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CHAPTER LXII 311 find that sometimes the story may be all right, but the handling is wrong. At times you will find that to give the most important posi- tion to the woman instead of the man or vice versa will be to give the story the right twist. Again you may find that your hero is a doctor instead of a lawyer, or perhaps a clerk instead of his employer. One story was rejected eight times, but sold the ninth because on the last trip the hero was an insurance agent instead of a theatrical man- ager. The theatrical manager did not fit into the rest of the story. The insurance agent did. 36. Never throw away an idea. Even if you are told that the theme has been used before do not discard the story. There may be something good in the arrangement or business that you can use with another theme. 37. There is just one secret of success and that is work, hard, faithful work intelligently directed. Every man who today enjoys success has at one time stood where you are standing now. Every Editor, every photoplaywright, has at one time been a novice, has met the trials and disappointments of the beginner, has overcome the ob- stacles and fought his way to success through work. There is not a man in the business who will not ascribe his success to hard work if he is entirely honest. A few of us came up from the start of mo- tion pictures and progressed so gradually that the amount of effort was not realized, hut even those who were in the business in the old fifty-foot days and who progressed with the business have worked but have spread over ten or fifteen years the work you may accom- plish in one or two. 38. This is one" point wherein you may receive no assistance. There is no short cut to success. It is all hard but interesting work; inter- esting if you really are in earnest. No critic can aid you, no book can help you, no teacher may shorten by a single day the practice period. No matter how much information you may possess, you must make a practical study of the work before you can perform it properly. Unless you are prepared personally to do your preliminary work, you would do well to lay aside this book and with it all thoughts of ever becoming a photoplay writer. 39. Just how much work must be done depends upon the individual student. It cannot be said that the writing of ten or ten hundred scripts will bring success. A few have caught the knack of writing photoplay with comparatively little effort. They are few indeed, for not one writer in a hundred early finds success, and the most lasting reward comes only to those who have so thoroughly grounded them- selves in their art through practice and experiment that they are masters of every detail. 40. In your study, as in your later work, devote your time to the plot and to the development of the plot in action. Do not seek to sell through trick effects, visual punches or other claptrap devices. Make your stories desirable because they are stories and not mere skeletons filled in with wrecked trains and burning .bridges. You