the story as a whole will be just so much the more effective. What most readers want in a narrative is to know where they are-they want to be put down somewhere. This desire it is the province of the situation to satisfy.1 Exercise 72 1. CLASS EXERCISE: Study the situations in the narrative selections in this book. Note how little attention is paid to situation in the selection in Exercise 65, a first chapter at that. The situations in Kaa's Hunting (Exercise 66) and The Slide (Exercise 42), though both selections are incomplete, show master touches. Examine the selections at the beginning of Chapter VII. 2. CLASS EXERCISE: Study the situations in such masterpieces as Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Great Stone Face, The Fall of the House of Usher, etc. 3. Explain the situation of some great battle. 4. How would the situation for a ghost story probably differ from the situation for a story of camp life? How, from the situation for a Christmas story? 5. Bring to the class some good short story in which the situation is given in a paragraph or two at the beginning. SECTION 65 Movement in Stories The plot, as was stated in Section 62, is the most important part of a narrative. Without a plot there can be no story. But there are plots and plots. Some plots lag along so slowly, or back and fill so much, that the 1 It is worth while to note that description enters largely into a situations, and a good deal also into the author's comments on his characters. Too much description, it should be remembered, delays the action of a narrative, and diverts the reader's attention from the plot. The fact that many readers "skip" the long descriptions found in some novels, should be a warning against the over-use of description in narration. reader finally casts aside his book in disgust. Other plots sweep forward to a carefully prepared climax, and give the reader the sense of satisfaction that always comes from the perusal of a well-constructed story. This difference is largely a difference of what the books call "movement." The movement in a well-constructed story glides steadily forward to the end, now swiftly and now slowly, according to the depth of the exciting interest. Thus, in Stevenson's story of the defence of the roundhouse (Exercise 64), there is no stopping of the action, though it moves less swiftly in some places than in others. There is at the start, for instance, the preparation against attack, where the movement is slow, then the first attack, where the movement is swift, next the recovery from the first attack and the preparation for the second, where the movement is slow again, and finally the second attack, where the movement is swift once more.1 But swift or slow, the movement does not back and fill, and it never lags. A closer inspection of Stevenson's story shows that Stevenson deliberately made the movement slower in the two intervals of quiet in order that he might by contrast throw into bolder relief the two most exciting incidents in his plot. The movement, then, is slow or swift by design. This suggests two questions: Where in a story should the movement be slow and where should it be swift? And how can the movement be made either slow or swift? The answers to these questions are readily given. Where an important incident is to be prepared for, where suspense is to be kept up, as, for instance, in the intervals of quiet before the two attacks in Stevenson's story, the 1 Determine just where each of these four stages begins and ends. movement should be slow; where the excitement is intense, where the reader is eager for the outcome of the action, as in the two attacks, the movement should be swift.1 Many details, especially descriptive details, accumulated one upon another, as in the first two paragraphs in Stevenson's story, will make the movement in a story slow, and the suppression of all minor details, with emphasis laid on the essential features of the action, as in the paragraphs narrating the two attacks, will make the movement swift. Stirring dialogue, also, since scarcely anything else will so arouse the reader's interest, will likewise accelerate the movement in a story. Exercise 73 1. CLASS EXERCISE: Study the movement in the narrative selections in this book. Study the movement in two or three familiar short stories in which the action is fairly rapid. Study the movement in the most exciting chapter in one of the novels named in Exercises 67 (2), 69 (2), and 71 (2). 2. Bring to the class some story in which an exciting incident is preceded by a slow movement, and be prepared to explain how the movement is made slow or swift. 3. In some recent novel find the chapter which has the swiftest movement. If the movement is not equally swift throughout, make a list of the details where the movement is slow, and another where the movement is swiftest. Note the difference between your two lists. 4. Study the movement in one of the poems named in Exercises 22 (9) and 69 (7). Report the results of your study to the class. 5. Study the movement in Macbeth, acts ii and v. 6. Write an account of a local incident. Write an account of an historical incident. Before you write, consider the matter of movement. 1 The movement should be rapid of course where unimportant happenings are narrated. These should be briefly summarized in such general language as will not divert the reader's attention to matters that are bound to be more or less dry and uninteresting. 7. Write a story based on your own experience. You may find it well to adopt the following plan: First, think your story out from beginning to end, and be prepared to tell it orally to the class. Then prepare a careful outline of your story, setting down each important detail in the order in which it is to appear in your finished story, and finally determine where the movement should be slow and where it should be swift. Then write out the story rapidly, and revise it with reference to movement. Write several such stories. You may vary the work by constructing a story with slow movement throughout, and by rewriting the story, first with swift movement throughout, and then with the movement appropriate to the varying stages of excitement. SECTION 66 Beginning and Ending a Story There are two ways to begin a story effectively. The first way is to set forth at the start whatever information is needed to clear the ground for the action that is to follow. This is done by explaining where and when the events in the story occurred, and by describing more or less fully the looks and the ways of the principal characters. This is the method most frequently employed by short story writers, probably because the method enables them to create an atmosphere for the story that they are about to tell. The story proper can then go forward to the end without interruption. Care must be taken, however, not to introduce over much description, which, unless it is skilfully handled, is likely to dissipate the reader's interest before he really gets to the action of the story. The second way to begin a story, and the surer way to 1 Poe's Fall of the House of Usher is probably the best example of a short story made effective by the use of "atmosphere." The best stories by Irving and Hawthorne, however, are worth studying in this connection. catch the reader's interest, is to plunge at once into the action. This is done by making the characters act and talk at the outset, and by bringing in later whatever explanatory matter is needed to make the story intelligible. The difficulty here is to get the explanatory matter in without breaking off the thread of the narrative. The method to be used will in any case depend upon the effect to be produced by the story as a whole, if not upon actual details of character, situation, and plot. The one way to end a story is to work steadily up to the point of highest interest, and then stop. What is of most importance will then occupy the most prominent position in the story, and, because it occupies this position, will remain longest in the reader's memory. To seize upon this most natural and effective stopping-place, the end of the story must be clearly seen from the beginning, and very carefully prepared for. Failure here may turn even a racy, pointed narrative into stupid nonsense. Exercise 74 1. CLASS EXERCISES: Review, with special reference to beginnings and endings, several of the plays, poems, and short stories read by the class for the work in literature. Examine the beginnings and endings of the narrative selections in this book. 2. Bring to the class a short story that begins with a brief descriptive introduction. Explain to the class the function of the introduction. 3. Find a chapter, in some novel, that begins with action or dialogue. 4. From some work of fiction select a passage that interests you, like any of the selections printed at the beginning of the present chapter, and write a brief introduction for it. 5. Write a brief introduction for the selection in Exercise 64. 6. Write a brief introduction for a scene in one of Shakspere's plays. You may select the scene from any act except the first. |