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HOW TO STUDY 143 who crumples up before the attacks of the villain and must be rescued by the heroine. Are the subsidiary characters those best suited to advance the plot and uphold the interest? If your story will stand this analysis it is apt to be a good story, but in order to study the plot, the scene, or the character, it will first be necessary to separate it from the rest of the play, to first consider it by itself and then in relation to the other factors. If you can do this work carefully and without prej- udice you can roughly criticize your work if you have the knowledge that backs your judgment. CHAPTER XXVII. HOW TO STUDY The value of practice—need for study—the theater as a school-room—self-criticism—the value of advice This, then, is the technique of the photoplay, the technique of form, of construction, of creation. The rest remains with you. The great teacher is experience. You would not purchase a text-book on electricity and after a single reading expect to be able to build dynamos and motors, to wire buildings and in- stall telephone systems. No more can you read this or any other book through and expect at once to write plays that will sell. First you must study the rule and then learn, through ex- perience, to apply it. Do not think that it is sufficient to read this volume through orce or even many times. Study it. Absorb every fact and not the fact alone, but the reason for that fact. In the school room you did not merely glance through your grammar. You studied the rules and then you practised the application of those rules, you analyzed sentences, the relation of each word to the others until, at the end, you acquired an instinctive application of the rules. You not only learned to speak the language correctly, but you knew why you were correct. It is the same way with photoplay. Having the rules, you must learn to apply them, to pick apart plays and perceive the relation of the scenes to each other.