Page:The Craftsmanship of Writing.djvu/79

THE POWER OF SELF-CRITICISM there are some things which an author cannot teach because he does not quite know how or why he did a certain thing. Often-times a novelist achieves some of his happiest results unconsciously, and by sheer instinct; and then, again, a carefully planned chapter or in some cases an entire volume fails of its effect, and the reason of the failure eludes him. These are the sort