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312 SELF-CRITICISM cannot replace punch with spectacle, so let your studies all be directed toward plotting and the exemplification of the plot in cunningly de- vised action. 41. The race is not to the swift but to the persistent. The sprinter who can do his hundred yards within ten seconds is seldom much good beyond that distance, and the man who makes a dazzling suc- cess for a few w^eeks is not really a writer but an accident. He does not last because his spurt exhausts his capacities and he is soon passed by the steady, plodding distance man who has trained him- self for the long run. To sell stories and to keep on selling them re- quires a greater mastery of the details of the work than the short- lived but brilliant success of the ideas man. Don't shirk, and do not try to cheat yourself, and remember that the sooner your practice work is done the sooner can you command success, but do not go at the task with an intensity that uses up your vitality. If you do, if you overwrite, you will presently go stale, and in the enforced rest that must follow you will lose the advantage you have gained and more. Determine your capacity for work. Work to your capacity, but do not attempt more. 42. At first dq not expect to turn out good plays. You cannot. Do not spend too much time perfecting any one play. At the start you can better employ your time writing one hundred plots than writing one plot a hundred times. Each new plot offers new and in- teresting angles. Master these and you can presently go back and re- write your first plot in the light of the knowledge gained through the study of the other ninety-nine. Get all the angles and then view your early work in the light of more recent knowledge and you will learn more than if you sought to complete one play .before approaching a second. (3.LXX:1) (4.LXX:3) (5.VII:10) (8.LXV:46) (11.1:10 LXXII:12) (26.XIX:2) (32.LXIII :2 LXX:7&12) (35.XXIII :34) (42.XXIV:39). CHAPTER LXIII SELF-CRITICISM CRITICISM, or the appraisal of a story, is a valuable means of study, and it is to be regretted that it is so seldom possible for students to obtain competent criticism. Please note that it is written "competent criticism," and not merely criticism, without quali- fication. 2. Criticism is merely the expressed opinion' of one person. The opinion is helpful and of value only when the person offering the criticism is not only familiar with his subject but is able to give clear expression to his reasons for approving or disapproving. Few base-