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Private Notes
Henry reveals to Miss Newton the lessons he has learned through daydreams. Flashbacks retell the need for concrete nouns, the difference between sentences and fragments, commas used with appositives and commas in a series.
When Miss Newton criticizes one of his daydreams, Henry tells her of how he learned correct use of the semicolon, quotation marks, and hyphens.
""You are playing a dangerous game,"" Morton scolds when Henry's latest story lacks a topic sentence. This leads to a dream sequence in which Henry and Miss Newton wash up on an island. He accepts the challenge to write a cohesive paragraph. If the enemy (Morton) spies the mistake, Henry will lose.
Miss Newton is scheduled to appear in a play, and Henry has been asked to review it. Sadly, Henry falls asleep in the office, dreaming of Miss Newton's stellar performance. He ends up faking a review, which doesn't fool Mr. Morton any–not when a strike closed the theater.
On a March day, Henry doesn't believe Mr. Morton's advice that good writing comes from rewriting. That leads to Henry's deal with the Devil: he can write anything he wants in one draft. The Devil will take care of the rest, until the end of the month. Come April Fool's Day, who knows what will happen?
Morton claims Henry's casual use of ""awful,"" ""terrible,"" and ""nice"" embarrasses him almost to death. That drifts Henry into a tragic parallel of Macbeth.
Finally, Mr. Morton learns that Henry's daydreams are his way to learning good writing skills.
