The Love of the Last Tycoon: in Praise of Craft

There is not much reason to read, much less publish, a writer's half-finished novel. Unless that writer is F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose final effort, The Last Tycoon (re-titled The Love of the Last Tycoon) was left uncompleted at his sudden death at age 44. Still, why read a book that you know will stop mid-way through; why get attached to characters that will vanish, or involve yourself with an incomplete, therefore unsatisfying narrative, no matter how masterful the writing? It turns out that there are plenty of reasons to read The Last Tycoon, especially if you are a writer. Fitzgerald also left behind copious notes and outlines for the novel, which the publishers elected to include to bulk up the volume. What the addendum unintentionally provide, more than narrative closure, is insight into the process of the man who, with The Great Gatsby, wrote the template for the Great American Novel.

If you have ever witnessed a question-and-answer session with a famous author, inevitably, the question will come up as to how they write. More often than not, the asker means 'How should I write?' Should I make notes? How much revision should I expect of myself? Should I outline a novel or just go along and see where the characters take me? Fitzgerald's notes reveal how he managed all those questions. Scrawled above the very first chapter of The Last Tycoon Fitzgerald wrote, "Rewrite from mood. Has become stilted from rewriting. Don't look [at previous draft]. Rewrite from mood." This reveals an astounding amount of self-criticism and a discipline that few writers are capable of. If you read the first chapter, there is some beautiful, incisive writing there. That Fitzgerald was prepared to rewrite the entire section on a notion as vague as 'mood' shows just how committed he was to craft and faith in his own judgment, even in his last alcohol-sodden years. You also see how fastidious he was in his planning. In a two-page graph, he outlines the course of his characters and events in five acts, breaking each portion down by how many words he wanted to use in each act. He planned on about 60,000 words for The Last Tycoon, and died having written that much, though the story was only half-way completed. This evinces that he planned extensive rewrites and cuts to the published material. In essence, you are reading a draft of a great novel that was never written.

Also interesting, Fitzgerald includes his vision of what we now call 'character arch' (really, more of a film term) for his primary characters, moving them from selfishness to altruism, snobbism to humility via the trials they endure. This is textbook story structure, which, as a script writer, Fitzgerald was no stranger to. It shows that Fitzgerald, while writing naturally and organically, also did so within conventions of traditional story-telling, and was conscious of doing so. Ultimately, it is heartening to see the sheer amount of work he was putting into his creation – a writer who could have rested on his laurels or just lived off the fat of Hollywood. Instead, he was true to his craft. The last words he wrote – in all caps – are invaluable to any fiction writer: ACTION IS CHARACTER. In this sense, at least in Fitzgerald's case, life follows fiction.

-Matt Ellis is a free-lance editor for Word Pill, a service for writers of fiction and non-fiction.