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214 THE PLOT OF ACTION hater through the falseness of Mary Crouch." That is as easy as to write that Peter is a fashionable young bachelor, but it is not as easy to put into action. To show that Peter is a bachelor it is only neces- sary to show him in his apartment to get an idea of his state of single blessedness and by his apartment show him to be a mean of means. But to show the other fact in action may require several scenes. As this is merely a premise and not a plot factor, the plot proper having to do with the manner in which Nanette Fairfax wins him back to his belief in love, not much space may be given the establishment since space is given in proportion to the importance of the fact to the plot. If you blunder in opening the action by holding too long to this fact, you will lose interest, and nothing that comes in the later parts of the play can save the awkward opening, for the action will not be read beyond this incompetent start. If you labor along through several hundred feet to show that Mary and Peter were engaged and that she married another man or ran off with a circus rider, then you will get the spectator interested in Mary and you'll have to keep on telling about her instead of Nanette. The Editor will know this, if you do not, and he will decide that an author who does not know how to stick to his story and who apparently does not know what his real story 19 is not worth following through yards of needless action. 4. It follows, then, that the first necessity in the plot of action is to establish as briefly as possible the story premises. The premise of your story is the collection of facts on which your story is based. In this plot, for example, your story is that Nanette wins Peter back to faith. This is the plot and the various portions of the plot are its fac- tors, but the premise is that Peter is a woman hater because of the falsity of ZSIary. Your story of Nanette would not be possible had not Mary made Peter lose his faith in women. You must know of the state of Peter's mind before the story can interest, but the reason for Peter's belief is also a story and you must be careful not to get your spectator interested in this story instead. 5. To this end you must aim to establish your premises in such a fashion that they seem a part of this story of Nanette and not a part of the story of Mary. You do not first show a succession of scenes be- tween ]SIary and Peter. You make the premise seem as casual as pos- sible, though you have brought to bear all of your skill in making the statement as strong and as emphatic as you know how. Your first scene, then, should show Peter in the act of hating women. You can not have him come tearing down the street pushing women into the gutter or throwing them down and trampling on them. That would tend to show insanity. You must do it more cleverly than that. Get some one detail of action that will show clearly Peter's mental atti- tude. You are going to use Nanette. Bring her in. Suppose we make it this: 1. Street —Peter coming to camera—Nanette and Grace enter—speak to Peter, who is barely civil—Nanette carries some flowers—she gives Peter one with a smile—puts it in his coat—the girls pass