HENLEY—"How are you getting on with your writing for the magazines?"
PENLEY—"Just holding my own. They send me back as much as I send them."
Wouldn't it be pleasant if so many authors didn't:
Let their characters converse for hours without any identification tags, so that you have to turn back three pages and number off odd speeches in order to find out who's talking.
Overwork the "smart" atmosphere, the suspension points and the seasonal epidemics of such words as "gripping," "virile," "intrigue," "gesture," etc.
Stick up a periscope every now and then, like, "Little did he think how dearly this trifling error was to cost him," or "She was to meet this man again, under strange circumstances."
Apply a large hunk of propaganda, like an ice bag, just where the plot ought to rush ahead.
EDITOR—"Historically, this story is incorrect."