| CHAPTER I |
| THE OBJECT IN VIEW |
| PAGE |
| An Inevitable Comparison | [3] |
| A Model Lesson in Novel-Writing | [5] |
| The Teachable and the Unteachable | [9] |
| |
| CHAPTER II |
| A GOOD STORY TO TELL |
| Where do Novelists get their Stories from? | [12] |
| Is there a Deeper Question? | [14] |
| What about the Newspapers? | [17] |
| |
| CHAPTER III |
| HOW TO BEGIN |
| Formation of the Plot | [25] |
| The Agonies and Joys of "Plot-Construction" | [28] |
| Care in the Use of Actual Events | [31] |
| The Natural History of a Plot | [35] |
| Sir Walter Besant on the Evolution of a Plot | [40] |
| Plot-Formation in Earnest | [43] |
| Characters first: Plot afterwards | [45] |
| The Natural Background | [47] |
| |
| CHAPTER IV |
| CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISATION |
| The Chief Character | [50] |
| How to Portray Character | [52] |
| Methods of Characterisation | [55] |
| The Trick of "Idiosyncrasies" | [58] |
| |
| CHAPTER V |
| STUDIES IN LITERARY TECHNIQUE |
| Narrative Art | [63] |
| Movement | [66] |
| Aids to Description: The Point of View | [67] |
| Selecting the Main Features | [70] |
| Description by Suggestion | [73] |
| Facts to Remember | [75] |
| |
| CHAPTER VI |
| STUDIES IN LITERARY TECHNIQUE—CONTINUED |
| Colour: Local and Otherwise | [79] |
| What about Dialect? | [84] |
| On Dialogue | [86] |
| Points in Conversation | [91] |
| "Atmosphere" | [94] |
| |
| CHAPTER VII |
| PITFALLS |
| Items of General Knowledge | [96] |
| Specific Subjects | [98] |
| Topography and Geography | [100] |
| Scientific Facts | [101] |
| Grammar | [103] |
| |
| CHAPTER VIII |
| THE SECRET OF STYLE |
| Communicable Elements | [105] |
| Incommunicable Elements | [110] |
| |
| CHAPTER IX |
| HOW AUTHORS WORK |
| Quick and Slow | [116] |
| How many Words a Day? | [119] |
| Charles Reade and Anthony Trollope | [122] |
| The Mission of Fancy | [127] |
| Fancies of another Type | [129] |
| Some of our Younger Writers: Mr Zangwill, Mr Coulson Kernahan, Mr Robert Barr, Mr H. G. Wells | [132] |
| Curious Methods | [134] |
| |
| CHAPTER X |
| IS THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF NOVELS EXHAUSTED? |
| The Question Stated | [138] |
| "Change" not "Exhaustion" | [142] |
| Why we talk about Exhaustion | [145] |
| |
| CHAPTER XI |
| THE NOVEL v. THE SHORT STORY |
| Practise the Short Story | [154] |
| Short Story Writers on their Art | [159] |
| |
| CHAPTER XII |
| SUCCESS: AND SOME OF ITS MINOR CONDITIONS |
| The Truth about Success | [164] |
| Minor Conditions of Success | [169] |
| |
| APPENDIX I |
| The Philosophy of Composition. By Edgar Allan Poe | [175] |
| |
| APPENDIX II |
| Books Worth Reading | [201] |
| |
| APPENDIX III |
| Magazine Article on Writing Fiction | [205] |