The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-12-29
Maybe your trouble has been that'you
have tried to sell comedies

Guy Bates Post, who, in turning from q long and
highly successful stage career to motion pictures,
has read scores Of manuscripts, says:
The main troabe witl amateurs is that they
persist in trying TO write about things they do
not know. The sales girl sends me Il scenario Of
society life; a b0okkeeper tries to sell me Il tale
of adventure in foreign lands. And so it goes.
We seek for romance even in our writings. We
ourselves may find it thus, but we cannot bring it
TO others in this fashion. TO be interesting one
must be convincing, anC We cannot be that unless
we really know the life of which we write. But
there is a trend both on stage and screen for init
mate stories, and there is the field for the amateur
scenario writer of average experience.
Another great fault with wOuld-be writer's Is
that their imagination is extensive rather than in
tensive. with the result that the action is scattered
from pole to pole or even to a locality as unfamil-
lar as Mars. Many an amateurs story would take
two years to picturize."
Richard Barthelmess finds that i'm his experience
nine out Of every twelve stories he reads are
wholly lacking In one real idea, one original theme.
1t is said that there is Nothing new under the sun,
therefore the greater is the necessity to give
some novel twist to an old theme. Without that
your story is pretty sure to he returned with the
scenario EDITORS regrets" Mr.. B~arthelmess de-
clares that so much space is taken up with unnec-
essary and wastefui side issues, not to say dialogue,
that in most cases any real meat" Il story might
have is buried under useless encumbrances and
so our OF JuXtapOSltlOn 10 Tie central Story tnat no
editor will wade through it, and your manuscript
comes back"
II DO not believe" says this star, that any anna
tours story requires more than 1000 words to set
it forth and tell its plot. Leave the working out
to the continuity man and the director. The idea
is what counts"
I have heard writer's complain that after their
story has come back they have recognized in a
later picture just the sort OF action or scene they
originally submitted, and these writer's have been
angry to the point Of suggesting, nay, even Of ac-
cusing. the studio people of the theft of their ideas.
AS a matter Of fact, the explanation is that what
the author imagined original with himself or her
self was nothing of the kind. UnconsciOusly and
unwittingly. 1t may be, there has remained in their
minds he unrecognized memory Of some scene they
have seen in a since forgotten picture and uncOn-
/iously it is reproduced in the scenario. Thus
the plagiarism attributed TO the studio lay rather
with the would-be author. "Plagiarism, uncon-
scious or otherwise. sticks out all over Them says
Colonel J. f.. Brady, editor of Metro Pictures cor
poration, who declares that the number Of good
stories does not begin to meet the demand for them.
"The trouble is that 90 per cent of the scripts re-
ceived haven't q grain Of originality In them"
Joseph NJ. Schenck Is another producer OF note