t remarks
in one of his criticisms. "Reach your readers' hearts and brains,"
says Arthur S. Hoffmann, editor of _Adventure_, in _The Magazine
Maker_. And then, after citing the dictum of Wilkie Collins, he adds:
"Make 'em hate, like, sympathize, think. Give them human nature, not
merely names of characters."

When all is said, you can hope to reach the minds of the masses only
by first reaching their hearts.

_2. Writing for All Classes_

Notwithstanding the great advances in the art of moving-picture
production during the last few years, and the corresponding
improvement in the film-stories shown, the great mass of photoplay
patrons are still, as they always were, of the middle class. Better
pictures have gradually drawn into the picture theatres a more highly
educated type of patron, but very few exhibitors would stay in
business if the middle-class spectators were to discontinue their
attendance. The average working man can take his little family to the
picture theatre, say once a week, for fifty cents, whereas it would
cost him about that sum for one poor seat in a first-class regular
theatre. Hence the immense popularity of the picture theatre, and
hence too the necessity for effort on the part of the theatre manager
to please _all_ his patrons.

First, of course, he must please the majority, but he must by no means
overlook the tastes of the minority. Every man, as the wise proprietor
knows, enjoys most what he understands best. The plain people are not
necessarily the unintelligent ones, for the working man can both
understand and enjoy pictured versions of Dante's _Inferno_ and
Sophocles' _Oedipus Rex_, but he will feel more at home while watching
a picture of contemporary American life; and who shall say, provided
the photoplay be a good one, that he is not receiving as much profit
therefrom as from the film version of either of the classics!

The really successful photoplaywright is nothing if not versatile.
Unless he is content to have a very limited market, he more than any
other type of professional writer must be able to write for all
classes.

Furthermore, he must be able to write on a variety of themes. The
photoplaywright who can produce only Western dramas, or stories
dealing with slum life, will find his sales averaging very low as
compared with the author who can construct a society drama, a Western
story, a photoplay of business life, a story of the Kentucky
mountains, or still other type