SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE
STORY-TELLER

Concerning the fundamental points of
method in telling a story, I have little to
add to the principles which I have already
stated as necessary, in my opinion, in the
book of which this is, in a way, the
continuation. But in the two years which
have passed since that book was written, I
have had the happiness of working on
stories and the telling of them, among
teachers and students all over this country,
and in that experience certain secondary
points of method have come to seem more
important, or at least more in need of
emphasis, than they did before. As so
often happens, I had assumed that "those
things are taken for granted;" whereas, to
the beginner or the teacher not naturally
a story-teller, the secondary or implied
technique is often of greater difficulty than
the mastery of underlying principles. The
few suggestions which follow are of this
practical, obvious kind.

Take your story seriously. No matter
how riotously absurd it is, or how full of
inane repetition, remember, if it is good
enough to tell, it is a real story, and must