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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8405-8.txt b/8405-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce2dad2 --- /dev/null +++ b/8405-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2342 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Journalism for Women + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Posting Date: September 8, 2014 [EBook #8405] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 8, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + +By E. A. Bennett + + + + +Contents + + + + The Secret Significance of Journalism + Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist + The Roads towards Journalism + The Aspirant + Style + The Outside Contributor + The Search for Copy + The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + "Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + Conclusion + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + + + + +Chapter I + +The Secret Significance of Journalism + + + +For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet. + +It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +_we_ have witnessed, the persons _we_ have known, are _ipso +facto_ less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority. + +Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the _interestingness_ of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy. + + * * * * * + +We come to the secret significance of journalism:-- + +Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull. + +Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them. + +This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world. + +So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world. + + * * * * * + +In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897: + +"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead. + +"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence." + +Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe. + + * * * * * + +And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition. + +The best treatise on art can only hope:-- + + (1) To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty. + + (2) If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable. + +This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism. + + + + +Chapter II + +Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist. + + + +Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated. + +Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain +fields--say politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields +in which she is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much +as climb the gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are +at least three women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is +felt in Cabinets and places where they govern (proving that sex is not +a bar to the proper understanding of _la haute politique_); whereas +the man who dares to write on fashions does not exist. + + * * * * * + +That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:-- + +First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal _Business +is business_--commercial equivalent of _England expects_--must +always be flying at the mast-head. _On ne badine pas avec l'amour_--much +less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will _appear_, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible. + +Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious _business_ is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home? + +I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. _I thought it would not +matter._" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife. + + * * * * * + +Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman _will_ not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system. + +These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision. + +The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years. + +But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them." + + * * * * * + +Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, _gesticulating_ +inefficacy. It runs abroad in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Aurora +Leigh_ and _Sonnets from the Portuguese_. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:-- + + "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (_Adam Bede_, p. 187.) + +Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective. + +I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Roads towards Journalism + + + +More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do _something_ which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it. + +But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:-- + + 1. Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals? + + 2. Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"? + + 3. Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer? + +If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called." + + * * * * * + +There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful. + +Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear. + +Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable. + +Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist. + +But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare. + + + + +Chapter IV + +The Aspirant + + + +When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant." + +The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:-- + +She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c. + +The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture. + +Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors. + +She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript. + +So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns.... + + * * * * * + +Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:-- + + 1. The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. + + 2. Spelling. + + 3. Grammar. + + 4. Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four. + +1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review_, and only _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review._ Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified. + +2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of _The Silchester Mirror_, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, _When a Man's Single_:-- + +"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.' + +"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?' + +"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage. + +"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'" + +I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +_ieve_ and _eive_. They go astray nowadays in _ance_ and _ence_; also +in _seperate_ and _irresistable_, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in _it_. + +The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement. + +3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again. + +You will find Dr. Richard Morris's _Primer of English Grammar_ +(Macmillans, _1s_.), with Mr. John Wetherell's _Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar_ (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having _stuck on_ a long _time_, now +went _whirling_ down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women. + +4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter. + +The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's _English +Composition_ (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:-- + +False concords, p. 22. + +Purity in the use of words, p. 33. + +Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39. + +Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42. + +The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives." + +Arrangement, p. 63. + +For guidance as to punctuation, study _Stops_, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much. + + * * * * * + +Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within _my_ ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect. + + * * * * * + +It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing. + + + + +Chapter V + +Style + + + +"How can I acquire a good style of writing?" + +Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner! + +You cannot _acquire_ a good style; only a bad style can be acquired. + +It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light. + +The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists. + +For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done. + +I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth. + + * * * * * + +To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality. + +I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +_Essays_. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold. + +Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual. + +Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected. + +Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort. + +So far generally. + +As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned. + +The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--_phrases banales_. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people _really_ +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who _place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,_ and +select them with deliberation." + +If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, _selected singly_. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style. + +Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_ (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the _mot +juste_, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:-- + +"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see _impossibility_); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift. + +"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see _uncertainty_); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, _dignus vindice nodus_, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see _convolution_); crooked path. + +"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, _vexata +quæstio_, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, _pons asinorum_, where the shoe pinches. + +"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble. + +"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, _imbroglio_ mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +_cul de sac_; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see _hindrance_)." + +The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing. + +The Introduction to the _Thesaurus_, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book. + + * * * * * + +The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:-- + +Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively." + +Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness. + +Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper. + +"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake--on +very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other." + +Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +_English Composition_. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +_luggage_ of particles is an _impediment_ to strong speech and a +_jar_ in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes. + + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Outside Contributor + + + +In Mr. J.M. Barrie's _When a Man's Single_ [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:-- + + "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid." + +This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications! + +The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves. + + * * * * * + +I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down. + +The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a _Globe_ "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the _Evening Standard_ must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less. + +Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy. + +It would be well to buy for reference Sells' _Dictionary of the World's +Press_ (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +_The Literary Year Book_ (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs. + + * * * * * + +Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:-- + +1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use. + +2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this. + +3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, _cæteris paribus_, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage. + + * * * * * + +Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:-- + +1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines. + +2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over. + +3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words. + +4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript. + +5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere. + + * * * * * + +Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications.... + +Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in _When a Man's Single_, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects." + +If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not-- + +Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners. + +Or because the market is overcrowded. + +Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read. + +Or because editors do not know their business. + +Try to convince yourself that the true reason is-- + +Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts. + +Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons. + +Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers. + +The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile! + +As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing. + + * * * * * + +As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Search for Copy + + + +There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What _shall_ I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction. + +When Rob Angus, in _When a Man's Single_, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, _and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness_. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general." + +With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague _fancies_ about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays. + +Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him. + + * * * * * + +Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight. + +Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten. + +To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:-- + +"Is there copy here?" + +This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence. + +I will illustrate what I mean. + +In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both. + +We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:-- + +You get up in the morning. + +"Queer ways of sleeping." For _Tit-Bits_ and its class. Material at +British Museum. + +"My alarum." Humorous. + +"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper. + +"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature. + +"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season. + +"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto. + +You walk downstairs. + +"Some famous staircases." + +"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise." + +"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively." + +You sit down to breakfast. + +"Our newsboy." Humorous. + +"Papa at breakfast." Ditto. + +"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.) + +"How a cup and saucer are made." + +"Should the English breakfast be abolished?" + +And so on throughout the day. + +I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up." + +Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:-- + +"Earnings of operatic stars." + +"Whims of operatic stars." + +Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers. + +"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot. + +Notes on the new operas to be produced. + +Notes about composers and conductors. + +"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum. + +Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials. + +And about ninety-nine similar articles. + +In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from _When a +Man's Single_. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves. + + * * * * * + +Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +_Herald, World, Sun, Journal_, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable. + + * * * * * + +Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever. + + * * * * * + +The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor. + +The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + + + +Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't. + +In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter. + + * * * * * + +Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely +Adviser-in-Chief to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the +Charity Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests +him is his circulation, his influence, his advertisement department. + +The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a _resumé_ of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them. + +If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't. + +When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person. + +Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse _viva voce_ (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face. + +That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him. + +Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + + + +In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the _characters_ of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the _Standard_, the +_Sun_, and the _Morning Advertiser_ are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the _Saturday Review_, _Tit-Bits_, and the _Bazaar_ +merely as so many weeklies, and the _Strand_, _Macmillan's Magazine_, +and the _Fortnightly_ merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the _Standard_, they blithely forward +it to the _Sun_, and so on. + +Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by _Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal_, and _Success_. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it. + +Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the _Pall Mall_, the _Westminster_, and +the _St. James's_. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +_Globe_ and the _Evening Standard_, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the _Globe_, +you may congratulate yourself. The _Evening Standard_ article has +less pretensions. + +Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The _Echo_ is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature. + +Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the _Daily Mail_, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +_Daily Mail_ does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of _verve_, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified _Tit-Bits_ +confections. If the _Daily Mail_ has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country. + +Another halfpenny morning paper, _The Morning_, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational. + +The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the _Daily +Chronicle_ and the _Daily News_. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The _Daily News_ has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities. + +Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, _Black and White_ and the +_Sketch_ are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the _Sketch_ being the more exigent +of the two. The _Illustrated London News_ and the _Graphic_ +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the +politico-literary weeklies, _Saturday Review_, _Speaker_, and _Spectator_, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the _Speaker_ is the +least exclusive. + +With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the _British Weekly_, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles. + +As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, _Punch_ (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that _Punch_ has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably _Punch_ is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, _Judy_ (recently +edited by a woman), _Fun_, _Moonshine_, and _Pick-Me-Up_ (one penny). +Like _Punch_, all these papers, except _Pick-Me-Up_, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +_Pick-Me-Up_ devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by _Comic Cuts_, and twenty other +sorts of _Cuts_. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration _per se_ may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached. + +Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--_Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,_ &c. Second, the high-class general,--_Blackwoods'_, _Pall Mall_, +_Macmillans' Cornhill_, _Longmans'_, &c. Third, the reviews,--_Nineteenth +Century_, _Contemporary_, _Fortnightly_, _National_, and +_Westminster_. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique. + +I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the _Queen_, the +_Lady's Pictorial_, the _Gentlewoman_ (sixpence), _Hearth and +Home_ and the _Lady_ (threepence), and _Woman_ (one penny). To +the latter belong _Home Chat_, _Home Notes_, and their countless +imitators. + +The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field. + + + + +Chapter X + +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + + + +There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism. + +Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable. + +In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the +following--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing. + +Hackneyed phrases and quotations:-- + +"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." + +"Inclines towards the portly." + +"_De rigueur_." + +"Hold on our affections." + +"Ignore the charms of." + +Strange word:-- + +"Becomingness." + +Bad punctuation:-- + +"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful." + +Words wrongly used:-- + +"It is one of the _earnest_ principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion. + +"There are only two hats _well_ worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence. + +Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:-- + +"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm! + +"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked. + +"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year _to_ +elaborate furs." In English one says "_take_ a fancy _to_" but +"_show_ a fancy _for_." + +"_It is_ small wonder that the fashion has obtained _such_ a +hold on our affections, because _it is so_ becoming if _it is_ +not overdone." + +"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats? + +"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding _becomingness_ of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having _that_ vivid tone about +_it_. _This_ is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for _making_ trimmings to bodices, or indeed _to +make_ an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes _it_ will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive. + +So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated +women-journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the +columns of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the +elementary principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude +of carelessness and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer +sheets. + + * * * * * + +It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them. + +Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed. + +Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial. + +It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory. + + * * * * * + +I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors. + + + + +Chapter XI + +Conclusion + + + +It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count. + +The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that. + +One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many +women-journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an +office the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that +social considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be +put aside in order that Business may have a clear road. + +I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +_so_ sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind. + +A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many +women-journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final +words to the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an +office, are these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are +no excuses. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 8405-8.txt or 8405-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/0/8405/ + +Produced by Curtis A. 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Bennett </title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + img { border-style: none } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Journalism for Women + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Posting Date: September 8, 2014 [EBook #8405] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 8, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>Journalism for Women</h1> + +<h2>A Practical Guide</h2> + +<h3>By E. A. Bennett</h3> + + + + +<h1>Contents</h1> + + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> +<li><a href="#01">The Secret Significance of Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#02">Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist</a></li> +<li><a href="#03">The Roads towards Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#04">The Aspirant</a></li> +<li><a href="#05">Style</a></li> +<li><a href="#06">The Outside Contributor</a></li> +<li><a href="#07">The Search for Copy</a></li> +<li><a href="#08">The Art of Corresponding with an Editor</a></li> +<li><a href="#09">Notes on the Leading Types of Papers</a></li> +<li><a href="#10">"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#11">Conclusion</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<h1>Journalism for Women</h1> + +<h2>A Practical Guide</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="01"></a>Chapter I</h1> + +<h2>The Secret Significance of Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet.</p> + +<p>It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +<i>we</i> have witnessed, the persons <i>we</i> have known, are <i>ipso +facto</i> less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority.</p> + +<p>Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the <i>interestingness</i> of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>We come to the secret significance of journalism:--</p> + +<p>Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull.</p> + +<p>Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them.</p> + +<p>This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world.</p> + +<p>So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897:</p> + +<p>"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead.</p> + +<p>"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence."</p> + +<p>Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition.</p> + +<p>The best treatise on art can only hope:--</p> +<ol> +<li> To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty.</li> + +<li> If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable.</li> +</ol> +<p>This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="02"></a>Chapter II</h1> + +<h2>Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist.</h2> + + + +<p>Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated.</p> + +<p>Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain fields--say +politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields in which she +is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much as climb the +gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are at least three +women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is felt in Cabinets and +places where they govern (proving that sex is not a bar to the proper +understanding of <i>la haute politique</i>); whereas the man who dares to +write on fashions does not exist.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:--</p> + +<p>First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal <i>Business +is business</i>--commercial equivalent of <i>England expects</i>--must +always be flying at the mast-head. <i>On ne badine pas avec l'amour</i>--much +less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will <i>appear</i>, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible.</p> + +<p>Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious <i>business</i> is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home?</p> + +<p>I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. <i>I thought it would not +matter.</i>" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman <i>will</i> not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system.</p> + +<p>These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision.</p> + +<p>The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years.</p> + +<p>But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them."</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, <i>gesticulating</i> +inefficacy. It runs abroad in <i>Wuthering Heights</i> and <i>Aurora +Leigh</i> and <i>Sonnets from the Portuguese</i>. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:--</p> + +<blockquote> "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (<i>Adam Bede</i>, p. 187.)</blockquote> + +<p>Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective.</p> + +<p>I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="03"></a>Chapter III</h1> + +<h2>The Roads towards Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do <i>something</i> which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it.</p> + +<p>But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:--</p> +<ol> + <li> Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals?</li> + + <li> Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"?</li> + + <li> Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer?</li> +</ol> +<p>If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called."</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful.</p> + +<p>Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear.</p> + +<p>Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable.</p> + +<p>Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist.</p> + +<p>But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="04"></a>Chapter IV</h1> + +<h2>The Aspirant</h2> + + + +<p>When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant."</p> + +<p>The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:--</p> + +<p>She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c.</p> + +<p>The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture.</p> + +<p>Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors.</p> + +<p>She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript.</p> + +<p>So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns....</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:--</p> +<ol> + <li> The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies.</li> + + <li> Spelling.</li> + + <li> Grammar.</li> + + <li> Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four.</li> +</ol> +<p>1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, <i>The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review</i>, and only <i>The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review.</i> Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified.</p> + +<p>2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of <i>The Silchester Mirror</i>, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, <i>When a Man's Single</i>:--</p> + +<p>"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.'</p> + +<p>"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?'</p> + +<p>"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage.</p> + +<p>"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'"</p> + +<p>I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +<i>ieve</i> and <i>eive</i>. They go astray nowadays in <i>ance</i> and <i>ence</i>; also +in <i>seperate</i> and <i>irresistable</i>, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in <i>it</i>.</p> + +<p>The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement.</p> + +<p>3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again.</p> + +<p>You will find Dr. Richard Morris's <i>Primer of English Grammar</i> +(Macmillans, <i>1s</i>.), with Mr. John Wetherell's <i>Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar</i> (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having <i>stuck on</i> a long <i>time</i>, now +went <i>whirling</i> down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women.</p> + +<p>4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter.</p> + +<p>The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's <i>English +Composition</i> (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:--</p> + +<p>False concords, p. 22.</p> + +<p>Purity in the use of words, p. 33.</p> + +<p>Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39.</p> + +<p>Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42.</p> + +<p>The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives."</p> + +<p>Arrangement, p. 63.</p> + +<p>For guidance as to punctuation, study <i>Stops</i>, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within <i>my</i> ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="05"></a>Chapter V</h1> + +<h2>Style</h2> + + + +<p>"How can I acquire a good style of writing?"</p> + +<p>Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner!</p> + +<p>You cannot <i>acquire</i> a good style; only a bad style can be acquired.</p> + +<p>It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light.</p> + +<p>The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists.</p> + +<p>For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done.</p> + +<p>I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality.</p> + +<p>I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +<i>Essays</i>. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold.</p> + +<p>Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual.</p> + +<p>Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected.</p> + +<p>Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort.</p> + +<p>So far generally.</p> + +<p>As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned.</p> + +<p>The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--<i>phrases banales</i>. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people <i>really</i> +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who <i>place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,</i> and +select them with deliberation."</p> + +<p>If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, <i>selected singly</i>. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style.</p> + +<p>Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's <i>Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases</i> (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the <i>mot +juste</i>, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:--</p> + +<p>"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see <i>impossibility</i>); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift.</p> + +<p>"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see <i>uncertainty</i>); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, <i>dignus vindice nodus</i>, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see <i>convolution</i>); crooked path.</p> + +<p>"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, <i>vexata +quæstio</i>, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, <i>pons asinorum</i>, where the shoe pinches.</p> + +<p>"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble.</p> + +<p>"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, <i>imbroglio</i> mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +<i>cul de sac</i>; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see <i>hindrance</i>)."</p> + +<p>The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing.</p> + +<p>The Introduction to the <i>Thesaurus</i>, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:--</p> + +<p>Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively."</p> + +<p>Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness.</p> + +<p>Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper.</p> + +<p>"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake--on +very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other."</p> + +<p>Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +<i>English Composition</i>. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +<i>luggage</i> of particles is an <i>impediment</i> to strong speech and a +<i>jar</i> in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes.</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="06"></a>Chapter VI</h1> + +<h2>The Outside Contributor</h2> + + + +<p>In Mr. J.M. Barrie's <i>When a Man's Single</i> [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:--</p> + +<blockquote> "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid."</blockquote> + +<p>This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications!</p> + +<p>The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down.</p> + +<p>The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a <i>Globe</i> "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the <i>Evening Standard</i> must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less.</p> + +<p>Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy.</p> + +<p>It would be well to buy for reference Sells' <i>Dictionary of the World's +Press</i> (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +<i>The Literary Year Book</i> (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:--</p> + +<p>1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use.</p> + +<p>2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this.</p> + +<p>3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, <i>cæteris paribus</i>, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:--</p> + +<p>1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines.</p> + +<p>2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over.</p> + +<p>3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words.</p> + +<p>4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript.</p> + +<p>5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications....</p> + +<p>Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in <i>When a Man's Single</i>, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects."</p> + +<p>If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not--</p> + +<p>Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners.</p> + +<p>Or because the market is overcrowded.</p> + +<p>Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read.</p> + +<p>Or because editors do not know their business.</p> + +<p>Try to convince yourself that the true reason is--</p> + +<p>Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts.</p> + +<p>Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons.</p> + +<p>Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers.</p> + +<p>The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile!</p> + +<p>As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="07"></a>Chapter VII</h1> + +<h2>The Search for Copy</h2> + + + +<p>There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What <i>shall</i> I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction.</p> + +<p>When Rob Angus, in <i>When a Man's Single</i>, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, <i>and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness</i>. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general."</p> + +<p>With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague <i>fancies</i> about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays.</p> + +<p>Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight.</p> + +<p>Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten.</p> + +<p>To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:--</p> + +<p>"Is there copy here?"</p> + +<p>This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence.</p> + +<p>I will illustrate what I mean.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both.</p> + +<p>We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:--</p> + +<p>You get up in the morning.</p> + +<p>"Queer ways of sleeping." For <i>Tit-Bits</i> and its class. Material at +British Museum.</p> + +<p>"My alarum." Humorous.</p> + +<p>"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper.</p> + +<p>"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature.</p> + +<p>"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season.</p> + +<p>"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto.</p> + +<p>You walk downstairs.</p> + +<p>"Some famous staircases."</p> + +<p>"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise."</p> + +<p>"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively."</p> + +<p>You sit down to breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Our newsboy." Humorous.</p> + +<p>"Papa at breakfast." Ditto.</p> + +<p>"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.)</p> + +<p>"How a cup and saucer are made."</p> + +<p>"Should the English breakfast be abolished?"</p> + +<p>And so on throughout the day.</p> + +<p>I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up."</p> + +<p>Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:--</p> + +<p>"Earnings of operatic stars."</p> + +<p>"Whims of operatic stars."</p> + +<p>Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers.</p> + +<p>"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot.</p> + +<p>Notes on the new operas to be produced.</p> + +<p>Notes about composers and conductors.</p> + +<p>"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum.</p> + +<p>Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials.</p> + +<p>And about ninety-nine similar articles.</p> + +<p>In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from <i>When a +Man's Single</i>. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +<i>Herald, World, Sun, Journal</i>, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor.</p> + +<p>The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="08"></a>Chapter VIII</h1> + +<h2>The Art of Corresponding with an Editor</h2> + + + +<p>Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't.</p> + +<p>In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely Adviser-in-Chief +to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the Charity +Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests him is his +circulation, his influence, his advertisement department.</p> + +<p>The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a <i>resumé</i> of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them.</p> + +<p>If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't.</p> + +<p>When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person.</p> + +<p>Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse <i>viva voce</i> (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face.</p> + +<p>That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him.</p> + +<p>Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="09"></a>Chapter IX</h1> + +<h2>Notes on the Leading Types of Papers</h2> + + + +<p>In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the <i>characters</i> of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the <i>Standard</i>, the +<i>Sun</i>, and the <i>Morning Advertiser</i> are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the <i>Saturday Review</i>, <i>Tit-Bits</i>, and the <i>Bazaar</i> +merely as so many weeklies, and the <i>Strand</i>, <i>Macmillan's Magazine</i>, +and the <i>Fortnightly</i> merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the <i>Standard</i>, they blithely forward +it to the <i>Sun</i>, and so on.</p> + +<p>Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by <i>Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal</i>, and <i>Success</i>. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it.</p> + +<p>Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the <i>Pall Mall</i>, the <i>Westminster</i>, and +the <i>St. James's</i>. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +<i>Globe</i> and the <i>Evening Standard</i>, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the <i>Globe</i>, +you may congratulate yourself. The <i>Evening Standard</i> article has +less pretensions.</p> + +<p>Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The <i>Echo</i> is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature.</p> + +<p>Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the <i>Daily Mail</i>, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +<i>Daily Mail</i> does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of <i>verve</i>, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified <i>Tit-Bits</i> +confections. If the <i>Daily Mail</i> has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country.</p> + +<p>Another halfpenny morning paper, <i>The Morning</i>, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational.</p> + +<p>The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the <i>Daily +Chronicle</i> and the <i>Daily News</i>. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The <i>Daily News</i> has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities.</p> + +<p>Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, <i>Black and White</i> and the +<i>Sketch</i> are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the <i>Sketch</i> being the more exigent +of the two. The <i>Illustrated London News</i> and the <i>Graphic</i> +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the politico-literary +weeklies, <i>Saturday Review</i>, <i>Speaker</i>, and <i>Spectator</i>, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the <i>Speaker</i> is the +least exclusive.</p> + +<p>With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the <i>British Weekly</i>, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles.</p> + +<p>As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, <i>Punch</i> (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that <i>Punch</i> has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably <i>Punch</i> is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, <i>Judy</i> (recently +edited by a woman), <i>Fun</i>, <i>Moonshine</i>, and <i>Pick-Me-Up</i> (one penny). +Like <i>Punch</i>, all these papers, except <i>Pick-Me-Up</i>, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +<i>Pick-Me-Up</i> devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by <i>Comic Cuts</i>, and twenty other +sorts of <i>Cuts</i>. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration <i>per se</i> may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached.</p> + +<p>Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--<i>Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,</i> &c. Second, the high-class general,--<i>Blackwoods'</i>, <i>Pall Mall</i>, +<i>Macmillans' Cornhill</i>, <i>Longmans'</i>, &c. Third, the +reviews,--<i>Nineteenth Century</i>, <i>Contemporary</i>, <i>Fortnightly</i>, <i>National</i>, and +<i>Westminster</i>. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique.</p> + +<p>I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the <i>Queen</i>, the +<i>Lady's Pictorial</i>, the <i>Gentlewoman</i> (sixpence), <i>Hearth and +Home</i> and the <i>Lady</i> (threepence), and <i>Woman</i> (one penny). To +the latter belong <i>Home Chat</i>, <i>Home Notes</i>, and their countless +imitators.</p> + +<p>The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="10"></a>Chapter X</h1> + +<h2>"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism.</p> + +<p>Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable.</p> + +<p>In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the +following--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing.</p> + +<p>Hackneyed phrases and quotations:--</p> + +<p>"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest."</p> + +<p>"Inclines towards the portly."</p> + +<p>"<i>De rigueur</i>."</p> + +<p>"Hold on our affections."</p> + +<p>"Ignore the charms of."</p> + +<p>Strange word:--</p> + +<p>"Becomingness."</p> + +<p>Bad punctuation:--</p> + +<p>"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful."</p> + +<p>Words wrongly used:--</p> + +<p>"It is one of the <i>earnest</i> principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion.</p> + +<p>"There are only two hats <i>well</i> worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence.</p> + +<p>Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:--</p> + +<p>"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm!</p> + +<p>"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked.</p> + +<p>"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year <i>to</i> +elaborate furs." In English one says "<i>take</i> a fancy <i>to</i>" but +"<i>show</i> a fancy <i>for</i>."</p> + +<p>"<i>It is</i> small wonder that the fashion has obtained <i>such</i> a +hold on our affections, because <i>it is so</i> becoming if <i>it is</i> +not overdone."</p> + +<p>"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats?</p> + +<p>"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding <i>becomingness</i> of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having <i>that</i> vivid tone about +<i>it</i>. <i>This</i> is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for <i>making</i> trimmings to bodices, or indeed <i>to +make</i> an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes <i>it</i> will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive.</p> + +<p>So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated +women-journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the columns +of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the elementary +principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude of carelessness +and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer sheets.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them.</p> + +<p>Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed.</p> + +<p>Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial.</p> + +<p>It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="11"></a>Chapter XI</h1> + +<h2>Conclusion</h2> + + + +<p>It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count.</p> + +<p>The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many +women-journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an office +the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that social +considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be put +aside in order that Business may have a clear road.</p> + +<p>I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +<i>so</i> sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind.</p> + +<p>A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many +women-journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final words to +the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an office, are +these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are no excuses.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 8405-h.htm or 8405-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/0/8405/ + +Produced by Curtis A. 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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Journalism for Women + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Posting Date: September 8, 2014 [EBook #8405] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 8, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + +By E. A. Bennett + + + + +Contents + + + + The Secret Significance of Journalism + Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist + The Roads towards Journalism + The Aspirant + Style + The Outside Contributor + The Search for Copy + The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + "Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + Conclusion + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + + + + +Chapter I + +The Secret Significance of Journalism + + + +For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet. + +It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +_we_ have witnessed, the persons _we_ have known, are _ipso +facto_ less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority. + +Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the _interestingness_ of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy. + + * * * * * + +We come to the secret significance of journalism:-- + +Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull. + +Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them. + +This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world. + +So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world. + + * * * * * + +In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897: + +"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead. + +"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence." + +Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe. + + * * * * * + +And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition. + +The best treatise on art can only hope:-- + + (1) To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty. + + (2) If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable. + +This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism. + + + + +Chapter II + +Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist. + + + +Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated. + +Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain +fields--say politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields +in which she is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much +as climb the gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are +at least three women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is +felt in Cabinets and places where they govern (proving that sex is not +a bar to the proper understanding of _la haute politique_); whereas +the man who dares to write on fashions does not exist. + + * * * * * + +That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:-- + +First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal _Business +is business_--commercial equivalent of _England expects_--must +always be flying at the mast-head. _On ne badine pas avec l'amour_--much +less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will _appear_, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible. + +Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious _business_ is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home? + +I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. _I thought it would not +matter._" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife. + + * * * * * + +Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman _will_ not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system. + +These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision. + +The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years. + +But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them." + + * * * * * + +Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, _gesticulating_ +inefficacy. It runs abroad in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Aurora +Leigh_ and _Sonnets from the Portuguese_. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:-- + + "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (_Adam Bede_, p. 187.) + +Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective. + +I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Roads towards Journalism + + + +More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do _something_ which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it. + +But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:-- + + 1. Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals? + + 2. Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"? + + 3. Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer? + +If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called." + + * * * * * + +There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful. + +Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear. + +Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable. + +Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist. + +But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare. + + + + +Chapter IV + +The Aspirant + + + +When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant." + +The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:-- + +She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c. + +The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture. + +Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors. + +She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript. + +So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns.... + + * * * * * + +Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:-- + + 1. The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. + + 2. Spelling. + + 3. Grammar. + + 4. Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four. + +1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review_, and only _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review._ Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified. + +2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of _The Silchester Mirror_, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, _When a Man's Single_:-- + +"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.' + +"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?' + +"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage. + +"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'" + +I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +_ieve_ and _eive_. They go astray nowadays in _ance_ and _ence_; also +in _seperate_ and _irresistable_, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in _it_. + +The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement. + +3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again. + +You will find Dr. Richard Morris's _Primer of English Grammar_ +(Macmillans, _1s_.), with Mr. John Wetherell's _Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar_ (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having _stuck on_ a long _time_, now +went _whirling_ down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women. + +4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter. + +The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's _English +Composition_ (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:-- + +False concords, p. 22. + +Purity in the use of words, p. 33. + +Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39. + +Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42. + +The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives." + +Arrangement, p. 63. + +For guidance as to punctuation, study _Stops_, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much. + + * * * * * + +Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within _my_ ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect. + + * * * * * + +It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing. + + + + +Chapter V + +Style + + + +"How can I acquire a good style of writing?" + +Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner! + +You cannot _acquire_ a good style; only a bad style can be acquired. + +It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light. + +The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists. + +For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done. + +I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth. + + * * * * * + +To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality. + +I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +_Essays_. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold. + +Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual. + +Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected. + +Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort. + +So far generally. + +As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned. + +The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--_phrases banales_. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people _really_ +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who _place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,_ and +select them with deliberation." + +If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, _selected singly_. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style. + +Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_ (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the _mot +juste_, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:-- + +"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see _impossibility_); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift. + +"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see _uncertainty_); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, _dignus vindice nodus_, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see _convolution_); crooked path. + +"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, _vexata +quaestio_, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, _pons asinorum_, where the shoe pinches. + +"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble. + +"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, _imbroglio_ mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +_cul de sac_; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see _hindrance_)." + +The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing. + +The Introduction to the _Thesaurus_, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book. + + * * * * * + +The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:-- + +Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively." + +Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness. + +Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper. + +"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake--on +very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other." + +Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +_English Composition_. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +_luggage_ of particles is an _impediment_ to strong speech and a +_jar_ in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes. + + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Outside Contributor + + + +In Mr. J.M. Barrie's _When a Man's Single_ [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:-- + + "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid." + +This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications! + +The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves. + + * * * * * + +I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down. + +The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a _Globe_ "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the _Evening Standard_ must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less. + +Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy. + +It would be well to buy for reference Sells' _Dictionary of the World's +Press_ (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +_The Literary Year Book_ (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs. + + * * * * * + +Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:-- + +1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use. + +2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this. + +3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, _caeteris paribus_, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage. + + * * * * * + +Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:-- + +1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines. + +2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over. + +3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words. + +4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript. + +5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere. + + * * * * * + +Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications.... + +Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in _When a Man's Single_, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects." + +If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not-- + +Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners. + +Or because the market is overcrowded. + +Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read. + +Or because editors do not know their business. + +Try to convince yourself that the true reason is-- + +Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts. + +Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons. + +Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers. + +The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile! + +As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing. + + * * * * * + +As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Search for Copy + + + +There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What _shall_ I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction. + +When Rob Angus, in _When a Man's Single_, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, _and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness_. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general." + +With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague _fancies_ about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays. + +Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him. + + * * * * * + +Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight. + +Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten. + +To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:-- + +"Is there copy here?" + +This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence. + +I will illustrate what I mean. + +In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both. + +We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:-- + +You get up in the morning. + +"Queer ways of sleeping." For _Tit-Bits_ and its class. Material at +British Museum. + +"My alarum." Humorous. + +"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper. + +"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature. + +"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season. + +"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto. + +You walk downstairs. + +"Some famous staircases." + +"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise." + +"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively." + +You sit down to breakfast. + +"Our newsboy." Humorous. + +"Papa at breakfast." Ditto. + +"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.) + +"How a cup and saucer are made." + +"Should the English breakfast be abolished?" + +And so on throughout the day. + +I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up." + +Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:-- + +"Earnings of operatic stars." + +"Whims of operatic stars." + +Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers. + +"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot. + +Notes on the new operas to be produced. + +Notes about composers and conductors. + +"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum. + +Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials. + +And about ninety-nine similar articles. + +In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from _When a +Man's Single_. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves. + + * * * * * + +Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +_Herald, World, Sun, Journal_, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable. + + * * * * * + +Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever. + + * * * * * + +The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor. + +The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + + + +Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't. + +In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter. + + * * * * * + +Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely +Adviser-in-Chief to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the +Charity Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests +him is his circulation, his influence, his advertisement department. + +The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a _resume_ of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them. + +If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't. + +When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person. + +Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse _viva voce_ (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face. + +That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him. + +Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + + + +In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the _characters_ of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the _Standard_, the +_Sun_, and the _Morning Advertiser_ are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the _Saturday Review_, _Tit-Bits_, and the _Bazaar_ +merely as so many weeklies, and the _Strand_, _Macmillan's Magazine_, +and the _Fortnightly_ merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the _Standard_, they blithely forward +it to the _Sun_, and so on. + +Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by _Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal_, and _Success_. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it. + +Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the _Pall Mall_, the _Westminster_, and +the _St. James's_. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +_Globe_ and the _Evening Standard_, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the _Globe_, +you may congratulate yourself. The _Evening Standard_ article has +less pretensions. + +Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The _Echo_ is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature. + +Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the _Daily Mail_, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +_Daily Mail_ does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of _verve_, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified _Tit-Bits_ +confections. If the _Daily Mail_ has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country. + +Another halfpenny morning paper, _The Morning_, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational. + +The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the _Daily +Chronicle_ and the _Daily News_. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The _Daily News_ has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities. + +Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, _Black and White_ and the +_Sketch_ are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the _Sketch_ being the more exigent +of the two. The _Illustrated London News_ and the _Graphic_ +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the +politico-literary weeklies, _Saturday Review_, _Speaker_, and _Spectator_, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the _Speaker_ is the +least exclusive. + +With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the _British Weekly_, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles. + +As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, _Punch_ (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that _Punch_ has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably _Punch_ is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, _Judy_ (recently +edited by a woman), _Fun_, _Moonshine_, and _Pick-Me-Up_ (one penny). +Like _Punch_, all these papers, except _Pick-Me-Up_, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +_Pick-Me-Up_ devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by _Comic Cuts_, and twenty other +sorts of _Cuts_. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration _per se_ may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached. + +Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--_Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,_ &c. Second, the high-class general,--_Blackwoods'_, _Pall Mall_, +_Macmillans' Cornhill_, _Longmans'_, &c. Third, the reviews,--_Nineteenth +Century_, _Contemporary_, _Fortnightly_, _National_, and +_Westminster_. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique. + +I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the _Queen_, the +_Lady's Pictorial_, the _Gentlewoman_ (sixpence), _Hearth and +Home_ and the _Lady_ (threepence), and _Woman_ (one penny). To +the latter belong _Home Chat_, _Home Notes_, and their countless +imitators. + +The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field. + + + + +Chapter X + +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + + + +There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism. + +Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable. + +In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the +following--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing. + +Hackneyed phrases and quotations:-- + +"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." + +"Inclines towards the portly." + +"_De rigueur_." + +"Hold on our affections." + +"Ignore the charms of." + +Strange word:-- + +"Becomingness." + +Bad punctuation:-- + +"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful." + +Words wrongly used:-- + +"It is one of the _earnest_ principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion. + +"There are only two hats _well_ worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence. + +Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:-- + +"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm! + +"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked. + +"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year _to_ +elaborate furs." In English one says "_take_ a fancy _to_" but +"_show_ a fancy _for_." + +"_It is_ small wonder that the fashion has obtained _such_ a +hold on our affections, because _it is so_ becoming if _it is_ +not overdone." + +"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats? + +"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding _becomingness_ of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having _that_ vivid tone about +_it_. _This_ is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for _making_ trimmings to bodices, or indeed _to +make_ an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes _it_ will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive. + +So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated +women-journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the +columns of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the +elementary principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude +of carelessness and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer +sheets. + + * * * * * + +It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them. + +Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed. + +Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial. + +It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory. + + * * * * * + +I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors. + + + + +Chapter XI + +Conclusion + + + +It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count. + +The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that. + +One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many +women-journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an +office the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that +social considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be +put aside in order that Business may have a clear road. + +I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +_so_ sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind. + +A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many +women-journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final +words to the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an +office, are these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are +no excuses. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 8405.txt or 8405.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/0/8405/ + +Produced by Curtis A. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Journalism for Women + A Practical Guide + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8405] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant +and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + +By E.A. Bennett + + + + +Contents + + + +The Secret Significance of Journalism +Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist +The Roads towards Journalism +The Aspirant +Style +The Outside Contributor +The Search for Copy +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism +Conclusion + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + + + + +Chapter I + +The Secret Significance of Journalism + + + +For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet. + +It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +_we_ have witnessed, the persons _we_ have known, are _ipso +facto_ less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority. + +Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the _interestingness_ of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy. + + * * * * * + +We come to the secret significance of journalism:-- + +Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull. + +Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them. + +This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world. + +So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world. + + * * * * * + +In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897: + +"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead. + +"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence." + +Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe. + + * * * * * + +And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition. + +The best treatise on art can only hope:-- + + (1) To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty. + + (2) If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable. + +This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism. + + + + +Chapter II + +Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist. + + + +Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated. + +Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain fields-- +say politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields in which she +is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much as climb the +gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are at least three +women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is felt in Cabinets and +places where they govern (proving that sex is not a bar to the proper +understanding of _la haute politique_); whereas the man who dares to +write on fashions does not exist. + + * * * * * + +That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:-- + +First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal _Business +is business_--commercial equivalent of _England expects_--must +always be flying at the mast-head. _On ne badine pas avec l'amour_-- +much less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will _appear_, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible. + +Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious _business_ is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home? + +I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. _I thought it would not +matter._" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife. + + * * * * * + +Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman _will_ not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system. + +These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision. + +The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years. + +But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them." + + * * * * * + +Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, _gesticulating_ +inefficacy. It runs abroad in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Aurora +Leigh_ and _Sonnets from the Portuguese_. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:-- + + "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (_Adam Bede_, p. 187.) + +Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective. + +I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Roads towards Journalism + + + +More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do _something_ which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it. + +But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:-- + + 1. Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals? + + 2. Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"? + + 3. Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer? + +If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called." + + * * * * * + +There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful. + +Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear. + +Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable. + +Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist. + +But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare. + + + + +Chapter IV + +The Aspirant + + + +When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant." + +The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:-- + +She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c. + +The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture. + +Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors. + +She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript. + +So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns.... + + * * * * * + +Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:-- + + 1. The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. + + 2. Spelling. + + 3. Grammar. + + 4. Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four. + +1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review_, and only _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review._ Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified. + +2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of _The Silchester Mirror_, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, _When a Man's Single_:-- + +"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.' + +"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?' + +"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage. + +"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'" + +I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +_ieve_ and _eive_. They go astray nowadays in _ance_ and _ence_; also +in _seperate_ and _irresistable_, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in _it_. + +The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement. + +3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again. + +You will find Dr. Richard Morris's _Primer of English Grammar_ +(Macmillans, _1s_.), with Mr. John Wetherell's _Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar_ (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having _stuck on_ a long _time_, now +went _whirling_ down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women. + +4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter. + +The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's _English +Composition_ (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:-- + +False concords, p. 22. + +Purity in the use of words, p. 33. + +Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39. + +Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42. + +The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives." + +Arrangement, p. 63. + +For guidance as to punctuation, study _Stops_, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much. + + * * * * * + +Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within _my_ ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect. + + * * * * * + +It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing. + + + + +Chapter V + +Style + + + +"How can I acquire a good style of writing?" + +Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner! + +You cannot _acquire_ a good style; only a bad style can be acquired. + +It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light. + +The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists. + +For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done. + +I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth. + + * * * * * + +To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality. + +I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +_Essays_. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold. + +Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual. + +Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected. + +Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort. + +So far generally. + +As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned. + +The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--_phrases banales_. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people _really_ +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who _place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,_ and +select them with deliberation." + +If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, _selected singly_. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style. + +Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_ (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the _mot +juste_, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:-- + +"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see _impossibility_); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift. + +"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see _uncertainty_); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, _dignus vindice nodus_, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see _convolution_); crooked path. + +"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, _vexata +quaestio_, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, _pons asinorum_, where the shoe pinches. + +"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble. + +"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, _imbroglio_ mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +_cul de sac_; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see _hindrance_)." + +The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing. + +The Introduction to the _Thesaurus_, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book. + + * * * * * + +The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:-- + +Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively." + +Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness. + +Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper. + +"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake-- +on very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other." + +Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +_English Composition_. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +_luggage_ of particles is an _impediment_ to strong speech and a +_jar_ in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes. + + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Outside Contributor + + + +In Mr. J.M. Barrie's _When a Man's Single_ [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:-- + + "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid." + +This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications! + +The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves. + + * * * * * + +I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down. + +The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a _Globe_ "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the _Evening Standard_ must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less. + +Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy. + +It would be well to buy for reference Sells' _Dictionary of the World's +Press_ (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +_The Literary Year Book_ (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs. + + * * * * * + +Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:-- + +1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use. + +2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this. + +3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, _caeteris paribus_, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage. + + * * * * * + +Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:-- + +1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines. + +2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over. + +3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words. + +4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript. + +5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere. + + * * * * * + +Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications.... + +Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in _When a Man's Single_, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects." + +If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not-- + +Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners. + +Or because the market is overcrowded. + +Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read. + +Or because editors do not know their business. + +Try to convince yourself that the true reason is-- + +Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts. + +Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons. + +Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers. + +The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile! + +As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing. + + * * * * * + +As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Search for Copy + + + +There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What _shall_ I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction. + +When Rob Angus, in _When a Man's Single_, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, _and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness_. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general." + +With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague _fancies_ about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays. + +Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him. + + * * * * * + +Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight. + +Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten. + +To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:-- + +"Is there copy here?" + +This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence. + +I will illustrate what I mean. + +In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both. + +We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:-- + +You get up in the morning. + +"Queer ways of sleeping." For _Tit-Bits_ and its class. Material at +British Museum. + +"My alarum." Humorous. + +"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper. + +"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature. + +"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season. + +"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto. + +You walk downstairs. + +"Some famous staircases." + +"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise." + +"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively." + +You sit down to breakfast. + +"Our newsboy." Humorous. + +"Papa at breakfast." Ditto. + +"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.) + +"How a cup and saucer are made." + +"Should the English breakfast be abolished?" + +And so on throughout the day. + +I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up." + +Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:-- + +"Earnings of operatic stars." + +"Whims of operatic stars." + +Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers. + +"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot. + +Notes on the new operas to be produced. + +Notes about composers and conductors. + +"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum. + +Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials. + +And about ninety-nine similar articles. + +In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from _When a +Man's Single_. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves. + + * * * * * + +Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +_Herald, World, Sun, Journal_, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable. + + * * * * * + +Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever. + + * * * * * + +The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor. + +The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + + + +Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't. + +In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter. + + * * * * * + +Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely Adviser-in- +Chief to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the Charity +Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests him is his +circulation, his influence, his advertisement department. + +The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a _resume_ of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them. + +If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't. + +When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person. + +Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse _viva voce_ (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face. + +That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him. + +Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + + + +In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the _characters_ of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the _Standard_, the +_Sun_, and the _Morning Advertiser_ are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the _Saturday Review_, _Tit-Bits_, and the _Bazaar_ +merely as so many weeklies, and the _Strand_, _Macmillan's Magazine_, +and the _Fortnightly_ merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the _Standard_, they blithely forward +it to the _Sun_, and so on. + +Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by _Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal_, and _Success_. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it. + +Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the _Pall Mall_, the _Westminster_, and +the _St. James's_. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +_Globe_ and the _Evening Standard_, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the _Globe_, +you may congratulate yourself. The _Evening Standard_ article has +less pretensions. + +Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The _Echo_ is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature. + +Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the _Daily Mail_, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +_Daily Mail_ does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of _verve_, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified _Tit-Bits_ +confections. If the _Daily Mail_ has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country. + +Another halfpenny morning paper, _The Morning_, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational. + +The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the _Daily +Chronicle_ and the _Daily News_. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The _Daily News_ has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities. + +Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, _Black and White_ and the +_Sketch_ are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the _Sketch_ being the more exigent +of the two. The _Illustrated London News_ and the _Graphic_ +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the politico- +literary weeklies, _Saturday Review_, _Speaker_, and _Spectator_, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the _Speaker_ is the +least exclusive. + +With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the _British Weekly_, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles. + +As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, _Punch_ (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that _Punch_ has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably _Punch_ is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, _Judy_ (recently +edited by a woman), _Fun_, _Moonshine_, and _Pick-Me-Up_ (one penny). +Like _Punch_, all these papers, except _Pick-Me-Up_, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +_Pick-Me-Up_ devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by _Comic Cuts_, and twenty other +sorts of _Cuts_. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration _per se_ may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached. + +Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--_Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,_ &c. Second, the high-class general,--_Blackwoods'_, _Pall Mall_, +_Macmillans' Cornhill_, _Longmans'_, &c. Third, the reviews,-- +_Nineteenth Century_, _Contemporary_, _Fortnightly_, _National_, and +_Westminster_. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique. + +I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the _Queen_, the +_Lady's Pictorial_, the _Gentlewoman_ (sixpence), _Hearth and +Home_ and the _Lady_ (threepence), and _Woman_ (one penny). To +the latter belong _Home Chat_, _Home Notes_, and their countless +imitators. + +The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field. + + + + +Chapter X + +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + + + +There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism. + +Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable. + +In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the following +--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing. + +Hackneyed phrases and quotations:-- + +"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." + +"Inclines towards the portly." + +"_De rigueur_." + +"Hold on our affections." + +"Ignore the charms of." + +Strange word:-- + +"Becomingness." + +Bad punctuation:-- + +"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful." + +Words wrongly used:-- + +"It is one of the _earnest_ principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion. + +"There are only two hats _well_ worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence. + +Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:-- + +"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm! + +"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked. + +"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year _to_ +elaborate furs." In English one says "_take_ a fancy _to_" but +"_show_ a fancy _for_." + +"_It is_ small wonder that the fashion has obtained _such_ a +hold on our affections, because _it is so_ becoming if _it is_ +not overdone." + +"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats? + +"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding _becomingness_ of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having _that_ vivid tone about +_it_. _This_ is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for _making_ trimmings to bodices, or indeed _to +make_ an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes _it_ will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive. + +So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated women- +journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the columns +of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the elementary +principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude of carelessness +and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer sheets. + + * * * * * + +It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them. + +Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed. + +Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial. + +It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory. + + * * * * * + +I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors. + + + + +Chapter XI + +Conclusion + + + +It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count. + +The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that. + +One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many women- +journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an office +the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that social +considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be put +aside in order that Business may have a clear road. + +I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +_so_ sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind. + +A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many women- +journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final words to +the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an office, are +these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are no excuses. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +This file should be named 7jrnw10.txt or 7jrnw10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7jrnw11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7jrnw10a.txt + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant +and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Journalism for Women + A Practical Guide + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8405] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant +and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + +By E.A. Bennett + + + + +Contents + + + +The Secret Significance of Journalism +Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist +The Roads towards Journalism +The Aspirant +Style +The Outside Contributor +The Search for Copy +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism +Conclusion + + + + + +Journalism for Women + +A Practical Guide + + + + +Chapter I + +The Secret Significance of Journalism + + + +For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet. + +It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +_we_ have witnessed, the persons _we_ have known, are _ipso +facto_ less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority. + +Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the _interestingness_ of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy. + + * * * * * + +We come to the secret significance of journalism:-- + +Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull. + +Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them. + +This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world. + +So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world. + + * * * * * + +In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897: + +"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead. + +"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence." + +Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe. + + * * * * * + +And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition. + +The best treatise on art can only hope:-- + + (1) To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty. + + (2) If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable. + +This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism. + + + + +Chapter II + +Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist. + + + +Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated. + +Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain fields-- +say politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields in which she +is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much as climb the +gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are at least three +women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is felt in Cabinets and +places where they govern (proving that sex is not a bar to the proper +understanding of _la haute politique_); whereas the man who dares to +write on fashions does not exist. + + * * * * * + +That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:-- + +First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal _Business +is business_--commercial equivalent of _England expects_--must +always be flying at the mast-head. _On ne badine pas avec l'amour_-- +much less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will _appear_, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible. + +Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious _business_ is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home? + +I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. _I thought it would not +matter._" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife. + + * * * * * + +Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman _will_ not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system. + +These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision. + +The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years. + +But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them." + + * * * * * + +Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, _gesticulating_ +inefficacy. It runs abroad in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Aurora +Leigh_ and _Sonnets from the Portuguese_. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:-- + + "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (_Adam Bede_, p. 187.) + +Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective. + +I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Roads towards Journalism + + + +More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do _something_ which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it. + +But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:-- + + 1. Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals? + + 2. Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"? + + 3. Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer? + +If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called." + + * * * * * + +There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful. + +Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear. + +Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable. + +Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist. + +But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare. + + + + +Chapter IV + +The Aspirant + + + +When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant." + +The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:-- + +She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c. + +The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture. + +Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors. + +She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript. + +So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns.... + + * * * * * + +Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:-- + + 1. The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. + + 2. Spelling. + + 3. Grammar. + + 4. Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four. + +1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review_, and only _The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review._ Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified. + +2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of _The Silchester Mirror_, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, _When a Man's Single_:-- + +"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.' + +"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?' + +"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage. + +"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'" + +I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +_ieve_ and _eive_. They go astray nowadays in _ance_ and _ence_; also +in _seperate_ and _irresistable_, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in _it_. + +The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement. + +3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again. + +You will find Dr. Richard Morris's _Primer of English Grammar_ +(Macmillans, _1s_.), with Mr. John Wetherell's _Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar_ (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having _stuck on_ a long _time_, now +went _whirling_ down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women. + +4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter. + +The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's _English +Composition_ (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:-- + +False concords, p. 22. + +Purity in the use of words, p. 33. + +Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39. + +Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42. + +The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives." + +Arrangement, p. 63. + +For guidance as to punctuation, study _Stops_, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much. + + * * * * * + +Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within _my_ ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect. + + * * * * * + +It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing. + + + + +Chapter V + +Style + + + +"How can I acquire a good style of writing?" + +Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner! + +You cannot _acquire_ a good style; only a bad style can be acquired. + +It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light. + +The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists. + +For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done. + +I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth. + + * * * * * + +To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality. + +I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +_Essays_. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold. + +Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual. + +Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected. + +Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort. + +So far generally. + +As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned. + +The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--_phrases banales_. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people _really_ +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who _place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,_ and +select them with deliberation." + +If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, _selected singly_. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style. + +Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_ (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the _mot +juste_, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:-- + +"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see _impossibility_); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift. + +"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see _uncertainty_); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, _dignus vindice nodus_, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see _convolution_); crooked path. + +"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, _vexata +quæstio_, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, _pons asinorum_, where the shoe pinches. + +"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble. + +"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, _imbroglio_ mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +_cul de sac_; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see _hindrance_)." + +The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing. + +The Introduction to the _Thesaurus_, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book. + + * * * * * + +The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:-- + +Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively." + +Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness. + +Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper. + +"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake-- +on very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other." + +Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +_English Composition_. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +_luggage_ of particles is an _impediment_ to strong speech and a +_jar_ in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes. + + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Outside Contributor + + + +In Mr. J.M. Barrie's _When a Man's Single_ [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:-- + + "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid." + +This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications! + +The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves. + + * * * * * + +I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down. + +The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a _Globe_ "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the _Evening Standard_ must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less. + +Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy. + +It would be well to buy for reference Sells' _Dictionary of the World's +Press_ (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +_The Literary Year Book_ (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs. + + * * * * * + +Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:-- + +1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use. + +2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this. + +3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, _cæteris paribus_, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage. + + * * * * * + +Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:-- + +1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines. + +2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over. + +3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words. + +4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript. + +5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere. + + * * * * * + +Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications.... + +Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in _When a Man's Single_, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects." + +If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not-- + +Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners. + +Or because the market is overcrowded. + +Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read. + +Or because editors do not know their business. + +Try to convince yourself that the true reason is-- + +Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts. + +Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons. + +Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers. + +The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile! + +As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing. + + * * * * * + +As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Search for Copy + + + +There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What _shall_ I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction. + +When Rob Angus, in _When a Man's Single_, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, _and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness_. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general." + +With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague _fancies_ about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays. + +Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him. + + * * * * * + +Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight. + +Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten. + +To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:-- + +"Is there copy here?" + +This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence. + +I will illustrate what I mean. + +In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both. + +We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:-- + +You get up in the morning. + +"Queer ways of sleeping." For _Tit-Bits_ and its class. Material at +British Museum. + +"My alarum." Humorous. + +"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper. + +"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature. + +"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season. + +"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto. + +You walk downstairs. + +"Some famous staircases." + +"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise." + +"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively." + +You sit down to breakfast. + +"Our newsboy." Humorous. + +"Papa at breakfast." Ditto. + +"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.) + +"How a cup and saucer are made." + +"Should the English breakfast be abolished?" + +And so on throughout the day. + +I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up." + +Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:-- + +"Earnings of operatic stars." + +"Whims of operatic stars." + +Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers. + +"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot. + +Notes on the new operas to be produced. + +Notes about composers and conductors. + +"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum. + +Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials. + +And about ninety-nine similar articles. + +In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from _When a +Man's Single_. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves. + + * * * * * + +Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +_Herald, World, Sun, Journal_, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable. + + * * * * * + +Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever. + + * * * * * + +The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor. + +The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Art of Corresponding with an Editor + + + +Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't. + +In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter. + + * * * * * + +Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely Adviser-in- +Chief to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the Charity +Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests him is his +circulation, his influence, his advertisement department. + +The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a _resumé_ of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them. + +If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't. + +When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person. + +Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse _viva voce_ (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face. + +That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him. + +Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Notes on the Leading Types of Papers + + + +In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the _characters_ of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the _Standard_, the +_Sun_, and the _Morning Advertiser_ are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the _Saturday Review_, _Tit-Bits_, and the _Bazaar_ +merely as so many weeklies, and the _Strand_, _Macmillan's Magazine_, +and the _Fortnightly_ merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the _Standard_, they blithely forward +it to the _Sun_, and so on. + +Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by _Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal_, and _Success_. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it. + +Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the _Pall Mall_, the _Westminster_, and +the _St. James's_. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +_Globe_ and the _Evening Standard_, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the _Globe_, +you may congratulate yourself. The _Evening Standard_ article has +less pretensions. + +Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The _Echo_ is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature. + +Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the _Daily Mail_, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +_Daily Mail_ does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of _verve_, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified _Tit-Bits_ +confections. If the _Daily Mail_ has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country. + +Another halfpenny morning paper, _The Morning_, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational. + +The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the _Daily +Chronicle_ and the _Daily News_. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The _Daily News_ has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities. + +Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, _Black and White_ and the +_Sketch_ are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the _Sketch_ being the more exigent +of the two. The _Illustrated London News_ and the _Graphic_ +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the politico- +literary weeklies, _Saturday Review_, _Speaker_, and _Spectator_, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the _Speaker_ is the +least exclusive. + +With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the _British Weekly_, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles. + +As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, _Punch_ (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that _Punch_ has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably _Punch_ is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, _Judy_ (recently +edited by a woman), _Fun_, _Moonshine_, and _Pick-Me-Up_ (one penny). +Like _Punch_, all these papers, except _Pick-Me-Up_, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +_Pick-Me-Up_ devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by _Comic Cuts_, and twenty other +sorts of _Cuts_. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration _per se_ may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached. + +Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--_Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,_ &c. Second, the high-class general,--_Blackwoods'_, _Pall Mall_, +_Macmillans' Cornhill_, _Longmans'_, &c. Third, the reviews,-- +_Nineteenth Century_, _Contemporary_, _Fortnightly_, _National_, and +_Westminster_. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique. + +I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the _Queen_, the +_Lady's Pictorial_, the _Gentlewoman_ (sixpence), _Hearth and +Home_ and the _Lady_ (threepence), and _Woman_ (one penny). To +the latter belong _Home Chat_, _Home Notes_, and their countless +imitators. + +The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field. + + + + +Chapter X + +"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism + + + +There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism. + +Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable. + +In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the following +--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing. + +Hackneyed phrases and quotations:-- + +"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." + +"Inclines towards the portly." + +"_De rigueur_." + +"Hold on our affections." + +"Ignore the charms of." + +Strange word:-- + +"Becomingness." + +Bad punctuation:-- + +"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful." + +Words wrongly used:-- + +"It is one of the _earnest_ principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion. + +"There are only two hats _well_ worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence. + +Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:-- + +"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm! + +"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked. + +"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year _to_ +elaborate furs." In English one says "_take_ a fancy _to_" but +"_show_ a fancy _for_." + +"_It is_ small wonder that the fashion has obtained _such_ a +hold on our affections, because _it is so_ becoming if _it is_ +not overdone." + +"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats? + +"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding _becomingness_ of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having _that_ vivid tone about +_it_. _This_ is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for _making_ trimmings to bodices, or indeed _to +make_ an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes _it_ will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive. + +So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated women- +journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the columns +of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the elementary +principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude of carelessness +and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer sheets. + + * * * * * + +It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them. + +Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed. + +Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial. + +It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory. + + * * * * * + +I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors. + + + + +Chapter XI + +Conclusion + + + +It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count. + +The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that. + +One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many women- +journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an office +the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that social +considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be put +aside in order that Business may have a clear road. + +I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +_so_ sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind. + +A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many women- +journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final words to +the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an office, are +these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are no excuses. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +This file should be named 8jrnw10.txt or 8jrnw10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8jrnw11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8jrnw10a.txt + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant +and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Bennett </title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + img { border-style: none } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Journalism for Women + A Practical Guide + +Author: E.A. Bennett + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8405] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Journalism for Women</h1> + +<h2>A Practical Guide</h2> + +<h3>By E.A. Bennett</h3> + + + + +<h1>Contents</h1> + + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> +<li><a href="#01">The Secret Significance of Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#02">Imperfections of the existing Woman-Journalist</a></li> +<li><a href="#03">The Roads towards Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#04">The Aspirant</a></li> +<li><a href="#05">Style</a></li> +<li><a href="#06">The Outside Contributor</a></li> +<li><a href="#07">The Search for Copy</a></li> +<li><a href="#08">The Art of Corresponding with an Editor</a></li> +<li><a href="#09">Notes on the Leading Types of Papers</a></li> +<li><a href="#10">"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism</a></li> +<li><a href="#11">Conclusion</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<h1>Journalism for Women</h1> + +<h2>A Practical Guide</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="01"></a>Chapter I</h1> + +<h2>The Secret Significance of Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet.</p> + +<p>It is only a Stevenson who can say: "I never remember being bored;" and +one may fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made +that extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely: some of +us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact is +unpalatable, but it is a fact. Each thinks that his existence is +surrounded and hemmed in by the Ordinary; that his vocations and pastimes +are utterly commonplace; his friends prosaic; even his sorrows sordid. We +are (a few will say) colour blind to the rainbow tints of life, and we see +everything grey, or perhaps blue. We feel instinctively that if there is +such a thing as romance, it contrives to exhibit itself just where we are +not. Often we go in search of it (as a man will follow a fire-engine) to +the Continent, to the Soudan, to the East End, to the Divorce Court; but +the chances are a hundred to one against our finding it. The reason of our +failure lies in our firm though unacknowledged conviction that the events +<i>we</i> have witnessed, the persons <i>we</i> have known, are <i>ipso +facto</i> less romantic, less diverting, than certain other events which +we happen not to have witnessed, certain other persons whom we happen not +to have known. And such is indubitably the case; for romance, interest, +dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the beholder. And so the +earth is a dull planet--for the majority.</p> + +<p>Yet there are exceptions: the most numerous exceptions are lovers and +journalists. A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who +deludes himself and other people. The born journalist comes into the world +with the fixed notion that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He +says: "I cannot pass along the street, or cut my finger, or marry, or +catch a cold or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, +without being impressed anew by the <i>interestingness</i> of mundane +phenomena, and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with +my fellow-creatures." His notions about the qualities of mundane +phenomena, are, as the majority knows too well, a pathetic, gigantic +fallacy, but to him they are real, and he is so possessed by them that he +must continually be striving to impart them to the public at large. If he +can compel the public, in spite of its instincts, to share his delusions +even partially, even for an hour, then he has reached success and he is in +the way to grow rich and happy.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>We come to the secret significance of journalism:--</p> + +<p>Life (says the public) is dull. But good newspapers are a report of life, +and good newspapers are not dull.</p> + +<p>Therefore, journalism is an art: it is the art of lending to people and +events intrinsically dull an interest which does not properly belong to +them.</p> + +<p>This is a profound truth. If anyone doubts it, let him listen to a debate +in the House of Commons, and compare the impressions of the evening with +the impressions furnished by the parliamentary sketch in his daily paper +the next morning. The difference will be little less than miraculous. Yet +the bored observer of the previous night will find in the printed article +no discrepancies, no insidious departures from sober fact; and as he reads +it, the conviction will grow upon him that his own impressions were wrong, +and that after all a debate in the House of Commons is a remarkably +amusing and delightful entertainment. If the newspapers ceased to report +the proceedings of Parliament, the uncomfortable benches of the Strangers' +Gallery would for ever remain empty, simply because the delusion which now +fills them nightly during the session would die for lack of sustenance. +Again, take the case of the amiable feminine crowds which collect upon the +Mall whenever Her Majesty holds a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. What +has induced them to forsake lunch and the domestic joys in order to +frequent that draughty thoroughfare? Nothing but accounts which they have +read in vivacious newspapers of the sights to be seen there on these state +occasions. They go; they see; they return fatigued and privately +disappointed, with a vague feeling that some one has misled them. But with +the arrival later in the afternoon of the vendor of special editions, they +begin to be reassured. Under the heading "To-day's Drawing Room," they +encounter a description of incidents which they themselves have witnessed. +The sweet thought crosses their minds: "Perhaps that was written by the +curious woman with eye-glasses who stood near to me;" and by the time +dinner is over nothing would persuade them that the Mall on Drawing Room +day is not one of the most interesting places in the world.</p> + +<p>So the journalist continues to gain a livelihood by forcing his rosy +fallacies upon the weary world.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>In order to substantiate further the proposition that the art of +journalism is the art of lending interest to people and events +intrinsically dull, let me draw attention to the treatment accorded by +editors to those rare trifles of information which by general agreement +are not in themselves dull. Such an item, a jewel of its kind, was the +following: I copy it as it was allowed to appear in an evening newspaper +justly renowned for enterprise, talent, and imagination, under date 16th +January, 1897:</p> + +<p>"While walking in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar beckoned to a +gardener. The man hastened to obey, but a guard, thinking he was running +up to attack the Emperor, shot him dead.</p> + +<p>"His Majesty was deeply affected by the occurrence."</p> + +<p>Observe the stark nakedness of it. There is no decorative treatment here, +no evidence of an attempt to impress upon the report the individuality of +the paper. The Editor rightly divined that the simple, splendid tragedy of +the event offered no opportunity for a display of his art. His art, +indeed, could have nothing to do with it. If all news were of a similar +quality, the art of journalism, as it exists at present, would instantly +expire, and a new art would arise to take its place, though what the +nature of that new art would be, it is hazardous to guess. One may, +however, assert that journalism in its highest development will only +thrive so long and so far as the march of events continues, in the eyes of +the majority, to be a dull, monotonous and funereal procession. The +insensible hack may trust himself to present attractively an occurrence or +a man that all the world concedes to be inherently attractive; but it +needs a heaven-born artist, trained in the subtleties of his craft and +gifted with the inexhaustible appreciative wonder of a child, to deal +finely and picturesquely with, say, bi-metallism or the Concert of Europe.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>And how to create interest where interest is not? Alas, no dissertation +and no teacher can answer the question. As in other arts, so in +journalism, the high essentials may not be inculcated. It is the mere +technique which is imparted. By a curious paradox, the student is taught, +of art, only what he already knows. Anyone can learn to write, and to +write well, in any given style; but to see, to discern the interestingness +which is veiled from the crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by +intuition.</p> + +<p>The best treatise on art can only hope:--</p> +<ol> +<li> To indicate the lines of study and training which should be pursued + in order to acquire the measure of mechanical accomplishment + necessary to the right using of the artistic faculty.</li> + +<li> If the artistic faculty exists but is dormant, to awaken it by + means of suggestion; and having awakened it, to show how it may be + properly excited to the fullest activity of which it is capable.</li> +</ol> +<p>This book is an attempt to do these things, for women, in the art of +journalism.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="02"></a>Chapter II</h1> + +<h2>Imperfections of the Existing Woman-Journalist.</h2> + + + +<p>Despite a current impression to the contrary, implicit in nearly every +printed utterance on the subject, there should not be any essential +functional disparity between the journalist male and the journalist +female. A woman doctor (to instance another open calling) is rightly +regarded as a doctor who happens to be a woman, not as a woman who happens +to be a doctor. She undergoes the same training, and submits to the same +tests, as the young men who find their distraction in the music-halls and +flirt with nurses. Her sex is properly sunk, except where it may prove an +advantage, and certainly it is never allowed to pose as an excuse for +limitations, a palliative for shortcomings. Least of all is she credited +(or debited) with any abnormality on account of it. But towards the woman +journalist our attitude, and her own, is mysteriously different. Though +perhaps we do not say so, we leave it to be inferred that of the dwellers +in Fleet Street there are, not two sexes, but two species--journalists and +women-journalists--and that the one is about as far removed organically +from the other as a dog from a cat. And we treat these two species +differently. They are not expected to suffer the same discipline, nor are +they judged by the same standards. In Fleet Street femininity is an +absolution, not an accident. The statement may be denied, but it is +broadly true, and can easily be demonstrated.</p> + +<p>Such a condition of affairs is mischievous. It works injustice to both +parties, but more particularly to the woman, since it sets an arbitrary +limit to healthy competition, while putting a premium on mediocrity. Is +there any sexual reason why a woman should be a less accomplished +journalist than a man? I can find none. Admitted that in certain fields-- +say politics--he will surpass her, are there not other fields in which she +is pre-eminent, fields of which the man will not so much as climb the +gate? And even in politics women have excelled. There are at least three +women-journalists in Europe to-day whose influence is felt in Cabinets and +places where they govern (proving that sex is not a bar to the proper +understanding of <i>la haute politique</i>); whereas the man who dares to +write on fashions does not exist.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than +myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or +incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the +subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, +therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to +hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development +of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of self-control. I should +enumerate them thus:--</p> + +<p>First, a failure to appreciate the importance of the maxim: Business is +business. The history of most civil undertakings comprises, not one +Trafalgar, but many; and in journalism especially the signal <i>Business +is business</i>--commercial equivalent of <i>England expects</i>--must +always be flying at the mast-head. <i>On ne badine pas avec l'amour</i>-- +much less with a newspaper. Consider the effects of any lapse from the +spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly +than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of +self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the +prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas, +women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a +superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of +its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will <i>appear</i>, and +appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the +possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the +superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of +course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success +depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a +number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible.</p> + +<p>Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are +unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or +from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet +understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently +opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that +mysterious <i>business</i> is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the +shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder +and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be +lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these +influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard, +for a moment, the average household in the light of a business +organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its +lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the +awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the +young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late +this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear," +confident that a frown or a hard word will end the affair, should carry +into business (be it never so grave) the laxities so long permitted her in +the home?</p> + +<p>I would not charge the professional woman, as I know her, with any +consistent lack of seriousness. On the contrary, she is in the main +exquisitely serious. No one will deny that the average girl, when she +adopts a profession, exhibits a seriousness, an energy, and a +perseverance, of which the average man is apparently incapable. (It is +strange that the less her aptitude, the more dogged her industry.) The +seriousness of some women in Fleet Street and at the Slade School must be +reckoned among the sights of London. It seems almost impossible that this +priceless intensity of purpose should co-exist in the same individual with +that annoying irresponsibility which I have endeavoured to account for. +Yet such is the fact. Scores of instances of it might be furnished; let +one, however, suffice. Once there was a woman-journalist in the North of +England who wrote to a London paper for permission to act as its special +correspondent during the visit of some royal personages to her town. The +editor of the paper, knowing her for an industrious and conscientious +worker and a good descriptive writer, gave the necessary authority, with +explicit information as to the last moment for receiving copy. The moment +came, but not the copy; and the editor, for the time being a raging +misogynist (for he had in the meanwhile publicly announced his intention +to print a special report), went to press without it. The next day, no +explanation having arrived, he dispatched to his special correspondent a +particularly scathing and scornful letter. Then came the excuse. It was +long, but the root of it amounted to exactly this: "I was so knocked up +and had such a headache after the ceremonies were over, that I really did +not feel equal to the exertion of writing. <i>I thought it would not +matter.</i>" Comment would be inartistic. The curious thing is that the +special correspondent was an editor's wife.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Secondly, inattention to detail. Though this shortcoming discloses itself +in many and various ways, it is to be observed chiefly in the matter of +literary style. Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have +earned it. A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds +of women writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that not ten +per cent of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the most ordinary +tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do not hesitate to say that +if twenty of the most honoured and popular women-writers were asked to sit +for an examination in these simple branches of learning, the general +result (granted that a few might emerge with credit) would not only +startle themselves but would provide innocent amusement for the rest of +mankind. Of course I make no reference here to the elegances and +refinements of written language. My charge is that not the mere rudiments +are understood. Even a lexicographer may nod, but it surely requires no +intellectual power surpassing the achievement of women to refrain from +regularly mis-spelling some of the commonest English words. The fact that +there are niceties of syntax which have proved too much for great literary +artists, does not make less culpable a wilful ignorance of the leading +grammatical rules; yet the average woman <i>will</i> not undergo the brief +drudgery of learning them. As for punctuation, though each man probably +employs his own private system, women are for the most part content with +one--the system of dispensing with a system.</p> + +<p>These accusations, I am aware, have no novelty. They are time-worn. They +have been insisted upon again and again; but never sufficiently. And now +the accusing sub-editors and proof-readers seem to have grown weary of +protest. They suffer in silence, correcting as little as they dare, while +all around are appearing women's articles, which, had their authors been +men, would either have met with curt refusal or been returned for thorough +revision.</p> + +<p>The root of the evil lies, as I think, in training. The female sex is +prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently trivial detail, because +that is the general tendency of mankind. In men destined for a business or +a profession, the proclivity is harshly discouraged at an early stage. In +women, who usually are not destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a +merry life, and often refuses to be improved out of existence when the +sudden need arises. No one by taking thought, can deracinate the mental +habits of, say, twenty years.</p> + +<p>But some women are as accurate and as attentive to detail as the most +impeccable man, while some men (such as have suffered in training) present +in these respects all the characteristics usually termed feminine. Which +shows that this question at any rate is not one to be airily dismissed +with that over-worked quotation: "Male and female created he them."</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Thirdly, a lack of restraint. This, again, touches the matter of literary +style. Many women-writers, though by no means all, have been cured of the +habit of italicising, which was the outcome of a natural desire to atone +for weakness by stridency. (Every writer, of whatever sex, must carry on a +guerilla against this desire.) It is useless, however, to discipline a +vicious instinct in one direction, if one panders to it in another. Women +have given up italics; but they have set no watch against over-emphasis in +more insidious forms. And so their writing is commonly marred by an undue +insistence, a shrillness, a certain quality of multiloquence. With a few +exceptions, the chief of whom are Jane Austen and Alice Meynell, the +greatest of them suffer from this garrulous, <i>gesticulating</i> +inefficacy. It runs abroad in <i>Wuthering Heights</i> and <i>Aurora +Leigh</i> and <i>Sonnets from the Portuguese</i>. And George Eliot, for +all her spurious masculinity, is as the rest. You may trace the disease in +her most admired passages. For example:--</p> + +<blockquote> "It was to Adam the time that a man can least forget in after life, + --the time when he believes that the first woman he has ever loved + betrays by a slight something--a word, a tone, a glance, the quivering + of a lip or an eyelid--that she is at least beginning to love him in + return. The sign is so slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear + or eye--he could describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, + yet it seems to have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy + yearning into a delicious consciousness of everything but the present + moment." (<i>Adam Bede</i>, p. 187.)</blockquote> + +<p>Observe here the eager iteration of the woman, making haste to say what +she means, and, conscious of failure, falling back on insistence and +loquacity. Exactly the same vehement spirit of pseudo-forcefulness +characterises women's journalism to-day. And the worst is that these +tactics inevitably induce formlessness and exaggeration; the one by reason +of mere verbiage, the other as the result of a too feverish anxiety to be +effective.</p> + +<p>I submit that this lack of restraint shown by women writers as a class is +due (like other defects) less to sex than to training. The value of +restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, its opposites--gush and +a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in many respectable quarters, as +among the proper attributes of true womanliness; attributes to be +artistically cultivated. When at length the principles on which women are +brought up come to be altered, then this fault (and the others which I +have mentioned) will disappear. In the meantime much can be done in +individual cases by suitable moral and intellectual calisthenics.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="03"></a>Chapter III</h1> + +<h2>The Roads towards Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>More women long and strive to be journalists than by natural gifts are +fitted for the profession. By itself, the wish is no evidence of latent +capacity. Such desire may be induced by the need to earn a livelihood; or +by the peremptory impulse to do <i>something</i> which drives forward so +many women to-day; or perhaps through conversing with an enthusiastic +journalist; or by printed statements as to the incomes and influence of +certain famous members of the craft; or by the mere glamour which +surrounds the newspaper life; or in forty other ways. The practice of +journalism does not demand intellectual power beyond the endowment of the +average clever brain. It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed +moderately in journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. Any +woman of understanding and education, provided she has good health and the +necessary iron determination, can become a competent journalist of sorts +if she chooses to put herself into hard training for a year or two--and +this irrespective of natural bent. Yet even so, I would recommend you, +unless you are assured of a genuine predisposition towards it, to find +another and less exhausting, less disappointing occupation than +journalism. For it will surely prove both exhausting and disappointing to +those whose hearts are not set fast upon it.</p> + +<p>But how are you, the woman who desires to be a journalist, to ascertain +whether you have that genuine predisposition, those natural gifts which +will renew your strength and take away the bitterness of disappointments? +You may come some way towards deciding the point by answering these three +questions:--</p> +<ol> + <li> Are you seriously addicted to reading newspapers and periodicals?</li> + + <li> Does the thought regularly occur to you, apropos of fact or + incident personally observed: "Here is 'copy' for a paper"?</li> + + <li> Have you the reputation among your friends of being a good + letter-writer?</li> +</ol> +<p>If you cannot reply in the affirmative to two of these queries, then take +up pokerwork, or oratory, or fiction, or nursing, but leave journalism +alone. If by good fortune you are able to say "Yes" to all three of them, +you may go forward rejoicing, for only perseverance will be necessary to +your success; you are indeed "called."</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to +found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a +single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with the +happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end is +invariably and inevitably painful.</p> + +<p>Another way is to buy the sub-editorship of a third-rate paper, by +subscribing towards its capital. By such a transaction one gains +experience, but the cost is commonly too dear.</p> + +<p>Another way is to possess friends of high influence in the world of +journalism, who will find for one a seat in a respectable office; an +office where one will be in a position to learn everything without +pecuniary risk, and where one can look forward to earning a salary within +a reasonable time. The sole objection to this method is that it is usually +quite impracticable.</p> + +<p>Another way is to learn shorthand and the use of the typewriter, and so +obtain an editorial secretaryship. An editor's secretary has every +opportunity of conning the secrets of the profession, and it is her own +fault if she is not soon herself a journalist.</p> + +<p>But the time-honoured, the only proper way of entering upon journalism is +to become what is called an "outside contributor." The outside contributor +sends unsolicited paragraphs and articles to papers, on the chance of +acceptance. By dint of a thousand refusals, she learns to gauge the +public, which is the editorial, taste, and at length, fortified by many +printed specimens of her work and a list as long as your arm of the +various publications for which she writes, she is able to demand with +dignity a position (in the office or out of it, as her tastes lie) on the +staff of some paper of renown. Some journalists are so successful as +outside contributors--writing when, how, and for whom they choose--that +they would scorn the offer of any regular appointment; but such are rare.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="04"></a>Chapter IV</h1> + +<h2>The Aspirant</h2> + + + +<p>When you have decided to become an outside contributor you are entitled to +call yourself by the proud title of "journalistic aspirant."</p> + +<p>The procedure of the aspirant is usually this:--</p> + +<p>She casts about for a subject on which to write, and according to her +temperament and circumstances she will certainly choose one of six +things:--"A Spring Reverie" (or it may be "An Autumn Reverie," as the time +of year suits); or "Elsie, a character sketch" (describing one of those +insufferably angelic women whom happily God never made); or "Hints on +Economy in Dress"; or "My First Bicycle Ride"; or an exposure of the New +Woman; or, lastly, a short story, probably styled "An Incident." and +beginning: "Enid Anstruther had come to the end of her resources. As she +sat by the fire that winter afternoon, the glow of the red coal playing on +her soft brown hair, she reflected with a grim smile that," &c., &c.</p> + +<p>The aspirant, left to herself, never goes beyond these six topics for her +first venture.</p> + +<p>Having written the thing, she copies it out in a hand as fair as she can +compass (or, if she can afford the expense, gets it typewritten)--on one +side of the paper only. She has read somewhere that manuscripts should be +on one side of the paper only, and that they have a better chance of +acceptance if typewritten. Next she stitches the sheets together, as a +rule with black cotton; occasionally she uses a safety-pin for safety. +Then she composes a pretty letter to the editor of the paper with which +she happens to be most familiar, telling him that she is anxious to make a +little money (though not dependent on her earnings for a livelihood), and +hopes he will come to a decision on her article at his earliest +convenience; she adds that she has always admired his journal, and would +esteem it a great honour to be counted among his contributors.</p> + +<p>She has previously determined to keep the whole affair a profound secret, +but at the last moment she cannot refrain from showing the production, in +strict confidence, to some near and dear one. This person either +pronounces it to be really splendid, or damns it with a polite sneer; but +whatever the event, her own golden opinion of her work is confirmed. In +the act of dispatching the missive she suddenly remembers that the correct +thing is to send a stamped envelope for return; she does so, only the +envelope which she encloses is usually much too small to hold the +manuscript.</p> + +<p>So the article goes forth. A few days pass, and the aspirant is beginning +to meditate upon the best manner of spending the money to be received for +it, when lo! it returns....</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Needless to say, the aspirant has set about the difficult business of +becoming an outside contributor in quite the wrong way. Before daring to +enter upon the writing of an article, it is needful that she should, in +particular, make a study of four important subjects:--</p> +<ol> + <li> The distinguishing characteristics, policy, and general tone of all + the leading dailies, weeklies, and monthlies.</li> + + <li> Spelling.</li> + + <li> Grammar.</li> + + <li> Composition, including punctuation. I will deal briefly with these + four.</li> +</ol> +<p>1. The object of the journalistic aspirant is to supply a demand. But in +order successfully to supply a demand, it is necessary to know with some +exactitude the nature of that demand. Of what use to send stuff to editors +until you have determined what sort of stuff they lack? To obtain this +valuable information (since editors do not often issue circulars defining +their wants) the only way is to make a scrutiny of their papers. Go daily, +therefore, to a public reading-room, and examine attentively, observantly, +the contents of the various publications. Ignore no paper because it has +little interest for you personally, or because you have never heard its +name before. The more papers you are familiar with, the wider your field +for the disposal of articles. The outside contributor can never tell what +paper must serve her turn next. At any moment a subject may occur to her +which will suit, say, <i>The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review</i>, and only <i>The Pottery Gazette and China and Glass Trades +Review.</i> Study styles and subjects and idiosyncrasies, and count no +detail unworthy of attention. The importance to the aspirant of this +branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified.</p> + +<p>2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word +in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women +journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all +of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a +certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect, +and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling +spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice +against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the +ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of <i>The Silchester Mirror</i>, in Mr. J. M. +Barrie's novel, <i>When a Man's Single</i>:--</p> + +<p>"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing +John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to +spell 'deceive.'</p> + +<p>"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple +thing like that?'</p> + +<p>"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage.</p> + +<p>"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'"</p> + +<p>I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in +<i>ieve</i> and <i>eive</i>. They go astray nowadays in <i>ance</i> and <i>ence</i>; also +in <i>seperate</i> and <i>irresistable</i>, and in the past participles of +verbs ending in <i>it</i>.</p> + +<p>The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the +dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A +quarter of an hour daily devoted to this treatment will effect a +remarkable improvement, even when the patient happens to think there is no +room for improvement.</p> + +<p>3. Grammar, I suppose, is taught in girls' schools on approved modern +principles; nevertheless few women seem to have any acquaintance with it. +Yet grammar is not a difficult study, nor a lengthy one, and an +understanding knowledge of its principles is of the greatest assistance in +the formation of a good literary style. This is a truism: that is why it +needs saying again.</p> + +<p>You will find Dr. Richard Morris's <i>Primer of English Grammar</i> +(Macmillans, <i>1s</i>.), with Mr. John Wetherell's <i>Exercises on +Morris's English Grammar</i> (same publishers and price), very useful, +and, though they are small books, quite adequate to your needs. Both can +be mastered in a month. The first business is to learn to parse. To parse +is "to explain the duty each word performs in a sentence: that is, to tell +the relation each word bears to the rest in a sentence:" the definition +clearly shows how indispensable to a writer is some skill in parsing. Of +course many of the exercises are set obviously for children, but +sufficient remain to puzzle the woman of average intelligence. That lady +might, for example, have a difficulty in parsing the italicised words in +the following: "My cap, having <i>stuck on</i> a long <i>time</i>, now +went <i>whirling</i> down the lane." Afterwards comes analysis--the +breaking up of a sentence into its component parts--not less urgent than +parsing. This branch of the subject is treated well and thoroughly in Mr. +Wetherell's book, and his exercises should be worked through +conscientiously. Note further, in the same primer, the division relating +to syntax, and especially the exercises on pp. 74, 75. The chapter on +conjunctions is also of serious importance to women.</p> + +<p>4. By "composition," I mean merely the art of writing without +transgressing the rules of grammar and kindred canons by which all writers +agree to be bound. The higher matter of "style" will be treated in the +next chapter.</p> + +<p>The best book on this subject is Professor Nichol's <i>English +Composition</i> (Macmillan's, 1s.). It is small, but it omits no point on +which beginners are likely to err. Women should give particular attention +to the following:--</p> + +<p>False concords, p. 22.</p> + +<p>Purity in the use of words, p. 33.</p> + +<p>Want of discrimination between synonyms, p. 39.</p> + +<p>Carelessness as to the meaning of sentences, p. 42.</p> + +<p>The use of relatives, p. 52. Professor Nichol most truthfully says: "The +most fertile source of confusion in English is a slovenly use of +relatives."</p> + +<p>Arrangement, p. 63.</p> + +<p>For guidance as to punctuation, study <i>Stops</i>, by Paul Allardyce (F. +Fisher Unwin, 1s.). No book, however, could possibly deal with every point +likely to arise under our wonderful English system of punctuation. It is +an excellent plan to read aloud any sentence which presents a difficulty, +and to punctuate it according to the pauses made (almost unconsciously) by +the voice. This method is well-nigh infallible. If doubt still remains, +remember that it is better to punctuate too little than too much.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Concurrently with the study of newspapers, spelling, grammar, and +composition, the aspirant must make a practice of writing daily a short +interesting description (say five hundred words) of some event or scene +personally observed during the day. Nothing should be allowed to interfere +with the regularity of this exercise, which is essential, not only for the +improvement of style, but also for the sharpening of that faculty of +subject-selection so necessary to the journalist. It is idle to say: +"Nothing interesting ever happens within <i>my</i> ken," There is no +event, no scene, but has its interesting aspect. Your business, madam, is +to discover that aspect.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>It may be well to state here that neither shorthand nor typewriting is +requisite to the ultimate success of the journalistic aspirant. The common +notion that shorthand is part of the equipment of every journalist is +quite wrong. If, however, the aspirant possesses a typewriter and the +skill to use it, she will of course be able to get her articles +transcribed for nothing.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="05"></a>Chapter V</h1> + +<h2>Style</h2> + + + +<p>"How can I acquire a good style of writing?"</p> + +<p>Pathetic question, invariably asked by the artless beginner!</p> + +<p>You cannot <i>acquire</i> a good style; only a bad style can be acquired.</p> + +<p>It is a current impression that style is something apart from, something +foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is found, may be used +to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers wander forth searching for +style, as one searches for that which is hidden. They might employ +themselves as profitably in looking for the noses on their faces. For +style is personal, as much a portion of one's self as the voice. It is +within, not without; it needs only to be elicited, brought to light.</p> + +<p>The one possible way of developing the latent style which has always been +yours, is to forget absolutely that such a thing as style exists.</p> + +<p>For good style consists in saying exactly what you mean with the utmost +clearness and the utmost naturalness: simply that! When you have +accomplished so much, you have accomplished good style. In no sense is +style of the nature of embroidery, an ornament superimposed: this is what +the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself of the +superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed, something +further remains to be done.</p> + +<p>I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style. +Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it +depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual. What +is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle was +ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may no more +choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can, it is +true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely; but +in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the +expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of +the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be +invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched, +tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is +this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation, +which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere, +Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models +which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It is +the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true +individuality.</p> + +<p>I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many +writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take +the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined +styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme prose +artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from mannerism, are +well suited to be models for the young journalist; but since they wrote +only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very difficult for the +young journalist to follow them with profit in descriptive work. Among +modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a style unsurpassed in simplicity, +fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I hesitate to name her as a model, +lest the student, in trying to attain her succinct perfection, should fall +into mere baldness. On the whole, my inclination turns towards Huxley's +<i>Essays</i>. Here you have a style which, though by no means great, +possesses every good quality, and has besides no tricks to lead the +beginner astray; nothing more adorably fitted to the uses of newspaper +work could be conceived. To these might be added the letters of Cowper, +and the more popular essays of Matthew Arnold.</p> + +<p>Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of +your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart. +Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the thing +you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work with the +classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is the +beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will begin, +at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your own. +Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual.</p> + +<p>Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old. +Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to +distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on the +paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed, +unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the +written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than it +really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written +expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand with +you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read it aloud: +the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously +suspected.</p> + +<p>Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to +time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an +encouragement to further effort.</p> + +<p>So far generally.</p> + +<p>As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here +to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education +in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins +against which she must be briefly warned.</p> + +<p>The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures, +metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion +to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of +the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge +in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium, +not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request, +justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for +remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some +writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says +Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but +uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half +conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of +intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really +themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take +ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more +than words--<i>phrases banales</i>. This accounts for that obviously +characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die +that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and +in place of it we find an indefinite, obscure interweaving of words, +current phrases, worn-out terms of speech, and fashionable expressions. +The result is that their foggy kind of writing is like print that has been +done with old type. On the other hand, intelligent people <i>really</i> +speak to us in their writings, and this is why they are able both to move +and to entertain us. It is only intelligent writers who <i>place +individual words together with a full consciousness of their use,</i> and +select them with deliberation."</p> + +<p>If you have something to say, instead of accepting the first phrases that +present themselves (which are naturally those you have heard the most +often, and therefore the tritest), endeavour to express yourself in words +of your own individual choice, <i>selected singly</i>. When you have put a +sentence together, examine each word separately, and unless it can +satisfactorily account for its position there, by proving appositeness and +either originality or indispensability, then cast it aside. The +conscientious performance of this rite will soon give a wonderful +freshness and piquancy to your style.</p> + +<p>Here I must mention a book invaluable to all writers--a book of which I +(as a writer) think so well, that if I might only possess one book and had +to choose between this and a Shakspere, I would let the Shakspere go. I +refer to Roget's <i>Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases</i> (Longman, +10s. 6d.). It is in effect a vast collection of synonyms, divided and +subdivided minutely and with precision. When you lack the <i>mot +juste</i>, turn in the index at the end of the volume to any word which, +however distantly, approaches in meaning the one you need but cannot +summon; you will find a reference to a laborious and magnificent group of +allied words amongst which the desired, the unique word is sure to be +discovered. For example, we will suppose you require another word for +"difficulty"; consider this list:--</p> + +<p>"Nouns. Difficulty, hardness (and nouns formed from similar adjectives); +impracticability, &c. (see <i>impossibility</i>); tough-, hard-, uphill- +work; hard-, herculean-, Augean-task; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labour, +tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift.</p> + +<p>"Dilemma, embarrassment; perplexity, &c. (see <i>uncertainty</i>); +intricacy; entanglement; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card +to play, knot, Gordian knot, <i>dignus vindice nodus</i>, net, meshes, +maze; coil, &c. (see <i>convolution</i>); crooked path.</p> + +<p>"Nice-, delicate-, subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, <i>vexata +quæstio</i>, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to +crack; bone to pick, crux, <i>pons asinorum</i>, where the shoe pinches.</p> + +<p>"Nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; +critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble.</p> + +<p>"Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of +troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, <i>imbroglio</i> mess, ado; +false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, +<i>cul de sac</i>; hitch; stumbling block, &c. (see <i>hindrance</i>)."</p> + +<p>The catalogues of allied adjectives and of allied verbs are even longer +than the foregoing.</p> + +<p>The Introduction to the <i>Thesaurus</i>, by the way, though deserving of +study, is a dull and cumbrous piece of work and not necessary to the +usefulness of the book.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>The sin of using trite expressions is equally common among men and women. +There are others which chiefly beset women:--</p> + +<p>Undue insistence. I have touched upon this in Chapter II. The remedy is to +use superlatives only under compulsion, and to eschew italics and such +adverbs as "absolutely," "utterly," "positively."</p> + +<p>Wordiness. When you have written a paragraph, examine it carefully with +the object of eliminating every word which is not necessary to the +expression of the meaning. Be sure that you have not said the same thing +twice in different words. Keep watch especially against pleonasms. Let +this be your motto: Brevity without baldness.</p> + +<p>Undue use of metaphor, simile, and figure. This is a sin to which women +are wofully prone. They commit it with glee, and I have often found it a +most difficult matter to make them realise the absurdities which result +from the practice of it. As an illustration of the ludicrous consequences +of unbridled indulgence in metaphor and simile, I quote the following +extract (not, however, the work of a woman) from a serious and justly +respected newspaper.</p> + +<p>"I have gasped in wonder to witness one of Her Majesty's judges forsake-- +on very insufficient provocation--the gossamer of recreative conversation, +to upraise a few monumental, I may say memorable, judgments on the subject +of lithography. Now, there are many red rags in the various arts with +which to encompass the discomfiture of the Philistine's bull, and the +raven will always appropriate the feathers of the peacock and look +ridiculous in them; but the rapier enwreathed in the red rag of painting +is more readily rushed upon, and plumes of appreciation more wantonly +borrowed and grotesquely worn in this walk of art than in any other."</p> + +<p>Shun especially mixed metaphors. [Footnote: The most beautiful instance of +mixed metaphor I have ever seen occurred in a solicitor's letter, brought +to my notice by the clerk to whom it was dictated. It ran thus:--"We go +upon the principle that, in order to pull the matter out of the fire, a +fourth of a fifth of a loaf is better than no bread, which the terms +proposed are."] See the section on figurative language (p. 76) in Nichols' +<i>English Composition</i>. But do not take Nichols himself as a model; I +find him writing thus:--"Avoid an accumulation of little words. The +<i>luggage</i> of particles is an <i>impediment</i> to strong speech and a +<i>jar</i> in the harmony of style," which is nearly as funny as the funny +examples which he quotes.</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="06"></a>Chapter VI</h1> + +<h2>The Outside Contributor</h2> + + + +<p>In Mr. J.M. Barrie's <i>When a Man's Single</i> [Footnote: This brilliant +novel should be seriously studied by every young journalist. It contains +more useful advice to the outside contributor than all the manuals of +journalism ever written.] the following homily is delivered by a +journalist of experience to a naive and innocent beginner:--</p> + +<blockquote> "There are only about a dozen papers in London worth writing for, but + I can give you a good account of them. Not only do they pay + handsomely, but the majority are open to contributions from anyone. + Don't you believe what one reads about newspaper rings. Everything + sent in is looked at, and if it is suitable any editor is glad to + have it. Men fail to get a footing on the press because--well, as a + rule because they are stupid."</blockquote> + +<p>This is indeed wisdom. I demur to the first sentence alone. There are +to-day (whatever the case ten years ago) many more than a dozen papers in +London worth writing for; I should put the number nearer a hundred; papers +which pay, if not handsomely, at least adequately, seldom lower than +fifteen shillings per thousand, and in some noble instances ascending to +two guineas--which is princely. A dozen papers worth writing for in the +whole of London! Why, it is scarcely uncommon for a single firm to have +control of a dozen reputable publications!</p> + +<p>The beginner must, for her encouragement and solace under rebuffs, grasp +firmly the fact that the immense majority of London editors are not merely +willing but in truth anxious to peruse such manuscripts as she cares to +submit to their notice, and to accept them if suitable. The supply of +really suitable material of average quality does not often exceed the +demand, and the supply of suitable material which can be called +distinguished is always less than the demand. This is why the editorial +eye keeps a sleepless watch for that long-desired new writer, who may be +yourself. Also, the beginner should remember with pride that the Press as +a whole relies for much of its freshness and attraction upon the outside +contributor. If the stream of unsolicited contributions were suddenly to +cease flowing into Fleet Street, the monthlies would find themselves in a +predicament; all the weeklies (except certain "class" organs), from the +esoteric literary sixpenny to the penny popular with a circulation equal +to the population of Glasgow, would be compelled to cast aside dignity, +and solicit instead of being solicited; even those pompous creatures, the +"great dailies," would feel the pinch, despite their regular services and +seething staffs. Let it be your glory, therefore, O outside contributors, +that the very existence of the Press, as at present organised, depends +upon yourselves.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>I have already referred to the necessity of visiting regularly a public +news-room. As you progress in the power of composition, so must your +knowledge of the "make-up" of all the principal papers increase; for the +first is useless without the second. You must, in particular, know +intimately the complicated topography of all the daily papers--on what +days certain features appear; what length of article is affected by each +paper; and the subtle variations of tone which, apart from grosser +differences, distinguish one organ from another. You must also be well +acquainted with the various editorial notices, and take care, when sending +in manuscripts, always to obey the instructions there laid down.</p> + +<p>The length of an article is a most important matter and frequently decides +its fate. Accordingly, the question of lengths must be thoroughly studied. +For a simple example, you must know that a <i>Globe</i> "turnover" (the +celebrated daily article which occupies the last column on the first page +and "turns over" to the second page) must necessarily exceed a thousand +words; no article intended for that position, whatever its merit, can have +the least chance of acceptance if it falls short of this minimum. Again, +the first article in the <i>Evening Standard</i> must exactly fill the +column, no more and no less.</p> + +<p>Do net despise "class" papers, those which appeal only to a particular +section of the community--religious, architectural, literary, artistic, +and so forth. These papers sometimes experience a difficulty in getting +what articles they desire, and indeed it is notorious that the editors of +certain of them are often at their wits' end in the search for new +treatments of an exhausted subject. The reasons for such a state of +affairs are, of course, first, that outside contributors in their +blindness pass over these papers, and secondly, that as the subjects are +sharply limited, so is the field for copy.</p> + +<p>It would be well to buy for reference Sells' <i>Dictionary of the World's +Press</i> (7s. 6d.), a vast volume containing indexes of all papers, with +their addresses, and a quantity of useful information concerning them. +<i>The Literary Year Book</i> (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), gives a tabular +statement (incomplete, but useful so far as it goes) showing the editorial +requirements of a number of weekly and monthly organs.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Naturally it is impossible to offer particular advice upon so immense a +subject as the selection of topics for articles, but attention is directed +to the following three points:--</p> + +<p>1. Editors, especially editors of weeklies and monthlies, find it +necessary to make their arrangements far in advance of publishing day. +Therefore the outside contributor must always look ahead. In March she +should have an eye on Midsummer, at Midsummer she should be engrossed by +Christmas, and at Christmas that notorious article, "Easter in many +Lands," should be approaching completion. It is useless to send in (as so +many thoughtless ones do send in) an essay on the New Year just before +Christmas, or a seaside dissertation towards the end of July. And this +applies not only to the great annual festivals and seasons, but also to +all important political, social, and general events whose dates are known +beforehand. Take, for an instance, the annual meeting of the British +Association. If you send to an editor an anecdotal history of the British +Association only a a few days before the meeting itself, you thereby +assume that the editor is depending for his topical articles on chance +contributions received at the last moment. Which is patently absurd. +Without doubt that editor had arranged his British Association articles a +couple of months previously, and it is not improbable that he accepted the +suggestions of some outside contributor who had been clever enough to look +into the future. It is a good plan to compile for reference a calendar of +festivals, seasons, and public events, exactly such as the editor himself +must use.</p> + +<p>2. Women need not confine themselves to women's subjects. Many women +writers seem to think that they are debarred by some defect or limitation +of sex from treating topics other than those commonly termed feminine. But +there is no reason why a woman should not deal as effectively as a man +with general matters. (To argue that, because the male journalist does not +usually touch women's affairs without being ridiculous, therefore the +converse holds good, is illogical.) I lay stress on this.</p> + +<p>3. Do not disdain to write mere paragraphs. The present is an era of +paragraphs, and they form a most marketable commodity. Scarcely an editor +but is continually gaping for topical paragraphs. Moreover paragraphs are +less difficult to write than articles, since they demand less constructive +skill; many aspirants can put together a passable paragraph who would fail +miserably with an article. Further, they have a better chance of +acceptance, <i>cæteris paribus</i>, for the reason that editors find them +easier to handle. Often an editor declines an article which he likes, +simply because he knows that to use it would involve the re-modelling of +an entire issue; a paragraph is more amenable. Lastly, paragraphs are paid +for, and just as much as articles they may afford one the encouraging +satisfaction of seeing her stuff in print. The beginner, therefore, will +do well to begin with paragraph work; articles may follow at a later +stage.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Your paragraph or article having been composed, there arises the question +of the proper way to copy and dispatch it:--</p> + +<p>1. In the majority of instances it is unnecessary to typewrite. +Typewriting is somewhat expensive and often inaccurate, and unless you +happen to possess your own typewriter, there is no reason why caligraphy +should not suffice for your needs. (A few editors, however, insist that +all copy submitted shall be typewritten.) Use quarto paper--that is, the +size of a sheet of note-paper opened--and only one side of it. Write very +plainly, not too small, leaving a wide margin at the left hand, and a good +space between the words and between the lines.</p> + +<p>2. Fasten the sheets together at the top left hand corner with a paper +fastener, the pointed ends of the fastener being at the top. Do not pin +the sheets; do not stitch them; whatever else you do, refrain from +stitching them all the way down the left hand side, as this process makes +it irritatingly difficult to turn them over.</p> + +<p>3. Write your name and address not only at the top of the manuscript +itself, but also on the back, so that they may be prominent when the +manuscript is folded up. Write boldly on the first page the exact length +of the article in words.</p> + +<p>4. Enclose a stamped and addressed envelope--not a book-post wrapper; +manuscripts which see much of the world (and your earlier manuscripts will +probably see a very great deal of the world) become damaged and ruinous by +travelling in a book-post wrapper. Be sure that the envelope is +sufficiently stamped, and be sure also that it is large enough to hold the +manuscript.</p> + +<p>5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced +by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has +been refused elsewhere.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well +satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. +Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the +postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, +knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of +the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even +when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into +her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a +few trifling modifications....</p> + +<p>Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt +circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as +wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle +depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic +instinct, says Noble Simms in <i>When a Man's Single</i>, "includes a +determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the +proper subjects."</p> + +<p>If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing +whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not--</p> + +<p>Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented +beginners.</p> + +<p>Or because the market is overcrowded.</p> + +<p>Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read.</p> + +<p>Or because editors do not know their business.</p> + +<p>Try to convince yourself that the true reason is--</p> + +<p>Because your stuff has not yet reached the (low) level of merely technical +accomplishment which the average editor exacts.</p> + +<p>Or because your topics are devoid of interest for any numerous body of +persons.</p> + +<p>Or because you persist in sending your articles to the wrong papers.</p> + +<p>The first defect ought to be remedied speedily. The second is more +difficult to deal with, and the third is most difficult. The eradication +of these two will necessitate careful and continuous study of journalism +in all its manifestations, and nothing but successive defeats will teach +you how to be victorious. However, perseverance granted, the hour will +come when an article of yours finds its way to the composing room. A day +of ecstasy, upon which every disappointment is forgotten and the way +forward seems straight and facile!</p> + +<p>As soon as you can rely upon selling one article out of four, count it +that you are progressing.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>As to remuneration, a few papers send out cheques at regular intervals +without putting their contributors to any trouble in the matter. Others, +and among them some of the best, never pay till a demand is made. Some, +including one or two organs of note, never pay till they are compelled to +do so. If a remittance is not received during the month following +publication, it is advisable to deliver an account, giving the date of +appearance, exact title, and number of pages, columns, or inches.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="07"></a>Chapter VII</h1> + +<h2>The Search for Copy</h2> + + + +<p>There comes a time when the aspirant, proudly conscious of a certain +technical skill in composition and construction, and disheartened by +repeated failures, exclaims with petulance: "What <i>shall</i> I write +about?" She dolefully imagines that the list of feasible subjects is +exhausted; her wearied brain refuses any longer to carry on its sterile +activities, and despair settles down upon her. This is because her eyes +have not been opened to the limitless possibilities for the making of good +"copy" which exist on every side. Most probably she has been looking in +quite the wrong direction.</p> + +<p>When Rob Angus, in <i>When a Man's Single</i>, remarks to Rorrison, "And +yet I had thirty articles rejected before the 'Minotaur' accepted that +one," Rorrison's reply is, "Yes, and you will have another thirty rejected +if they are of the same kind. You beginners seem able to write nothing but +your views on politics, and your reflections on art, and your theories on +life, which you sometimes even think original. Editors won't have that, +because their readers don't want it. Every paper has its regular staff of +leader-writers, <i>and what is wanted from the outsider is freshness</i>. +An editor tosses aside your column and a half about evolution, but is glad +to have a paragraph saying that you saw Herbert Spencer the day before +yesterday gazing solemnly for ten minutes in a milliner's window. Fleet +Street at this moment is simply running with men who want to air their +views about things in general."</p> + +<p>With slight modification the satire applies admirably to women. Perhaps +women are not so anxious as men to air their views about things in general +(though they are tolerably anxious), but they are certainly too prone to +write down vaguely their vague <i>fancies</i> about things in general. +Fleet Street at this moment (to use Rorrison's expressive phrase) is +simply running with women who are writing fanciful essays and not selling +them because editors don't want fanciful essays--or indeed any sort of +essays.</p> + +<p>Let us see this fact clear: editors have little use for essays and they +have no use for views (except their own). To gain acceptance essays must +be extremely well done, and emphatically they are not stuff for beginners +to tackle. Apparently the easiest form of composition in the world, the +essay is in truth one of the most difficult. Not much experience is needed +to prove this. Yet every woman who aspires to journalism must needs employ +her clumsy pen upon essays. "From my Window" is a favourite title with the +rank beginner. Charles Lamb might conceivably have written an essay called +"From my Window" which would have been a masterpiece--and there is a +remote chance that some editor might have accepted it. But then Charles +Lamb is dead, and his secret died with him.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Despite the vast number of articles written and printed during recent +years, there remains a yet vaster number of articles waiting to be +written--even after leaving essays out of account. In fact the more +articles written, the more to be written. The field for copy has a +resemblance to Klondyke: removal of treasure serves only to bring larger +quantities into sight.</p> + +<p>Journalism ever grows wider, more comprehensive; the whole history of the +profession demonstrates this. In the early years of daily journalism, for +example, the sole subjects deemed worthy of a newspaper's attention were +politics, money, and the law. Some conservative sheets still endeavour to +live up to this ideal, but the circulation and the influence go to those +which find no aspect of human existence beneath their notice. Formerly +newspapers had a morbid dread of being readable. They have lost that dread +now, and those which have lost it most completely, most completely +succeed. As with the dailies, so with every other sort of paper. The aim +is to be inclusive, satisfying the public curiosity and at the same time +whetting it; for the more the public knows, the more it wants to know. And +it refuses any longer to make a task of newspaper-reading. It demands that +it shall be amused while it is instructed, like a child at a kindergarten.</p> + +<p>To make sure that you are availing yourself of the immense possibilities +for copy which this extraordinary inquisitiveness on the part of the +public has fortunately created, you must cultivate an attitude of mind +which is constantly asking the question:--</p> + +<p>"Is there copy here?"</p> + +<p>This attitude may and must be cultivated to such an extent that instead of +vainly searching for subjects, you are at a loss to choose among the +multitude of ideas for articles which suggest themselves at every turn of +existence.</p> + +<p>I will illustrate what I mean.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it is necessary to remember that articles are divided +into two classes--those which are not topical and those which are. Daily +papers subsist almost exclusively upon the latter; other papers require +both.</p> + +<p>We will take the non-topical articles first. These, since they do not +spring naturally from passing events, must be suggested by the occurrences +of one's everyday life. Thus:--</p> + +<p>You get up in the morning.</p> + +<p>"Queer ways of sleeping." For <i>Tit-Bits</i> and its class. Material at +British Museum.</p> + +<p>"My alarum." Humorous.</p> + +<p>"How to economise space in a small bedroom." For a women's paper.</p> + +<p>"Where some Queens sleep." About the sleeping apartments of sovereigns. +Ample material in biographies and periodical literature.</p> + +<p>"Does a woman require more sleep than a man?" For the silly season.</p> + +<p>"Is breakfast in bed enjoyable?" Ditto.</p> + +<p>You walk downstairs.</p> + +<p>"Some famous staircases."</p> + +<p>"Stair-climbing as a form of indoor exercise."</p> + +<p>"How to decorate a staircase inexpensively."</p> + +<p>You sit down to breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Our newsboy." Humorous.</p> + +<p>"Papa at breakfast." Ditto.</p> + +<p>"The proper way of making coffee." (There is always a market for this kind +of thing.)</p> + +<p>"How a cup and saucer are made."</p> + +<p>"Should the English breakfast be abolished?"</p> + +<p>And so on throughout the day.</p> + +<p>I put forward these suggestions, not to be worked out, but merely to +indicate how notions for articles should come to life in you. A constant +effort to evolve ideas in this way cannot fail to be fruitful, and though +most of the ideas will be cast aside as valueless, a few promising ones +will remain. On no account abandon good articles because you fear they +have been done before. Rorrison said: "Of course they have, but do them in +your own way; the public has no memory, and besides, new publics are +always springing up."</p> + +<p>Topical articles are possibly more shy of suggesting themselves than +non-topical, but on the other hand they always have a better chance of +acceptance. Notions for these cluster about every event or personage that +happens to be in the public eye. Suppose we are in April, and the Covent +Garden Opera is to open in a month's time. At such a moment editors are +naturally susceptible to articles bearing on the subject. For example:--</p> + +<p>"Earnings of operatic stars."</p> + +<p>"Whims of operatic stars."</p> + +<p>Anecdotes (in paragraphic form) relating to any of the singers engaged. +These three could be worked up from files of newspapers, particularly of +American newspapers.</p> + +<p>"How an opera chorus is trained." Material for this might be obtained from +intelligent women-members of the chorus, interviewed on the spot.</p> + +<p>Notes on the new operas to be produced.</p> + +<p>Notes about composers and conductors.</p> + +<p>"The Fortunes of Covent Garden Theatre." A historic-anecdotal article. +Material at the British Museum.</p> + +<p>Notes about the titled box-holders for the season. Material to be obtained +from the theatre officials.</p> + +<p>And about ninety-nine similar articles.</p> + +<p>In the matter of topical articles, I must quote once more from <i>When a +Man's Single</i>. Simms told Rob Angus "that when anything remarkable +occurred in London he should at once do an article at the British Museum +on the times the same thing had happened before." This kind of article, if +delivered promptly, almost invariably finds a market; but it must be +delivered promptly. Then, of course, there are the fixed and movable +feasts--Christmas, Easter, &c.,--for which seasonable articles are +required. Seasonable articles about these too trite festivals the editor +must have (though he would much prefer to dispense with them), and he +accepts the least hackneyed suggestions which offer themselves.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Wide as the field for copy already is, it widens, as I have said, +continually. In America it is always somewhat wider than in England, and a +perusal of the Sunday editions of the leading New York papers, the +<i>Herald, World, Sun, Journal</i>, &c. (which may be obtained in London), +will not be profitless to the alert student. These huge and flaring +productions have objectionable features which are only too obvious, but +they are conducted by the cleverest journalists in the world, and the +invaluable journalistic instinct is apparent on every page of them. The +splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist in wringing +copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail to quicken the +pulses of those who are accustomed to the soberer, narrower, sleepier ways +of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends to despise and contemn +American methods, yet a gradual Americanising of the English press is +always taking place, with results on the whole admirable.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Photography is an aid to the outside contributor. Illustrations always +assist an article; sometimes they are sufficient to make an unsaleable +article saleable. Many articles are capable of being illustrated by means +of the camera, and almost any photographic pictures are capable of being +"written round." For example, a series of pictures, with brief +letterpress, under the title, "The Strand from dawn to dusk," showing +incidents of traffic, such as a horse down, &c., would be easily disposed +of to an illustrated weekly; such photographs could be taken instanteously +on a bright day without any difficulty whatever.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>The foregoing remarks on the search for copy are of course addressed to +the aspirant living in London, who possesses immense advantages over her +rural sister. She has, chiefly, the British Museum, that blessed fount of +universal information, and her first duty must be to apply to the Chief +Librarian for a reading ticket. Some time will elapse before she is able +to use handily the vast apparatus here placed at her disposal, but she +will find the officials benignantly omniscient, and always ready to help +the unskilled in research. Also, she must not be shy of going into the +world and collecting such facts as she may require, ferreting things out, +and refusing to be abashed. So soon as she has contributed to a few papers +of standing, she should have some cards engraved with her name, and a list +of these papers after the words "Contributor to." Such a card will +constitute sufficient credentials on any expedition of enquiry, and will +frequently aid her to obtain interviews with "people of importance in +their day." Interviews, it need scarcely be said, are most popular with +the average editor.</p> + +<p>The provincial aspirant is less fortunately placed, though if she resides +in a large town with a good public library, she may manage tolerably well. +It is the woman sepulchred in a small village who finds herself most +severely handicapped. Still, I know instances of women so situated who +have gained the position of regular contributors to journals of dignity. +Their success has been usually due to specialising on some single topic or +group of topics, such as "nature notes," "household affairs," "country +occupations," "parochial management," "home handiwork," "village +sketches," and so on. There is copy even in a village. A woman afflicted +with journalistic ambitions once wrote to an editor complaining that she +was out of the world, actually two miles from a shop. "Then write an +article," the editor replied, "entitled 'Two miles from a shop.'" She did +so; it was accepted and followed by others of a similar kind.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="08"></a>Chapter VIII</h1> + +<h2>The Art of Corresponding with an Editor</h2> + + + +<p>Women contributors are commonly much too fond of corresponding with +editors. When the aspirant dispatches the first article, it is quite +customary for her to send it under cover of a long epistle (not +unfrequently extending to eight pages) in which she gives her personal +history in brief, and a short statement of her literary ambitions, +including in particular her ambition to contribute to "your excellent +paper which I have always admired"; often she adds that though not +dependant (so she spells the word) upon her own efforts for a livelihood, +she is nevertheless anxious to earn a little money; or it may be that she +is in fact thrown upon her own resources, in which case she explains that +she has turned to journalism as the readiest means of providing for +herself. Sometimes she ventures to hope that the editor will judge her +work leniently, since she is only a beginner. Sometimes, with affecting +candour, she avows that she does not expect for a moment to be accepted. +Sometimes she requests that in case of refusal the editor will advise her +where next to send the manuscript. Sometimes she begs for a frank +criticism, and if the editor is foolish enough to justify his heartless +refusal by such a criticism, she pesters the devoted fellow with another +long letter of thanks, in which she timidly suggests that he may be able +to assist her further, but hopes that he will not trouble to send any +answer unless it is quite, quite convenient to him to do so. He doesn't.</p> + +<p>In her pre-occupation, she usually forgets either to write her name and +address on the manuscript or to enclose stamps; occasionally she omits +even to stamp her own letter.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Let this be your rule: Don't write to an editor. He has an objection to +both reading letters and answering them; he thinks he does enough when he +peruses your manuscript. A good article requires no explanation; it should +be its own commentary. Be content, therefore, simply to put your article +in an envelope with another envelope, and dispatch it. The editor needs +not to be told that it is sent for publication if suitable and for return +if unsuitable. And he does not care a pin what are your ambitions and your +circumstances; or whether this is your "very first" or your ten thousandth +effort; whether you have written in the flush of health or on your dying +couch; whether you are starving or beautifully rich. What are these facts +to him? They do not in the least affect the value of the article. If it +pleases him, he accepts; if not, he refuses. He is scarcely Adviser-in- +Chief to the Literary Ladies of Great Britain, nor yet the Charity +Organisation Society. He has no interest in you. What interests him is his +circulation, his influence, his advertisement department.</p> + +<p>The editorial notices of a few papers state that the title and scope of an +article must be submitted before the article itself. This is absurd, and +in most cases you are safe in ignoring the regulation. An article cannot +be judged by its title and a <i>resumé</i> of it, and there is no doubt +that editors who enforce such a rule often decline to see articles which +would have suited them.</p> + +<p>If for any special reason a letter should be essential, make it brief, +explicit, and formal; spend as much care over the letter as you have given +to the article which it is to cover. See that it contains no superfluous +words, and see that it is correctly spelt; some letters aren't.</p> + +<p>When a series of articles is in contemplation or a novel departure to be +suggested, it sometimes happens that a rather elaborate explanation is +necessary. Do not send such an explanation in writing until you have +demonstrated the impossibility of seeing the editor in person.</p> + +<p>Now editors do not like being seen, and certainly they do not like being +seen by the casual contributor. Despite the fact that this persevering +person is indispensable to them and often their best friend, they fall +into the habit of regarding the casual contributor as their natural enemy, +against whom warfare is to be waged. It is ridiculous, but it is true. So +be it. Accept the situation, and fight for yourself, taking your advantage +where you can, and casting away scruples of punctilio. By actually seeing +an editor you gain a double advantage. For in the first place it is much +more difficult for him to refuse <i>viva voce</i> (especially to a woman +[Footnote: I by no means suggest that a woman should exploit her +femininity in order to gain points against a man.]) than by letter, and in +the second place a personal explanation of a scheme is likely to be much +more effective than a written one. Therefore resolve to see your editor +face to face.</p> + +<p>That editors are invisible is taken for granted only by the inexperienced. +Without doubt editors love to surround themselves with an atmosphere of +mystery, aloofness, and sovereignty, but in truth they are human beings, +and may be so treated. The invisibility of editors is mainly a legend. If +you call at a newspaper office and, presenting your card, ask in a firm +voice to see the editor, the probability is that you will see him, or some +one else clothed with authority. You may be requested to state the nature +of your business, in which case you will make the nature of your business +as vague and enticing as possible. Possibly the editor, if he is timid, +will invent the story that he is engaged; possibly he may really be +engaged; in either case you will ask for an appointment, or wait; a +personal interview is worth waiting for. If you are refused an appointment +and also told that to wait would be useless, say that you will call +to-morrow or the next day in the hope of the editor being then disengaged. +In any event, be pertinacious; and do not fear to worry the man. By +pertinacity you will eventually see him.</p> + +<p>Having at last got sight of your editor, treat him considerately. Since +you have conquered you can afford to show mercy. Explain yourself tersely, +and let your visit be brief. Strive to impress by your directness and +business-like thought and action.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="09"></a>Chapter IX</h1> + +<h2>Notes on the Leading Types of Papers</h2> + + + +<p>In a previous chapter I have emphasised the urgency of examining with care +and regularity all the principal papers. Nothing is more important to the +outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various +policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite +creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to +study what I may call the <i>characters</i> of the publications to which +they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen +to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim +notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or +that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they +possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper +whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the +question of suitability. By such beginners the <i>Standard</i>, the +<i>Sun</i>, and the <i>Morning Advertiser</i> are recognised merely as so +many dailies, the <i>Saturday Review</i>, <i>Tit-Bits</i>, and the <i>Bazaar</i> +merely as so many weeklies, and the <i>Strand</i>, <i>Macmillan's Magazine</i>, +and the <i>Fortnightly</i> merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when +their stuff has been refused by the <i>Standard</i>, they blithely forward +it to the <i>Sun</i>, and so on.</p> + +<p>Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due +to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more +lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in +its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has +its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own +preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study +a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge, +it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few +distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form +the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition +ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of +these groups I will briefly mention the most important.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>Perhaps of all the different kinds of papers, that most useful to the +beginner is the "popular weekly" class, chiefly represented by <i>Tit-Bits, +Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Cassell's Saturday Journal</i>, and <i>Success</i>. +These papers pay liberally and promptly (one or two of them before +publication), and they do not exact from the contributor a high literary +standard. Their matter falls into two main divisions: articles beginning +with "How"--broadly, "How the other half lives;" and articles enumerating +curious facts and incidents--for example, "Peers who have become Cabmen." +If you can evolve novel and striking subjects, and have the patience to +collect such information as may be necessary to work the subjects out, +you may fairly rely upon gaining entrance sooner or later to the columns +of these papers, however elementary your technique. Here is also a busy +market for short melodramatic stories--stories for which "action" and a +certain ingenuity of plot are the only essentials. Do not imagine that +the editors of this sort of periodical are easily pleased. Although they +care nothing for the graces of style, they know precisely what they +want, and they insist on getting it.</p> + +<p>Next to the popular penny weeklies as prey meet for the aspirant, I name +the three "Gazettes," the <i>Pall Mall</i>, the <i>Westminster</i>, and +the <i>St. James's</i>. These--the first two especially--make a point of +their hospitality to the outside contributor. They appeal of course to a +cultured class, and they are catholic in their tastes--ready for anything +provided it is topical and well done. They pride themselves on being +literary, and therefore good style is essential. In this particular, and +also in their habits of returning rejected MSS. with promptness, and of +paying regularly without demanding the delivery of an account, they differ +from most of the penny morning papers. With them may be bracketed the +<i>Globe</i> and the <i>Evening Standard</i>, both celebrated in Grub +Street for a regular daily un-editorial article, to which I have referred +in Chapter VI. When you have contributed a "turnover" to the <i>Globe</i>, +you may congratulate yourself. The <i>Evening Standard</i> article has +less pretensions.</p> + +<p>Save as receptacles for short stories of a lurid inferior kind, the +halfpenny evening papers have little interest for the outside contributor. +The <i>Echo</i> is an exception, showing a fondness for short, quiet, +topical articles of a rather serious nature.</p> + +<p>Among morning papers, the most attractive to the outside contributor is +the <i>Daily Mail</i>, one of the best-edited newspapers in the world. The +<i>Daily Mail</i> does not ask itself on receiving an unsolicited +contribution: "Is it our custom to publish things of this kind"? No, it +scorns precedent and is always anxious for novelty. It demands absolute +freshness, a great deal of <i>verve</i>, and the strictest brevity. It +makes a feature of very short interviews and articles on topics of the +hour. On its seventh page, under the title "The Daily Magazine," room is +usually found for matter of a general nature--glorified <i>Tit-Bits</i> +confections. If the <i>Daily Mail</i> has a weakness, it is for +statistical articles of an international character, illustrated by +ingenious diagrams--articles in which Great Britain by hook or by crook is +made to surpass and outvie every other country.</p> + +<p>Another halfpenny morning paper, <i>The Morning</i>, has burst the fetters +of precedent and usage, and willingly considers every suggestion of +originality. Its methods are those of New York and frankly sensational.</p> + +<p>The penny morning papers are difficult of access, relying chiefly on bands +of regular contributors. The least hide-bound are the <i>Daily +Chronicle</i> and the <i>Daily News</i>. On Saturday the former has a +women's page, for which it accepts outside contributions with some +freedom. The <i>Daily News</i> has a reputation for humorous articles +dealing with the domesticities.</p> + +<p>Of the illustrated sixpenny weeklies, <i>Black and White</i> and the +<i>Sketch</i> are usually ready to consider short stories, dialogues, +interviews, and light articles, the <i>Sketch</i> being the more exigent +of the two. The <i>Illustrated London News</i> and the <i>Graphic</i> +depend for matter upon their own staffs and regular correspondents, and I +believe that neither accepts any fiction from outsiders. To the politico- +literary weeklies, <i>Saturday Review</i>, <i>Speaker</i>, and <i>Spectator</i>, +the aspirant need not turn her ambitious eye. They are fastidious; they +demand advanced technique, and moreover they touch subjects with which +women are not often conversant. Of the three, the <i>Speaker</i> is the +least exclusive.</p> + +<p>With the vast hordes of religious papers (it is stated that several +hundred are published in London alone) I shall make no attempt to deal. +But it may be well to say that many of them pay very badly and many of +them do not pay at all. The best, speaking from a journalistic point of +view, is the <i>British Weekly</i>, a Nonconformist journal which prints +all sorts of things, and which is edited with brilliant skill; +unfortunately it has the bad habit of not returning rejected articles.</p> + +<p>As regards the comic weekly press, not much falls to be said. It may be +separated into three divisions. First, <i>Punch</i> (threepence), which +for several decades has stood, and still stands, quite alone. It is usual +to say that <i>Punch</i> has of late years been steadily losing its +reputation, but the truth of the statement seems at least doubtful; and +however this may be, indubitably <i>Punch</i> is yet the foremost comic +weekly. Though it depends in the main upon a regular staff, its doors are +not locked against the outside contributor. Second, <i>Judy</i> (recently +edited by a woman), <i>Fun</i>, <i>Moonshine</i>, and <i>Pick-Me-Up</i> (one penny). +Like <i>Punch</i>, all these papers, except <i>Pick-Me-Up</i>, are noticeably +conservative in their policies, and continue to move in the old grooves. +They do not, I imagine, offer much opportunity to the outside contributor. +<i>Pick-Me-Up</i> devotes itself to the humour of the music-hall, and is +probably not largely beholden to women for its sprightliness. Third, the +halfpenny organs of wit, represented by <i>Comic Cuts</i>, and twenty other +sorts of <i>Cuts</i>. If a woman considers herself destined for the +comic press, her wisest course is to collaborate with an artist. A joke +may be the best and most original joke in the world, but it will not +have a very safe chance of acceptance unless it is illustrated. The +illustration <i>per se</i> may be without talent; no matter; mediocre +pictures have certainly been instrumental in selling innumerable jokes. +And as with jokes, so with "skits," satires, and parodies: the writer +must combine with the artist if success is to be reached.</p> + +<p>Monthly magazines divide themselves into three classes:--First, the purely +popular,--<i>Strand, Ludgate, Pearson's, Windsor, Woman at Home, Lady's +Realm,</i> &c. Second, the high-class general,--<i>Blackwoods'</i>, <i>Pall Mall</i>, +<i>Macmillans' Cornhill</i>, <i>Longmans'</i>, &c. Third, the reviews,-- +<i>Nineteenth Century</i>, <i>Contemporary</i>, <i>Fortnightly</i>, <i>National</i>, and +<i>Westminster</i>. Of these three classes, the aspirant is likely to succeed +best with the second, since the first demands names of renown, and the +third either expert knowledge, scholarship, or high technique.</p> + +<p>I have left to the last the women's papers, which are, in the natural +order of things, written chiefly by women. It is of course to be expected +that women-aspirants should turn first to women's papers, of whose +characteristics they should certainly make a special and minute study, but +at the same time I must repeat the warning already given against the habit +of dealing only with subjects interesting to or connected with the female +sex. Women's papers are sharply divided into two classes--those which +appeal to women of education and breeding, and those which appeal to women +of a lower social status. To the former group belong the <i>Queen</i>, the +<i>Lady's Pictorial</i>, the <i>Gentlewoman</i> (sixpence), <i>Hearth and +Home</i> and the <i>Lady</i> (threepence), and <i>Woman</i> (one penny). To +the latter belong <i>Home Chat</i>, <i>Home Notes</i>, and their countless +imitators.</p> + +<p>The beginner must bear in mind the essential differences between these two +groups, which, in catering for quite different tastes, necessarily follow +widely divergent policies. Both groups pay reasonably well, and it may be +said that all women's papers of any reputation whatever give a considerate +ear to the outside contributor. The sixpennies, having what amounts to +unlimited room, offer to the aspirant a spacious and delightful field.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="10"></a>Chapter X</h1> + +<h2>"Woman's Sphere" in Journalism</h2> + + + +<p>There are certain departments of journalism which women have always had, +and probably will always have, to themselves: I mean the departments +comprising fashion, cookery and domestic economy, furniture, the toilet, +and (less exclusively) weddings and what is called society news. It is +unlikely that men will ever seriously compete with women in the business +of supplying the stuff which women as a sex are supposed to read. My own +belief is that men could deal very capably with these subjects, or most of +them, if they chose to assume the task; but there happens to be a +superstition that such matters are beyond a man's scope; men accept the +superstition, and leave them alone. Hence the distinctive "woman's sphere" +in journalism.</p> + +<p>Now almost all the work falling within this sphere is done badly--with a +lack of technical skill which can only be described as shameful. I have +argued (in Chapter II.) that the defect is attributable to the early +training which women receive. A further explanation lies in the fact that, +in their particular field, they are never stimulated to improvement by the +sight of better performances than their own; the result, viewed +dispassionately, is deplorable.</p> + +<p>In the first place, nearly all women's work dealing with feminine subjects +is in a special degree disfigured by slipshod writing. This is +particularly true of fashion articles, which are on the whole worse +written even than police reports in country newspapers. Of the scores of +fashion articles appearing week by week in journals of standing, not five +per cent. would pass muster as the work of men. I take up, for an example, +one of the "great London dailies," containing a short signed contribution +by a journalist whose fame as a chronicler of modes is unrivalled, a lady +who earns the wage of a Cabinet Minister, and has indeed arrived at the +highest places in her profession; and I find in the article the following +--shall I call them?--lapses from the rectitude of sound writing.</p> + +<p>Hackneyed phrases and quotations:--</p> + +<p>"Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest."</p> + +<p>"Inclines towards the portly."</p> + +<p>"<i>De rigueur</i>."</p> + +<p>"Hold on our affections."</p> + +<p>"Ignore the charms of."</p> + +<p>Strange word:--</p> + +<p>"Becomingness."</p> + +<p>Bad punctuation:--</p> + +<p>"So that such a jacket be cut well and worn by a woman of fairly slim +proportions round the waist and hips it will be exceedingly successful, +but she who inclines towards the portly should rigidly ignore the charms +of the jacket with the belt." Unless this sentence has a comma after +"well," it bears a meaning quite different from what the writer intended; +it needs also a comma after "hips" and a semicolon after "successful."</p> + +<p>Words wrongly used:--</p> + +<p>"It is one of the <i>earnest</i> principles of my faith to commend +fashion." A principle cannot be earnest, and faith cannot be an action. +The writer probably means that she sincerely thinks it her duty to commend +fashion.</p> + +<p>"There are only two hats <i>well</i> worn in Paris just now--this style +and the small velvet toque trimmed with a group of plumes." For "well," +read "largely" or "extensively." Note the other fault in this sentence.</p> + +<p>Wrong or clumsy constructions, laxity in the use of metaphors, &c.:--</p> + +<p>"[We may] read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest their different charms." +Fancy reading or learning or digesting a charm!</p> + +<p>"I have no objection to the lion lying down with the lamb--the Persian +lamb--or rather, I should say, to the sable being allied to this fur, or +to the combination of black caracule, or sable with ermine; any two furs, +or indeed three furs, put together, I recognise as appropriate and +elegant, but the frivolous working of furs with coloured satins and silks +now obtaining the affections of the many is not at all to my taste." To +comment on this piece of composition would be wicked.</p> + +<p>"There is a great fancy shown by the authorities this year <i>to</i> +elaborate furs." In English one says "<i>take</i> a fancy <i>to</i>" but +"<i>show</i> a fancy <i>for</i>."</p> + +<p>"<i>It is</i> small wonder that the fashion has obtained <i>such</i> a +hold on our affections, because <i>it is so</i> becoming if <i>it is</i> +not overdone."</p> + +<p>"A single row of white pearls next the fair or even dark throat of a woman +has always a beneficial effect upon her complexion." Has a woman then two +throats?</p> + +<p>"And talking about a beneficial effect upon a woman's complexion, let me +mention once again the exceeding <i>becomingness</i> of the new shades of +blue, these being rather of the sugar-paper order of blue, but a little +lighter in colour perhaps, yet having <i>that</i> vivid tone about +<i>it</i>. <i>This</i> is freely mixed with dark blue, the lighter shade +being used for <i>making</i> trimmings to bodices, or indeed <i>to +make</i> an entire bodice, while the dark cloth forms the skirt and coat. +The hat which completes <i>it</i> will take every shade of blue." Observe +particularly the two "its" and the "this," neither of which refers +properly to any substantive.</p> + +<p>So much for the craftsmanship of one of our most celebrated women- +journalists! When such a person, writing over her own name in the columns +of a renowned and powerful paper, may thus brazenly ignore the elementary +principles of composition, it may be guessed what latitude of carelessness +and error is allowed to obscurer performers in obscurer sheets.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>It is not only in the apparently trivial but really important details of +style that women's work falls short, but in qualities even more vital. +Fashion, to refer again to that branch of journalism, is a complicated and +difficult subject, requiring for its adequate treatment the utmost +orderliness and lucidity. Yet fashion articles are seldom arranged with +any skill, and seldom lucid. The subject is usually handled after a +haphazard method resulting in misty paragraphs of which often not even the +writers could explain the meaning. It is said that men cannot understand +fashion articles. Certainly they cannot, but the fault is not theirs. Over +and over again I have heard expert fashion-journalists confess that they +had failed to comprehend the writings of their colleagues. If articles on +dress were properly done, men could understand, though they might not be +interested in them.</p> + +<p>Fashion gives the widest scope for the journalist's art. The constant +change, the bewildering variety of it, offer opportunities for descriptive +and critical work which, if they were seized, might result in articles as +interesting, as accomplished, as distinguished, as any in the literary +reviews. But these opportunities are uniformly missed.</p> + +<p>Cookery, that is to say practical cookery, gives fewer opportunities than +fashion for the display of merely literary skill. It is a subject which +demands from the journalist clearness and thoroughness. The average +cookery article may be passably clear so far as it goes, but it is rarely +thorough, and so it fails in usefulness. Writers upon cookery in women's +papers have been content, without thinking upon what is really wanted, to +follow the methods of cookery books, ignoring the truism that cookery +books, by reason of their omissions and silences, are valuable only to +efficient cooks, who stand in no deep need of them. It is to the +inexperienced cook that cookery articles are designed to appeal, and +therefore they should be exhaustive, describing processes exactly, +measuring quantities with precision, taking nothing for granted, leaving +nothing to the imagination. That cookery articles, even if read, are +certainly not acted upon, is proved by the monotony of the suburban +dinner. And they are not acted upon because the reader finds them +incomplete, "sketchy," and superficial.</p> + +<p>It would be possible to take all the other subjects coming within "woman's +sphere" in journalism, and to show that women have failed in the treatment +of them to reach even a moderate standard of competence. Look, for another +instance, at the reports of weddings and society entertainments, all done +after one execrable model, dull and perfunctory.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>I bring this general indictment in order that the eyes of the aspirant may +be opened to the opportunities which await her. A brilliant future lies +before the woman who will devote to these neglected women's subjects +skilled craftmanship and the enthusiasm of an artist, of which surely they +are as worthy as anything else in journalism. At present it seems as if +the women who write for women are content to remain all their lives mere +amateurs of the pen; the one who first puts herself to the trouble of +becoming an expert may rely upon making a sensation in the world of +editors.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="11"></a>Chapter XI</h1> + +<h2>Conclusion</h2> + + + +<p>It is not part of my scheme to deal with newspaper offices, and so disturb +the illusions of the aspirant concerning the "glamour" of those places. To +those who are outside them and would fain be inside, a newspaper office is +a retreat where, amid cigarette smoke and the rumour of continual event, +clever people write what they like when they like, while others, only one +degree less gifted, correct, by means of cabalistic signs, proofs, with +the rapidity of lightning and the omniscience of gods, exchanging at +intervals brilliant repartee with the beings who write. Round these are +supposed to hover boys, compositors, porters, famous contributors and +timid aspirants, and in the underground distance is the roar and vibration +of vast steam machines which disgorge papers more quickly than one can +count.</p> + +<p>The reality is perhaps different from this picture--how different the +aspirant will realise when she has at last obtained a position in an +office. Having obtained such a position, she may congratulate herself that +the most trying part of the apprenticeship is over. Henceforward she will +be among those who can put her in the right way. She will no longer need +the assistance of a handbook; it is only the unattached beginner, working +(so pathetically) without guidance and in the dark, who needs that.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, may be said about the newspaper office. It is as +strictly a place of business as a draper's shop or a bank. Many women- +journalists fail to recognise this fact. They do not see that in an office +the relations of people must be first and foremost official; that social +considerations, and even considerations of animal comfort, must be put +aside in order that Business may have a clear road.</p> + +<p>I have met in newspaper offices the sprightly woman who martyrises herself +because she must work in a room with other women whose dullness and +primness jar on her vivacities; the woman who is aggrieved because winter +is warmed for her by a gas stove instead of an open fire; the woman who +feels insulted because male associates do not accord her the elaborate +ritual of deference to which she has been accustomed in drawing-rooms; the +woman who arrives late because she is tired, and blandly offers to "make +up the time at night;" the woman who says, "I forgot to do so and so, I'm +<i>so</i> sorry," and stands like a spoiled child smilingly expectant of +forgiveness; and other women of a similar kind.</p> + +<p>A vast number of women engaged in journalism, I verily believe, secretly +regard it as a delightful game. The tremendous seriousness of it they +completely miss. On no other assumption can the attitude of many women- +journalists towards their work be explained. Therefore, my final words to +the outside contributor, as I leave her on the threshold of an office, are +these: Journalism is not a game, and in journalism there are no excuses.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Journalism for Women, by E.A. Bennett + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN *** + +This file should be named 8jrnw10h.htm or 8jrnw10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8jrnw11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8jrnw10ah.htm + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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