Technique of the photoplay (1916)

112 THE SYNOPSIS the plot of action. Naturally no editor will wade through five or six pages of such drivel, yet it is no worse than doing the same thing on a smaller scale. Either instance will suggest inexperience (and there- fore incompetence) to the Editor, who cannot spare the time for light reading in office hours, and will consequently pass the script over to the office boy for return. Some persons will not trust a medical gradu- ate until he has grown a beard. The idea is the same. 11. Getting the punch in the opening: the editorial attention is far more apt to be held with a striking statement than with the time- worn announcemen that !Mary and Jim are neighbors and that her father objects to Jim. Start it off and run on in this fashion: Swearing that he will never look upon her face again if his daugh- ter marries Jim Jones. Henry Smith is forced to keep his vow be- cause of blindness. The stroke is accepted by him as a punishment of God, but the affliction comes as a message, also, and he seeks the girl and the little grandson whose face he will never see. The probabilities are that you could sell your story on no more detail than this, because the story is told in these sixty-one words. The big idea is the man who is compelled through blindness to keep his vow. Otherwise the story is little different from scores of others of the same t>'pe. But you will need to write more than this for the benefit of the press man, so do the story in detail. Swearing that he will never look upon his daughter's face again if she marries against his will, blindness forces Ethan Dodge to keep his oath, but convinces him of the error of his ways. Ethan is a quarrelsome old farmer who has a dispute with Joel Pender, his neighbor. Their children, Mary Dodge and Harry Pender, are in love. Ethan discovers the state of affairs and orders Mary never to speak to Harry again. She tries to obey the command, but loi-e is stronger tJiaii filial affection and Ethan comes upon the two and zvith a horrible imprecation he swears that if she marries Harry he will never look upon her face again. In spite of the threat the young people do get married but Ethan refuses to see Mary and Harry moves with her to the city. When the baby comes Mary makes an appeal to Ethan for forgiveness but he writes a letter in which he reminds her of his vow. He gives this to the rural car- rier and returns to the house. Entering, he falls, striking his head against a chair. When he recovers consciousness he discovers that he is blind. Xight has come down and Ethan fears to go in search of aid in the dark, though all the world is now dark to him, and he sits in the living room zi'ith no companion but his thoughts and the clock strikes the hours that seem ages long. To him comes a knowl- edge of his actions as they really are. and in the agony of those dark hours his soul is purged of hate. With the dawn Ethan gropes his way to the fence beside the road to ask the help of the first passerby. This happens to be Joel, who carries him to his own home. Later Ethan goes to the city to ask forgiveness of Mary and Harry and to take into his arms and press against his hungry heart the tiny form of the little grandson he will never see. This runs about 80 words over the limit, but if you will delete the words set in italics you will find you are just within the limit. In the last few lines, however, you change the tense of "ask" and "press."