Finally:
1. Do keep a carbon.
2. Be sure you attach proper postage.
3. Don’t use a ribbon so long that it types gray.
APPENDIX B
For Further Reading
It does a writer no harm to read what others have to say about writing. Sometimes he even picks up a new idea!
The books here listed are among those I’ve found helpful and/or stimulating. As such, they represent personal taste and nothing more, but you may enjoy some of them too.
Included also are a few titles on such related topics as imagination, interviewing, psychology and research, plus key fictional works to which reference is made in the text.
The editions listed are those that happen to be on my own shelves.
Adams, Clifton. The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1963.
Allen, Walter (ed.). Writers on Writing. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. (Everyman Paperbacks), 1959.
Barzun, Jacques, and Graff, Henry F. The Modern Researcher. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World (Harbinger Books), 1962.
Bedford-Jones, H. This Fiction Business. New York: Covici-Friede, 1929.
. The Graduate Fictioneer. Denver: Author & Journalist Publ. Co., 1932.
Brean, Herbert (ed.). The Mystery Writer’s Handbook. New York: Harper & Bros., 1956.
Campbell, Walter S. Writing: Advice and Devices. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1959.
. Writing Magazine Fiction. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1940.
Cowley, Malcolm. The Literary Situation. New York: Viking Press, 1958.
—— (ed.). Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews. New York: Viking Press, 1958.
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Dramatic Writing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946.
. Your Key to Successful Writing. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1952.
Elwood, Maren. Characters Make Your Story. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1949.
Fink, David. Release from Nervous Tension. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953.
Fischer, John, and Silvers, Robert B. Writing in America. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1960.
Frankau, Pamela. Pen to Paper. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1962.
Fuller, Edmund. Man in Modern Fiction. New York: Random House (Vintage Books), 1958.
Gallaway, Marian. Constructing a Play. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950.
Harral, Stewart. Keys to Successful Interviewing. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.
Harris, Foster. The Basic Formulas of Fiction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
. The Basic Patterns of Plot. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959.
. The Look of the Old West, New York: Viking, 1955.
Hayakawa, S. I. Language in Thought and Action. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1949.
Hull, Helen (ed.). The Writer’s Book. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1956.
, and Drury, Michael (eds.). Writer’s Roundtable. New York: Harper & Bros., 1959.
Hutchinson, Eliot D. How to Think Creatively. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1949.
Jaffe, Rona. The Best of Everything. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958.
Kerr, Walter. How Not to Write a Play. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1955.
Macgowan, Kenneth. A Primer of Playwriting. New York: Doubleday & Co. (Dolphin Books), 1962.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. Techniques of Fiction Writing. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1959.
McHugh, Vincent. Primer of the Novel. New York: Random House, 1950.
Maugham, W. Somerset. The Art of Fiction. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1955.
. The Summing Up. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1938.
. A Writer’s Notebook. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1949.
Mundy, Talbot. “The Soul of a Regiment.” In Adventure magazine, November 1950.
Noyes, Arthur P. Modern Clinical Psychiatry. 4th ed., Chapter 4, “Mental Mechanisms and Their Functions.” Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1953.
Osborn, Alex. Your Creative Power. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.
Palmer, Stuart. Understanding Other People. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1955.
Peeples, Edwin A. A Professional Storyteller’s Handbook. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1960.
Ray, Marie Beynon. The Importance of Feeling Inferior. New York: Ace Books, 1957.
Read, Herbert. English Prose Style. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955.
Reynolds, Paul R. The Writer and His Markets. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1959.
Smith, Helen Reagan. Basic Story Techniques. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.
Trask, Georgianne, and Burkhart, Charles (eds.). Storytellers and Their Art. New York: Doubleday & Co. (Anchor Books), 1963.
Vale, Eugene. The Technique of Screenplay Writing. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1972.
Yoakem, Lola G. (ed.). TV and Screen Writing. Article, “The Opening Scenes,” by Frank S. Nugent. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958.
Index
Special thanks are due my good friend-by-mail, Phyllis A. Whitney, fine author of romantic novels of suspense, for generously allowing me to use her notes in preparing this index. She is, of course, in no wise responsible for its imperfections.
Books listed in Appendix B (For Further Reading), pages 321–23, are not included in this index.
Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
Abie's Irish Rose: 225
Accretion, in building story: 217
Ace Books: 268
Action: 180–81
Adams, Clifton: 50, 306–307
Adjectives: 29–30
Adverbs: 30, 33
Aftermath: 98
Agents: 310
Alcohol: 309
Algren, Nelson: 245
Amazing Stories: 268
American Girl, The: 2
Analog: 268
Apollonius of Tyana: 5
Aristotle: 166
Arrangement of material: 23–24
Arsenic and Old Lace: 227
Baines, Scattergood: 248
Balancing forces: 174–75
Baldwin, Faith: 3
Balzac, Honore de: 301
Barrett, Neal, Jr.: 312
Barzun, Jacques: 275
Be yourself: 261
Bedford-Jones, H.: 122
Beginning, the: 137–66; end of, 163–66
Behavior: 238
Berkley Books: 268
Best of Everything, The: 264
Bickham, Jack M.: 312
Black Mask: 142
Blavatsky, Mme. Helena: 5
Blocks to writing: 299–309
Bogging down: 169
Boxing in hero: 177–78
Brown, Fredric: 217
Browne, Howard: vii, 179, 244, 307
Cagliostro, Count Alessandro, di: 5
Caine Mutiny, The: 299
Campbell, Walter S.: viii, 103, 312
Carey, Philip: 225
Categories: 267–68
Cause and effect: 51–53, 238
Chandler, Raymond: 13, 118
Change: 48–51
Characters:
—age, 266–67
—as story element, 132–34
—background, 232–35
—bringing to life, 223–30
—characterizing act, 153–54
—creating, 216–22
—dominant impression, 223–24
—dossiers, 222
—fitting character to role, 249–57
—fitting impression to role, 224–25
—focal, 41–46
—giving direction to, 230–39
—goal, 85–87, 90, 93–94, 105–106, 205–10, 230–31
—growth, 220–21
—hero, 249–51
—heroine, 254
—identification with, 239–48
—in-depth, 256–57
—introduction of, 152–57
—matching to cas
t, 226
—minor, 221–22
—modifying, 225–26
—necessary, 219
—number of, 219
—originating, 216–22
—psychology, 222, 230–39
—sensitive, 254–56
—sex, 267
—tags, 226–29
—traits essential to, 152
—vs. “real” people, 219–20
—viewpoint, 115–57
—villain, 95, 251–54
Character reaction: 53–60, 63–68
—necessary elements, 68–70
—order of presentation, 56–60
Checklist of personal writing faults: 308
Churchill, Winston: 34
Climax: 122–30, 171–82, 187–200
—easy road, 191
—role of impulse, 190
Commitment: 163–66
Company K: 46
Comparison: 30
Compensation: 230–31, 235–36
Complication: 171–74
Compression: 109–11
Conflict: 84–115, 174–75; and opposition, 87–89, 90–91
Connotation: 30–32
Continuing elaboration: 272–73
Contradiction: 242
Contrast: 30, 238, 270
Controlling destiny: 230, 245
Copy, vivid: 22, 25–30
Corson, Martha: 312
Courage: 240, 243, 244
Creativity: 269–73
Credibility: 109, 112–13
Cronin, A. J.: 261
Cutting: 298–99
Daly, Carroll John: 142–43
Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones, The: 50
Decision: 100–103, 137, 183–84
Delay vs. complication: 173–74
Denotation: 30–32
Description: 23–24
Desire: 137, 166
Destiny, control of: 230, 245
Detail: 74–75; significant, 146–47
Dewlen, Al: 312
Diadem, Harry: 248
Dialogue: 159, 227
Die A Little Every Day: 312
Dilemma: 101–103
Direction, in character: 230–39
Disaster: 85, 89–90, 91, 132–35
Disastrous, the: 243–44
Doubleday & Co., Inc.: 2, 265
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: 215, 247
Elaboration, continuing: 272–73
Elements of story: 131–35
Eliot, T. S.: 223
Emotion: 6–9, 39–40, 42–45, 54–60, 70–77, 126, 177, 246–47, 259, 260, 304
End: 187–214
—climax, 188–99
—resolution, 200–213
Entertainment: 264–65
Enthusiasm: 259–60
Eternal Fire: 248
Excitement for writer: 269
Exercise: 290
Exposition: 160, 163
Fact, defined: 39–41; vs. feeling, 14–18
Farm Journal: 276
Faulkner, William: 179
Feeling, defined: 259
Feelings: 6–9
—role in story, 10
—manipulation of, 36–41
Ferber, Edna: 3
Fiction, defined: 136
Fink, David: 44
Finn, Huck: 225
Finnegans Wake: 137
Fischer, John: 264
Fisher, Lawrence V.: 312
Flashback: 107–108, 158–60
Flaubert, Gustave: 4
Forbidden, the: 243–44
Foster-Harris: viii, 274, 312
Freedom and production: 285–86
From Here to Eternity: 248
Fuller, Edmund: 41
Gantry, Elmer: 225
Gardner, Erle Stanley: 3, 261
Gault, William Campbell: 306
Gestalt: 218
Goal: 85–87, 90, 93–94, 105–106, 205–10, 230–31
—real vs. stated, 205–10
—scene, 105–106
—strong vs. weak, 86
—types, 86
—weak, 93–94
Gold Medal Books: 2, 266
Goldoni, Carlo: 22
Good Earth, The: 248
Graff, Henry F.: 275
Grammar: 32, 34
Grit and Steel: 276
Grove, Fred: 312
Grove Press: 265
Hamling, Bill (William L.): vii
Hammer, Mike: 246
Hammett, Dashiell: 75
Happiness: 166
Hardware World: 276
Harper's: 264
Hecht, Ben: 261
Hemingway, Ernest: 3, 75
Hero: 249–51; vs. focal character, 45
Heroine: 254
Hockman, Ned (Charles Nedwin): viii
Hogan, Ben: 3
Holiday: 276
Holmes, Oliver Wendell: 202
Holmes Sherlock: 215
Hooks: 89
Hustler, The: 245
Ideas, how to develop: 269–73
Identification: 239–48
Importance of Feeling Inferior, The: 239
Impossible, the: 243–44
Incident: 4
Indirect discourse: 108
Inertia: 306
Ingersoll, Robert G.: 250
Initiative: 3
Insight: 238–39
Interest: 105
Involvement, emotional: 259
Ionesco, Eugene: 261
Jaffe, Rona: 264
James, William: 237
Kaderli, Elizabeth Land: 312
Kaufman, George: 213
Keeping in touch: 289–90
Keith, Harold: 312
Kelland, Clarence Budington: 248
Kenyon Review: 301
Lack as factor in direction: 231
Lady of the Lake, The: 116
Language faults: 32–35
Lawrence, Jerome: 258
Learning to write: 1–21
Level vs. rising action: 176
Little, Brown & Co.: 266
Live copy: 25–30
Loafing: 272
Look of the Old West, The: 274
Lost World, The: 247
Macbeth: 245
Macgowan, Kenneth: 120
Magic secrets: 3
Making lists: 271–72
Man with the Golden Arm, The: 245
Manuscript preparation: 317–20
March, William: 46
Marketing: 310; factors involved in, 262–69
Material, selection of: 262–69
—categories, 267
—character age, 266–67
—character sex, 267
—complexity, 264
—reader philosophy, 264–66
—scope, 263
—settings, 267
—strength, 263
—timespan, 264
—treatment, 268
McCall's: 2, 265
McGee, Travis: 242
McHugh, Vincent: 11
Meaning: 22, 30–32
Menace: 155
Men's Digest: 2
Middle: 166–87
Miller, Henry: 116
Modern Clinical Psychiatry: 239
Modern Researcher, The: 275
Modern Romances: 267
Morality: 125–30
Motivating stimulus: 60–68
Motivation-reaction unit: 1, 53–54, 77–83
Movement: 67–70
Names: 228
National Geographic: 276
Nerve as talent: 258
Nouns: 25–27
Novel, defined: 11
Noyes, Arthur P.: 239
Objective: 132–35
Objectivist thinking: 14–18
Objectivity: 40
Opening: 10, 137–46
Opponent: 132–35
Organizing production: 284–309
Orientation of reader: 41
Pace: 113–14, 180–85
Palmer, Arnold: 3
Palmer, Raym
ond: vii
Palmer, Stuart: 239
Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus: 5
Pasteur, Louis: 18
Pavlov, Ivan: 196
Peripheral material: 165
Pitfalls: 1–2, 12–14
Planning: 279–83
Playboy: 2, 244, 265
Plot: 4, 176–77, 281–83
Polishing: 294–98
Preparation: 262–83
Pressure: 175
Prewitt, Robert E. Lee: 245
Primer of Playwriting, A: 120
Production: 284–90; psychology of, 299–309
Professional Writing Program, University of Oklahoma: viii, 312
Pronouns: 29
Proportion: 70–77
Quota: 286–87
Random House: 2
Ray, Marie Beynon: 239
Reaction in sequel: 100–101
Reader groups: 246–47
Real Confessions: 2
Redbook: 2, 266
Repetition: 32–34
Research: 273–79
Revision: 290–94
Reynolds, Paul R.: 310
Rifles for Watie: 312
Rogue: 266
Rules people live by: 128
—trouble with, 9–12
—pay no attention to, 82
Sanders, Leonard: 312
Saturday Evening Post: 2, 276
Scholastic Newstime: 2
Scene, defined: 84
—and sequel, 1, 113–15
—common weaknesses, 93–96
—components, 85, 104
—conflict, 85–86, 87–89, 90–91
—contents, 104
—disaster, 85–86, 89–90, 91–92
—functions, 85
—goal, 85–86, 90, 93–94, 105–106
—structure, 85
—time as unifying factor, 85
—writing the, 103–109
Secret Diary: 267
Secrets: 266
Secrets of writing: 3–5
Selection of material: 23–24
Self-discipline: 260–61
Self-expression vs. entertainment: 265
Sensory perception: 25
Sequel, defined: 84, 96
—and scene, 1, 113–15
—compression, 110–11
—credibility, 112–13
—functions, 96–99
—logic as element of, 98
—structure, 100–103
—topic as unifying factor, 99–100
—transition, 111–12
—writing the, 109–13
Setting: 267; bringing to life, 46–48
Side issues: 165
Significance, defined: 146–48
Simultaneity: 55
Sincerity: 260
Situation: 132
Slanting: 268–69
Smith, Helen Reagan: 312
Snead, Sam: 3
Specialization: 267–68
Spillane, Mickey: 246
Springboards: 273
Stakes: 175–76, 179
Starting lineup: 131–35; examples of, 280–83
Static scene: 169
Steinbeck, John: 3
Story:
—as character source, 216
Techniques of the Selling Writer Page 34
