Introducing Your Characters.

BY GEORGE MUNROE QUINCY.

Back in the good old days when stories were more rare than now, the conventional mode of beginning was the following; "Late one afternoon in June, a person near the Big Woods might have seen a man step out."

Now, today this method of introducing the hero is not in favor. It is too indefinite; it does not put the reader in sympathy with him; it begins the story too far back.

A better introduction, certainly, is the following: "The man stepped out from the shadow of the trees, with the queer hint of a laugh on his face. One would hardly have suspected the humorous in John Layton."

This method, although open to objections. is far ahead of the other. The same criticisms, however, will apply to it in general, though perhaps they are not as merited as the first example.

The best method of all is to give your character a name at once. You will get your reader's attention at the outset with the following: "John Layton stepped out from the woods with a little chuckle of exultation. This introduction is at once sincere. convincing satisfying curiosityprovoking. It tells you who the man is, puts you in close touch with him, and begins the story in the proper place. Does this not fulfill the obligations?

It's New Year's. Let's join hands, as the children do in games, and make a resolution together: we, THE EDITOR's editor, and you, THE EDITOR'S readers. Let's all resolve to write better stories, or better poems, or better articles, and to sell them to better advantage.

It isn't a childish resolution nor a futile dream. Each one of us can live up to it if he chooses. The writing is merely a question of study and of practise; the selling one of common sense and dogged determination.

We have a right to feel that we shall do better this year. We have the experience of last season back of us, and we have the brightest literary outlook ever known before us. So why shouldn't we resolve to do better and greater things?

Let's take a look at the market for our wares. There's Mr. S. S. McClure, who says: "Neither in short fiction nor in any other product of man's brain does the good supply equal the demand." And there's Mr. Bok, of "The Ladies' Home Journal,' who says: "It takes a

mighty good while, you know, to write a good short story, and generally about half an hour to read it. So how could the supply equal the demand?" Hardly looks as if there were too many of us, does it?

Some of us suggest, a little shame-facedly, that names count for too much; of course, not among the lesser magazines, but in the best markets,-er, "Harper's" and that class. And yet it is Mr. Alden, of "Harper's," who says, that were it not for the new writers, "the magazine would languish in all its fine tissues for lack of the infusion of new blood." Rather an invitation to some of us young

sters, is it not?

So here is the market, and down in our hearts is the determination. Never, in all the history of our country, has there been a better opportunity for the author. Never have higher prices been paid; never was there such a demand. It rests with us, whether or not we shall succeed. We can wake New Year's morning, and yawn and turn over and go to sleep again; or we can spring to our desks, with a new, glad joy in our task, and toil over the work that surpasses in pleasure any other on all the round globe.

So we join hands-we, THE EDITOR'S editor, and you, THE EDITOR's readers-and resolve that we shall write better and sell better. It's going to be a happy New Year, isn't it? The happiest New Year we ever lived!

Current Publications.

"The Art Amateur" has filed a petition in bankruptcy.

"Paid" is a dainty little Denver magazine. Nora E. Hulings Siegel is the editor.

"The Artsman," Rose Valley, Pa., is a new monthly given over to vividly progressive thought.

The Pittsburg "Gazette" is offering cash prizes for the best articles on household management.

"Major's Magazine" is the subject of more complaints than any other publication in the country.

"The Household-Ledger," New York, is offering prizes for photographs to be used in illustrating stories.

"The National Magazine," Boston, is asking for photographs of out-door-scenes, to be used as cover designs.

"The Sunny South," Atlanta, Ga., uses stories of negroes, in which the black man shows fidelity to his former white master.

"One Pence," 771 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., is a new magazinette promised for the first of the year. It will deal with original short stories, and will have several interesting departments.

Victor H. Smalley and Stephen Conday, publishers of "The Northwestern Farmer" and "Smalley's Magazine," Chicago, are insolvent.

"Success," New York, is in the market for stories, items of interest to young men and women, interviews with prominent people and good verse.

"American Motherhood," under the editorship of Mrs. E. M. H. Merril and Mary Wood-Allen, is a new magazine of the past month. It is published in Boston.

"The Bookman," New York, uses one short story each month, and says: "We take this opportunity of announcing that we want short stories, and that we want the best."

"The Oaks," Chicago, went into the hands of a receiver some time ago, but its editor states that it expects to resume publication again. How about that prize story contest?

"Christendom" and "The World Today," Chicago, have been consolidated under the title, "The World Today in Christendom." The magazine is in the market for articles describing improvements, individual undertakings, etc. lustrations are desired.

Il

The Chicago "Record-Herald" is now issuing a magazine supplement with its Sunday paper. This supplement is illustrated in colors, and uses stories, etc. It is smaller than the newspaper page, and is entirely separate from the other part of the "Record-Herald."

"The Overland Monthly," San Francisco, reports an over-supply of accepted material. "We have," says its editor, "more manuscripts on hand at the present, and there are more sent to us, than we know what to do with. A great many of these are exceptionally good, but we could not publish them even had we double the number of pages in our magazine."