Escape! A Story Quick, 142 Women-Writers, Playing Lot's Wife with, Johnson, 290 Woolley, Edward Mott, Snaring Editors in New York, 221 Writers, Stimulants for, Fagin, 213 Writing and Placing the Children's Play, MacKay, 130 Writing, Persistence in, Mundell, 142 Writing the Informal Personal Sketch, Tanner, 311 Young. Willa B., Writing for Pay, 291 |