How to Become a Writer. Bennett Arnold

       Arnold Bennett

      How to Become a Writer

      How to Become an Author, The Truth about an Author, Literary Taste: How to Form It & The Author's Craft

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      2019 OK Publishing

      EAN 4057664559517

      Table of Contents

       How to Become an Author

       The Literary Career

       The Formation of Style

       Journalism

       Short Stories

       Sensational and Other Serials

       The Novel

       Non-fictional Writing

       The Business Side of Books

       The Occasional Author

       Playwriting

       The Author's Craft

       Seeing Life

       Writing Novels

       Writing Plays

       The Artist and the Public

       Literary Taste: How to Form It

       The Aim

       Your Particular Case

       Why a Classic is a Classic

       Where to Begin

       How to Read a Classic

       The Question of Style

       Wrestling With an Author

       System in Reading

       Verse

       Broad Counsels

       An English Library: Period I

       An English Library: Period II

       An English Library: Period III

       Mental Stocktaking

      How to Become an Author

       Table of Contents

      Chapter I

       The Literary Career

       Table of Contents

      Divisions of literature.

      In the year 1902 there were published 1743 volumes of fiction, 504 educational works, 480 historical and biographical works, 567 volumes of theology and sermons, 463 political and economical works, and 227 books of criticism and belles-lettres. These were the principal divisions of the grand army of 5839 new books issued during the year, and it will be seen that fiction is handsomely entitled to the first place. And the position of fiction is even loftier than appears from the above figures; for, with the exception of a few school-books which enjoy a popularity far exceeding all other popularities, and a few theological works, no class of book can claim as high a circulation per volume as the novel. More writers are engaged in fiction than in any other branch of literature, and their remuneration is better and perhaps surer than can be obtained in other literary markets. In esteem, influence, renown, and notoriety the novelists are also paramount.

      Therefore in the present volume it will be proper for me to deal chiefly with the art and craft of fiction. For practical purposes I shall simply cut the whole of literature into two parts, fictional and non-fictional; and under the latter head I shall perforce crowd together the sublime and reverend muses of poetry, history, biography, theology, economy—everything, in short, that is not prose-fiction, save only plays; having regard to the extraordinary financial and artistic condition of the British stage and the British playwright at the dawn of the twentieth century, I propose to discuss the great “How” of the drama in a separate chapter unrelated to the general scheme of the book. As for journalism, though a journalist is not usually held to rank as an author, it is a. fact that very many, if not most, authors begin by being journalists. Accordingly I shall begin with the subject of journalism.

      Two Branches of Journalism: The Mechanical.

      There are two branches of journalism, and it is necessary to distinguish sharply between them. They may be called the literary branch and the mechanical branch. To take the latter first, it is mainly the concern of reporters, of all sorts, and of sub-editors. It is that part of the executive side of journalism which can be carried out with the least expenditure of original brain-power. It consists in reporting —parliament, fashionable weddings, cricket-matches, company meetings, fat-stock shows; and in work of a sub-editorial character—proof-correcting, marshalling