(1709–1784)
Samuel Johnson was the preeminent 18th century English literary lion, essayist, critic, and creator of the most important dictionary of the English Language until the OED. When I sent in a new manuscript to my editor, I remembered his words: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Which is to say, having sent in the book, I was suddenly full of misgivings, enough so I went back to the book and found all kinds of things that wanted changing, from dropped words, to rephrasing of paragraphs. I have had this happen before, experiencing everything from remorse to simple embarrassment, after I sent in my work.
Having remembered Johnson, I recalled some things he said about writing.
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
“Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”
2 thoughts on “Dr. Johnson’s advice”
Oh, Mr. Johnson. Where on earth would we be without your wisdom?
Oh boy, that happens to even people have have been published dozens of times? I was hoping it got easier! Ha ha.