02972cam a22003853u 4500 76438 UtSlPG 20260610134753.0 m cr n 260607r20251922utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d ca22000708 UtSlPG en iso639-1 PN Finger, Charles Joseph, 1869-1941 Hints on writing short stories Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier [Little blue book no. 326] Ten cent pocket series no. 326 Release date is 2025-07-04 Carla Foust, Tim Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "Hints on writing short stories by Charles Joseph Finger" is a practical guidebook on the craft of fiction written in the early 20th century. Blending lively essays with hands-on advice, it champions sincerity and truth in storytelling, explores character, plot, style, and theme, and offers market tips for aspiring writers. Its likely topic is how to write short stories that feel real, avoiding cliché, distortion, and formula. The book opens by dismissing correspondence-school formulas and sets its keynote: truth is the final test of literature. It urges writers to be sincere, see straight, and “set down the thing as it is,” warning against patriotic and class prejudices that flatten characters into types. It treats character as complex—often facets of the writer’s own nature—and shows courage more in moral choice than in brute action, advising restraint with murder and spectacle. Plot, it argues, grows from character and situation; plausibility matters less than convincing feeling and texture, so romance and fantasy are fair game if rendered with verisimilitude. It cautions against obsessive sex-themes and marriage-as-ending clichés, proposes contrarian story seeds, and defines style as clear, honest communication rather than ornament—illustrated with sharp quotations and examples. The author highlights a neglected field in writing for youth, lists welcoming magazines, and closes by urging writers to listen closely to real speech and moments, since truth, simply told, is what endures. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1922 Short story -- Technique Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951 [Little blue book no. 326] Ten cent pocket series no. 326 https://archive.org/details/hintsonwritingsh00fing/page/n1/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76438 117163 117163