02974cam a22003853u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003701000150007804000110009304100170010405000070012110000390012824500350016726400510020230000470025333600260030033700260032633800360035249000310038849000350041950000310045450801840048552015780066953400650224765300290231270000470234183000310238883000350241985600720245485600430252699900190256976438UtSlPG20260610134753.0mcr n260607r20251922utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aca22000708  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPN1 aFinger, Charles Joseph,d1869-194110aHints on writing short stories 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2025  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier1 a[Little blue book no. 326]1 aTen cent pocket series no. 326  aRelease date is 2025-07-04  aCarla 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)  a"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.)  pOriginally published:cGirard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1922  aShort story -- Technique1 aHaldeman-Julius, E.q(Emanuel),d1888-1951 0a[Little blue book no. 326] 0aTen cent pocket series no. 3264 uhttps://archive.org/details/hintsonwritingsh00fing/page/n1/mode/2up40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76438  c117163d117163