In drawing characters the writer has a much larger range of models from
which to choose, in one sense. His models are the people he knows by
personal association day by day during various periods of his life,
from childhood up. Each person he has known has left an impression on
his mind, and that impression is the thing he considers. The art of
painting requires the actual presence in physical person of the model,
a limitation the writer fortunately does not have. At the same time,
the artist of the brush can seek new models and bring them into his
studio without taking too much time or greatly inconveniencing himself.
The writer can get new models only by changing his whole mode of life.
Travel is an excellent thing, yet practically it proves inadequate.
The fleeting impressions do not remain, and only what remains steadily
and permanently in the mind can be used as a model by the novelist.
But during a lifetime one accumulates a large number of models simply
by habitually observing everything that comes in one's way. When the
writer takes up {the} pen to produce a story, he searches through his
mental collection for a suitable model.
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