more mechanical exercise of the conceptive faculty, but a very
valuable one, is to shape and re-shape what I will term abstract
stories. As stated, a story or plot is a dramatic conflict, showing the
opposition of man and nature, man and man, or opposed traits in the same
man. The process of developing an abstract story is to select from a
list of human traits and motives two or more which present an essential
opposition, such as avarice and generosity, then to seek to give the
basic abstract opposition most effective concrete fictional expression
by devising persons to be invested with the traits and by devising a
course of action to show the persons in conflict under the influence of
the traits. Thus, taking the traits of avarice and generosity, husband
and wife, for instance, may each be endowed with one, and a course of
events devised to give the necessary conflict between them expression in
action. The writer of fiction who will perform this exercise now and
then, as opportunity offers, not only will chance upon much valuable
material; he also will acquire a firm grasp on plot, the story-essence
of a story, and will be led to realize that mere complication or
ingenuity is the least of a plot. The exercise is valuable because it is
the only possible way to exercise the conceptive faculty in detail. A
story-idea gained from observation usually is seized as a whole, but a
story-idea gained by manipulating human traits and motives is built up
from nothing by combining its elements. The story built up in this way
probably will involve a social conflict, a conflict between man and man,
rather than between man and nature or opposed traits in the same man,
because the opportunity for combination is greatest in the first case.

The next point is how to exercise the constructive faculty, how to
practice constructive technique, and here you have many resources, only
a few of which need be mentioned.

In the first place, you can study the ways the masters have put together
their stories; this, though not quite practice, is almost as valuable,
if conscientiously and properly done, and is a necessary basis for
practice. For obvious reasons your laboratory analysis of fiction must
confine itself largely to the short story, though you can go through the
process mentally and less thoroughly in reading longer work.

Provide yourself with a collection of short stories in one volume and a
few from current magazines that you think go