Transcriber's note
Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. The author'sspelling has been maintained.
IF YOU DON'T WRITE FICTION
By
CHARLES PHELPS CUSHING
NEW YORK
Robert M. McBride & Company
1920
Copyright, 1920, by
Robert M. McBride & Co.
Printed in the
United States of America
Published. June, 1920
To
Cousin Ann
who "doesn't write fiction," but who is ambitious to market magazinearticles, this little book is affectionately dedicated. If it can saveher some tribulations along the road that leads to acceptances, theauthor will feel that his labors have been well enough repaid.
The author thanks the editors of The Bookman, Outing and the KansasCity Star for granting permission to reprint certain passages that hereappear in revised form.
PREFACE
The publisher assures me that no one but a book reviewer ever readsprefaces, so I seize upon the opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with mycritics. Gentlemen, my cards are face up on the table. I have declaredto the publisher that nearly every American who knows how to read longsto find his way into print, and should appreciate some of the dearlybought hints herein contained upon practical journalism. And, as I keptmy face straight when I said it, he may have taken me seriously. Perhapshe thinks he has a best seller.
But this is just between ourselves. As he never reads prefaces, he won'tsuspect unless you tell him. My own view of the matter is that HaroldBell Wright need not fear me, but that the editors of the Baseball RuleBook may be forced to double their annual appropriation for advertisingin the literary sections.
As the sport of free lance scribbling has a great deal in common withfishing, the author of this little book may be forgiven for suggestingthat in intention it is something like Izaak Walton's[Pg vi]"Compleat Angler," in that it attempts to combine practical helpfulness with anarrative of mild adventures. For what the book contains besides advice,I make no apologies, for it is set down neither in embarrassment nor inpride. Many readers there must be who would like nothing better than todip into chapters from just such a life as mine. Witness how EdwardFitzGerald, half author of the "Rubaiyat," sighed to read more lives ofobscure persons, and that Arthur Christopher Benson, from his "CollegeWindow," repeats the wish and adds:
"The worst of it is that people often are so modest; they think thattheir own experience is so dull, so unromantic, so uninteresting. It isan entire mistake. If the dullest person in the world would only putdown sincerely what he or she thought about his or her life, about work,love, religion and emotion, it would be a fascinating document."
But, you may protest, by what right do the experiences of a magazinefree