Foreword
I have selected “Money to Burns” as my best effort because the situations and characters in that story appealed to me more than any others I’ve created in some three hundred odd yarns. The “gold-digging” young lady of the chorus, the super-sophisticated bellboy with his hard-boiled philosophy, and the beautiful, cynical Goddess of the Switchboard, are all familiars of mine. Intimate with their habits, characteristics, mannerisms and vocabulary, I had only to create a central plot and push them bodily into it. After that, writing the story was merely a case of conscientious reporting—it almost wrote itself!
The genesis of “Money to Burns” was some envious remarks of a bellboy in discussing the sensational escapades of a certain young millionaire. The boy, bringing ice water to my room in a hotel, pointed to the glaring headlines in a newspaper that told of the gilded youth’s latest adventure, and bitterly bemoaned the fate that made him a bellboy and the other a millionaire. He discoursed on what he would do were he the possessor of wealth, etc. I encouraged his conversation, with a story forming itself before my eyes. When he left the room I put his counterpart on paper, gave him wealth, added the other characters and necessary embellishments, carved out the title which I hoped would attract the reader’s interest and—there you are!
As to how I work—one word pretty well covers that question. The word is “HARD!” I try to get interesting characters and titles first of all; after that, plots. The characters are always people I know well. The plots may come from any source—things that have happened to me, a chance remark of some individual, a newspaper headline, an adventure I would relish having myself, etc.
To a beginner I would advise a thorough reading of the popular magazines, a shot at the newspaper game if possible, plenty of clean white paper and a resolution to take lots of punishment. Thais all I would presume to advise—and I may have given an overdose already!