Suicide. The Board will not pass a picture in which there is a suicide or suggestion of suicide, with incidents thereto. The purpose of the Board is to prevent all suggestions of self-destruction to those who are morbidly inclined.

Burglary. There is no objection to a burglary scene so long as there is no actual demonstration of the act of burglarizing; for instance, the burglar may be shown entering through an open window, but must not be shown "jimmying" the window.

Vulgarity. All vulgarity and suggestion must be avoided, for instance, flirtations with women who are unmistakably ladies of easy virtue. Letters making dates with such women are objectionable. Avoid the underworld.

Lynching. Lynching is permissible only when the incident transpires in the early days of the far west, when the vigilantes were the only means of enforcing order.

Mischief. The Board objects to pictures that will suggest to the mind of the youth acts of mischief, such as mutilation or destruction of property for the purpose of perpetrating a joke on some one, or on invalids or cripples, or putting in a poor light any class or race of people.

As examples of good work Mrs. Parsons gives in full the two-reel drama, "The Masked Wrestler," and the melodramatic script, "Let No Man Escape," and she also gives a list of trustworthy firms that buy manuscripts of photoplays. Her book will be worth many times its cost to any inexperienced photoplaywright.

Another excellent book of advice and instruction, which may be cordially commended, is William Lewis Gordon's "How to Write

"The author's aim is to place before you, to the best of his ability, the correct technical form for constructing the photoplay, advising the best methods to attain satisfactory results, pointing out the common errors of the amateur writer, giving to the aspiring playwright the fundamental principles or foundation upon which you are to build your success." In his glossary of terms his definition of "punch" is "the portions of the play which appeal vigorous full of force, and he defines "heart interest" as "an appeal to the emotions." Twenty-five dollars, he says, is a good average price for a onereel play, and from fifty to one hundred dollars for a good two or three-reel story.

"

Mr. Gordon points out that the photoplay is written in action, instead of in dialogue or story form, and that picturesque descriptions and clever dialogue, which are essential to the magazine story, are not wanted in the photoplay. "The scene action," he says, "must be the explanation and tell the story. Remember that your characters do not talk, and the acting must be very pointed, leaving no doubt in the mind of the audience as to any particular situation or development."

"Make the photoplay open with interest, to arouse attention, says Mr. Gordon, “introduce your principal characters, make clear to audience what your motive is. It is a poor play that cannot arouse deep interest at the very start. . . . Try to limit your cast to a few characters; too many are confusing. Keep all principal characters together as much as possible. The interest should centre around just ONE principal character, and never leave that character. . . . Do not have a character appear in the first scene and then not reappear until the last scene. Introduce all your principal characters as early in the play as possible, or your audience may form an attachment for the characters shown at start of the story, and when one of your

chief characters appears toward the middle

of the play it will be impossible to extend the same interest to him as if they had been following his movements from the first.

"Try to emphasize acts of honesty, faithfulness, perseverance, courage, truthfulness, charity, devotion, firmness of character, true friendship, self-sacrifice, thoughtfulness, worthy and ambitious struggles for success in love and business. However, just as good are the stories portraying the folly and penalties of dishonesty, unfaithfulness, cowardice, untruthfulness, lack of devotion, weakness of character, selfishness, haughtiness, carelessness, waywardness, unworthy struggles for success, and similar themes.

"Avoid any scenes or suggestive complications that may offend good taste or morals. Avoid scenes of murder, suicide, robbery, kidnapping, harrowing death-beds, horrible accidents, persons being tortured, scenes attending an electrocution or hanging, violent fights showing strangling, shooting, or stabbing, staggering drunkards, depraved or wayward women, rioting strikers, funerals, and all such scenes of a depressing or unpleasant nature. Do not make a hero of a highwayman or escaped convict. Do not reflect upon any religious belief, nationality, or physical deformity.

"Do not depict impossible situations. Don't draw a scene where a train runs over a cow, causing a law suit. Cows, as a general thing, are not very good actors, and might object to your idea, no matter how worthy your ambition. Don't have a heroine rescued from a watery grave as she is sinking the last time; the hero might lose his grasp and the heroine her life in attempting to produce the right effect."

These quotations give an idea of Mr. Gordon's style, which is bright, forcible and lucid, direct and compact, with little waste of words. His book covers in a sensible, practical way every phase of photoplay writing, and includes a model scenario presented in the proper typewritten form, and a list of prominent film-producing companies with a statement of their manuscript needs. Fol

"If you are going to jump from Helen's library to Robert's office, it is best to have at least one exterior scene inserted between the two, or the audience might believe that the office and library are in the same building.. An exterior scene separates them."

"The length of play is not determined by the number of scenes nor by the number of pages the manuscript contains, but only by the length of time it takes to act it. The only possible way to judge the acting length is to take your watch, note the time, imagine title is thrown on the screen, allow the usual timegiven to a title; then start with the first scene, not merely reading it, but imagine you see the characters coming and going, allowing for each pause, gesture, and expression ; allow sufficient time for reading each leader, letter, or clipping, and with a little practice you can soon learn to determine the approximate time it will take to act the play. Should it be two or three minutes undertimed or overtimed, it does not matter. Directors themselves cannot tell exactly, by reading a script, just how long it will take to act it. They will often add a scene, or eliminate one, if necessary. It takes approximately twenty minutes to produce a one-reel play, about forty minutes for a double reel, one hour for three reels, etc. Your longest scene should not take more than three minutes to produce; the play will become tiresome if same scene is on the screen longer than this."

THE WRITER is published the first day of every month. It will be sent, postpaid, ONE YEAR for ONE DOLLAR. The price of Canadian and foreign subscriptions is $1.12, including postage.

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P. O. Box 1905.

nuisance. In the third grade only fifty-seven per cent. of the pupils could spell "really" correctly, and in the fourth grade only seventy-six per cent. could spell "enough." If Boston is going to maintain her literary reputation, the pupils in the Boston schools will have to be trained to increase their powers of memory and close observation · - the fundamental basis of good spelling.

Speaking of spelling, fifteen English teachers in two high schools in Des Moines have made a list of the words most commonly misspelled by their pupils and the words reported by at least two of the teachers are given in the following list :·

Across, almost, accommodate, already, accept, affect, architecture, athletics, appearance, advise, attacked.

Beginning, business, busy, balance, benefit, blue, believe, beautiful.

Changeable, conscientious, crystalline, coming, choose, conceive, committed, convenience, clothes, course, Cæsar, corporation, cried, cavalry, commission, chief, conscience, completely.

Deceive, disappearance, disappoint, discuss, dissatisfy, does n't, definition, development, disapprove, don't, did n't, different, describe. Except, effect, exaggerate, excellent. Forty, finally, February, few. Grammar, generally, great. Height, humorous.

Its, immediately, interrogative, independent, immigration.

Knew, know.

Leisure, lonely, loneliness, lose, led, ladies. Misspell, metaphor, magazine, manual. Necessary, nominative, neuter.

Principal, precede, proceed, professor, parallel, particular, participate, piece, privilege, peaceful, presents, presence, planned, planning, peaceable, probably, persuade, pleasant. Quite, quiet.

Receive, rhetoric, recommend, relieve, receipt, respectfully, recommendation, repetition, resemblance, replied.

Separate, shoulder, successful, sure, singeing, smile, sophomore, sincerely, suspicion, straight, superintendent, success, shining. shield, shepherd, secretary, stopped, scene. Their, there, to, two, too, three, thoroughly, together.

Until, usually, usage, using.
Valuable, village, view.

Written, whether, whose, woman,

dav.

Wednes

It would be well for any writer who is not confident about his spelling to study this list

until he is sure he can spell all the words correctly, for misspellings in a manuscript lessen its chance of sale by giving it an appearance of illiteracy.

Novel readers who wonder why sometimes a character is described with varying attributes as, for instance, Joe in Mrs. Rinehart's "K," who has brown eyes on page four and blue eyes on page thirty-eight overlook a simple explanation. Not infrequently an author who has formed a definite conception of a character at the beginning of a story changes it before the work is done. It is necessary then to change references to the character in the part of the manuscript already written, and in doing this some reference may easily be overlooked.

The publishers of the New York Evening Mail have discontinued the Saturday Magazine and are now publishing the Motion Picture Mail, and therefore do not purchase manuscripts.

Robert T. Harvey, managing editor for the New Fiction Publishing Company of New York, publishers of Romance and Snappy Stories, announces that after the serial story now running in Romance is concluded, no more continued or long fiction will be used by that magazine.

William M. Clayton, the editor of Snappy Stories, announces that henceforth the minimum price paid by his publication for acceptable fiction will be one cent a word; the maximum price has been raised to two cents. Mr. Clayton says that this maximum will be paid irrespective of the name or prestige of the author. A new writer who can furnish the proper kind of story has just as much chance of acceptance as has the better known. The criterion is the quality of the material itself.

H. E. Maule, editor of Short Stories (New York), who always hitherto has insisted upon short fiction exclusively, will try an experiment by issuing in next month's number his first continued story. No book-length manuscripts save the one already purchased are wanted until the management ascertains how its constituency likes the new departure.

The editors of Life announce that they will pay from $25 to $50 for acceptable suggestions for a subject and title for a special number of

Arthur L. Buzzell, whose story, "The Peace Advocate," appeared in the American Magazine for November, was born in Maine, but grew up in Minnesota. He is now on the editorial staff of the Parke-Davis publications, in Detroit. Mr. Buzzell is forty-two years old, and was formerly a druggist. He is the author of one novel, three plays, and perhaps half a hundred short stories, the latter for the most part of a humorous nature and appearing in minor magazines. One series, comprising twenty-three stories in which the same characters were used, was printed in the Outer's Book, Chicago.

Carl I. Henrikson, whose sketch, “My First Concert, led the fiction in the December number of Everybody's, is a new writer, although his work has appeared in the Blue Book and in the American Magazine. "My First Concert" is the first of a series of Boytime stories which are to appear in alternate issues of Everybody's. Mr. Henrikson is advertising manager of the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, of Chicago. He is also editor of that company's house organ, Ideal Power, a publication now in its eleventh year, which goes monthly to a list of 50,000 names.

Marshal South, who wrote the poem, "Progress," in the American Magazine for November, is a resident of California, living at present at Oceanside, San Diego County. Much of his time has been spent in travel in various parts of the world. His literary work consists both of fiction and verse, and he is especially interested in all matters pertaining to national defense, being a staunch advocate of efficient national military preparation.

Virginia Watson, author of the poem, "Uncharted," which was printed in Harper's

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