The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-13
SUCCESS IN WRITING
 FOR PUBLICATION.

To begin, no woman should undertake to write for publications unless one of two conditions Is manifest. First, she should have in her soul a powerful call to write. so powerful that she Is will ling to make great sacrifices to answer that call, and then wait as long as is n co essary to reach her goal. The sec ond condition Is that circumstances sometimes make a woman a writer. The call in that case comes from the out side instead of from within. Either way. however. whether the woman seeks the occupation because of a re- sistless impulse or whether the occu- patton seeks the woman the writer's path may be taken as the correct one.
 The proper preparation for a writer is task that no smatterer or one un- willing to work hard and long need at tempt. I have heard women who wish ed to write say. "Oh, well 1t doesn't matter about spelling, punctuation and capitals; It's the printers place to cor rect all those little things"
 Never was a greater mistake. Let me tell you something. Once I knew a woman who was really gifted writer. She was an indefatigable worker and rapid one. She began by being so successful that she was able to sup port a husband and daughter by her earnings as a writer She became de- sirous to earn more and more money. She hurried her work more and more The habit of slipshod, slovenly compo- sition grew on her. At length she made sentences without verbs in them and forgot to put in any punctuation at all. Finally her contributions became so difficult to make sense of that fre- quently several member of the office staff of a newspaper she worked for had to be called in to decipher her meaning.
 That could not go on. The woman began to lose her grip" on editors. One after another dfNDensed with her services till she was reduced to pow erty. She blamed luck" said the edi- tors had a prejudice against her. but the entire trouble was caused by her own constantly increasing carelessness and slovenly writing.
 If you would write. make yourself absolutely perfect in grammar spelling and punctuation. Then form the habit of noticing particularly everything that comes under your eye in your daily life Form the habit of quick and exact ob- servation. In short, be able to describe from memory everything you see as accurately as the average woman Is able to describe another woman's dress and hat After you have in the course of a walk observed all you see, next day write the description of 1t from memory.
 Note. too. the ideas suggested to you by things you see-ideas apart from the objects themselves-and write these down too. This practice gives erigi- nality In writing, use the fewest, sim plest words that will fully express your thought. avoiding. however. the aged expressions of the common herd. Never write She tainted away" How can anybody faint away" and what does "away" mean here, anyhow? Don't say, The doctors have given him up" The women became hystericaT' or She cut her nail into the quick" What do people mean by "the quick?" If they mean the flesh, why don't they say so?
 After you have prepared yourself for the literary or journalistic career do not be discouraged by nonsuccess in the beginning. If you have the true writing gift and the true grit you will at length succeed.