Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1886 — Howells and His Work. [ARTICLE]

Howells and His Work.

“Are you engaged on a novel now?” “Yes, I have a novel under way. Whether I am writing or not, I am busy working out the story and the characters. ” “Do you work thirteen hours a day, as Balzac was reported to have done?” “No, I do about three hours’ mental labor each -day—actual writing. I begin writing at 9 o’clock in the morning and quit at noon? But after that Igo about thinking it all over, and when I ' cross the-street I keep one eye on my character and the other on the cabs. I once thought novel writing would come easy, that I could sit down and a beautiful book would just flow spontaneously from my pen. That was a foolish thought'and an egregious error. Of course I was a young man then and indulged in dreams and idle fancies. The first novel I wrote I worked. Ah! I flattered myself that I would not have to labor at fiction any more after the first—that was the arduous task, and all else would come naturally. I know now that novel-writing is always labor —hard, unremitting work. It seems that eaeh book I write I w ork as hard, jf not harder, than, oh my first. - Success, I think, depends on labor! Young writers beginning doubtless live on the flattering idea that at a certain time it will be simply play to put together a novel They soon discard that notion. Then, too r many imagine that a close reading of books will fit them for fic-tion-writing. That is a mistake."— New York Mail and Express. -V '■ A lot of horses at S<*n Francisco became frightened a few days ago and jumped into the bay. One of them landed on a beach five miles away, after swimming for twelve hours.