e the reader's interest centers chiefly in the events, not
in the characters or atmosphere, complication is most useful, and in
fact supplies much of the problem- or plot-element of the fiction. But
complication is not a sine qua non, and should not be so regarded.
Complication of incident, indeed, in the story which is fundamentally of
character or atmosphere, may prove a positive handicap, adding to the
difficulties of execution and spoiling the unity of effect, if the
fiction is a short story. As has been stated, the novel is a broader
canvas, without a single emphasis if the writer wills, and here, within
the limits of naturalness, complication of plot is thoroughly desirable.
Any bid for a reader's interest is of use, only in the short story the
writer must necessarily limit himself to one sort of bid.

At that last of it, pretty nearly all of the technique of fiction
writing has root in the necessity first to gain the reader's interest
and then to hold it. That is the real object of perfection of form,
even, and the device of plot has root in the same object. In simpler and
more unsophisticated ages the stage presented not drama but mere
spectacles, as the tale did in the spoken word or printed page; the
plot, lending to the play its dramatic character and to the fiction its
story character, developed only when audience and readers lost the
child's vivid interest in whatever he sees, and began to yawn at the
episodal. Pageantry and the unrelated event became stale, in comparison
with the spectacle of life itself, and then plot was found, a method of
isolating a single one of life's strands, and, by showing it in high
relief, lending it an added dignity and appeal.

The basis of the more intense appeal of the plot over that of the
episode is psychological. The hardest thing in the world to do is to
make a reader think, but the reader who does think is interested. That
is why he is thinking. Since a plot is a problem, the reader of a story
of plot is made to think, and the matter impinges upon him with some
force. To repeat former phraseology, if the emphasis is on the events,
he tries to figure out what will happen, at least wonders about it; if
the emphasis is on the characters, he tries to foresee what they will
do. Incidentally, the reader of to-day is habituated to the story of
plot. If nothing happens he will chalk a black mark against author and
magazine, as the editor knows.

As has been said--and emphasis