Writing Genius

I once got a fortune cookie that said, "Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains."

Now, I usually hate those types of "fortunes." Do I really need a lecture from my dessert? But this one resonated, so I kept it and taped it above my home office desk.

To write well takes a certain genius, and the last time I checked, my IQ fell short of that mark. The only hope I have is to take great pains. That means to revise, revise and revise again.

Through the magic of Google, I learned that this was no random fortune but is in fact a quote from Scottish philospher and author Thomas Carlyle. And through the magic of Brainyquote.com, I found that Thomas Carlyle also said, "Writing is a dreadful labor, but not so dreadful as idleness."

It's as if this guy knows me.

BTW, Carlyle also said, "When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze."