"(4) The next thing is possibly a bad start.
"(5) Grappling with the idea with the feeling that it has to be done.
"(6) Then the slush work, which I've already described.
"(7) Reading this over, and taking out what you think is essential, and re-writing the essential part of it.
"(8) After it has been type-written, you cut it about, so that it has to be re-typed.
"(9) The result of your labour finds its way into print, and you take hold of the first opportunity to go over the whole thing again."[136:A]
Contrasted with the pleasant humour of the above is the gravity of Ian Maclaren. "Although the stories I have written may seem very simple, they are very laboriously done. This kind of short story cannot be done quickly. There is no plot, no incident, and one has to depend entirely upon character and slight touches, curiously arranged and bound together, to produce the effect. . . . Each of the 'Bonnie Brier Bush' stories went through these processes:—(1) Slowly drafted arrangement; (2) draft revised before writing; (3) written; (4) manuscript revised; (5) first proof corrected; (6) revise corrected; (7) having been published in a periodical, revised for book; (8) first proof corrected; (9) second proof corrected."[137:A]
Enough. These personal notes will teach the novice that every man must make and follow his own plan of work. Experience is the best guide and the wisest teacher.