Studying a Magazine's Short Stories

Young authors have been told in numerous papers that to write and market short-stories successfully, they must study with care that form of fiction in the magazines to which they wish to contribute. But this is a hard thing to do, especially at the beginning; it is not easy to look for something, and still have not the slightest idea of what you are looking for.

Perhaps the first thing to be ascertained is the maximum and minimum length of the magazine's short-stories, as well as the average or most popular length. Religious papers, you will probably find, usually want cither a story with a good, discernible moral, or one in which the characters set a good example before the reader; they are also in most cases averse to having characters smoke, swear or use intoxicating drinks, particularly the last two. You will also learn the value of contrast, of proportion, of making your characters show what they are by what they say and do, far better than if you attempt merely to describe them.

Possibly the magazine you are studying desires that all its stories shall end happily, and that the characters shall act in the present time. It may dislike all forms of dialect. Some papers may prefer stories in which the outward man alone is shown, while others want the passions, emotions, etc., that are beneath the surface, or a combination of the two. Realism may be the only style printed by one class of periodicals, and romanticism will have its champions in another.

It is a good habit to write little criticisms of many of the magazine short-stories. In these little reviews endeavor to set forth impartially the good and bad points of the stories as you see them, the reason why each was accepted, and any other ideas concerning them that happen to come into your mind.

This is helpful as a practice of putting your thoughts into words, as well as a means of making permanent what you have learned. There is much to be gained by such a study of the best short-stories, and if the young writer does not carry the work too far and become a mere imitator of others, he may be able to look upon this study as one of the lowliest steps upon the ladder of authorship which leads to literature of a more lasting form.

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