XVII.
ETHICS OF THE NICKEL NOVEL
Is the nickel novel easy to write? The writer who has never attempted one is quite apt to think that it is. There are hundreds of writers, the Would-be-Goods, making less than a thousand a year, who would throw up their hands in horror at the very thought of debasing their art by contriving at “sensational” five-cent fiction. So far from “debasing their art,” as a matter of fact they could not lift it to the high plane of the nickel novel if they tried. Of these Would-be-Goods more anon – to use an expression of the ante-bellum romancers. Suffice to state, in this place, writers of recognized standing, and even ministers, have written – and some now are writing – these quick-moving stories. There’s a knack about it, and the knack is not easy to acquire. No less a person than Mr. Richard Duffy, formerly editor of Ainslee’s and later of the Cavalier, a man of rare gifts as a writer, once told Edwards that the nickel novel was beyond his powers.
So far as Edwards is concerned, he gave the best that was in him to the half-dime “dreadfuls,” and he made nothing dreadful of them after all. He has written hundreds, and there is not a line in any one of them which he would not gladly have his own son read. In fact, his ethical standard, to which every story must measure up, was expressed in this mental question as he worked: “If I had a boy would I willingly put this before him?” If the answer was No, the incident, the paragraph, the sentence or the word was eliminated. In 1910 Edwards wrote his last nickel novel, turning his back deliberately on three thousand dollars a year (they were paying him $60 each for them then), not because they were “debasing his art” but because he could make more money at other writing – for when one is forty-four he must get on as fast as he can.
The libraries, as they were written by Edwards, were typed on paper 8-1/2” by 13,” the marginal stops so placed that a typewritten line approximated the same line when printed. Eighty of these sheets completed a story, and five pages were regularly allowed to each chapter. Thus there were always sixteen chapters in every story.
First it is necessary to submit titles, and scenes for illustration. Selecting an appropriate title is an art in itself. Alliteration is all right, if used sparingly, and novel effects that do not defy the canons of good taste should be sought after. The title, too, should go hand in hand with the picture that illustrates the story. This picture, by the way, has demands of its own. In the better class of nickel novels firearms and other deadly weapons are tabooed. The picture must be unusual and it must be exciting, but its suggested morality must he high.
The ideas for illustrations all go to the artist days or even weeks in advance of the stories themselves. It is the writer’s business to lay out this prospective work intelligently, so that he may weave around it a group of logical stories.
Usually the novels are written in sets of three; that is, throughout such a series the same principal characters are used, and three different groups of incidents are covered. In this way, while each story is complete in itself, it is possible to combine the series and preserve the effect of a single story from beginning to end. These sets are so combined, as a matter of fact, and sold for ten cents.
Each chapter closes with a “curtain.” In other words, the chapter works the action up to an interesting point, similar to a serial “leave-off,” and drops a quick curtain. Skill is important here. The publishers of this class of fiction will not endure inconsistency for a moment. The stories appeal to a clientele keen to detect the improbable and to treat it with contempt.
Good, snappy dialogue is favored, but it must be dialogue that moves the story along. An apt retort has no excuse in the yarn unless it really belongs there. A multitude of incidents – none of them hackneyed – is a prime requisite. Complexity of plot invites censure – and usually secures it. The plot must be simple, but it must be striking.
One author failed because he had his hero-detective strain his massive intellect through 20,000 words merely to recover $100 that had been purloined from an old lady’s handbag. If the author had made it a million dollars stolen from a lady like Mrs. Hetty Green, probably his labor would have been crowned with success. These five-cent heroes are in no sense small potatoes. They may court perils galore and rub elbows with death, now and then, for nothing at all, but certainly never for the mere bagatelle of $100.
The hero does not drink, He does not swear. Very often he will not smoke. He is a chivalrous gentleman, ever a friend of the weak and deserving. He accomplishes all this with a ready good nature that has nothing of the goody-good in its make-up. The hero does not smoke because, being an athlete, he must keep in constant training in order to master his many dificulties. For the same reason he will not drink. As for swearing, it is a useless pastime and very common; besides, it betrays excitement, and the hero is never excited.
The old-style yellow-back hero was given to massacres. He slew his enemies valiantly by brigades. Not so the modern hero of the five-cent novel. Rarely, in the stories, does any one cross the divide. And whenever the villain is hurt, he is quite apt to recover, thank the hero for hurting him – and become his sworn friend.
The story must be clean, and while it must necessarily be exciting, it must yet leave the reader’s mind with a net profit in all the manly virtues. Is this easy?
Please note this extract from a letter written by Harte & Perkins Dec. 25, 1902 – it covers a point whose humor, Edwards thought, drew the sting of dishonesty:
Your last story, No. 285, opened well, had plenty of good incidents and was interesting; but there are several points in which it might have been improved.
Your description of Two Spot’s scheme of posing as a petrified boy is amusing, but the plan was dishonest and a piect of trickery. It was all right, perhaps, to let the boys go ahead without the knowledge of the Hero, but when he learned of it he should have put a stop to the plan immediately. It was all right to have him laugh at it, but at the same time he should have spoken severly to the boys about it and ordered them to return the money they had received through their trick. He did not do this in your story and it was necessary for me to alter it conciderably in the first part on that account.
The Hero is supposed to be the soul of honor, and in your story he is posed as a party to a deception practised on the citizens of Ouray, by which they were defrauded of the money they paid for admission to see the supposed “petrified boy.” Such conduct on his part would soon lose for him the admiration of the readers of th weeekly, as it places him on a moral level, almost, with the robbers whom he is bringing to justice.”
Consider that, you Would-be-Goods, who are not above putting worse things in your “high-class” work. And can you say “I am holier than thou” to the conscientious writer who turns out his 20,000 or 25,000 words a week along these ethical lines? Handsome is as handsome does!
Somebody is going to write these stories. There is a demand for them. The writer who can set hand to such fiction, who meets his moral responsibilities unflinchingly, is doing a splendid work for Young America.
And yet, as stated in a previous chapter, there are nickel novels and nickel novels – some to read and some to put in the stove unread. High-minded publishers, however, are not furnishing the careful head of the family with material for his kitchen fire.
It costs you nothing to think, but it costs infinitely to write. I therefore preach to you eternally that art of writing which Boileau has so well known and so well taught, that respect for the language, that connection and sequence of ideas, that air of ease with which he conducts his readers, that naturalness which is the true fruit of art, and that appearance of facility which is due to toil alone. A word out of place spoils the most beautiful thought. – Voltaire to Helvetius, a young author.
