Writing Right with Dmitri: In Praise of O Henry
Created | Updated Nov 29, 2015
Writing Right with Dmitri: In Praise of O Henry
Elsewhere in this issue, there's a story by O Henry. I hope you've been reading this month's O Henry stories. I've been annotating them, in the hopes that I could encourage some of you to study them. In my opinion, he's one of the greatest short story writers of all time, and a boon to humanity.
Recently, there has been a suggestion that O Henry should receive a posthumous presidential pardon for whatever crimes he may or may not have committed that landed him in the penitentiary in Ohio back in 1898. Whether he embezzled money from the Austin, Texas bank, or just couldn't count, isn't really clear. But it would be a nice gesture to the writer who has given us so much.
William Sydney Porter (his real name) was certainly a complicated man. When he was under indictment, he panicked and ran to Central America. The result? We got the term 'banana republic', and a collection of short stories called Cabbages and Kings. He lived lots of places: North Carolina, Texas, Pittsburgh, New York City…and he wrote about all the people he met there. He died of complications from excessive drinking. His stories will make you laugh, and sometimes, they'll tear your heart out.
What makes O Henry so good? Pay attention.
O Henry:
- … gives you such a strong sense of time and place that you feel you're right there, in the turn-of-the-century world.
- … notices absolutely everything about everywhere and everybody. And remembers to share.
- … looks right into the hearts of men, women, and children, with insight and compassion.
- … is snarky about just about everything, from sacred traditions to the pretensions of modern life.
- … writes engagingly, and anecdotally, sucking the reader into his yarn.
- … waits until you think you know where this is going, and then hits you with a surprise: one that stops you in your tracks and makes you see the story in a new way.
And that last quality, folks, is what separates O Henry from a mere storyteller like Mark Twain.
It isn't just that O Henry writes 'surprise' or 'twist' endings. No, sir. It's the fact that the ending illuminates everything you've been told in the story so far. And it makes you see the world differently. A good O Henry story is a life-changing experience. Think about these tales:
- In Springtime a la Carte, we laugh at the technological pretensions of a woman armed with that new innovation, the typewriter…until we find out that her fiancé, a farmer, locates his beloved (in a huge city, no less) by the flaw in her machine…
- In The Ransom of Red Chief, we learn just why childhood obstreperousness can be a secret weapon in the fight against domestic terror…
- In The Gift of the Magi and Two Thanksgiving Day Gentleman, we learn some really valuable lessons about self-sacrifice…
You get the idea. For a week, at least, throw away your notebooks and stylesheets. Ignore the advice of online mavens. Just read some O Henry. And ask yourself, 'Given the kind of things I write, and the way I write them, how can I get some of that O Henry magic into my work?' I'll just bet you can, once you put your mind to it.
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