The People’s Popular Monthly
When we buy a short story there are three very different things which we desire that story to do:
First: It must tell a story compellingly—so compellingly that when one is through reading, there is a very definite emotional response which stays with the reader. If one is conscious of the means technically employed to place the story before the reader, that story has failed as such.
If, however, the narrative takes you out of yourself and gives you a definite feeling of sympathy with that of the people in the story—it is in this point successful.
Second: Having gripped the attention and taken a hold upon the feeling of the reader, it must, in order to qualify for a place in our pages, fill a very real need in the lives of our particular type of readers.
There are many splendid stories which we are forced to return, due to the fact that they do not fill this particular need.
We have among our readers a preponderance of people who have been limited in their mental experiences and are consequently limited in their intellectual grasp. They are, however, from the rural and small town districts in that opulent region extending from the Alleghenies to the Rockies, and are, by virtue of this fact, a peculiarly keen and progressive people. Their judgment is sincere and their viewpoint is human. Their lives are in many cases a bit monotonous and often isolated; in consequence of which a story should have a real narrative interest, and, in all cases, strong entertainment value, with a wholesome dose of brightness and good cheer. We return all morbidly tragic stories.
Third: When we have found a story which stirs the feeling and fills the need of our particular readers, it is then time, and not until then, to look to the technic of the story. That is something which can be regulated to a large extent by editing in those cases where errors are not too flagrant.
There is, of course, a certain readability of expression, absolutely imperative, but that is something incorporate with the first point. They are practically inseparable.
Therefore, granted that the style was such as to make the emotional feeling paramount to the word consciousness of the reader—then any errors which may have crept in are not too flagrant to be corrected.
Of course, we do not find, in as many cases as we wish, stories which meet all three requirements, and oftentimes our pages have in them things which fall short of these three points.
Elizabeth B. Canaday.
The People’s Popular Monthly.
Des Moines, Iowa.