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SELF-CRITICISM 139 CHAPTER XXVI SELF-CRITICISM Difficulties of self-criticism—lack of proper perspective—in- terest in the subject—value of delayed judgment. Even the most expenienced authors are not fully competent to pass their own work in review and this is one of the reasons why the experienced writer is content to submit his work "at usual rates." He knows very well that he may like best the story that will make the least appeal to others. >He lacks the proper perspective. He stands too close to his own work to see the faults and the merits in their proper value. It stands to reason that one does not develop a plot unless he thinks that plot reasonably good. He does this work with this idea uppermost and it follows that he develops the plot in the manner he believes to be the most suitable. When the work is done he may set it down with the feeling that it might be im- proved, but it is seldom that he can exactly locate the trouble. This chapter is not offered in the belief that self-criticism can be taught, but to enable the author as nearly as possible to gauge and value his work. The great essential is time. It is not possible for anyone to remove the last sheet from the machine, read over the pages and pronounce it to be good or bad. The glow of enthusiasm must be permitted to die out, other work must be done to erase, in so far as possible, the memory of the story and then, after an interval of days or weeks, the script should be taken up with the mind as free as possible from the recollections of that story and the reasons for working up the idea as was done. It is a poor mother who does not think her baby the hand- somest and best, and it is a poor author, indeed, who does not hold his brain child in similar esteem, but babies may be weighed and measured in comparison with established tables and stories may, to some extent, be compared with existing standards. Do not, in criticism, regard your story as a whole. .Take it apart and consider each factor separately, then get it together again to see that the adjustments are correct; that each part bears a proper relation to the whole.