Selecting the right story germ

Selecting the right story germ

To gather story-ideas is one thing; to develop a story from a bare idea is quite another. From among the many ideas that present themselves, one must be chosen. This one may have several manifestations; from it, several different stories might result. One must first test the germinal idea for its possible manifestations and then choose that one which will make the most worthy story. One must ask whether the story might be exclusively of action, of character, or setting; wheTherail might allow development into a character story, an action story, a setting story; whether it might be a psychological story, a problem story, a story of symbolism. If the germinal idea is a character hint, one should decide what sort of character is to be represented. Could any other sort be suggested by this idea? In what ways would the character be revealed? In what different circumstances might he be placed? Are any of these circumstances essentially dramatic; that is, will they yield a plot? Should the germinal idea be an incident, one should ask a different set of questions. Is this incident the basis of an action story? Is it significant of anything? Is it dramatic? Could it serve as the main incident of a story? Is it perhaps a minor incident of some other story? If so, of what kind of story? What sort of characters would be necessary? Could it be a character story or a story of setting? Thus, whatever the idea, its possible manifestations must be tested before one can conclude what is the one best way of telling the story.

A germinal idea capable of several different story manifestations might, notwithstanding, fail to result in a worthy story. H. G. Wells has said that a story may be “as trivial as a Japanese print of insects seen closely between grass stems or as spacious as the prospect of the plain of Italy from Monte Mottarone. ” The germinal idea may be trivial. “Yet the Short-story has been raised into literature only in those fortunate times when skill, or the circumstances of the moment, have given its slight fabric a serious purpose, a worthy substance, or consummate art. It can be light, it can be graceful, it can be amusing, it can be airy. But triviality kills it. ” In other words, one must have for one’s story a telling theme, — such a theme as bears closely on some deep-rooted fact of human nature. Without this theme a story might be perfect technically, yet fail to “capture the mind of the reader” or “make his heart really throb with anxiety about the result. ”

“The peculiar note of the Short-story at its best is the importance of the individual soul, be the surroundings of the humblest, or the most sordid. It is the heroism, the futility, the humor, the pathos, the inherent worth and beauty of life in the narrowest circumstances, that are the themes of the great writers of the Short-story. ” Even though a story

may be possessed of the glamour of the Orient, and interest through its novelty, it must reflect the \ sadness and the gladness, the hopelessness and optimism of human endeavor, if it would live in the hearts of men. It must not be unimportant.