For this reason it is inadvisable to write detective stories, unless you have a plot that can be easily and convincingly told in action.  The average fictional story of this class depends more upon dialogue and the author’s explanation of the sleuth’s methods of deduction than upon rapid and gripping action.  In a fictional detective story, the crime usually has happened before the story opens.  In a film story, this would be impracticable, unless a long explanatory insert were introduced either before or after the first scene or two.  But long inserts are not wanted, even in multiple-reel stories.  Since events in a photoplay must appear in chronological order, you cannot depict murder without showing the murderer in the act, and that will soon bring you counter to the censors.

Aside from the consideration of the censorship is this point:  in a fictional detective story the real murderer is not revealed, in most cases, until the last chapter.  In the photoplay, on the other hand, it would be necessary to show the spectator almost at the first who the real murderer is—­the other characters in the picture, and not the spectators, being the ones in doubt as the story progressed.

This is a difficult condition to bring about effectively.  Still, it can be done, and there is a chance for a writer who can produce logical and interesting detective scripts, as there is always a market for any uncommon theme that is both original and handled with technical correctness.

An author who is anonymous has said “While the story may have for a plot a subject involving complication, or mystery, each scene must be easily understood, or the audience, taxed by trying to fathom motives or emotions with which it is unfamiliar, or with which it is not in sympathy, loses the thread of the story, and consequently pronounces the photoplay lacking in interest.  Remembering the brevity of the film drama, compactness and simplicity in every feature are to be desired.  It does not require a great cast of characters nor unusually spectacular scenic work to produce the big idea.  The depths of human woe and suffering, or the very heights of joy and attainment, can be pictured in a flash.  The dramatic story should consist of a strong and preferably unique plot, simple and direct in its appeal to the heart, and expressed or conveyed to the audience by a logical sequence of episodes or incidents, all having direct bearing on the story, and each one of sufficient strength to hold the attention of the spectators.  The story must be human, the characters and their motives and actions human and true to life. The drama is perfect as it reflects a correct imitation of nature.”

8.  Write Mainly of Characters That Arouse the Spectator’s Sympathy