rmined course of
events. But a story is a predetermined course of events, actually or in
effect, and the mere fact that Dickens could write poor stories and yet
interest by his wonderful people does not falsify the technique of
fiction.

Again, the fact that the novelist should confine himself to one story at
a time does not debar him from following side-issues, provided they have
relation to the main course of events, or from creating minor people
like Dickens', if he has the power. Dickens could have placed his people
in real stories instead of in the weak fictions they serve to ennoble.

Finally, I will state abstractly the conditions from which result the
artistic, not the physical necessity that the novelist confine himself
in each book to a single story-idea.

The aim to interest is the aim of fiction, long and short, and the body
of a writer's resources to accomplish the aim make up the body of
fiction technique. But the aim of the writer of plotted fiction is not
simply to interest; it is to interest through a story, a course of
events functioning together in that they embody some sort of problem.
Leaving aside the matter of executive artistry, and premising that the
writer will realize to the full the possibilities of his story, it is
accurate to state that the interest a story will arouse will be in
accordance with the human significance of the problem it embodies.
Adequate fictional treatment of the problem to win love or to make a
living will be more interesting than adequate fictional treatment of the
problem to escape payment of an income tax. And the possibilities of any
problem of life to arouse a reader's interest can be realized to the
full only by setting out that problem and nothing else. Only by showing
the thing in isolation and high relief can the writer reveal to, and
force home upon a reader its ultimate significance. If anything
unrelated to the story or problem is brought out, something of the power
of the story as such will be lost. Likewise, if two or more stories or
problems are each completely developed in one book, neither will have
that singleness of appeal to a reader which is essential if each is to
have maximum effect.

In other words, a novel does not function as a mere physical spectacle;
being a story, it must have a motive, an artistic purpose; and if it has
more than one it will be at cross purposes as a work of art. That is not
a mere "artistic" defect. It is a practical def