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148 TECHNIQUE OF THE PHOTOPLAY one can tell you. You cannot tell yourself what it is. It has never 'been put into words and it never will be, but if you are ever going to make a story writer you will find that something in this study of the story that enables you to write plays. It cannot be analyzed and it cannot be described, but it is an ability to sense the story; to look past the action, past the tech- nique, past the plot and past the punch itself and see the soul of the story. To some people it is never given to gain this sense, to some it comes only after long, arduous labor. Some are born with it, some have it partly developed and need but a little work.to bring it out, but no matter how it conies, that instinctive sensing of the story is what makes the real author; is what marks the difference between the playwriter and the person who merely performs the mechanical labor of writing a play. But perhaps even before this comes to you you will be ready to go'on to the next step. Instead of merely studying the work of others, study to improve their work. You have the script before you. Mentally redevelop it. See if you cannot better the situations by changing the relation of the scenes or by discarding certain of the scenes and using others in their place. There never was a story produced that could not be improved upon. Study to see how you may improve the work on the plays you have seen, for this will bring a keener insight into the development of the plot than the mere study of the plotting of another. Study, too, to improve the leaders. Improving does not neces- sarily mean the cutting down the number of words. You may add a couple of words and get an easy, fluent leader instead of a harsh, disjointed one. Do the same with the letters. See if you cannot make them sound more like real letters. Note where a paragraph from a letter might have been used with better effect than one purporting to be an entire letter. See when the opening or closing paragraph would be better than one from the body of the sheet. And all this time, it is to be supposed, you are working on your own plots. Work them into rough photoplay form. Write and rewrite them unless you find that the story grows worse with each revision. Writers may be roughly assembled into two classes; those who work best on the first draft and those who do better on revise. Do not mistake laziness for an inability to revise, but on the other hand, do not work too long on a story if you find you do not improve it. Lay it aside and take it up again weeks or even months later. Now you are ready to do more original work and less copy. You have learned not only the form but the application of form to idea from your work on the plays of others. Now apply