ABSTRACT
A few-a very few-writers seem to have an inborn awareness of the nature of human character. Most of us have to study and/ or to leam about it through experience. A really good writer is an expert observer. Everything and everybody, whether routinely dull or exotically bizarre, is worthy of his attention. He will note, and accumulate for future use, odd or unusual names; he will also collect odd or unusual characters. But his greatest talent is his ability to scrutinize, without appearing to do so, all facets of human behavior, no matter how mundane some might seem to be, for the ordinary behavior in one situation or environment may be totally eccentric in another. He will try to puzzle out the hidden implications of usual or unusual reactions, knowing that his conclusions will have no validity unless he can also read the reactors.
