PREFACE Story-Writing: Lessons from the Masters is not like most books on story writing, an introductory course. It is one of the few texts intended for advanced students. In many college classes in story-writing the work is too little organized to insure the best results: every assignment is virtually the same as every other assignment, and the class time is too invariably spent in reading and discussing stories written by members of the class. Even where the work is so little directed, good results are often obtained because of the students' intense interest in story-writing, and sometimes because of the stimulating personality of the instructor. The ability of students and the efficacy of the teacher are of first importance, but their good may be easily bettered by intelligent organization. Where the course is progressive and every assignment is for a particular type of story, a finer quality of work should result. The instructor can make himself felt before as well as after the story is written. By instruction, warning, illustration, he can give actual preparation for each new undertaking. The fact that all have written with a common aim V |