its being refused because of its similarity to one previously
purchased from some other writer.

The main incidents of a prominent court trial may supply you with an
idea for a strong, original story, but you should not think of
following the facts of the case just as they occurred in real life. To
_copy_ a story from a newspaper item and to _get_ a story from the
same source are two entirely different things. Press clippings, as an
author once remarked, "are not first aid to the feeble minded. They
are merely sign-posts that point the way to the initiated." And
another has said: "It is the art of seeing and appreciating just a
line or two in some newspaper item and working it up that makes
newspaper study pay."

The really practised writer realizes that the best plot-suggestions
are to be found in the shorter news items--the five-to-ten-line
fillers--and not in the big sensations of the day. But then, the
practised writer can find ideas anywhere.

One thing of which the beginner should beware is the practise of
writing stories from plots suggested by friends. As a rule, the young
writer, not yet having learned to think for himself, is quick to
accept these friendly suggestions. He is told the outline of an
unusually good story and straightway turns it into a photoplay. It is
accepted, but a short while after it has been released someone
recognizes in it a short-story that has appeared in a popular
magazine. It is not difficult to imagine the result--before very long
the film manufacturing company is compelled, whether by a sense of
justice or by law, to make settlement with the magazine company
holding the copyright on the original story, and the beginner finds
that he is decidedly _persona non grata_ with at least one
manufacturer. Should the matter become generally known, he is likely
to find himself barred by other companies also, as every editor has an
inborn dread of the plagiarist, even though he may have been innocent
of any thought of wrong doing.

_5. Keeping Well Informed_

The best means of avoiding unconscious plagiarism and the use of old
material is to keep informed as fully as you possibly can of what is
released week by week. You cannot be too well posted on what is going
on in the photoplay business-world. Your selling-average will be
higher as a result. The editor knows what is old and what is new, and
so must you, though doubtless not so perfectly. Every editor's office
is stocked with books