"We"ll come to the "buts" later," was the stern mandate of the chairman of the day.
"You, Lilian Swift, you next!"
"Too long!" from the blunt Lilian.
"The idea! I think it was just sweet," from the gentle Alabamian.
"I got kind of mixed in the middle and couldn"t tell which was the nurse and which Polly Nelson," declared one who had evidently gone off into a cataleptic fit, no doubt dreaming of a story she meant to write some day.
"I never, never could love a man who had deceived me," sighed the sentimental one with big eyes and a little mouth.
"Personal predilections not valuable as criticism," said Billie sternly.
Many and various were the opinions expressed. Molly diligently and meekly took notes, agreeing heartily with the ones who thought it was too long.
"Where must I cut it?" she asked eagerly.
"Cut out all the letters!" suggested Lilian.
"How could she? It is all letters," asked Billie, whose chair was becoming a burden as she felt she must get into the discussion.
"Cut "em, anyhow. Letters in fiction are no good."
"Humph! How about the early English novelists?" asked Molly.
"Dead! Dead! All of them dead!" stormed Lilian.
"Then how about Mary Roberts Rinehart and Booth Tarkington and lots of others? Daddy Longlegs is all letters."
"All the samey, it is a poor stunt," insisted the intrepid Lilian. "I call it a lazy way to get your idea over."
"Perhaps you are right, but the point is: did I get my idea over?"
"We-ll, yes,--but they tell me editors don"t like letter form of fiction."
"Certainly none of them have liked this," sighed Molly, who had devoutly hoped her little story would sell. The money she made herself was very delightful to receive and more delightful to spend. A professor"s salary can as a rule stand a good deal of supplementing.
"How about the plot, now?" asked Billie, having finished with the general impression.
"Slight!"
"Strong!"
"Weak!"
"Impossible!"
"Plausible!"
"Original!"
"Bromidic!"
"Involved!" were the verdicts. The matter was thoroughly threshed out, Billie with difficulty keeping order. Nance was called on for the "but"
that she had been left holding.
"The plot is slight but certainly original in its way. The letters are too long, longer than a G.o.dmother would be apt to write, I think. The story could be cut to three thousand words, I believe, to its advantage."
"I have already cut out about fifteen hundred words," wailed Molly. "The first writing was lots longer."
"Gee!" breathed the one eager for a hearing.
"Now for the characterization! Don"t all speak at once, but one at a time tell what you think of it."
"Did you mean to make Polly so silly?" asked Lilian.
"I--I--perhaps!" faltered Molly.
"Of course if you meant to, why then your characterization is perfect."
"Silly! Why, she is dear," declared the girl from Alabama. "I don"t like her having to nurse that black man, though."
"Too many points of view!" suddenly blurted out a member who had hitherto kept perfectly silent, but she had been eagerly scanning a paper whereon was written the requisites for a short story.
"But you see----" meekly began Molly.
"The point of view must either be that of the author solely or one of the characters," a.s.serted the knowing one. "Why, you even let us know how the Bedouin feels."
"Oh!" gasped the poor author. "I think you would limit the story teller too much if you eliminated such things as that."
"Here"s what the correspondence course says----"
"Spare us!" cried the club in a chorus.
"I hate all these cut and dried rules!" cried Billie. "It would take all the spice out of literature if we stuck to them."
"That"s just it," answered Lilian. "We are not making literature but trying to sell our stuff. Persons who have arrived can write any old way. They can start off with the climax and end up with an introduction and their things go, but I"ll bet you my hat that you will not find a single story by a new writer that does not have to toe the mark drawn by the teachers of short story writing."
"Which hat?" teased Billie. "The one you put on for Great-aunt Gertrude?
If it is that one, I won"t bet. I wouldn"t read a short story by a new writer for it."
"To return to my story," pleaded Molly, "do you think if I rewrite it, leave out the letters, strengthen the plot a bit and make Polly a little wiser that I might sell it?"
"Sure!" encouraged Lilian.
"Yes, indeed!" echoed Nance.
"And the black man--please cut him out! I can"t bear to think of him,"
from the girl from Alabama.