[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 8

We continue analyzing L'Amour's short story - "Gift of Cochise". Finding the craft which made his novel-writing career take off. This is the final installment left before we start on his "Hondo" ...

The spread for “Gift of Cochise” as it appeared in Colliers (5 July 1952)

OUR WORK SO FAR: Hondo was L’Amour’s big break into novels. It was based on his “Gift of Cochise”. We’re continuing to work through this short story, following W. S. Campbell’s prescribed approach. (See this Dissection Part 1 post.) Last installment examined Scenes 4. Now we take scenes 3 and 2 and come full circle…

This post is too long for most email viewers. Click on the external link to get the full version - and bonuses.

Again, I found a PDF of the original short story, although I’ve not been able to find that link again - and included it here ICYMI:

The Gift Of Cochise Louis L'amour

109KB ∙ PDF file

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In this installment, we are referencing Keep ‘Em Reading Lesson 08 - Your Writing Yardstick. Review this before continuing.

As these next two Cochise scenes are again short, I’ve included them into a single chunk for study. But take your time reviewing each. They each build into the next. In addition to tracking the flow of ideas through words, sentences, paragraphs, bridges, scenes and sequels — now we learn how to get your story written smoothly - after all that research you’ve made to build it.

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Dissection: The Gift of Cochise - Scenes 3 and 2

We’ve now come full circle. You’ve been tracking this story backward — and we come back to the start. In these two, we now see the scene being set. At this point, L’Amour has laid everything out, and these are the last plants and pointers being set to rivet the reader’s attention into this story. Feel free to review your own notes once again. We’ll discuss these last two scenes a bit, as well as the whole story just below them.

3.

Ed Lowe had built the cabin in West Dog Canyon in the spring of 1871, but it was Angie who chose the spot, not Ed. In Santa Fe they would have told you that Ed Lowe was good-looking, shiftless, and agreeable. He was, also, unfortunately handy with a pistol.

Angie's father had come from County Mayo to New York and from New York to the Mississippi, where he became a tough, brawling river boatman. In New Orleans, he met a beautiful Cajun girl and married her. Together, they started west for Santa Fe, and Angie was born en route. Both parents died of cholera when Angie was fourteen. She lived with an Irish family for the following three years, then married Ed Lowe when she was seventeen.

Santa Fe was not good for Ed, and Angie kept after him until they started south.

It was Apache country, but they kept on until they reached the old Spanish ruin in West Dog. Here there were grass, water, and shelter from the wind.

There was fuel, and there were piñons and game. And Angie, with an Irish eye for the land, saw that it would grow crops.

The house itself was built on the ruins of the old Spanish building, using the thick walls and the floor. The location had been admirably chosen for defense. The house was built in a corner of the cliff, under the sheltering overhang, so that approach was possible from only two directions, both covered by an easy field of fire from the door and windows.

For seven months, Ed worked hard and steadily. He put in the first crop, he built the house, and proved himself a handy man with tools. He repaired the old plow they had bought, cleaned out the spring, and paved and walled it with slabs of stone. If he was lonely for the carefree companions of Santa Fe, he gave no indication of it. Provisions were low, and when he finally started off to the south, Angie watched him go with an ache in her heart.

She did not know whether she loved Ed. The first flush of enthusiasm had passed, and Ed Lowe had proved something less than she had believed. But he had tried, she admitted. And it had not been easy for him. He was an amiable soul, given to whittling and idle talk, all of which he missed in the loneliness of the Apache country. And when he rode away, she had no idea whether she would ever see him again. She never did.

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2.

Slowly, the days drew on. Angie broke a small piece of the meadow and planted it. Alone, she cut hay in the meadow and built another stack. She saw Indians several times, but they did not bother her. One morning, when she opened her door, a quarter of antelope lay on the step, but no Indian was in sight. Several times, during the weeks that followed, she saw moccasin tracks near the spring.

Once, going out at daybreak, she saw an Indian girl dipping water from the spring. Angie called to her, and the girl turned quickly, facing her. Angie walked toward her, offering a bright red silk ribbon. Pleased, the Apache girl left.

And the following morning there was another quarter of antelope on her step—but she saw no Indian.

Discussion:

L’Amour studied under Walter S. Campbell at the University of Oklahoma. In Campbell’s first book, Professional Writing, this particular point of revamping others and your own works is explored. As you study other author’s books you learn their technical devices, you can also get inspiration from their plots and characters.

Again, we do this study so we can learn from the greats - to stand on the shoulders of giants to see further. The point means not have to constantly reinvent the wheel. You can use the many “wheels” already abounding in libraries and bookstores to springboard your own creations from. Obviously, perennial-selling books have the structure which still captivates readers. Dissecting these books then gives you a leap-frog approach to creating your own - which is itself an education.

In this short story we see all the basics vital for an action-based short story. There are a mystery and romance story arc both included. But the overall story question is whether Ches Lane will find the woman and her children in time - to pay his debt her dying husband left. Its a journey.

There is little space in these 6000 words to develop these three main characters fully. But we’ll see them again in “Hondo”.

Of course, look over these last two scenes of our study with all the tools you have. Scene 2 is almost a sequel to Scene 1, and glues the reader into the story line of the single woman all alone, fending for herself. Scene 3 then tells half of what we know about her husband - and you want to know what happened to him, which is next in Scene 4. All pointers and plants in these, minimal character development.

Once you’ve taken all these scenes apart, we now want to see underneath the polish of all these stories. As you’ve gotten through everything, now you can read it forward again and look for transitions he used - the mortar used between the scene building blocks.

Let’s review what we learned in that Lesson 8 of the Keep ‘Em Reading series. In that, there are four points to keep in mind:

First, as you finish your book, keep asking yourself, does one story dominate the book? Does it have unity?

Second, does the story move toward the climax in each chapter? Does it have progression?

Third, is the emphasis in the right place, in proper proportion?

And, Fourth is continuity. Does the story hang together?

You now have a yardstick to measure this story by.

At this point, you can now come forward with a critical eye, not so influenced by L’Amour’s mastery of style - and note how all these scenes fit together and build a story. If you’ve printed out the short story and made your notes, highlights, and underlines, then all these provide a wealth of data and technical devices you can restudy (or newly discover) as you go.

L’Amour simply cleaned up his story and submitted it to Colliers. John Wayne found it and brought it to the big screen as “Hondo”. And the rest is history.

Our Continuing Studies

The point of that first series out of Forgotten Bestseller Secrets is: Keep ‘Em Reading.

Find the rest of these lessons in their Table of Contents here:

We’ll next start on the Compelling Characters lessons - which you can jump ahead and study in advance at their own Table of Contents page.

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Coming this next week…

Stories can be digested by scenes, full novels digested by chapters. That’s where we’ll take up the “Hondo” book proper, along with our studies of character and story-plot meanwhile. Each week, we’’ll review another of these lessons against what we are dissecting that week. These lessons will be more lengthy, taking up a comparative study of Compelling Characters and Riveting Storytelling.

In this, we’ll then come full circle once more by studying these chapters in reverse. And what we’ve learned in this “Cochise” short story will then give us a springboard to dissecting “Hondo”, with all it’s own technical devices that a novel has the room to provide.

All something to look forward to. And you’ll also be able to revisit these current dissection-lessons as well, as well as upcoming ones. Like my other work, I’ll be building a table of content for all the lessons as we go.

Regardless, I hope to see you here next week continue our own adventure.

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About Forgotten Bestseller Secrets

I spent years uncovering and digesting the materials produced in that first two decades of W. S. Campbell’s training course. It’s never been duplicated any where else or since.

Finally, I distilled his materials as best I could to repackage it into a modern form (mini-courses) which could be readily understood in our current culture. So you and everyone can speed up their progress in learning how write un-put-downable popular stories. While not having to spend decades re-inventing the wheel for yourself.

All until, eventually, someone brings these Campbell books back into print. For now, I’ll continue to promote him and his instructor’s works. And help people understand how to communicate better with each other through their writing.

You get certainty on your own craft by distilling other authors, both good and bad, to find what they did great and how they could do better. That’s learning. That’s evolution. That’s why we are here.

Earlier in This Series…

What follows is the complete Dissection Series up to this lesson. At some point, I’ll pull these out into their own Table of Contents to save space on these weekly newsletters. The obvious point is to leave a breadcrumb trail for other adventurers as we blaze our path.

[Pro Writing] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 1

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 2

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 3

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 4

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 5

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 6

[Pro Writer] Hondo by Louis L'Amour - Dissection, Part 7

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For Paid Members

You can forge ahead on your own. I’ve attached everything you need for your own self-paced study.

I’ve extracted the Cochise story’s text and attached my epub file below. (Use Calibre or similar to convert it to plain text.) I’ve also recreated this short story with the scenes in reverse order - also attached.

Also included is the full Forgotten Bestseller Secrets book, which has the full mini-course, plus two additional mini-courses on characterization and plot building. We’ll need those next two courses in dissecting L’Amour’s Hondo itself. All based on Campbell’s works and those of his instructors.

As well, I’ve included Campbell’s contemporaries, Foster Harris and Dwight V. Swain in “The Basic Formulas of Fiction”. This will explain more about the technical points we’ve covered above.

That’s three books out of the Writerpreneur Series which address writing craft. You’re welcome.

Needless to say, you ought to upgrade to paid in order to speed your progress as a professional writer.