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It probably costs you nothing to write a short
story but I find that it costs me as many false starts--and therefore failures--as
does a long one. And as the right start--the right plan--is the only difficulty
encountered with either, consider what a rascal for time--expense the short
story is to me. Ten years and five failures--that is about my luck. I had
it with the one in the Christmas Weekly. And yet that one is so light
and frivolous and looks so easy, and as if it couldn't be started on a wrong
plan,--but I discovered four wrong ones in ten years. I have hardly ever
started a story, long or short, on the right plan--the right plan being
the plan which will make it tell itself without my help--except after three
failures. I think you are safe to tell the advanced class that only the
born artist can expect to start a story right the first time. - Letter to Henry Van Dyke, Dec. 1902 |
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