STORIES CRITICISED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 36, 12 February 1943, Page 5

STORIES CRITICISED

Last week I said I would give brief criticisms of' the unsuccessful stories entered in the January competition, but before I do, I want to point out the chief fault of nearly all of them. It was that most of their themes were hackneyed— overdone. 1 know that until you are grown up and have read a lot it is difficult to know which are the plots that have been used over and over again. However, I can tell you some of them briefly, so that, you will be able to avoid them and search for more original material. Some of the most common plots are on the following subjects: Practical jokers pretending to be ghosts—experiences that turn out to be only dreams (they let the reader down badly!); money found by people (often poor people) in secret hiding-places; long-lost children (or parents); the beggar boy or girl who does a good deed and is rewarded by a rich man or woman; people who save other people from tfeath. All these themes must be extremely well written, with some new angle- to qualify for publication. That is quite a long list to avoid, I know, but you will certainly have a better chance of seeing your work in print if you try to be more original. . The other most noticeable fault was the sending in of descriptive pieces and essays instead of stories. We do not want to discourage young writers frqm putting down on paper their impressions of a beautiful scene, for it is necessary to practise descriptive writing. But such essays are not stories. In the same way, descriptions of lires, shipwrecks and so on are not stories if they have no plot or characters. Now here are brief criticisms of the stories entered last month:— Elsbeth Young, Coral Putt, June Hall, Florrie McDowall: You should all note the comments on hackneyed themes, since this was where your chief fault lay. Joan Hastings: You have a good sense of drama, but your effort was an "experience" rather than a story. It did not come to any satisfactory conclusion and the division in time distracted from it. Also, trench warfare and the loading of guns are not very typical of this war. Nancy Barker: Your little story had quite a good sense of the atmosphere of the country about which you were writing, but it was not original or colourful enough for publication. It did not work up to any climax. Beth Millard: Not enough plot. Yours was more of a descriptive piece, though, as such, was quite well written. James Moylan: The plot was not original enough for publication, James. Try again. Harry Swinburne: Yours was a history essay, Harry. Stories must be your own work. Doreen Smith: The idea of your story was not original or interesting enough to hold the attention. Watch your spelling and punctuation, Doreen. I feel you will do better next time. , Edna Collings: Not original enough, Edna. An adventure must have more colour and incident, and "escape" stories must be done well if they are to avoid being "hackneyed." Mervyn Snell: See the comments on descriptive pieces. Your effort was quite well written, however. The writer of "Fire" (no name) shouljl also note the comments on descriptive pieces.