By
ARTHUR B. MAURICE
DEPARTMENT OF
LITERATURE
VOLUME 6
NUMBER 14
TWENTY CENTS A COPY
FICTION
There is a popular notion that anyone can write a story. A good novel is easy reading, and it seems, on that account, to be easy writing. Many a reader, in the comfortable enjoyment of good fiction, misses the genius of it altogether. He is like the skeptical young man who could see nothing difficult in the art of sculpture. “All you need to do,” he said, “is to get a block of marble, then take a hammer and chisel, and knock off the parts you don’t want.” So stated, sculpture does seem very simple. But, after all, there is some importance in knowing what parts of the marble to knock off.
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Many of us feel, at times, an inward stir that prompts us to express ourselves in the written word. We are quite sure that we could write a novel or a play. That we don’t do so is simply because we are so busy—or something else. “I could write plays as well as Shakespeare if I’d a mind to,” said someone years ago to Charles Lamb. “Yes,” answered the gentle humorist, “anyone could write plays as well as Shakespeare—if he had the mind to.”