We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
CHAPTER XXIV 83 taking time to study development, until failure to sell these early ef- forts brings discouragement and the abandonment of the work. It is safe to say that many who have taken up photoplay writing only to drop it again as worthless might have found success had they only grounded themselves in tlieir work and had written stuff worth buying before they undertook to make sales. 6. The men and women who would make a success of photoplay writing must first ground themselves in plotting until plotting be- comes a fixed habit and then work on plot development until it be- comes second nature. Without this preliminary work there can be no permanent success. There may be some sales to some studios for a time, because there must be some plots evolved that will possess suffi- cient merit to warrant purchase, but such sales will be no indication of accomplishment. They will be merely the accidents of chance. 7. More than this, it has happened not infrequently that a studio, liking some story, has asked for more from the same' author along the same lines. It is a splendid opening and the author's utter in- ability to respond with more stories of the sort desired will stamp him an accident and utterly destroy his chances now and in the fu- ture with that studio. No Editor will bother with a man who can- not offer a certain percentage of available scripts. It may seem try- ing and even senseless to write innumerable stories and not try to sell them, but sales should mean something more than an immediate check. They should mean recognition from the studios, and if the recipient is unable to repeat he will be discarded in favor of the man who can write a good story next week as well as this and last week. A few stories may be sold through wide and indiscriminate marketing and a few small checks may be gained, but a golden opportunity may be lost through trying to sell before development is mastered. 8. The thoroughly trained author develops his plots almost uncon- sciously, not because he is gifted above others, but because he has de- veloped so many other plots, presenting such a variety of combinations, that he has come to know instinctively the lines along which it will be best to develop any given type of story. He will not accept the first development that comes to him unless, after experiment with other methods, he is convinced that this is the best, but in a general way he will know what will be the best development, and examination of this will not only verify or upset his belief, but it may also bring sugges- tions that will be discarded from this plot yet form the basis of other plots. 9. Development of the plot may be divided into two classes, the ex- pansion of the main theme and the invention of sub-plot or compli- cation. In.photoplay, particularly in the shorter "lengths, it is best not to have much if any sub-plot because this either involves the excessive use of printed leader or a loss of clearness. In a novel there may be one or more sub-plots running parallel to the main story and coming to a common point at or near the climax as the tracks in a railroad yard all converge on the main line at the limits of the area. In novel