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.
QUESTION IX