Want to write for Adventure?
Would you like to travel back in time and write for Adventure? Here’s what it took.
ADVENTURE, SPRING AND MACDOUGAL STS., NEW YORK CITY. Monthly. Arthus S. Hoffman, Editor. States that in its fiction clearness and simplicity are essential, for they are both a requisite of good literature and a surety that all who read will understand. Insists on convincingness, or truth to life and human nature. Characters must seem like real people, not mere names. The reader must believe it happened. Inconsistencies and improbabilities, even in little things, ruin a story. Wants stories of action and adventure, in its broadest sense among almost any kind of people, and in almost any place. Stories of the United States, its possessions and Canada are always welcomed, as well as tales of foreign lands. Uses stories of even the remote past, but only occasionally; also stories of the future, but even less often. Stories of the sea are especially desired. All stories must be clean and wholesome, but without preaching or moralizing. Does not like stories in which crime is glorified or triumphs in the end. Uses fact articles, but very few. Chances are better with material worked up into fiction form. Autobiographical material has almost no chance of acceptance. Always wants good humorous stories. Takes tales of pathos or tragedy, but not if they are morbid or leave the reader depressed or with a “bad taste in his mouth.” Love interest added to a story of adventure is good, but not if it is the main feature of the tale. Does NOT want : Problem stories, sex stories, psychological stories, sophisticated stories, stories that glorify crime, stories that “couldn’t happen” or supernatural stories. Uses some poetry, mostly 16 lines or under. None over 36 lines, unless they are narrative with a real story in them. Good quatrains desired. Takes short stories of any length. Serials from 60,000 to 120,000 words. Novels and novelettes, complete in one issue, 15,000 to 75,000.
-James Irving in How to Sell Manuscripts, 1920
