Some Remarks on the Recent Prize Story Competition.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 February 1901, Page 344

Some Remarks on the Recent Prize Story Competition.

By One of the Judges

SN the unanimous opinion of the judges of the above competition, the New Zealand Literary and Historical Association has good reason to congratulate itself and the competitors upon the high average merit of the stories sent in. So promising has the result of this first competition been, that it is probable more than one prize in the short story class will be offered during the coming session, and that an endeavour will be made to secure for publication, in New Zealand or abroad, those stories that may be thought worthy of receiving the stamp of the Association. In this brief article one can do no more than speak generally of the more noticeable merits and faults of the stories of the last competition; There is obviously insufficient space to deal individually with the eightysix stories, and, as the authors are not acquainted with one another's attempts, the futility of mentioning the name alone of any particular story in illustration of what is said, is equally obvious. Each writer will, no doubt, be able to recognise and adequately appreciate those remarks that apply to his story. Though less pleasant because less flattering to the writer, it will be more profitable first to indicate and roughly classify the chief faults of their stories. The mention of these will of necessity suggest — by a contrary process — many of the essentials of the short story as a work of literary art. 1. If the rule regarding length be set aside, there remains only one condition limiting the competition — the stoiy was required to be an " original story of New Zealand life, character and scenery." This essential condition was evaded or ignored by tar too many competitors. It is no fulfilment of it merely to say that the hero, heroine and subsidiary characters are New Zealanders, and to sprinkle a plentiful cast

of New Zealand names over the descriptive passages ; characters, episodes and scenery must be typical of New Zealand, and not such as may be found in any locality. The spirit of New Zealand life must permeate and quicken the story ; the essentials as well as the externals or setting must be distinctly local. There is one great danger, however, in applying this canon of art into which writers much greater than our competitors who strive after " local colour "

fall, and that is the constant tendency to sacrifice to it all genuine human interest, and to stifle the appeal that their work should make to human nature generally • the writer of a New Zealand story mast not ignore that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. No more need be said upon this point than to refer the reader to the prize story, published in last month's issue, a careful study of which will soon make manifest its excellence in the blending of these two elements — correct " local colour," and a strong appeal to human nature generally ; there are the results of the individual observation of the men of our own country, blent with those of the generalised experience of humanity.

2. Gx'aminar, spelling, punctuation, and composition of sentences wei*e extremely weak in a few of the stories. These are the primary requisites of any form of writing, and violation of these rules detracts considerably from the prime value of a story that may excel, say, in description, or in character painting. Such a story, it is true r may often, with little trouble, be refined by the touch of a skilled hand; but in prize competitions where each effort must stand on its own merits, its incorrect style will be a severe handicap. It is extremely easy in these days of free education to acquire correctness if not elegance of style. The golden rule is — Give part of your days and

nights to the minute study of the best writers of English prose — Bacon, Shakespeare, Dryden, Addison, Steele, Goldsmith, De Quincey, Lamb, Thackeray, and Ruskin. Read the best passages microscopically, endeavour to analyse the sources of the merits of particular paragraphs, sentences, even single words. Much may be learnt from manuals. Brockington's Elements of Prose (Blackie and Son), and Abbott and Seeley's English Lessons for Em/lisk People (Seeley and Co.) will repay careful study. That the spelling should have been so bad as it was is, in the circumstances, unfortunate ; since ability to spell correctly is generally a good test of strong observational powers — a sine qua non in a writer of fiction.

3. Quite one-half of the stories were disappointing as regards plot construction. Plot or a " web of incident" is an essential of prose fiction, though it may be pardonably thin in stories with " local colour," such as those under notice, where the painting of our natural scenery and of the salient features of New Zealand life is of great importance. But, notwithstanding this concession, the several plots of these stories were naturally expected to show : — (a) Selection of suitable material. The majority of the stories excelled here, and a woi'd must be said upon this subject later on. (b) A well-ordered development of the incidents chosen manifested by the presence of introduction, crisis and denouement or solution. Instead of this we found in many cases an inextricable tangle of incident, (c) Effective arrangement obtained by giving prominence to the cental action, by keeping all the episodes in proper subordination. Lack of proportion was extremely common, failure to grasp and make the leader grasp the relative importance of the parts of the story. Unimportant features of plot or character or nature description were frequently dwelt upon at too great a length, or placed in too emphatic a position in sentence or paragraph. (d) Unity of action gained by admitting nothing irrelevant to the main current of incident and character. This again was one of

the commonest sources of failure. (4) A touch of melodrama fouled a few stories excellent in many respects. One of tho first canons of art is " to hold the mirror up to nature," to avoid any incident, situation or motive that is improbable or unnatural ; rant, hysteria, screaming grief or joy, all extremes of passion should be avoided unless they grow naturally out of the action, 5. A deficiency in logical power marked some of the stories. "This was especially the case with those in which there was an attempt at philosophic notion, where tho writer, quite properly approaching the study of his characters from an internal as well as an external point of view, lost himself in the maze of motives into which his analysis led him. Before we can write clearly wo must be able to think clearly, and an acquaintance on the part of our competitors with some even of the most elementary rules of logic, for example, such as those found in Jettons' $ Primer of Loyic, and practice in applying them, would do much to improve the quality of tho thought in the next batch of competitive stories. 6. Conventional phraseology and contrivances abounded, especially in the love and the humorous scenes. It may be interesting to note that love played the chief part in about ninety per cent of the efforts. It is perhaps too much to expect quite a new presentation of the old, old story ; but a writer should certainly think it worth while to attempt the infusion of a little freshness and delicacy iuto the love scenes. Only a few writers attempted the humorous form. The majority of these had a correct perception of a humorous subject, but blundered grievously in handling it. This competition adds one more proof to the fact that Kipling is creating or lias created a certain convention in humour. 7. In many cases vigour was lost through complete absence of dialogue. Dialogue is scarcely essential to a short story ; but the treatment must be conspicuously artistic in other respects if a story is to succeed without dialogue. 8. Affectation of style frequently appeared

in conversational and descriptive passages. Unnecessary classical allusions, the use of long pedantic words, the meaning of which is only imperfectly understood by the writer himself, and which often lead to mixture of metaphor— e.g., "Till I hid my baptismal incubus "—the use of archaic words in unsuitable context, and with an incorrect application, the use here and there of words peculiar only to the diction of poetry — these mark a corrupt, ill-formed taste as well as a narrow and a shallow reading. In description affectation invariably leads to vagueness and obscurity, and thus completely thwarts the aim of the writer. 9. The title may seem an insignificant trifle, but it demands some art. Some of the titles to these stories were very unwisely chosen. A title has meaning, and is worth some trouble in the choosing. To label your story " A Dilemma," and then part company from the dilemma just half way through, or to select a title that has nothing whatever to do with the main idea of your story is to give instant proof of carelessness, or of lamentable lack of the sense of proportion. In story - writing, as in everything else, nothing is or should appear too trivial for care; above all things, be thorough. 10. As respects imagination : in some there was a lack of the quality and in others an exuberancy. True art implies restraint. The writer of the prize story gives strongest evidence of her imagination by arousing and stimulating the reader's, by impregnating it with suggestion. According to the best systems of criticism, this quality of appeal to the imagination furnishes the sole reliable test of what is true art. Formal tests, such as have been hinted at above — structure of plot, purity of diction, and so forth — are frequently at fault in detecting in any work that which alone gives it some chance of immortal life, the faculty of giving pleasure. A work may sometimes give pleasure in spite of formal defects of style ; but it will always do so by virtue of the force of its appeal to the imagination of mankind in general. This then is the quality of style

that our writers should most stinve adequately to conceive in the works of others and to render in their own.

Nothing swells the tide of human misery more than the " might-have-beens," and more than one of the judges grew sad over the amount of good material distorted by crude treatment. The chief charms unconsciously chosen to sour, to our peiiiaps too epicurean tastes, the promising cream of some choice relation have been hastily noticed; it remains to testify to the substantial excellences and promise the competition showed exist in the writers. One may safely say that no one story showed all the faults remarked upon, and that the majority escaped a majority of the faults. Quite a number of the stories are worth publication. Among those highly commended are :— "The Gold Seeker," "One Man aud Woman," "My Wee Lassie," " The Faith of Nga Kura," "Mater's Christmas Message," "A Narrow Escape," " The Sun Tower," " Tuhakaraina's Dilemma," "A Romance of the Bush," " Waitangitangi," "Fighting the Fiend," "Phantom Blood," and " The Conversion of Sandy."

On the whole the competition showed that many New Zealanders have a true and vivid perception of the meaning of the distinctive life we live, and set an adequate value upon the immense store of literary treasure to be found in the old Maori and pioneer records, and moreover that they are capable of stirring the imagination of others to a like perception, In these stories we have a succession of pictures, rudely drawn at times perhaps, but eminently true both really and ideally, that show the unmistakable* growth of a national feeling amongst us. Shall we wonder if the charm of our beautiful land and its romantic history is beginning to bewitch the more impressionable among us, filling their minds with richest fancies and ennobling thoughts, and their hearts with an ardent desire to make its beauty plain unto the eyes of all beholders ? Let us rather rejoice that tbis competition heralds the approach of such a consummation.