Yesterday we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Today was have the birthday of another great American in mind: Benjamin Franklin! He serves as one of my writing heroes/sheroes, and gave us a lot of great writing quotes. I especially like this one:
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
One of the best-known writers of Early America, Franklin was not always so eloquent. It took years of practice and feedback. In his youth, he would often find excellent published writings, jot down an outline of their points, and then try to imitate (or even improve upon) them with repeated practice. Since he had no real-life people to run his work past, he would simply compare his versions with the published originals. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote this about the experience:
“… By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious…”
I take inspiration from Franklin’s work! I’m always on the lookout for great turns of phrase to tweak in my own writing, and recommend continued writing practice coupled with honest and supportive feedback.
You probably have many opportunities on the job to practice your writing. But do you get the feedback you need to constantly improve? While Franklin didn’t have a writing circle, you can join one for free! It uses online technology and weekly conference calls, starting next month. I call it Writing Wednesdays. Just go HERE to learn more about this excellent opportunity.
