Revamping Classic Fiction to New
There is truly no new plot under the sun - some say. And a little research shows that the most profitable and long-selling books are just the old, made new...
Just a timely note here: My first Kickstarter is rolling out in a couple of weeks. This excerpt is from the fourth in this series, currently in progress.
I’d appreciate your feedback on the Kickstarter below. Revisions still remain. Your input is needed.
Revamping Classic Fiction
by Walter S. Campbell
In any period when ideas are changing, controversies arise.
These controversies do not arise from the speculations of mere thinkers, but are stimulated by some kind of tension among the people, social, economic, or other. That is to say, when the ordinary reader begins to concern himself with a new idea, or argue for discarding an old idea, it is because he begins to see that the old idea no longer benefits him, or because he sees hope of benefit in a new idea. To him, these ideas are primarily practical matters —mental adjustments to the pressure of circumstances.
If a popular writer wishes to hold his public, he must at least keep even with them in such matters. That is, he cannot go on writing like a Victorian about love and marriage, because most of his readers have modified those Victorian ideas and hold other views.
It follows that the writer, and especially the fiction writer, poet, or dramatist, must keep abreast of his public, not rushing too far ahead, not lagging too far behind. In fact, most successful fiction writers keep close watch upon the non-fiction ideas discussed in the magazines for which they write, in order to do this. They read all the non-fiction articles, all the editorials, and all the letters from readers printed in the magazine. This keeps them informed as to what controversies are raging, what notions are in vogue, and how far their readers have advanced along the path to novel ideas.
All popular literature must be brought up-to-date as often as customs and ideas change. Only in a perfectly static society is popular literature static. If our own civilization ever settles down into unchanging form, as that of China once did, we too shall become worshipers of the classics, as the Chinese were until recently, because every idea and story will have achieved its final, satisfying form. It is noteworthy that now, when China is being modernized, the study of the Chinese classics has been largely abandoned there. The thing always happens so. Since the first World War, in fact, nearly all our American history has been rewritten.
We may take it for granted, then, that a popular writer is simply a man who excels in rewriting the old stories so that they can be enjoyed without effort by a popular, contemporary audience.
That is to say, the professional writer is a man who sells skill, not subject-matter. Indeed, the greatest books are commonly those which have been revised the oftenest, and adapted to the public taste over and over again.
Excerpt: Stanley Vestal - Champion of the Old West
by Ray Tassin
Note: Walter S. Campbell wrote mostly under the pen name of Stanley Vestal, and so this biography.
From page 200:
Vestal spend many years of apprenticeship learning what he put into this single volume. In the preface he said:
"This book should, if faithfully digested, spare the beginner months and years of blind struggle, and materially shorten his apprenticeship... It aims at showing the student what is to be done, how it may be done, and when to do it."
To accomplish this goal, Vestal started with the most basic part of writing - how to select a subject about which to write. "A good subject is simple one which stirs the interest, emotion, and imagination of the writer," he said.
Vestal explained the importance of having a particular market in mind for each piece of writing, and how to slant the work toward that market by analyzing the publication and understanding its readers. He recommended studying the methods – by not copying the style – of the literary masters. He showed how the writing techniques of the masters remained pretty much the same throughout the centuries although literary style varied greatly.
Included were also instructions on determining the impression the writer wished to make on a reader, and how to achieve this effect by leading the reader through a series of emotional responses. ....
The areas covered — selection of a subject, reader, model, market, and so on — all dealt with things writers needed to know and do before actually doing any writing. In other words the book was designed to make one think like a professional writer rather than a literary critic or someone writing to amuse himself.
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