Robert Saunders Dowst

Such analysis is interesting to make, and also interesting to read, but it is not directly profitable to the writer.

work intelligently and to take pains.

with matters of conception

Usually the propositions necessary to be laid down require no demonstration; they are self-evident.

Unquestionably literary dissection is useful in that it gives the beginning writer familiarity with the terminology and processes of the art, but the main object of a book on technique is to place the results of analysis, directly stated, in logical sequence.

The art of telling a story is largely the art of justly manipulating its elements.

The subject is too inclusive for adequate treatment here.

Moreover, it is debatable whether the art of verbal expression can be studied objectively with any great profit. But the art of putting a story together can be studied objectively with profit, and its principles are subject to direct statement.

The artist must now step down, don his working clothes, and become the artisan.

must decide, almost in a breath, the scale, the style, the spirit, and the particularity of execution of his whole design."