Editing H. C. McNeile (section)

===Style and technique===
[[File:William Sydney Porter by doubleday.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[O. Henry]] was a literary model for McNeile]]
McNeile's early works, the war stories published before 1919, are either "plot-driven adventure narrative[s]", such as the short stories "The Song of the Bayonet" and "Private Meyrick, Company Idiot", or "atmospheric vignette[s]", such as "The Land of Topsy Turvy" and "The Human Touch".{{sfn|Meyer|2007|p=118}} McNeile would write about 1,000 words every morning in a routine that was rarely disturbed; he took no breaks while writing and would do no re-writes until he completed his work.{{sfn|Treadwell|2001|p=113}}{{sfn|Fairlie|1952|p=30}} The academic Jessica Meyer has criticised his style as having "little aesthetic merit, being stylised, clichéd and often repetitive";{{sfn|Meyer|2007|p=113}} [[Richard Usborne]] agreed, adding that the female characters were "cardboard" and that McNeile was "wonderfully forgetful" about characters dead in one book and alive in the next.{{sfn|Usborne|1983|p=148}} In the Bulldog Drummond stories, Watson identifies the central character as "a melodramatic creation, workable only within a setting of melodrama".{{sfn|Watson|1971|p=65}} The academic Joan DelFattore points out that while the characters and plots cannot be considered to be unique, credible or well-rounded, his books "make no claim to literary excellence",{{sfn|DelFattore|1988|p=224}} and are instead, "good, solid thrillers".{{sfn|DelFattore|1988|p=224}} Usborne agrees, and believes that McNeile wrote good stories that were flawed but well told.{{sfn|Usborne|1983|p=146}} Meyer classifies the non-war stories as [[middlebrow]], with "sentimental plotlines and presenting a social message about the condition of England".{{sfn|Meyer|2007|p=115}} His early novels, particularly ''Bull-Dog Drummond'' and ''The Black Gang'', were structured loosely and in some ways as short stories.{{sfn|Bertens|1990|p=52}} The academic Hans Bertens blamed this on McNeile's lack of experience and self-confidence, noting that in his later novels, McNeile "mastered the tricks of his trade".{{sfn|Bertens|1990|p=53}}

DelFattore outlines the use of double adjectives to reinforce feelings towards enemies in both his war stories and thrillers, such as "filthy, murdering Boche", and "stinking, cowardly Bolshevik".{{sfn|DelFattore|1988|p=224}} She and the scholar Lise Jaillant also comment on the dehumanisation of the enemy, comparing them to animals and vermin.{{sfn|Jaillant|2011|p=163}}{{sfn|DelFattore|1988|p=224}} Watson noted the frequency of the use of the word "devil"—and variations—when discussing antagonists.{{sfn|Watson|1971|p=65}}