A concise manual offers practical, experience-based counsel for aspiring short-story writers, urging rejection of formulaic correspondence courses and elaborate rhetoric in favor of direct, terse instruction. It emphasizes sincerity, truth, and simplicity as the core tests of literary merit, recommends learning through brief, pointed do's and don'ts and personal anecdotes, and warns against overreliance on theoretical analysis. Sections address creating believable characters, maintaining honesty and originality, avoiding common pitfalls, and cultivating courage and clarity of expression through practice and critical self-examination.