By assigning seven points to a first choice, six to a second choice,
etc., we get a general perspective on the trend of these answers as a
whole. Where several elements are named without indicating order of
preference all are scored as first choice unless the order of the group
is otherwise located. Of 108 answerers 3 were unable to assign relative
values, 2 were not tabulated, 2 stated only that importance varies with
each particular story and 1 replied, "I don't make your subdivisions."
Tabulating the remaining 100 answers we have a roughly formulated score
as follows:
Character 430
Plot 329
Style 192
Structure 180
Setting 171
Color 166
Material 158
All 56
Action 21
Atmosphere 16
Situation 13
Development 7
Abstract Ideas 7
Clearness 7
Suspense 7
Surprise 7
Drama 7
Keynote 7
Humanity 7
Thought 7
Charm 7
Theme 7
Verisimilitude 7
Feeling 7
Philosophy 6
Period 6
Humor 5
Punch 3
The seven elements specifically mentioned in the question were merely
the stock names commonly used in the profession that happened to mind
and were of course intended only to suggest the general purpose of the
question. Neither the seven nor the twenty-one other elements mentioned
in the table are all mutually exclusive and on some there is no
agreement of definition. This is of no moment. We are not compiling a
dictionary or a mathematical table, though some of these summaries may
give that impression. We are seeking only to discover general trends.
Any deductions must be of a general, not a final, nature, and most
emphatically there must always be allowance for the individual case,
which on occasion can and should defy all general rules and trends.
The value of such laboratory tests as these lies in our using as a
basis, not theories, but facts, our real purpose being not to prove or
disprove accepted theories but to draw whatever conclusions the facts
dictate. There is, God knows, little enough of this kind of work being
done. Instead, the writing world is littered with thousands of
hereditary rules, arbitrary dicta, theoretical conclusions and unsound
generalities. Here are facts; let us get from them what suggestions we
may, each after his own fashion and according to his own needs. I could
fill pages with my deductions and conclusions from these answers, some
of them perhaps very good for my own case and perhaps very bad for the
next person.
It may be that the experienced writer can profit more from the
presentation of these facts than can the beginner. Just as I with twenty
years of editorial experience can profit from them infinitely more than
I could have done five, ten, twenty years ago. We are all prone to
conclude that we have solved a matter for all time, when in reality we
have only become a little weary of learning and a little "sot" in our
beliefs. On the other hand, a little learned in the beginning may be
more effective than much learned later by experience, for experience
means vanished years. That writers in general can and do learn from one
another as to problems and methods there is no doubt, and here are
writers by the score instead of by ones and twos.
These tabulations serve only toward a general perspective, the more
specific values being in the answers themselves. A more general
classification of the elements considered in this section of the
questionnaire may be worth while, grouping them roughly as to general
nature:
Plot, structure, action, situation, development, suspense, surprise,
drama, punch--574.
Character--430.
Setting, color, atmosphere, period--359.
Style, clearness, accuracy, charm, verisimilitude--220.
Material--158.
Abstract ideas, keynote, humanity, thought, theme, feeling,
philosophy--48.