with the special writer. Did you ever write a play? Was your
full-evening play accepted and successful? If you have written a
play and if your play was a success, class yourself with the
sporting editor himself--but as one who has made a success in only
one specialty in the realm of sport.

For, those who have had some success in other forms of writing--even
the successful playwright--and those who never have written even
a salable joke, all have to learn the slightly different form of
the vaudeville act.

But, having once learned the form and become perfectly familiar
with vaudeville's peculiar requirements, the dramatist and the
trained fiction writer will outstrip the untrained novice. Remember
that the tortoise was determined, persistent, and energetic.

2. Ability to Think in Drama and Technical Knowledge of the Stage
Required

The dramatist and the trained fiction writer possess imagination,
they think in plots, they have learned how to picture vivid,
dramatic incidents, and they know a story when it comes up and
taps them on the shoulder. Furthermore, they know where to look
for ideas, and how to twist them to plot uses. In every one of
these points of special knowledge both the dramatist and the trained
fiction writer have the advantage over the untrained novice, for
the essence of all vaudeville writing lies in plot--which is
story--arrangement.

But there is a wide difference between being able to think in a