Writing for Vaudeville | Page 7

and applied by the right
person, will help him to a mastery of vaudeville writing. But they
should be viewed not as laying down rules, only as being suggestive.
This book cannot teach you how to write--with its aid you may be able
to teach yourself.
Are you the sort of person likely to make a success of writing for
vaudeville? You, alone, can determine. But the following discussion of
some of the elements of equipment which anyone purposing to write
for vaudeville should possess, may help you find the answer.

1. Experience in Other Forms of Writing Valuable
Let us suppose that you have been engaged in writing for a newspaper
for years. You started as a reporter and because of your unusual ability
in the handling of political news have made politics your specialty. You
have been doing nothing but politics until politics seems to be all you
know. Suddenly the sporting editor falls ill, and at the moment there is
no one to take his place but you. Your assistant takes over your work
and you are instructed to turn out a daily page of sporting news.
If you knew nothing at all about writing you would find the task nearly
impossible to accomplish. But you do know how to write and therefore
the mere writing does not worry you. And your experience as a special
writer on politics has taught you that there are certain points all special
newspaper work has in common and you apply your knowledge to the
task before you.
Still you are seriously handicapped for a time because you have been
thinking in terms of politics. But soon, by turning all your energy and
ability upon your new subject, you learn to think in terms of sport. And,
if you are a better thinker and a better writer than the old sporting editor,
it won't be long before you turn out a better sporting page than he did.
If you were the owner of the newspaper, which, in the emergency,
would you choose to be your sporting editor: the untried man who has
never demonstrated his ability to write, the reporter who has no
knowledge of special writing, or the trained writer who has mastered
one specialty and, it may reasonably be supposed, will master another
quickly? The same care you would exercise in choosing another man to
work for you, you should exercise in choosing your own work for
yourself.
Do you know how to write? Do you write with ease and find pleasure
in the work? If you do, class yourself with the reporter.
What success have you had in writing fiction? Have you written
successful novels or short-stories? If you have, class yourself with the
special writer. Did you ever write a play? Was your full-evening play
accepted and successful? If you have written a play and if your play

was a success, class yourself with the sporting editor himself--but as
one who has made a success in only one specialty in the realm of sport.
For, those who have had some success in other forms of writing--even
the successful playwright--and those who never have written even a
salable joke, all have to learn the slightly different form of the
vaudeville act.
But, having once learned the form and become perfectly familiar with
vaudeville's peculiar requirements, the dramatist and the trained fiction
writer will outstrip the untrained novice. Remember that the tortoise
was determined, persistent, and energetic.
2. Ability to Think in Drama and Technical Knowledge of the Stage
Required
The dramatist and the trained fiction writer possess imagination, they
think in plots, they have learned how to picture vivid, dramatic
incidents, and they know a story when it comes up and taps them on the
shoulder. Furthermore, they know where to look for ideas, and how to
twist them to plot uses. In every one of these points of special
knowledge both the dramatist and the trained fiction writer have the
advantage over the untrained novice, for the essence of all vaudeville
writing lies in plot--which is story--arrangement.
But there is a wide difference between being able to think in a
story-plot and in drama, and in this the playwright who has produced a
full-evening play has the advantage over even the trained fiction writer
when it comes to applying his dramatic knowledge to vaudeville.
Precisely what the difference is, and what drama itself is--especially
that angle of the art to be found in vaudeville--will be taken up and
explained as clearly as the ideas admit of explanation, in the following
pages. But not on one page, nor even in a whole chapter, will the
definition of drama be found, for pulsating life cannot be bound by
words. However, by applying the rules and heeding the suggestions
herein contained, you