Happy almost spring! Back with another vintage article, this time from the November 1938 issue of The Author & Journalist. While it’s written pseudonymously by “Myrtle Clay,” I have some suspicions that the author was actually Doris Knight, a prolific romance writer of the day (who, it should be noted, was known to use a whole slew of pen names—look her up on The FictionMags Index for the entire list, if you so desire). Knight wrote some trade articles in the ’40s (that I’ll eventually get around to transcribing), and suffice it to say, the writing styles strike me as similar. (Also, while I don’t directly recognize any of the story excerpts featured below, the problematic—to phrase it mildly—gender politics on display, along with the general writing advice, lines up with what I’ve seen in some of her work.) With all this in mind, I’ve also started to entertain the idea that Knight wrote the previously-posted “Sally Gordon” article, because, again, the writing styles seem similar.
In any event, whoever “Myrtle Clay” really was, her writing advice isn’t all bad (indeed, the general concept of “putting thrill” into romance is a good one I just…uh…don’t always agree with her suggestions on how to accomplish that, pfft), and, as always, it provides a neat little look into how the love pulps were viewed at the time, and what kind of trends might have been popular/expected in them.