It is not absolutely indispensable to select the subject of a novel before beginning to write it. Many authors prefer to write a third or a half of the novel before definitely committing themselves to a particular theme. For example, take _The Roll Call_, by Arnold--it must have been Arnold Constable, or perhaps it was Matthew. _The Roll Call_ is a very striking illustration of the point we would make. Somewhere along toward the end of _The Roll Call_ the author decided that the subject of the novel should be the war and its effect on the son of Hilda Lessways by her bigamous first husband--or, he wasn’t exactly her husband, being a bigamist, but we will let it go at that. Now Hilda Lessways was, or became, the wife of Edwin Clayhanger; and George Cannon, Clayhanger’s--would you say, stepson? Hilda’s son, anyway--George Cannon, the son of a gun--oh, pardon, the son of Bigamist Cannon--the stepson of, or son of the wife of, Edwin Clayhanger of the Five Towns--George Cannon.... Where were we?... Hilda Lessways Clayhanger, the--well, wife--of Bigamist Cannon.... The relationships in this novel are very confusing, like the novel and the subject of it, but if you can read the book you will see that it illustrates our point perfectly. 7 Well, go ahead and write. Don’t worry about the subject. You know how it is, a person often can’t see the forest for the trees. When you’re writing 70,000 words or maybe a few more you can’t expect to see your way out of ’em very easily. When you are out of the trees you can look back and see the forest. And when you are out of the woods of words you can glance over ’em and find out what they were all about. However, the 80,000 words have to be written, and it is up to you, somehow or other, to set down the 90,000 parts of speech in a row. Now 100,000 words cannot be written without taking thought. Any one who has actually inscribed 120,000 words knows that. Any one who has written the 150,000 words necessary to make a good-sized novel (though William Allen White wouldn’t call _that_ good measure) understands the terrible difficulties that confront a mortal when he sits down to enter upon the task of authorship, the task of putting on paper the 200,000 mono- or polysyllables that shall hold the reader breathless to the end, if only from the difficulty of pronouncing some of them. Where to start? For those who are not yet equipped with self-starters we here set down a few really first-class openings for either the spring or fall novel trade: “Marinda was frightened. When she was frightened her eyes changed color. They were dark now, and glittering restlessly like the sea when the wind hauls northwest. Jack Hathaway, unfamiliar with weather signs, took no heed of the impending squall. He laughed recklessly, dangerously....” (Story of youth and struggle.)