Show 1 J Uncommon Sense j jL 1 1 L By JOHN BLAKE 1 j READING AND WRITING By Oy JOHN BLAKE Perhaps half the tho letters received by authors essayists s and other people whose budness Is to to write for publication publication pubU- pubU cation are from tram earnest and ambitious young joung people who want to become professional professional professional pro pro- writers themselves The habit of ot most writers Is to re return return return re- re turn discouraging replies This Is nat nat- ural The carpenter i is convinced that his hisSon eon Son can never have have- havethe the patience to learn how to use plane and saw Furthermore he is sure that the rewards paid to carpentry are utterly Inadequate to pay fo for the ef effort effort ef- ef fort tort necessary to learn the tho tra trade The Tr-e banker discourages discourages' others who want to be bankers bankes This business Is well enough for him perhaps but without hia special qualifications one might work worle for tor years ears and remain a clerk with a tedious Job and low salary sal sal- ary ary- So with writers They know the difficulties that have beset their path The They are never certain that others c could uld surmount such difficulties And secretly they often otten feel that what has made them successful writers has been tho the possession of ot a a. rare talent talent talent-so so rare in truth that the world has not yet j-et eit If learned to recognize I it tit It Is true of writing as it is true e of ot ott all other e callings calling that it requires q a certain t i edi adaptability di Without I to perception perception P I tion of ot form no one ought to try to learn to draw Without an accurate ear it is impossible to b become come a a. mu mu- Without a certain degree of ot facility in stringing Words together no one should attempt to write Allowing however that one has his facility-and facility and and it is by no means an un unusual unusual unusual un- un usual gift writing is largely a mattel matten matter mat mat- I ten tel of at reading and thinking I IThe The most roost entertaining writers are those who have ha learned a n great deal dealand dealand dealand and without reading one can never learn a tenth as much as it Is possible to learn Reading also cultivates the sense of cit r the beauty of or language and of ot the i power of or words to convey thought It Itis Itis is in effect a schooling which la ie to tobe tobe tobe be had at very little cost from the I greatest masters of or the art from the earliest English writers down to the I present time I h-g h Indeed on onO a can go far back of the English writers writers writers-to to the Bible Itsel u although if he means to write Engl Engli he will do well to study the Kii Ki James translation VI p The best beet way to write Is to And when the writer thinks his pr pro I Is saleable let him try It oril oni editor not editor not on another writer It the business of the editor to fi writers Ho ISo Is always lookin looking jI I then them m Copyright 1923 by bv by John Blake e j |